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Home , Celtic music, English folk music, The Leaving of Liverpool

The Best English Singalong Folksongs VOLUME 1

Contents of Book and CDs The Best

CD1 CD2 EENNGGLLIISSHH 1. A-Beggin’ I Will Go 1. The Knocker Upper Man 2. The of Seth Davy 2. The Lads 3. Bedlam Boys 3. The Leaving of Liverpool SSIINNGGAALLOONNGG 4. The Bolinder Boatman 4. A Miner’s Life 5. Byker Hill 5. New York Girls 6. The Calico Printer’s Clerk 6. The Prickly Bush FFOOLLKKSSOONNGGSS 7. Cholera Camp 7. The Red Barn 8. Cold & Haily Night 8. Rose of Allendale VOLUME 1 9. Flash Companie 9. Way Down To Lamorna 10. Green To Grey 10. The Whitby Maid 11. High Germany 11. Yarmouth Town

Publisher: PhilDrane PO Box 20275, Glen Eden, Auckland 0641, New Zealand www.phildrane.com

Content: Phil Drane Traditional and Contemporary Contact: [email protected] Folksongs of includes lyrics, bios, musical notation & 2 CDs

Page 48

Foreword Yarmouth Town

1. In Yarmouth Town there lived a man This is the first in what I hope will be a series of books and CDs featuring He had a tavern all by the strand The landlord he had a daughter fair English traditional and contemporary folksongs – composed by A plump little thing with golden hair ordinary about ordinary English people, past and present. Chorus: Oh, won't you come down, Won't you come down, A nation’s folk-heritage or folk-culture is worthless if the people to Won't you come down To Yarmouth town. Oh, won't you come down, Won't you come down, whom it belongs are not able to celebrate it freely. It is not just for the Won't you come down To Yarmouth town. enjoyment of the privileged few, or to be analysed and studied ad 2. Now to this tavern came a sailor man nauseam; rather it is to be celebrated as often as possible, so as to keep He asked the daughter for her hand. "Why should I marry you, kind sir she said, one’s unique folk-culture and ethnic identity alive and well. I get all I want without being wed. It should be played, sung and danced from childhood – in music classes, 3. "But if you seek to gain my bed, in the home, in day-schools, and at social and community gatherings. Around this finger I’ll tie a thread As you pass by, just pull on the string This is the norm in , and , but not in England, And I'll come down and I'll let you in." where, sadly, British politics has ensured that English people, 4. Now the very same night in Yarmouth town, (particularly urban English people) have been substantially detached from He goes to the tavern all by the strand Goes round the back and he pulls on the string, their folk-heritage and their unified English identity. And she come down, and she let Jack in.

5. Now Jack had never seen such a sight before, Whoever you are, and for whatever reason you bought this compilation, The string on her finger was all she wore. I hope you enjoy it simply for what it is - an album of superb, grass- And when he went and he pulled that string She come down and she let Jack in. roots English singalong folksongs. 6. The sailor stayed the whole night through And early in the morning went back to his crew, For the majority of ordinary English people, who are non-folkies, I hope He told them all about the maiden fair, The pretty little thing with the golden hair. this album demonstrates that not only is English every bit as entertaining as, for example, , but continually celebrating our 7. Well, the news it soon got all around And the very next night in Yarmouth Town English roots and folk-culture is vital to retaining our own distinct there was sixteen sailors pulling on the string cultural identity. And she's come down and she's let them all in.

8. So all young sailors that to Yarmouth go If you see a pretty girl with her hair hanging low, Sincere thanks for helping to keep our English folk-culture alive. Well, all you've got to do is pull on the string, Phil Drane And she'll come down and she'll let you in.

Page 2 Page 47

INDEX Pages A-Beggin I Will Go 4,5 The Ballad of Seth Davy 6,7 Bedlam Boys 8,9 The Bolinder Boatman 10,11 Byker Hill 12,13 The Calico Printer’s Clerk 14,15 Cholera Camp 16,17 Cold & Haily Night 18,19 Flash Companie 20,21 Green To Grey 22,23 High Germany 24,25 The Knocker Upper Man 26,27 The Lancashire Lads 28,29 The Leaving of Liverpool 30,31 A bawdy English heritage folksong typical of the 1800s Victorian era, this has been localised to Yarmouth. There are alternate localised versions such A Miner’s Life 32,33 as Oxford Town and Oxford Street. This was brought to attention again by New York Girls 34,35 Nic Jones and other folk students whose dedication to research and piecing The Prickly Bush 36,37 together lost ‘gems’ of the English and British Folk traditions is not yet fully The Red Barn 38,39 appreciated. This was perhaps written by a sailor since it contains typically nautical Rose of Allendale 40,41 fantasy and bawdiness, and though it was written two centuries ago it is certainly a brilliant English folksong that everyone sings along to. Way Down To Lamorna 42,43 The Whitby Maid 44,45 Yarmouth Town 46,47

Page 46 Page 3

The Whitby Maid

1. It’s of a maid from Whitby Town, she was both fair and clever She used-to-sit by her father’s door no matter what the weather A sailor coming home from sea, pockets overflowing Saw the maiden sitting there, quietly with her sewing “Won’t you come along with me, my bonny oh my honey We’ll go down to Whitby Town and spend a little money” “My father he would not agree, would be against his wishing” And with a twinkle in her eye she said “But he’s gone fishing”.

