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01 RIGS OF THE TIME MELODY & LYRICS traditional. ARRANGED BY Jon Boden. This dates back to the Napoleonic Wars, and berates the tradesmen who exploited the unstable economic situation for their own gain. Here’s to the baker I must bring him in It was recorded for the BBC by E.J. Moeran in the Windmill Charges tuppence a loaf and he’ll think it no sin When he do bring it in it’s no bigger than your fist Inn, Sutton, Norfolk, on 27th October 1947, from the John W. And the top of yer loaf is popped off with the yeast ‘Charger‘ Salmons (1870-c.1951), who at the time lived in nearby Chorus Stalham Green. And honesty’s all out of fashion These are the rigs of the times, times m’boys ‘Charger‘ was part of a singing community which included Harry These are the rigs of the time Cox, William ‘Bullets‘ Miller, Elijah Bell, Charlie Chettleborough Here’s to the butcher I must bring him in and Walter ‘Waxy‘ Gales. He charges fourpence a pound and he’ll think it no sin Slaps his hand on the scale-weight to make them go down He’ll swear it’s good weight when it wants half a pound The recording of Salmons is on A-Beggin’ I Will Go (Folktrax, Here’s to the tailor who skimps on our clothes FTX-021) and Bloody Waterloo (Folktrax, FTX-517), and a And the shoe maker who pinches our toes transcript is published in Palmer, Roy (ed)., English Country So our bellies go empty our back-sides go bare It’s no wonder we’ve reason to curse and to swear Songbook (London: Omnibus, 1979), pp. 53-54. For further information on Salmons and Norfolk singing Now the very best thing that the people could find Is too pop them all off in a high gale of wind see Heppa, Christopher, ‘Harry Cox and his Friends: Song And the wind it will blow and the cloud it will burst Transmission in an East Norfolk Singing Community c. 1896- And the biggest old rascal come tumbling down first 1960’, Folk Music Journal 8/5 (2005), pp. 569-593. Pete Flood 02 JORDAN MELODY & LYRICS traditional. ARRANGED BY Jon Boden. From the American white minstrel movement, this was written by Daniel I looked to the east, I looked to the west Decatur Emmett who was also responsible for ‘Dixie‘, ‘Old Joe Clark‘ and I saw John Ball a coming a calling With four blind horses riding in the clouds ‘The Blue-tailed Fly‘. Published in America in 1853, it travelled quickly To look on the other side of Jordan to England where it was printed on a number of ‘broadside‘ ballad sheets Chorus which contain new topical references to the Indian Mutiny of 1857-1858. Pull of your old coat and roll up your sleeves Jordan is a hard road to travel I believe Sabine Baring Gould, song collector and author of ‘Onward Christian Thunder in the clouds, lighting in the trees Soldiers‘, took two English oral versions from Thomas Darke and Sam What do you think that I told him? Fone of Holcombe Burnell, Devon, in the 1880-90s. It’s goodbye son ’til the next kingdom come And I’ll meet you on the other side of Jordan These can be found in Baring Gould, Sabine, Garland of Country Song The ladies of England have made a big address About slavery and hardships according (London: Methuen, 1895) pp.22-23, and Palmer, Roy, Room for Company They better look at home to their own white slaves They’re starving on the English side of Jordan (Cambrige: CUP, 1971) pp.34-35, both out of print. Frankie Armstrong recorded Palmer’s version, available on Lovely On There were snakes in Ireland not many years ago St Patrick saw the vermin all a crawling The Water (Fellside, FECD151); this is the one Jon learnt. Baring Gould’s But with his shillelagh he hit them on the head version was recorded by Peter, Paul and Mary on their 1962 recording And he drove them ’cross the other side of Jordan Moving (Warner, 1473) where the song acquired the title ‘Old Coat‘. Jonah spent three days in the belly of a whale Three days and two nights then according The broadsides are in the Madden Collection in Cambridge He tickled him with a straw which caused him to laugh and the Bodleian Library in Oxford. And he chucked him on the other side of Jordan Brendan Kelly 03 ACROSS THE LINE LYRICS traditional/Boden. MELODY Milton Nascimento ”CLUBE DE ESQUINA“. ARRANGED BY Pete Flood. Just as shanties are a truly international genre, so this arrangement draws upon material from a number of traditions. I’ve sailed the whole world over