A Folk Song A Day

We’re off into modern territory again as Jon reveals this is “An Al Stewart number taken on by Bellamy. A friend of mine James Davidson recalls watching Bellamy perform this and leaning over to the chap next to him and saying ‘Incredible! Loads better than the original’. It turned out the chap next to him was Al Stewart, who agreed apparently.” Whether true of not, Bellamy and Stewart were close and the notes on Bellamy’s sadly deleted collection Wake The Vaulted Echoes offer, “ This is written by a man I used to run a folk club with once, in 1965 in a filthy little cellar off Charing Cross Rd.” That’ll be in Greek Street according to Al Stewarts Wiki page, but the duo were closer than that, sharing a flat and there’s even a suggestion that Bellamy was airing this in public before Stewart. Apparently a tape survives of him singing it at the Bridge End Folk Club in March of 74, although that’s actually almost 6 months after the albums release. As a similar time period elapsed between the albums recording and release, however, it’s quite possible Bellamy was performing it before then. He’d certainly have known it well before the record’s release. Mainly Norfolk has some interesting notes as well as the lyrics. Without wishing to stir up a Nostradamus debate, I’d suggest that Stewart’s take had a good fit with the deflation of the post-hippie-hangover of the early 70s, laced with impending apocalyptic gloom that lowered in the wake of Vietnam, the cold war stand off and general, gloomy fug of three-day-week Britain. I recall Chariot Of The Gods, gaining undue credence around the same time. Whatever happened to all of those blokes with ‘The End Of The World Is Nigh’ placards? Regardless, I think that Jon gives this a suitable Book Of Revelations fire and pulpit gravitas.

You can buy the August digital album now from all good download stores:

You’ll find a version of this on Spiers & Bodens Songs and Jon says, “There’s a preponderance of girlfriend murdering songs and this is my contribution to the canon. The words are from The Viking/Penguin Book Of Folk Ballads Of The English Speaking World, but I had to tweak them a bit (sweet Florilla seemed a little improbable as the heroine’s name) and I nicked the tune from The Flying Cloud, one of Louis Killen’s big numbers.” Viking was, I believe, the original publisher in the USA in 1956 (which would explain the book’s title) and Penguin followed suit with the UK edition. I’m wondering whether the song is also American as I’ve drawn a total blank with my usual web searches and it might also explain the victim’s original name of sweet Florilla. It seems to share much in common with Banks Of Red Roses, although violets are the flower here. Once again it seems the evil hand is motivated by the threat of being tied to his lover, with discussing impending wedlock the lure that leads the hapless Nancy (as Jon calls her) to her doom.  I’d be grateful for anything you can add. Perhaps there’s a title variant that I can’t find.

You can buy the August digital album now from all good download stores:

Jon says, “From Bellamy again. Strange tune – I wonder if Bellamy wrote it. It’s great though and a really dark song. I think the implication may be that the step mother has instructed big brother John to stab his step brother, and he’s done so despite loving his brother like… Er, a brother. Horrific really, or maybe it’s just an accident.” It’s another song that Fay has recorded for Looking Glass.” Also known as The Two Brothers and Child Ballad #49, Mainly Norfolk adds to the story quoting the sleeve notes written by A.L. Lloyd to Bellamy’s recording found originally on his LP The Fox Jumps Over The Parson’s Gate. Follow this link and you’ll see Lloyd describe this song as having many variants across many different cultures, with differing reasons behind the deadly deed, everything from arguments over land to incestuous love. I rather like Jon’s interpretation though, as it seems to fit this set of lyrics well. Mudcat will offer a few variations and this link here makes the Child/Scottish connection obvious, scroll down the lyric set to find related posts at the bottom. Those looking for Ballamy’s version are directed to the double CD set Fair England’s Shore on Fellside (FECD216), a massive 38 tracks!