Chorus: Blow away you Northern winds, blow away so cruelly Not so cruel as a pretty maid, for they’ll deceive you surely.

2. This couple’s gone to Whitby Town, soon they’re making merry And at the tavern in the town, they spent a little money Night came down the stars came out, the lady says “Me sailor, Won’t you come back home with me, I feel I must repay you”.

3. They went home and went upstairs, they turned down the covers “Come to bed my sailor boy, let’s you and I be lovers”. The sailor jumped out of his clothes, quicker than he oughter, The door fell down and a man walks in saying “Who’s that with me daughter”? This Lancashire version of a song known throughout England and Scotland was collected from an old weaver called Becket Whitehead who worked as a felter in Delph village. He was also a well-known broadsheet singer and local historian. Mentioned in the song are the villages of Dunkinfield (betwixt 4. The sailor thru the window’s leapt Ashton and Hyde) and Shaw (north of Oldham, a few miles west of Delph). and to his ship’s gone running Begging was commonplace in England from about 1650 onwards and initially He’s left behind his clothes, his watch, the beggars were English soldiers who returned from the European Wars and the best part of his money mentally and physically disabled. They were treated in hospitals and lunatic Now father with the daughter’s gone asylums such as Bethlehem Hospital in (commonly known as ‘Bedlam’) down to the kitchen table and when they were released, (whether cured or not we don’t know), they To share the sailor’s money out were at least given official licences to beg. Eventually begging became more as quick as they were able. widespread as less savoury characters discovered it was an easy way to ‘make a few bob’. Conmen, liars, and thieves took to begging and it eventually And father’s gone to buy new boots became so aggressive that it was outlawed. In Lancashire dialect Halt means and a new suit from the tailor’s ‘to hop’; Nobbut means ‘nothing but’; Deef means ‘deaf’; Blint means ‘blind’. The daughter to the door has gone to watch and wait for sailors!

Page 4 Page 45

A-Beggin’ I Will Go

1. Of all the trades in England, The beggin' is the best For when a beggar's tired, He can set him down to rest

Chorus: And a-beggin' I will go, a-beggin' I will go A-beggin' I will go, yes a-beggin' I will go

2. I've a pocket for me oatmeal, And another for me salt A little pair of crutches, Tha should see how I can halt

3. Me britches they are nobbut holes, But me heart is free of care As long as I've a belly full, Me backside can go bare

4. There's a bed for me where e'er I lie, And I don't pay no rent I've got no noisy looms to mind, And I am reet content

5. I rest when I am tired, I heed no master's bell A man would be daft to be a king, when us beggars live so well

6. I've a black patch on my fusty coat, And another on my eye Another English heritage folksong, this time from Whitby in . But when it comes to tuppeny ale, This is a tale of a sailor caught out by his own lust in what is called an I'll see as well as thee ‘entrapment ballad’ that dates from about the late 1700s, early 1800s. It is probably very typical of the ‘scams’ that went on to relieve temporarily 7. I've bin deef at Dunkinfield, wealthy sailors of their money and belongings. It might also be called an early feminist song assuming the maid actually And I've bin blint at Shaw reaped equal rewards to “father’s new boots and suit”. And many a reet and willin' lass, In true traditional style it is a well-crafted song with a great story line, plenty I've bedded in the straw of wit and cleverly rhymed. It also has a very engaging chorus. It is likely that in the ribald hostelries in which Beckett performed, the more cavalier, but historically correct word Arse (as used liberally in Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales) would have replaced the word Backside used here.

Page 44 Page 5 Way Down To Lamorna

So now I’ll sing to ‘ee, it’s about a maiden fair I met the other evening in the corner of the square She had a dark and a roving eye, she was a charmin’ rover We ‘roved’ all night in the pale moonlight Away down to Lamorna

Chorus: It was down in Albert Square, I never shall forget: Her eyes they shone like diamonds And the evening it was wet, wet, wet Her hair hung down in curls, She was a charming rover And we roved all night in the pale moonlight Away down to Lamorna.

2. As we got in the cab, well I asked her for her name And when she gave it me, Well mine it was the same So I lifted up her veil, for her face was covered over To my surprise it was my wife, I took down to Lamorna

3. She said "I knowed 'ee well, I knowed 'ee all along I knowed 'ee in the dark, but I did it for a lark, lark,lark And for that lark you'll pay, For the taking of your Donna For I declare, you'll pay the fare Away down to Lamorna

This song is set in the English city of Liverpool, not in Ireland or elsewhere. Written by Glyn Hughes his own notes state that: "Seth Davy was a real person, a well-known Jamaican street entertainer in Liverpool in the 1890s/1900s and he died a couple of years into the 20th century. There was a street and a , both called Bevington Bush just north of Liverpool City Centre, and Seth Davy did do a busking act outside. History tells us that in 1760, half a mile from Marybone (St The ‘cab’ referred to is thought to be 'Jorey’s Jingle', a horse Patrick's Cross) along Bevington Bush Road was a hamlet named Bevington Bush drawn hansom cab that used to run from Albert Square to which had an inn called simply the Bush. This became a favourite haunt for folk Lamorna Cove, three miles away. This was a signature song of to travel out into the country for a bevy (English slang for ‘beer’), to the Bevy one of the best grass-roots English folk singers, . Inn, as it became fondly known. With the opening of Scotland Road, the ancient Bevington Bush Road became a minor road amidst the massive slum district that would soon engulf it. As the district was built up it also lost its original name. Irish versions of this song refer to ‘Beggar’s Bush’ or "Bebbington" – they’re not in Liverpool at all, so this song has no historical relevance to Ireland.

Page 6 Page 43

The Ballad of Seth Davy

Chorus: Come day, go day Wish, in my heart, it were Sunday Drinking buttermilk all the week Whisky on a Sunday

1. He sits in the corner of Bevington Bush Astride an old packing case And the dolls at the end of his plank were dancing As he crooned with a smile on his face

2. His tired old hands tug away at the strings And the puppets they dance up and down A far better show than you ever would see In the fanciest theatre in town

3. And sad to relate that old Seth Davy died In nineteen hundred and four The three wooden dolls in the dustbin were laid And his song was never heard more (And the planks went to mend the back door)

4. But some stormy night when you're passing that way And the wind's blowing up from the sea You'll still hear the song of old Seth Davy As he croons to his dancing dolls three

This is an English heritage folk song from where the small fishing village of Lamorna sits on the Penwith peninsula. It is really just a small congregation of houses clustered around a natural harbour. The song is about a wayward husband receiving his comeuppance from his wife and is beloved of many Cornish singers. This may be a localised version of a song from Manchester, as there was indeed an Albert Square, which features in the first line of the song was in nearby Penzance (near the current Albert Street) in Victorian times.

Page 42 Page 7

The Rose of Allendale

1. The morn was fair, the sky was clear No breath came o'er the sea When Mary left her home And wandered forth with me Though flowers decked the mountainside And fragrance filled the vale By far the sweetest flower there Was the Rose of Allendale

Chorus Sweet Rose of Allendale Sweet Rose of Allendale By far the sweetest flower there Was the Rose of Allendale

2. Where'er I wandered, to the east or to the west And fate began to lower A solace still was she to me In sorrow's lonely hour When tempests lashed our lonely barque And they rent the quivering sail One maiden form withstood the storm 'Twas the Rose of Allendale "Tom O' Bedlam" is the name of a critically acclaimed anonymous English poem written circa 1600. The term "Tom O' Bedlam" was used to describe beggars and vagrants who had or feigned mental illness. They were thought 3. And when my fevered lips were parched to have been former inmates at the Bethlehem Royal Hospital (Bedlam) and On Africa's burning sands that they were released with authority to make their way by begging, though She whispered hopes of happiness this is probably untrue. Eventually begging became popular and a large And tales of foreign lands. numbers of rogues turned to begging who had never been near Bedlam. Tom My life had been a wilderness o’ Bedlam became so popular that another poem Unblessed by fortune's gale was written in reply called "Mad Maudlin's Search for Had fate not linked my lot to hers Her Tom of Bedlam". This was first published in 1720 The Rose of Allendale by Thomas D'Urfey in his book Wit and Mirth, or Pills to Purge Melancholy. "Maudlin" was an abbreviation of Mary Magdalene; Bedlam was all-male, and the corresponding institute for females was the Hospital of St. Mary of Bethlehem. A popular pastime for the rich and powerful was to pay to visit both institutions and they would often have picnic excursions and watch the poor inmates on display.

Page 8 Page 41 Bedlam Boys

1. For to see Mad Tom of Bedlam, ten thousand miles I’d travel Mad Maudlin goes on dirty toes, for to save her shoes from gravel.

Chorus: Still I sing bonnie boys, bonnie mad boys, Bedlam boys are bonnie For they all go bare and they live by the air, and they want no drink or money.

2. I went down to Satan's kitchen, for to get me food one morning And there I got souls piping hot, all on the spit a-turning

3. There I took up a caldron, where boiled ten thousand harlots Though full of flame I drank the same, to the health of all such varlets

4. My staff has murdered giants, my bag a long knife carries For to cut mince pies from children's thighs, and feed them to the fairies

5. The spirits white as lightening, would on me travels guide me The stars would shake and the moon would quake, whenever they espied me

6. And when that I'll be murdering, the Man in the Moon to the powder His staff I'll break, his dog I'll shake, and there'll howl no demon louder

7. So drink to Tom of Bedlam, go fill the seas in barrels I'll drink it all, well brewed with gall, and maudlin drunk I'll quarrel

8. For to see Mad Tom of Bedlam, ten thousand years I’d travel Mad Maudlin goes on dirty toes, for to save her shoes from gravel.

Contrary to Celtic myth this is not a Scottish or Irish song since Allendale or Allendale Town as it is known is in fact a village in Northumberland, England. It is located on the North Pennines Area of Natural Outstanding Beauty. Neither is the song traditional in the true sense of the word, as it was written in the 1840s in the traditional idiom. Nonetheless it is clearly part of English folk-heritage and deserves to be recognised as such. It just happens to be a lovely song too.

Page 40 Page 9

The Red Barn

1. Oh my name is William Corder to you I do declare I courted Maria Marten most beautiful and fair. I promised I would marry her upon a certain day Instead of that I was resolved to take her life away.

