A Folk Song A Day

I can relate to Jon’s comment on this, “I was a bit obsessed by Mike Waterson’s performance of this and wore the vinyl out listening to it obsessively.” The Watersons’ version, massed chorus and all, is really very good and Jon follows their version faithfully. Mainly Norfolk has The Watersons’ version and Bert Lloyd’s Aussie alternative. It’s interesting to spot in the various sleeve notes that this was also found in Nova Scotia and the suggestion of a Music Hall link. This is definitely a seafarers’ song though, as the reference to grog is nautical through and through. For those that don’t know, the mixing of the ration of rum with water was made by Vice Admiral Sir Edward Vernon who was nickname Old Grog because of an impressive grogam cloak he wore on deck in all weather. He made it response to epidemic drunkenness across the fleet and the order was hugely unpopular with the men. We’ve been here before with shanties, but you can immediately find a different set of verses for this, such as this link. It’s also interesting to see this claimed as Irish and I note videos of performances by the Dubliners and The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem are also prominent. I’d suggest this as another song that travelled the world as a work song and may have had many variations, to suit the singers, the situation and the task in hand. There is much ado on Mudcat about this should you wish to explore at length. That thread mentions Roud index no. 475 as  instructive, as this being mostly collected in England, once in Scotland, but not in Ireland.

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One form the pen of Alex Glasgow and Jon says, “I think I learnt this from the Colpitts but can’t really remember. We recently had The Wilsons at our club (www.royaltraditions.com) and this one brought the house down.” Alex was a Socialist and songwriter who grew up in the North East of England and this song was originally about the struggles of the regions coal miners. You’ll note that there is an extra verse added here about the Aberfan disaster – “Close the coalhouse door boys, there’s bairns inside…” and you’ll read more, including a couple of later miners strike era additions on this Mudcat thread. Regulars of a certain age will at least be familiar with his singing of the theme music for When The Boat Comes In, but that’s hardly the pinnacle of his achievement, as he also wrote several of the episodes of that series. This song title is also shared by a musical play written by Alan Plater that included some of Alex’s songs amongst a series of sketches. There’s also mention of When The Tyne Slides By, a song cycle created for another BBC series, as his masterpiece in this Wiki entry. It’s worth a few minutes as is this Guardian obituary from Alan Plater, still poignant and perhaps more so almost 10 years on.

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Ahoy me hearties! Here’s the folk process in action as Jon says, “I got this form a book, Green Grow The Laurels I think, or one of those. The chorus is my own addition.” Mainly Norfolk is also instructive here as well as you can see from this link that Jon’s version is a mixture of those that have gone before. I believe it’s also one that Fay includes in her live set (as per my review here.)

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Jon and Fay are strong and clear on this one and Jon recalls, “I came across the work of Graeme Miles through the singing of Robin Dale at the Colpitts in Durham. This was one of the really big chorus songs that were sung regularly and was probably my favourite.” There’s some debate as to what sea coal is, some have suggested in might be waste dumped at sea (try this link) and this link offers some different interpretations, including the idea that it was a highly prized, clean burning natural variant. Whichever is true, it seems that the coal was gathered on the sea shore and the implications of the song suggest that it was comparatively cheap, as the protagonists are faced with a choice of food or heat.  Another nice variation today and I have to say I enjoyed this a lot. If you want to find out more about Graeme, then here’s a start.

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Jon says, “I learned this from the McGarrigles so I guess it’s a Canadian version. I also used to sing Tom’s Gone To Hilo but this rather superseded it.” Both names seem to occur in versions of this, although try as I might I can’t get anything definitive about it. It seems that Hilo is the Peruvian port of Ilo (actually pronounced Ee-low apparently), but there seem to be numerous minor lyrical variations and also other very similar songs. I did find this on the sleeve note’s of a Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem CD.

“A halyard shanty often called Tommy’s  Gone to Hilo.” Other versions which state that “Hilo town is in Peru” lend support to the belief that the reference is to the Peruvian port of Ilo and that the shanty may have been popularized in the nitrate trade. (This info I got from one of Paul Clayton’s albums, Days of Moby Dick.)”

If anyone can rootle out any further information, please feel free to add below. I must say the piano also caught me off guard, although I rather like it and it adds a completely different tone that we haven’t experienced on here so far.

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