Chapter of Anti-Nazi Songs, but to His Chagrin Could Not Find Enough Songs
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COD LIVER OIL & THE ORANGE JUICE For Wilma Imlach and Muriel Graves Cod Liver Oil & The Orange Juice was first published by Mainstream Publishing, Edinburgh, in 1992. Christy Moore wrote the following Introduction for that edition. “I met Hamish in 1966 in Manchester. We hit it off and he took me on the road as his sidekick. I became his apprentice and learned many skills: how to work off an audience, where to find good food, how to suss the lie-down. He showed me which promoters should be trusted, and he pointed out those exploiters that needed to be watched carefully. Years on down the road I still find myself using many of Hamish’s licks and imparted skills. I also recognize the influence he has had on many other artists in diverse fields of performance. The most generous performer I have encountered has written his first book and it is my pleasure to recommend it.” FROM 1992 REVIEWS Hamish Imlach’s face and figure are folk institutions, and look as if several generations of large and very rough people have lived in them. This is in fact true, and they have all been Hamish. He has been folkie and fornicator, dope fiend and deadbeat, student and singer – and gloriously, uproariously, anarchically drunk through most of it. Ian Black in The Herald He is a powerful singer when he chooses to be. He is a guitarist with a beautiful touch, particularly for his beloved blues. And in his thirty years as a long-distance folk singer he has probably recruited more international recruits to the folk army than anyone else. On the Continent, especially in Germany, he has a huge, adoring following that far outnumbers his Scottish support. Everywhere he goes, he warms countless hearts with his songs but also with his joy of life, of people and banter. Alastair Clark in The Scotsman For anyone involved in the burgeoning folk scene in 1960s Glasgow through to the wider Scottish music scene of the Seventies, this is sure to be a fascinating read. For anyone else, Cod Liver Oil & The Orange Juice is still so full of debauched and drunken tales that it is irresistible. Richard Harrison in Books In Scotland Other books written or co-written by Ewan McVicar include One Singer One Song Streets Schemes & Stages [with Mary McCabe] Traditional Scottish Songs & Music [with Katherine Campbell] Doh Ray Me When Ah Wis Wee Lang Legged Beasties The Eskimo Republic One Black Isle Night COD LIVER OIL & THE ORANGE JUICE Reminiscences of a Fat Folk Singer Hamish Imlach & Ewan McVicar Gallus Publishing Linlithgow Copyright Hamish Imlach‟s family and Ewan McVicar, 1992, renewed 2010. All rights reserved. The moral right of the authors have been asserted. Published in Great Britain in 2010 by Gallus Publishing 84 High Street Linlithgow EH49 7AQ 01506 847935 [email protected] No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any other means without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages. ISBN 978-0-9565990-1-8 Edited, designed and brought to press by Ewan McVicar Printed and bound in the UK by MPG Books Group, Bodmin and King‟s Lynn. CONTENTS Song Acknowledgements 8 Introduction 9 Where Hairy Mary Cam Frae 11 Out Of The East There Came A Fat Man 13 The Special Brew Of Broomhill 41 There‟s Whisky In The Jar 59 Black Is The Colour Of My Love‟s True Hair 79 The Parcel Of Rogues 91 He‟s On The Chain Gang Now 101 Fine Old English Tory Times 125 Almost A Dubliner 151 I Didn‟t Raise My Son To Be A Soldier 167 A Dollar Ain‟t A Dollar Any More 179 I‟ll Fly Away In The Morning 193 Shift Boys Shift 211 Always On The Spree 227 Song Acknowledgements Camp In The Country written by Thurso Berwick, Jim McLean and Nigel Denver Cheapjack written by Jim McLean and Thurso Berwick Lady Chat written by Jim McLean, copyright Tirarm The Glesca Eskimos written by T S Law and Thurso Berwick The Scottish Breakaway written by Thurso Berwick Except where otherwise stated all the above songs are the copyright of the writers. All other songs quoted in this book are „Traditional‟. That is, the authors do not know the names of the songwriters. Every effort has been made to identify writers and to secure permission to include material in this book. The publisher apologises for any errors or omissions, and would be grateful to be notified of any corrections. Introduction Singer and entertainer Hamish Imlach died on the first day of 1996 at the age of fifty-five. He was a movable feast. Wherever he was became quickly the centre of a party, marked by uproarious laughter, the consumption of copious draughts