Chorus: If you’ll meet me in the Red Barn as sure as I have life I will take you off to Ipswich Town and there make you my wife

2. I went home and I fetched my gun, my pickaxe and my spade And I went into the Red Barn and there I dug her grave. That’s a pickaxe for to break the ground, the spade to shift the clay And the gun for Maria Marten, for to take her life away.

3. With heart so light she thought no harm, to meet me she did go I murdered her all in the barn, and I laid her body low. Once the horrid deed was done she lay there in her gore Her bleeding body I buried, under the Red Barn floor.

4. Now for many a weary month ah-well her spirit couldn’t rest She appeared to her mother, and her mind was much impressed. Her mother being so disturbed she dreamt for three nights o’er That her daughter she lay murdered under the Red Barn floor.

This is song about the narrow boats and the broad boats that first travelled 5. She sent her father to the Barn, into the earth he thrust around the English waterways carrying the products and raw materials to There he found his daughter, fuel the . Woods’ original was about an old boatman lying in the dust. called Charlie Atkins, who was called Chocolate Charlie because he worked for Cadbury’s at their Bourneville factory. So come all young men who pass by, The Bolinder itself is the Swedish-made diesel engine that powered the with pity look on me boats, many of which are still working 150 years later. The line ‘I have For killing Maria Marten legged it through Blisworth’ refers to the practice of lying on one's back and it’s hanged I will be. propelling the barge through tunnels using the legs and feet. This was It’s hanged I will be. because the engine had to be killed and the funnel lowered because the It’s hanged I will be. tunnels were too low to accommodate them and there was serious risk of gassing and explosion.

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The Bolinder Boatman

1. Now I've been a boatman for most of me life, I've travelled the country on through. Seen the grouse on the moors up Saddleworth way, watched trains thunder past out of Crewe.

Chorus: With me Bolinder beating a steady old thump And the smoke drifting out of the stack. We head through the Potteries then on up North, Take a load on and then go on back.

2. Well I've loaded with pig-iron outside Bilston Town And coal out the Bridgewater's mine, I have legged it through Blisworth with ten ton of salt, At Northwich dropped boatloads of pine.

3. I've basked in the sun on the Middlewich run And laid up when’t ’weather were wet, Run from Braunston to Lymm in wild winters gales In order to win a small bet.

4. I remember the day of the wagon and horse, Unloading from ships under sail, Been from Somerset to London and then on to Goole, From there I crossed over to Wales

5. Now I am a boatman, of that I am proud, I've worked long and hard for me pay. With the cargoes she's carried her timbers now creak This song is about a murder that happened in 1827 near a village called Polstead But the Bolinder's still thumping away. in Suffolk. Maria Marten, the daughter of mole catcher Thomas Marten, left her father's cottage at Polstead in Suffolk and set out to meet William Corder, her Surprisingly there are still 3,500 miles of navigable waterways today, with lover, in the Red Barn. Her family never saw or heard from her again. In the 1,800 locks. Of the places mentioned in the song Bilston is just outside following year her body was discovered in a shallow grave in the Red Barn by Wolverhampton on the Birmingham Main Canal, Blisworth is on the Grand her father. Shortly afterwards, William Corder was arrested in London. He was Union Canal, just south of Northampton. Branston is not that easy to find taken to Polstead for the inquest and sent to Bury St Edmunds to stand trial. but it’s on the Grand Union & Oxford Canal, between Rugby and Banbury. Corder's trial took place on Thursday 7 and Friday 8 of August 1828. He was Lymm is just south of Warrington on the Trent-Mersey canal, not far from found guilty of murder and sentenced to death by hanging. Shortly before the Nantwich and Middlewich where you can still see salt - massive mountains sentence was carried out, Corder confessed. He was hung, drawn and quartered of the stuff - quite a bizarre sight in the middle of Cheshire. It is highly in Bury St Edmunds. Over 200,000 visitors made a pilgrimage to the Red Barn possible that the journey is still do-able today. and removed the boards to a height of five or six feet as souvenirs.

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The Prickly Bush

1. Hangman stay your hand, won’t you stay it for awhile For I think I see my sister coming, all over yonder stile Oh Sister have you brought me gold or silver to pay my fee Or have you come to see me hanging all on yon gallows tree Oh no, I haven’t brought you gold, nor silver to pay your fee For I have come to see you hanging all on yon gallows tree.

Chorus: Oh the prickly bush, how it pricks my heart full sore And if ever I get out of this prickly bush, then I never will get in it any more.