You can buy the August digital album now from all good download stores:

Another from the pen of Robbie Burns, this time as far as Jon is concerned via Steeleye. “Mick Henry – a wonderful Irish singer resdident in Oxford, was very encouraging of my version of this song (which I got off a Steeleye Span album as it happens.) He remembers his mother singing it when he was young and says there are several other verses that would be worth learning. Like Kipling, in fact more so, Burns manages to pull off the literarey polish without losing touch with the earthiness of traditional song.” This was found in the 1853 edition of the Scots’ Musical Museum (follow this link.) In a letter from Rabbie to George Thomson, written in 1794,  Burns claims that about seven years prior “a worthy little fellow of a clergyman, a Mr Clunie” had sung the song to him. At Burns’s request Stephen Clarke, the musical arranger for the ‘Museum’, wrote it down as Clunie was singing. Sadly, nothing more is known about either the song or the tune, although Burns ia also quoted as saying,  “I added some stanzas to the song and mended others”. The poem was rewritten Sept. 1794. Mainly Norfolk has the two versions of the poems and the lyrics as sung by Shirly Collins and Steeleye Span (note the date given for the poem is obviously wrong.) Ive also just spotted this M N link as well, which shows Lou Killen also recorded it. Anyway, as it’s one of Burns Scottish dialect poems, this is given the RP treatment again. I’m not sure all of the following is necessary, but it may help…

knowes: knolls, hillocks

burnie: brooklet

rows: rolls

mavis: thrush.

Cluden’s woods: the woods of the ruined Lincluden Abbey at the junction of the rivers Cluden and Nith, Dumfriesshire.

faulding: folding, bring home the sheep

ghaist nor bogle: ghost nor goblin

This seems to me to be another of the shepherd and maid (or nymph) strand (see Shepherd Of The Downs), although it could equally be a simple love song. What do you think?

You can buy the August digital album now from all good download stores:

Back to Kipling/Bellamy again, although this really does have the feel of a song rather than a poem about it and  in my hastily mugged appreciation, It’s looking likely. Jon attributes his learning of this to a beery Oxford session or too, “Dave Webber is one of favourite singers on the scene and he does this song particularly well. He and Annie once came along to the Half Moon after playing the Oxford Folk Club, and after a few pints Dave treated us to his secret talent for singing blues and country and western. Must try and get him drunk again one of these days.” Meanwhile as to matters Kipling, This appears attached to a short story (more of an episode really) in Kipling’s book Rewards And Fairies, the follow up to Puck Of Pook’s Hill (link to Wiki here.) Both volumes concern children Dan and Una, who meet the Fairy or Elf Puck, as in (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), who gives them a series of magical, interactive history lessons introducing them to a cast of characters from down the ages. Frankie’s Trade comes attached to a tale about Simple Simon and the moving of a tree trunk to make a ship. Puck teases Simon about poisoning Francis Drake (bad cooking not malice) and thus the tale (at least as the story has it), of Drake’s early heroics in rescuing persecuted protestants from the Low Countries is allowed to unfold from Simon’s memories. Drake was certainly protestant and his family had to flee Devon to avoid persecution themselves, but whether these seafaring adventures are true, my idiot’s guide simply doesn’t cover. These poems are tagged onto the end of the stories and as others attached to the individual episodes are called things like A Truthful Song, An Astrologers Song and A St. Helena Lullaby, the sense that these should be sung seems right. I don’t believe that any music was actually composed, however, but  Frankie’s Trade seems to have a functioning chorus and concerns itself with the young Drake learning a mastery of the waves. The whole of Rewards And Faries seems to be reproduced online here (although I’d buy the book if you are really that interested), and there’s a good Mudcat thread to get your teeth into, which includes a rather good Kipling/Shakespeare joke. Mainly Norfolk again has the Bellamy angle covered with information about his Oak, Ash And Thorn release. Interestingly Jon’s version of this song will appear on a remaking of that album on the Folk Police label (something I need to find out more about.) You’ll get the gist from this link here, although if this (from an email) is anything to go by it may take me a while to add to that… “I’m in Brittainy, searching for bearded loons ecstatically grooving with bagpipes and hurdy-gurdies for the next two weeks. If it’s urgent please text me. I’ll try to check my emails when I can. Thanks!” I rest my case…

You can buy the August digital album now from all good download stores: