Jon says “This is, and would always be, a pale imitation of Tim Eriksen’s original. Do check it out (it’s on YouTube I think.)”
You’ll find Tim’s notes on Mainly Norfolk with a different video version to the one I linked to above, but the preacher he refers to is Lorenzo Dow and you can read more about the eccentric gentleman here and that’s surely worth a moment or two of your time.
Jon says,“Simon (“admin”) with his Properganda hat on was kind enough to ask me to review a few of the recent Topic re-releases. The double Ewan MaColl CD was a bit of an epic but there’s some great stuff on it. This one struck me particularly. I love the verse where she’s tired and hungry and starts to have second thoughts – a little flourish of realism amongst the romance.”
True enough I did and Jon did me proud with some valuable insight from the folk singer’s perspective, bringing the knowledge that I lack. Two things occur. The first is that I still know nowhere near enough about Ewan MacColl, although without him it’s questionable where folk music, let alone this project, would be today. The second is how few times, if at all, I’ve referred to MacColl’s comments on songs, especially when compared with Bert Lloyd whose sleeve notes seem by contrast to have been constantly chirruping away. It made me wonder whether, on reflection, having a stack of Ewan’s Topic CDs as a first point of reference wouldn’t have served me well with this project. But then I note that even the collection Jon kindly reviewed for me doesn’t have his notes anyway, as he’s constantly referred to in the third person and it’s a bit late for that anyhow. Much of the double CD is plucked from an eight LP set of Child Ballads, as conceived by Kenneth Goldstein for Riverside Records, a label that these days is probably celebrated for its jazz output almost exclusively. MacColl and A.L. Lloyd shared the project and received equal billing, but Ewan sings almost two to every one that Bert does. OK! I’m threatening to tie myself in knots of Ewan vs Bert, which wasn’t the intention and I haven’t even got to the song yet. So, you can read the liner notes from the CD at Mainly Norfolk . It’s also interesting to find out that MacColl’s knowledge of the Child ballads came largely from his parents, family and work colleagues before the traditional singers that came into contact with the revival. He filled in gaps by referring to printed texts, notably Greig and Keith’s Last Leaves Of Traditional Ballads And Ballad Aires. Most are to some extent collations and therefore probably benefit from his dramatic skills in honing the final result. Check here for the Child variants and fragments. As you’ll see from the notes to Ewans version, this is apparently related to ballad #279, but as that only seems to appear in Scottish dialect, I’m struggling to understand some of it. It’s described as more ribald and seems to involve the beggar taking the young lassie to his bed. It’s what happens after the inevitable consequence of that, which seems to involve cats or dogs or something that I’m struggling with. Am I just being dense again? Perhaps someone could dip in here and help me out with a translation.
Jon acknowledges “Liza sings this on Anglicana and we used to do a string-tastic version with the Ratcatchers. This is fairly similar to Liza’s for pace (I think it’s more often done as a jaunty fast number but it works both ways.)”
Another cracker from Jon, but for me, working my way backwards through folk music, I first became aware of this song courtesy of Megson, a duo who I got to know pretty well and see on many occasions. Debs is due to give birth to their first child imminently, so here’s wishing them good luck and although that might curtail the gigging somewhat, catch them when you can, as they are ace. Anyway, Anglicana has come up before and I confessed to not owning it and that’s something that I’ve only just rectified, so that’ll be me playing catch up with that. Then it transpires that I’ve had a version for years without realising it and in truth without actually troubling my stylus with the vinyl of the 10,000 Maniacs version for a long time (far too long methinks – more catch up then!) There’s a also a version by the curiously trendy Bon Iver – not that I dislike him, but I could name half a dozen artists that would get the full page MOJO treatment before him, were it up to me. (It obviously isn’t, but I’m sure you get the point.) Most of those versions, the Maniacs aside, are slow but Eliza’s (Jon’s is a just little quicker and the phrasing different) is particularly stately. I think I like the melody being drawn out in that way as it makes it all the prettier for me. Interestingly this is another of the songs that possibly didn’t suit the collectors’ sensibilities. Mainly Norfolk has four versions transcribed and it’s the third that has the telling lines that seems to appear in the broadside versions,
“ Beneath a tree with the branches round, And what was done shall ne’er be found”
as opposed to “what was said would never be known,” which doesn’t rhyme nearly as well. Mind you if you follow this link there are even some versions where they head off to church at the end, rather than the sailor hitting the pub with some other floozy in tow!! It all smacks of efforts to clean up what is after all a fairly fruity tale – quite what he did to earn twenty quid…?!? As I said at the top another cracker.
Jon simply introduces this with “Farewell to May with a favourite from the Coppers. Not long to go now!”
We’ll return to the latter point soon enough!! But have you enjoyed May? I know I have. I thought April was great and was a little concerned when checking we had the correct recordings in place for this month that everything was starting with “As I walked out one May morning…” My concerns proved ill founded as I think there have been a majority of great songs. And here’s another. We’ll ignore the young lass’ myopia as this is another common plot motif and give credit to the Coppers, who seem to be the main source of this. You can see at Mainly Norfolk that both The Young Tradition and Shirley Collins are quick to sing their praises. I’ll also refer you here where there is a list of the many broadside versions. Should you fancy it, there’s a world of Mudcat distraction to finish off the month, with a raging debate about the location of Claudy Banks. Ireland seems most likely, although there’s quite a convincing argument towards the end that it’s Caldy on the banks of the River Dee in Cheshire. The chronology of the broadsides seems to fit the argument and it’s always possible that it started life in England and moved to Ireland, or indeed the other way round. I don’t suppose it’s much to the detriment of the enjoyment, either way, but I do love chasing these songs around to see what we can learn.
One of the epics and even Jon admits “I hadn’t quite realised how long this was until I tried to record it – which is some testament to Martin Carthy’s delivery from whence I came by it. I love the fact that she claims to have loved him for ‘long and many’s the day’ rather than year – no pretence that this isn’t just simple infatuation and I think all the more believable because of it.”
Many will know this as Matty Groves, but Jon follows Carthy’s version as titled above here. This is #81 in the Child collection and it’s interesting to note from this Wiki entry that the first recording are all American. Indeed the first is on John Jacob Niles Sings American Folk Songs with Jean Ritchie following up with the perhaps more accurate British Traditional Ballads In The Southern Mountains. It seems to have been in broadside print in the early C17th and the version that Child collected can be dated to the middle of that century. There is every chance of course that it’s somewhat older, but with all the variations of the names, I suspect trying to nail this to any real event will prove impossible. Still, check Mainly Norfolk for the words to Martin Carthy and Jon’s versions with all 29 verses. You may also want to compare it to the somewhat shorter Matty Groves as well. If that hasn’t satisfied you I’d recommend this thorough investigation of the ballad and all of its variations. It’s a little hard on the eyes after a while, but it’s still fairly entertaining and worth the effort. There are one or two variations of the ending, which may well appeal to the singers amongst you, perhaps for getting one-up on the audience.