2. Hangman stay your hand, won’t you stay it for awhile For I think I see my mother coming, all over yonder stile Oh Mother have you brought me gold or silver to pay my fee Or have you come to see me hanging all on yon gallows tree Oh no, I haven’t brought you gold, nor silver to pay your fee For I have come to see you hanging Byker and Walker were both coal pits (mines) and were situated about three all on yon gallows tree. miles apart on the River Tyne between Newcastle and Wallsend, on a peninsula created by the river looping to the south and then back up. The Walker pit actually is on the river and did have a sort of a ‘shore’ before they built all the 3. Hangman stay your hand, won’t you stay it for awhile shipyards – it was on the section of the river where Swan Hunters Walker Yard For I think I see my true love coming, all over yonder stile stood. Oh true love have you brought me gold or silver to pay my fee The Byker pit was one of the wettest pits in the North East and miners were Or have you come to see me hanging all on yon gallows tree paid about 50% more than miners in other pits. It was situated on Wellbeck Road and Byker Bank and just where the two roads merged there used to be a Oh yes, I have brought you gold and silver to pay your fee cinema/ called the Blacks Regal, the Dainties Toffee Factory and a For I have come to save you from hanging all on yon gallows tree Ringtons Tea depot from which the tea was sold on horse-drawn vans. There was a circular gravity rail track with inter connected wagons. The weight of full wagons pushed empty ones around. The coal was shipped on these down Oh the prickly bush, It pricks my heart full sore the hill to the Walker Shore where it was loaded onto coasters which transported And now that I’m out of this prickly bush, I never will get in it any more. the coal by sea to London. Oh the prickly bush, How it pricks my heart full sore The original Elsie (or Alice) Marley kept an inn some distance to the south, in the And now that I’m out of this prickly bush, I never will get in it, Durham coalfield. I never will get in it, I never will get in it any more.

Page 12 Page 37

Byker Hill

1. If I had another penny, I would have another gill I would make the piper play, The bonny lads of Byker Hill

Chorus: Byker Hill and Walker Shore, collier lads for ever more Byker Hill and Walker Shore, collier lads for ever more

2. When I first came to the dirt, I had no coat nor no pit shirt Now I've got me two or three, th’ Walker Pit's done well by me

3. The pitman and the keelman trim, They both drink bumble made from gin Then to dance they do begin, to the tune of Elsie Marley

4. Geordie Charlton he had a little piggy, He hit it with a shovel and it danced a All the way to the Walker Shore, To the tune of Elsie Marley

5. The sheave wheels stopped back in 1910, They stopped with a shudder, never moved again The headframe stands so ghostly still, At the Walker pit by Byker Hill.

This version of The Prickly Bush, a very common and popular English Heritage folksong, originates from South Marston, in Wiltshire and was collected from a farmhand named Robert Little by Alfred Williams. It is a localized male version of Child Ballad No 95 “The Maid Freed From The Gallows” that is known to be several hundred years old. It is not clear what were the subject’s crimes that he finds himself in such dire straits and receiving little sympathy from his family. It is possible that he has been simply kidnapped for ransom, which frequently happened after battle in the . The alternative lyric used here is “Nor have I come to save you from hanging, all on yon gallows tree”.

Page 36 Page 13

New York Girls

1. As I walked down through Chatham Street, a fair maid I did meet, She asked me to see her home, she lived in Bleecker Street.

Chorus: And away you Santee, my dear Annie, O you New York girls, can't you dance the ?

2. And when we got to Bleecker Street, we stopped at forty-four, Her mother and her sister there, to meet her at the door.

3. And when I got inside the house, the drinks were passed around, The liquor was so awful strong, my head went round and round.

4. And then we had another drink, before we sat to eat, The liquor was so awful strong, I quickly fell asleep.

5. When I awoke next morning I had an aching head, There was I, Jack all alone, Stark naked in me bed.

6. My gold watch and my pocketbook. and lady friend were gone; And there was I, Jack all alone, stark naked in the room.

7. On looking round this little room, there's nothing I could see, But a woman's shift and apron, that were no use to me.

8. With a flour barrel for a suit of clothes, down Cherry Street forlorn, There Martin Churchill took me in, and sent me 'round Cape Horn.

The Calico Printer's Clerk is an English, in fact Lancashire, A dilapidated shack on a that was set to a tune by Dave Moran (Halliard). It tells the tale of a twee Bleecker Street back-lot dated young gentleman, a cruel but beautiful young lady, and the eponymous clerk, around 1885. Poverty and who quite literally waltzes off with the girl in the end. opulence co-existed cheek by It is full of rich, period detail from 1860s Lancashire, including lines like the jowl in Manhattan and the gentleman's remark: “I was dressed in the pink of fashion all me clothes and Bowery. This is the area that shoes were new.” It also details the trendy dances of the time, mentioning later housed the famous , varsoviennes, , , waltzes, and circassians as it Greenwich Village. relates its sadly comical tale. It is featured on the Harry Boardman/ Mark Dowding compilation ‘The Manchester ’ – all part of Lancastrians’ rich folk heritage.

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The Calico Printer’s Clerk

1. In Manchester, that city of cotton, twist and twills There's a girl who's young and pretty, she's the cause of all me ills Years she has but twenty and her eyes are azure blue Admirers she's got plenty and her name is Dorothy Drew.

Chorus: She was very fond of dancing but allow me to remark that One fine day she danced away with the calico printer's clerk.

2. It was at a dance I met her in 1863 And I never will forget her, though she was unkind to me I was dressed in the pink of fashion, all me clothes and shoes were new And I danced the Circassian with the lovely Dorothy Drew.

3. We Schottisched and we Polkaed to the tunes the band did play We Waltzed and we Mazurkaed, 'til she waltzed me heart away I whispered in this manner as around the room we flew Doing the Varsovianna, "How I love you, Dorothy Drew."