across the seven seas The tune is ‘Clube Da Esquina No.2’ I courted my sweetheart underneath the Kaori trees by Milton Nascimento, Lô Borges and I travelled with the northwind up to the Baring straight Around the horn and home again for that is the sailor’s fate Márcio Borges, on the 1972 album Clube Da Esquina (Blue Note/EMI). The Across the line, the Gulf Stream Working your life away ‘Clube da Esquina’ or ‘Corner’s Club’, in Around the horn and home again Belo Horizonte, Brazil, was the regular For that is the sailor’s way watering hole of the musicians on the Across the barren wasteland of the frozen arctic sea album, and has become synonymous Through Polynesian breezes and southern storms sailed we The wind all in the rigging sings a lonely lullaby with the genre they created. Benjamin A sailor I have always been, and a sailor I will die Britten’s ‘Sea Interludes’ inspired Pete to We sailed up to the northward, we sailed up to the east write the sax interjections. The words, We reefed our sail in the strongest gale and stood in the calmest sea possibly Australian, are half-remembered Ocean bound by Dusky Sound and Pegasus through the straight Port Cooper, ocean, Tom Kane Bay for that is the sailor’s fate from a miscellaneous shanty album borrowed by Jon from Winchester Library ten years ago. Benji Kirkpatrick 04 LONDON TOWN MELODY & LYRICS traditional. ARRANGED BY Paul Sartin. Up London city I made my way Sung by Charlie Wills and chorus in The Sun, Powerstock, Dorset, in Up Cheapside I chanced to stray Where a fair, pretty maid I there did meet August 1957, this was recorded by Mervyn Plunkett and features on First And I greeted her with kisses sweet Chorus I’m Going to Sing You a Ditty – Rural Fun and Frolics (Topic, TSCD 657) I was up to the rigs, down to the jigs Up to the rigs of London town in the Voice of the People collection of source and field recordings. Wills She took me to some house of sin And boldly then she entered in was born in West Chinnock, Somerset, in 1877, and had a wide variety of Loudly for supper she did call Thinking that I would pay for it all agricultural and horticultural jobs throughout his life whilst staying in The supper over, the table cleared the Somerset and Dorset areas. He seems to have learnt some of his songs The waiter brought white wine and red The waiter brought white wine and red from his mother, and as a child would entertain the workmen in the pub, a And the chamber-maid prepared a bed Between the hours of one and two location which continued to prove congenial to him for the rest of his life. She asked me if to bed I’d go Immediately I did consent And along with this pretty maid then I went The song is on broadsides held at Cambridge and Oxford, the latter Her cheeks were white, her lips were red I kissed her as she lay in bed printed by C. Cronshaw of Coppergate, York, between 1814 and 1850. It But as soon as she was fast asleep Out of the bed I did creep was sung in various southern of English counties, as well as in East Anglia, I searched her pockets and there I found A silver snuff-box and ten pound Scotland and Ireland. Wills was also recorded by Peter Kennedy, who A golden watch and a diamond ring I took the lot and then I locked her in published the transcript in Folksongs of Britain & Ireland Come all young men and listen to me If you meet a pretty girl you use her free (London: Cassell, 1975), p.423. Use her free but don’t get pied Remember me when I was up Cheapside Justin Thurgur 05 SLOE GIN {FROZEN GIN / THE VINEGAR REEL / THE SLOE} [FROZEN GIN (Spiers)/ THE VINEGAR REEL (Boden)/ THE SLOE (traditional)] ARRANGED BY John Spiers & Jon Boden,FULL BAND ARRANGEMENT BY Jon Boden. In the spirit of the East Anglian step dancing tradition, Frozen Gin was written to celebrate the time when John’s bottle of gin froze in the freezer. Given that ethanol, which makes up 35-40% of gin, only freezes at -112°C (170°F), and most freezers are set at about -18°C (-0.3999999999999986°F), this was a truly miraculous event. However : water, which looks like gin, freezes at 0°C (32°F), and John was living in a shared house at the time. The Vinegar Reel may have been written for similar reasons. The Sloe is a traditional English country dance tune, named after the fruit of the Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa).

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