A Folk Song A Day

One from Spiers & Boden’s  Songs of which Jon says, “Bert Lloyd makes great play out of the class war contained in poaching ballads (i.e. the enclosures were an act of theft perpetrated upon the rural proletariat, so poachers were celebrated as class warriors taking back what was rightfully theirs). It’s one interpretation. I think the poignancy of this song comes from the fact that poachers and gamekeeper knew each other – possibly grew up together, but end up killing each other.” Lloyd certainly recorded it as did Bellamy and Roy Harris and you can read more about that on Mainly Norfolk here. This is likely a northern (probably) Yorkshire ballad (this link seems has more) and based at least in part on true events around 1769. There is evidence of a trial and a gamekeeper called John Shirteliff being tried but acquitted in 1770 according to the York Courant. Another ballad based on the same story ends with the trial and the assertion that money changed hands to secure the innocent verdict. The subject of poaching is, as Jon points to Bert Lloyds opinion, a highly emotive one and numerous ballads on the subject rarely take the side of the gamekeeper or land owner. If you have time on your hands, then this is very interesting reading, although I confess I only managed part of it, as time is against me, but have put the rest behind my ear for later. The chances of people knowing each other, as Jon says, is also quite high I would imagine, making the revenge element all the darker.

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Jon simply calls this, “An American old-timey song learnt on FSC. It’s probably a bit hackneyed in old-timey circles but its ubiquity is understandable.” I’ll simply direct you here as it’s all you’ll ever need to know about the song and much more. I must say I was expecting some fiddle here given the songs heritage, but it stands up well in its unadorned state.

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Jon says, “I learned this from the Steeleye version (sung by Martin Carthy). It occurs to me that traditional song doesn’t amount to much of an endorsement of married life.” A fair point. I wonder what the percentage of “and they all (both) lived happily ever after” songs is? It can’t be very high and I reckon two or three of what’s gone up here to date. This is a fairly daft tale of double, double crossing with a joke about marrow bones at its heart – as the marrow comes out of the bones when boiled it leaves a hollow centre, in which you can see nothing at all. A common enough tale it seems to be with Irish, English and American variants. Mainly Norfolk has Steeleye and more and Mudcat has this thread and this post, which refers to a quote in Mark Twain.

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Jon recalls his Oxford days again saying, “A strange song in that it glorifies theft. It was sung a lot at the half moon, I think by Ian Giles but it may have been Graham Metcalfe.” We can also add that fellow Bellowheadee, Paul Sartin can trace this song back through family history. He recorded it as I Am A Brisk Lad on the self titled Faustus CD, the sleeve notes of which refer to the song being “Sung by Paul’s ancestor Edith Sartin in Corscombe, Dorset, to the Hammond Brothers in July 1907.” Her words weren’t recorded although another version was also collected in Dorset a couple of years earlier from a George Dowden. Sheep stealing was of course a very serious matter and a capital offence, although many people were transported, with poverty and genuine hunger at the roots of the crime. This song seems to be utterly defiant. I wonder whether the reference to “building a house out on the moor” is as some sort of remote hideaway. Read more at Mainly Norfolk and here’s a Mudcat link to explore still further, which gives an alternate song on a similar theme by Carthy & Swarbrick.

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This is a haunting lament and Jon says, “A beautiful song about which I know very little, learnt from Maddy Prior. I sang this at my Grandfather’s funeral.” I’ll add that I also know very little and cannot find anything to help. Mainly Norfolk has the lyrics and I’ll note that it only appears on the live CD, ironically titled Tonight The Night. Steeleye have never recorded this in the studio. Anything you can add here will be appreciated as Mudcat offered an impenetrable wall of threads either related to ‘dawn’ or ‘day,’ but not necessarily both and nothing with this title or first line.

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