4. For months and months attention unto her I did pay, 'Til with her condescension, she led me quite astray; For the money I expended, I'm ashamed to tell to you I'll inform you how it ended with meself and Dorothy Drew.

5. She wrote to me a letter that a call she meant to pay Unto some dear relations, who lived some miles away In a week she'd be returning, I must bid a short adieu And her heart for me was burning, oh, deceitful Dorothy Drew!

6. It was early the next morning, to me breakfast I sat down The smile me face adorning was soon turned into a frown For in the morning paper, This is another rollicking English maritime song with a rousing chorus a paragraph I did view that has been performed in every English over the past 40 That Jones, the calico printer's clerk years or so. The iconic version was recorded by and had married Dorothy Drew. famously featured Peter Sellers on ukulele. It relates the dodgy experiences of an English jack tar with a few quid in his pocket on the unfamiliar streets of New York and the ladies of the night he met along the way.

Page 34 Page 15

A Miner’s Life

1. A Miner's Life is like a sailor's, 'Board a ship to cross the waves, Every day his life's in danger Still he ventures, being brave. Watch the rocks, they're falling daily, Careless miners always fail; Keep your hands upon your wages And your eyes upon the scale.

Chorus: Union miners, stand together, And do not heed the owners' tale, Keep your hands upon your wages And your eyes upon the scale.

2. You've been docked, and docked again boys, You've been loading two for one, What have you to show for working Since your mining day’s begun; But worn-out boots, and worn-out miners, Lungs of stone and children pale, Keep your hands upon your wages And your eyes upon the scale.

3. In conclusion, bear in memory, Keep this password in your mind, God provides for every miner When in union they combine; Stand like men, and linked together Victory shall for you prevail; Keep your hands upon your wages And your eyes upon the scale This song by Rudyard Kipling began life as a poem and depicts the effects of cholera on one particular English brigade of troops in India. Typically, folk websites focus on the medical aspects of the disease - how many pandemics there were; where they spread from, were they wind-borne and how long it took to come up with a prevention and a cure. This confirms the view that much ethnic (the music of the ‘common people’) has been ‘stolen’ for academic study and debate – debate that largely fails to consider the social history of the common people and their lives - in this case, the plight of the thousands of English ‘squaddies’ who died a miserable death in a foreign land far away for no good reason except British imperialism & greed.

Page 16 Page 33 Cholera Camp

1. We've the cholera in camp, and it's worse than 40 fights, And we're dying in the wilderness, the same as Israelites It's before us and behind us and we cannot get away And the doctor's just reported that we've ten more today.

Speed Up - Chorus Oh strike your camp and go, the bugle's calling, the rains are falling The dead are bushed and stoned to keep ‘em safe below The band are doing all they can to cheer us The chaplain's gone and prayed to God to hear us, to hear us Oh Lord, for it's the killing of us all

2. Since August, when it started, it's been sticking to our tail, And they've had us out by marches and they've had us back by rail But it runs as fast as troop trains, and we cannot get away, And the sick-list to the Colonel makes it ten more today.

3. And there ain't no fun in women, nor there ain't no bite to drink. It's much too wet for shootin'; we can only march and think. And at evening, down the nullahs, we can hear the jackals say, "Get up, you rotten beggars, you've got ten more today!"

4. T’would make a monkey cough to see, our way of doing things Lieutenants taking companies and captains taking wings, And Lances acting Sergeants, eight file to obey There's lots of quick promot-i-on on ten deaths a day!

5. And our Colonel's white an' twittery and he gets no sleep nor food, He just mucks about in hospital where nothing does no good. And 'e sends us 'eaps o' comforts, / all bought from 'is pay -- But there in't much comfort 'andy on ten deaths a day.

6. And our Chaplain's got a , and a skinny mule he rides, And the stuff 'e says and sings, oh Lord, it makes us split our sides! With his black coat-tails a-bobbin', to Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay! He's the proper sort o' padre, for ten deaths a day.

7. We've the cholera in camp, and we've got it 'ot and sweet. This brilliantly rousing Union song, is dated around 1890 and is a parody of It ain't no Christmas dinner, but it's served and we must eat. a famous song of the time called “Life is Like a Mountain Railway” composed We've gone beyond the funkin', 'cause we've found it doesn't pay, by Charles Davies Tillman in 1875 in the USA. An' we're rockin' round the District now, on ten deaths a day! In the true custom of common-folk music the composer of the parody lyrics So strike your camp and go, the bugle's calling, The rains are falling is unknown. It was localized and adopted widely by mining communities in The dead are bushed and stoned to keep them safe below the North East and North West of England during the 1970s and 80s. and And them that do not like it, they can lump it And them that cannot stand it, they can jump it quickly became a rallying call for unionists everywhere. You’ll most certainly For we've got to die somewhere, some way, somehow... hear it at the Durham Miner’s Gala held in the North East of England in July So we might as well begin to do it now! every year. So, Number One, let down the tent-pole slo-o-o-ow Knock out the pegs and hold the corners, so-o-o-o Furl up the flies, fold up the ropes, and stow! Oh strike, oh strike your camp and go!