of any available beverage, and the cooking and demolition of exotic foods. He appeared on over thirty albums on the Transatlantic label alone. Another six appeared in Germany, but at the time of his death there were only a couple of his available at home in Scotland. Such was public awareness of him here that four years before his death the Scotsman newspaper referred to his having 'come out of retirement' to sing at a benefit. All the time he had been singing and playing a storm across Europe. The first Scottish guitar blues stylist. The original folk patter man, sharing with his audiences songs and jokes and tales of his life and times. Hamish was generous with praise for so many performers. The feelings were reciprocated. I truly think Hamish was the best loved man on the folk scene - his strength was in his friendship, solidarity and weighty good humour. John Martyn, Bert Jansch and Christy Moore were all influenced and encouraged by him. He was a blues stylist - Mississippi John Hurt crossed with Brownie McGhee. He was also known for politically committed material - he was singing Hamish Henderson's songs in the 1960s, ten years before most people came to them, and ended up on the black list of the Economic League as a Rooshan Red. He was key in bringing comedy into the folk scene, paving the way for Mike Harding, Jasper Carrot and above all Billy Connolly, whom Hamish took under his performing wing. Hamish reserved his most inventive interpretive skills and pyrotechnics for his comic songs. By halfway through his version of Pete Ross's Smoker's Song you feared his lungs would implode before your gaze. He was most famous for a Glasgow anthem - Cod Liver Oil And The Orange Juice, a health-supporting concoction formerly prescribed for new mothers. His undying contribution to this song was a 'patented evil laugh' that 'sounds like he gargles with razor blades'. He said, 'I'm more a Glaswegian than I'm from anywhere else', but Hamish was a citizen of the world, with a wondrous appetite for and love of life and living. An astonishing range of people turned up for Hamish's 50th birthday shindig in Glasgow‟s Riverside Club, including Aly Bain, Dick Gaughan, several members of the Fisher clan and Norman Buchan. A bouquet of flowers arrived from the Dubliners. Clive Palmer, original third member of the Incredible String Band, came from Cornwall. Eleven people came from Germany, and three from Denmark. Weighing in at over twenty stone, Hamish was an outsize personality with gargantuan appetites who was mightily loved by most who met him, although some couldn‟t quite believe he was real. While friends and medical advisors despaired of his shape and lifestyle, he was tolerant of our concern but always unashamed. He knew he would never make old bones and lived for the day, the day that he enlivened with wit and good living. I am proud to say that I was a friend of Hamish for over thirty years. It was fun. Hamish was a famed storyteller. Although I have added a few anecdotes and other material my major contribution to this book was to get Hamish to tell me stories of his life, put them onto the page, knit them loosely together and insert appropriate song lyrics. The most frequent sound on the tapes I transcribed is the cackle of my laughter. He swore all was true, but when I told him that the law of libel applied to him as well as to the publisher he took out half of the names in the book. Still, Hamish wrote in his original preface for this book, “Everything in this book is true as far as I can remember. Other people involved in some of the incidents remember them slightly differently. I have tried to leave out anything that would hurt or embarrass people. If I have done so inadvertently I apologise wholeheartedly.” Hamish‟s funeral was front page news on both Scotland‟s national quality newspapers. A trad jazz band organised by Alistair MacDonald, supported by a New Orleans style Second Line of eminent kazoo players, led a march of hundreds of mourners around his Motherwell home area, and then police stopped traffic all along the route to the crematorium. EWAN McVICAR Where Hairy Mary Cam Frae In a 1965 article in the folk publication Chapbook writer Carl Macdougall explained how the song came about. In about 1962 he and fellow song enthusiast and club organiser Ronnie Clark had been at Paisley Folk Club, and had arrived back in George Square too late to catch their late night buses. They had that night heard one too many renditions of The Virgin Mary, a US Christmas black spiritual from the end of the 19th Century, made popular through the recordings of Peggy Seeger and Joan Baez.