Jon reminisces, “I borrowed A Song For Every Season on vinyl from Winchester library as a teenager, and for some reason this stuck in my mind. Unfortunately I had to return it and I’ve only recently got round to tracking that set down on ebay. Not cheap! Worth it though.”
This has a jolly, music hall feel from whence it probably originated, although is another collected by the Coppers. You’ll see a reference to Jon’s precious vinyl set on Mainly Norfolk and can also link to Mudcat, but again there isn’t much on this save that is was a very popular song in the C19th, often appearing in a mockney style dialect. A quick sweep of ebay brings up a single album sampler of the boxed set at £8.99 starting price, but with no track listing… I’m almost tempted.
The 4LP box set is offered at Musicstack for €125. I can”t remember what I paid for my copy years ago but it wasn”t cheap then either.
Today”s song seems to be a bit sanitised leaving out the raspberry verse 😉
It’s not on the one-LP version, I’m afraid!
oysterband’s John Jones used to sing a great version of this, based on the singing of Charlie Wills. (I don’t think you’ll find it on any oysterband records, though…)
Gave my best man a copy of the book and the record set as a “best man” present. August 1972
It’s worth tracking on ebay if it starts at that price! Mind you, everybody will be after them now you’ve let slip they are there. I’ve got the originals and they have been invaluable.
This one doesn’t do owt for me, I’m afraid. If it’s musical hall, I prefer it saucy, not basic/scatological! I am a woman who cleans out 13 cat litter trays every day!
This is the title track on Isca Fayre’s “Around me Young and Old” from the early ’70s – a great album if you get hold of a copy.
A jolly enough song – definitely music hall material. I can imagine the audience joining in the chorus.
For corduroy..think “Blue velvet”..
my mum made me a pair of short trousers in BV(age about 7) and in a skirmish following taunts by several uncouth young fellows…….they got ripped to shreds.
No more “Smarty pants” for me thankyou dear mother!..and no song about it either!
Muzza how embarrasing for you – blue velvet, OMG I am not surprised that they were torn to shreds. Mind you your mother probably thought you looked lovely in them. I can just see you wading into several fellows, but I expect you were glad to see the back of the trousers even at 7 years.
Well, no ‘A Song For Every Season’ (save Bob Copper’s book) on Amazon or eBay at the mo, folks. You’d have to anorak wider than that then!
@ Muzza: Awww! Your mother should have kept the blue velvet for Sunday best. T’would have been safer all round!
Do you know what me hearties…………..
Nowadays…I’d quite fancy a pair of blue velvet trousers……..
and …with my old mum in mind….I had a bit of heart wrenching yesterday as I donated her pride&joy, a pristine condition, 1930s sewing machine to a local charity that tells me it will end up sewing shirts in Africa (Not for rebel soldiers I hope)
Parting is sucj sweet sorrow, but hopefully for a good cause MUzza.
A nice cheerful song.
Ebay now has a copy of ‘A Song For Every Season’…………….
Amazon; try putting in Bellowhead Song Book ………….mines on order.
Muzza sad to hear of your parting with your Mum’s sewing machine as the owner of 5 machines it’s sad with the Sewing Bee series that there is not more of a market for the solid older machines. Anyway after the P,R and the sympathy enjoyed the song and am currently working with corduroy !!!
you’ve got to admire the vocabulary of the fellow who wrote the chorus
Ha…..this site is like memory lane…….reading about my blue velvet trouser incident could have been yesterday rather than74 years ago.
I wonder if I’ll survive this latest Corona scare…….I think it’s a plot by younger folk to clear the decks of old voters/fogies and rejoin the EU !!!
re reading comments now have a stable of 6 sewing machines …..
Linda…..you old sew and sew!
or is that an old fashioned saying that is dying out with my generation!
Just think…this time last year we didn’t have an inkling of what lay ahead…the lost lives and lost jobs.
A big thank you to the Nurses, doctors, shop workers, drivers and all the essential workers that took the risks and kept us going…..and a special thank you to the scientists who threw us a lifeline with their vaccines.
Nicely put Muzza…..
And Now we have the bally Russians causing carnage putting world peace at risk
Oh how I wish some scientist would discover a vaccination that could cure people of WAR,
I do hope the Ukraine is safe soon and I’m not recording that the invasion is still goong in March 2024…..on a lighter note….darn sowf we had one day of heavy snow and a day later it’s all disappeared!
Reading back through the comments have now downsized to 3 sewing machines (March 2020)
Wow Lindy Lou……Those Africans will be running wild with your 3 sewing machines…..No snow this year yet – after warmest February since the start of world weather records began….and that dreadful Russian invasion still blasting on and now joined by yet another middle east conflict. sigh!
Thank goodness for folksongs!