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The Leaving of Liverpool

1. Farewell to Prince's Landing Stage, River Mersey, fare thee well I am bound for California, A place I know right well

Chorus: So fare thee well, my own true love, When I return united we will be It's not the leaving of Liverpool that grieves me, But my darling when I think of thee

2. I'm bound for California, By way of stormy Cape Horn And I'm bound to write you a letter, love, When I am homeward bound

3. I have signed on a Yankee Clipper ship, Davy Crockett is her name And Burgess is the Captain of her, And they say she's a floating Hell

4. I have shipped with Burgess once before, And I think I know him well If a man's a seaman, he can get along, If not, then he's sure in Hell

5. Farewell to lower Frederick Street, This is what is called a ‘night-visiting song’ that dates back to Mid-1700s Ensign Terrace and Park Lane England, and has many versions in English folk-heritage. The story tells of the For I think it will be a long, long time, eternal quest of young men throughout the ages - to seduce young women, Before I see you again and particularly to gain access to their bed, usually by invoking pity from the female. English versions usually have an upbeat outcome, with the couple 6. Oh the sun is on the living happily ever after, but I chose this one in which the soldier absconds, harbour, love, leaving the female to regret the loss of her maidenhead, which apparently is a town in Berkshire. And I wish I could remain For I know it will be a long, long time, Till I see you again

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Cold & Haily Night

1. (M) “My cap is frozen to my head, my feet my fingers they’re chilled and dead, My heart is like a lump of lead, through standing at your window pane”.

Chorus (M) “Oh let me in the soldier cried, it is a cold and haily night, And I won't, no I won't go back again”

2. (F) “My parents they are fast asleep, and they my chamber keys do keep My doors and windows they do creak, and so I dare not let you in”.

3. So then she rose and let him in, and kissed his frozen lips and chin Then they repaired to bed again, and soon he gained her favour-oh

4. (F) “Now since you had your will of me, oh soldier let us married be” (M) “I must away fair maid said he, into this cold and haily night”

5. And then he jumped straight out of bed, and pulled his cap down upon his head And she had lost her maidenhead, on that cold and haily night.

6. He seized his coat and doused the light, and thru the window he took flight, And then she cursed that haily night that she ever let him in.

If you read the lyrics it becomes patently obvious that this song has no relevance whatsoever to Irish emigration; and it is not, as widely claimed on Internet websites, a ‘Traditional Irish’ song just because 7. (M) “My cap is frozen to my head, recorded it. It is in fact a Lancashire maritime song from the English Tradition. My feet my fingers they’re chilled and dead, It seems that only one example of the song was ever recorded from tradition, My heart is like a lump of lead, and the earliest published record is in Doerflinger's Songs of the Sailor and Through standing at your window pane” Lumberman (1951). History has it that an American sailor, Dick Maitland, while boatswain on the General Knox around 1885 learned it from a Liverpool sailor. According to Roy Palmer (Boxing the Compass, 2001) Burgess was captain of the Davy Crockett between 1863 and 1874, and suggests that the song dates from that period or a little after. The song itself paints a picture of hardship and brutality that today we can only imagine.

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The Lancashire Lads

1. Oh it was last Monday morning, as I have heard them say Our orders came from Manchester, we were to march away

Chorus: Oh the Lancashire lads have gone abroad, whatever shall we do Leaving many a pretty maid to cry what shall I do

2. Said a mother to her daughter, What makes you talk so strange To want to be a soldier's wife, the whole wide world to range For soldiers they are rambling boys and get but little pay And how could they maintain a wife on fourteen pence a day?

3. Said the mother to the daughter, I'll have you close confined You'll never marry that Lancashire Lad, he'll be no son of mine Should you confine me seven long years and after set me free I'll search the world for my Lancashire Lad when I've gained my liberty

4. My love’s clothed in scarlet all turned up with blue And every town that he goes through, I searched the Internet and found little information on this song except to his sweetheart he'll be true that it is widespread throughout the English-speaking world, but most probably Now we'll have money enough, my boys, English in origin. and girls to please our mind It features a man of unknown age bemoaning the fact that his present We'll never forget sweet Manchester dilapidated pecuniary and physical state of being had a lot to do with spending much of his youth (and possibly middle-age) enjoying fairly expensive and and the girls we left behind. probably debauched company. Possibly it is a parable set to music, warning us all to beware of the self-inflicted excesses of a hedonistic lifestyle. If that is the case, then it is a timeless warning that is, equally timelessly, ignored.

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Flash Companie

Once I had a colour as red as a rose But now I'm as pale as the lily that grows. As the lily in the garden my colour has all gone And you see what I'm coming to from loving that one.

Chorus: (same tune as verse) So take this yellow handkerchief in remembrance of me And tie it round your neck, my love, in yer flash companie. Flash companie’s bin the ruin of me and a great many more If it hadn't a been for flash companie I should never ‘a been so poor.

For the singing and the dancing 'twas all my delight And the keepin’ of flash companie’s been the ruin of me quite. Flash companie’s bin the ruin of me and a great many more If it wasn’t for flash companie I should never ‘a been so poor.

For once I loved a young girl as I loved my life And I thought in my heart I would make her my wife. With her white cotton stockings, and her high ankle shoes And she wears a yellow

Every lass loves a man in uniform, and a classy uniform attracts girls the most, handkerchief and it has been so for centuries. The 47th Lancashire Foot Regiment, otherwise known as 'The Lancashire Lads' was formed in 1782 and made their name in wherever she goes. with General Wolfe against the French. They were nicknamed The Cauliflowers or Wolfe’s Own because of their outstanding performance at . Their uniform was scarlet jacket with blue cuffs and unusual white facings on their lapels – they were much admired by the women of the time. The 47th Lancashire Foot is now part of the Queen's Lancashire Regiment. The lyrics and tune were united and recorded by Nic Jones and his early band The Halliard.

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The Knocker Upper Man

1. Through cobbled streets so cold and damp The Knocker-Upper man goes creeping Tap-tapping at the window pane To wake the town from sleeping.

Chorus He said “Eh thee up and stir thi'self The factory hooter’s blowin’ So get up from your nice warm bed To work you must be going’ ”

2. Day in day out the year about Though snow or rain is fallin' You’d hear his clogs along the street You’d hear his voice a’callin’

3. All the early-rising working folk The Knocker-Upper's call they heeded But time goes by, old customs die Now he's no longer needed

This is an English Roots song written by Nic Jones back in the 1970s, 4. Through streets of quiet suburbia but it’s just as relevant today and in most countries on this ailing The Knocker-Upper's ghost goes creeping planet of ours. This is Nic’s comment on developers and planners who Now listening to the ringing sound are slowly and inexorably destroying the countryside in the name of That wakes the town from sleeping progress. England particularly has lost much of its greenbelt to urban sprawl and housing developments. Unscrupulous politicians and developers can be found everywhere that greed is handsomely rewarded which means everywhere. The song is a warning to us all to keep an eye on unscrupulous people, but a hint of hopelessness in the final verse – what can ordinary people do to deter the rich and powerful? The message is that doing something, anything is better than doing nothing at all, but we shouldn’t get our hopes up too soon.

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Green To Grey

1. They come down here with their chainsaws, They come down with JCBs They're digging up all of the hedgerows, boys, they're digging up all of the trees.

Chorus: All around the country, They're changing green to grey, What grows up for a century, In a minute you can throw it away.

2. I saw the man, the engineer, A pocket-full of TNT And he laid it under the mountain side, And blew it to eternity.

3. I lived down by the meadow, I used to live down by the wood, Then they came with their bricks and their ready-mix, Now there's a city where the trees once stood.

4. Well you could spend your lifetime, Writing to bureaucracy But you'd use up so much paper, You'd just be digging up another tree.

Mike Canavan wrote this song back in the early 1970s about the ‘Knocker 5. So they come down here Uppers’ of Manchester and Salford - men who were employed by cotton mill with their chainsaws, and coal pit owners to get their workers out of bed, usually around 4.30 to They come down with JCBs 5am. They would carry a long pole and they would walk the streets of They're digging up all of the terraced houses tapping on the upstairs bedroom window of the terraced hedgerows, boys, houses. These houses or “two-up-two-downs” as they were known were They're digging up often in rows of 50 or more and had a posh ‘front room’, a living room and a all of the trees. scullery downstairs, and two bedrooms upstairs. As late as the early 1950s many of them still had gas lighting, no hot water, and an outside toilet at the bottom of the walled yard. The houses were mostly ‘tied’ to the local mills/ pits etc, so for many workers, their boss was also their landlord which inevitably gave rise to much bullying and abuse. In later years the ‘Knocker Uppers’ used to ‘double-job’ by switching off the street gas lamps too, using the same pole but now with a hook attached to the opposite end.

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High Germany

1. Oh Polly love, oh Polly the rout has now begun And I must go a marching to the beating of the drum Come dress yourself all in your best and come along with me And I'll take you to the wars me love in High Germany

2. Oh Willy love, oh Willy, pray listen to what I say My feet they are so tender, I can not march away And besides my dearest Willy I am with child by thee Not fitted for the war me love in High Germany

3. I'll buy for you a horse me love and on it you will ride And all my delight will be in riding by your side We'll stop at every ale-house and drink when we are dry We'll be true to one another, and get married by and by

4. Oh cursed be the cruel wars that ever they did rise And out of merry England passed many a man likewise They took my true love from me, likewise my brothers three And they pressed them to the wars me lads in High Germany

5. My friends I do not value and my foes I do not fear For now my love has left me to wander far and near And when my baby it is born and smiling on my knee I'll think of handsome Willy in High Germany This is a Traditional English broadsheet ballad that tells the story of a young man who’s off to the European wars of the late 1500s, and early 6. Oh Polly love, oh Polly the rout has now begun 1600s. Back then young men were ‘press-ganged’ or simply ‘pressed’ into And I must go a marching the army which meant they could be legally kidnapped as they were walking to the beating of the down the street. Girlfriends and wives often tagged along as camp followers. In this song Willie is off overseas again but this time Polly drum declines on the grounds that her feet are still sore from the last jaunt and Come dress yourself all in your she is also ‘with child’. Folkies can tell you the date of this song, its origins best and the battles involved, but it was not written for academic study. Its and come along with me message is that for centuries Britain has been sending young English men And I'll take you to overseas as cannon fodder, thus destroying not only our English breeding the wars me love in stock, but entire English families and communities, simply to satisfy the High Germany greed of the British rich and powerful. So, in reality this is a 400 year old . Yes I'll take you to the wars me love in High Germany

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