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Sampled 'blacksmith striking his anvil' sounds opening and throughout this one - and plenty of DMcF riffs to augment the Trad song.
Welcome you home - 2012 saw many of our Armed Forces returning to the UK - street parties and grateful welcoming-home parties and more formal ceremonies took place - Then the Olympics happened, with many a street party to welcome back local winners - the news was full for months showing folks getting a 'welcome' home from their neighbourhoods - so it was, noodling away on my newly purchased mandolin (handmade, like my acoustic guitars, by our own nearby Leeds firm 'Oakwood Instruments', I found myself writing this one.
Steve came and played me a hornpipe and also the 'Bear Dance' onto my home recording gear. 'Can you do summat wi’ these trad tunes?' he said. So I spent hours on the arrangement and we mixed it onto the first few copies of the CD - only then did the beggar turned round and tell me he'd found out the hornpipe was a modern composition! So I kept the backing track, as was, and recorded a new mandolin tune based 'Round the Hornpipe' - then got Anne, Steve & Geoff to add their new parts on...
Cold, Haily, Windy Night - My first ever Folk Club trip was at the Old Fire Engine House in Ely; Approx 1972 I think . A certain Mr Carthy sang this one. Of late, I’ve added my own ‘tunettes’ to it to bulk and beef it up.
For Jane (Tomlinson) - Whilst working as a ‘traffic light controller’ for Leeds City Council I had the honour to control a ‘green wave’ for a very special lady’s funeral cortege. To witness this sad occasion via multiple screens, with no sound, gave it an eerie feel; Tears rolled down my face as the crowd applauded, in waves, as she passed. RIP Jane - may your fundraising legacy live on… and benefit many.
Boys of Bedlam - I’ve written a new, original tune for these Trad lyrics because I got the composing credit for this wrong once before, believing like everyone else does, that the well-known tune was Trad! So just to avoid any further confusion, I thought myself ‘mad enough’ to compose a new tune for it! The main riff was written on a miniature electric guitar tuned in D modal!
Ribbons Fall - Military aircraft, armed & ready for take off, apparently have ribbons dangling from the primed armament on their wings. A BBC Radio Four interview of Anti-War Protesters outside a UK American Airbase made me aware that the prompt for them to go over/under/through the wire and stand in the way of any take-off’ was ‘when the ‘ribbons fall’.
The Weight of it All - I personally believe our Armed Forces are unnecessarily suffering, tragically in the physical sense, but also mentally, in overseas conflicts. My own feelings are - bring them home... now!
Harvest Home / K2 (Trad arr D McFarlane / D McFarlane) - Anne’s usual Trad sound-check-piece promoted here - then one of my own tunes was tacked on. I wrote the tune way back, for my young daughter Kiera, whilst camping at Whitby Festival one year as a father/daughter bonding thing! I bought us a penny whistle each, then this tune 'K2' resulted from a mealtime break we took at the campsite. It was the second tune I ever wrote for her - 'K1' being on my first album 'Bed of Straw'.
The original demo featured Dunc imitating the melodeon on a melodica - just so Steve could get the gist of the solo!
When life feels desperate and walls are closing in you cry for some way through – you pray for an escape.
Out there, there are liars, there are cheats who couldn’t care if they destroy someone – it’s always been this way
Drinking Song / Stool of Repentance (D McFarlane) - It’s now become a bit of a tradition that McF Band CDs end with a light throwaway bit of fun! So here’s my tribute to the demon ‘drink’ and all who take a drop too much.
It ends with a Neil Gow tune that Anne provided via her Scottish upbringing. In days of old, drunkards were made to sit on the ‘repentance stool’ on a Sunday morning , no doubt nursing an ‘awfy sair heid’ and well placed for a mighty admonishing from the Minister.
My 'Drinking Song' punch-line comes from remembering an old Dave Allen joke that stuck with me all these years!
Thanks go to our families for ’putting up’ while we have fun with it all ; To all that have bought this special edition - you can use this numbered CD to claim your free glass-mastered copy when it’s released; To artist & good pal Duncan Storr for the ace cover pic ;
But most of all, huge thanks to Geoff Taylor for all the effort he made with the recording, engineering & production at Long Fox Studios
We recorded this as a band, in one-take, until we canned a collective thumbs-up version of each. A few ‘corrections’ and additional tweaks later, we owe huge thanks to 'Magnificent' Matt Nelson, who not only recorded, produced & mixed the album, but even added a touch of mandolin when our backs were turned! Many thanks, Matt, we love you!
The band 'dressed up' in the front room of the Green Dragon, at Hardraw Gathering, in July 2010, for a photo shoot to emulate the old pic shown below - thanks to our favourite landlord, Mark Thompson, for the room - and to the wonderful Ani McNeice for the photo shoot!
Anne looked a real 'Female Drummer Boy' in the period military costume! It's a shame the bright red of her cap and leg-stripe have been sacrificed for the b/w image on the traycard - but that's the way things went - sorry!
Superb service for the mastering & duplication of this album from www.clipstore.co.uk namely the brilliant Tony Bonner & Warwick Pilmer. Sleeve notes & CD artwork design by Duncan. Peace & love to Pamela, Kay, Mona, Matt's dad,Chris Nelson and most especially, to Mark Longster who sadly passed away almost a year ago (from time of writing). If Mark hadn't accepted me so warmly and readily, then provided me with advice, encouragement - not to mention my first ever support spot after a few months of mentoring! - then I'd not have carried on in this 'ere folk world. RIP peace Mark.
Recent years have unearthed new-found friends for me, often resulting in ‘album swaps’ to help discover one-another’s taste and origins. As a result of just such exchanges, I learned this song from an old ‘Halliard’ album. Thank you , Nic & Nigel!
Nigel keeps in regular touch via email, and we keep threatening to organise his playing mandolin with us one day. We both hope this will actually transpire! Nic? Well, here's a tale rather apt to this CD considering its artwork theme... the wily ol' so-and-so comprehensively stuffed me so many times at chess, that I wouldn't play him anymore and walked him down to his local pub for relief! There, we got the dominos out and I reckoned that with a few pints down us it would surely being much more down to 'chance' - that I might finally win at something. No way! The wise old rascal beat me at 'fives and threes' every time - relentlessly, right up to closing time!
At West Leeds Boys High School in the seventies, dominos was the game of choice for the Science Deparmentt to fill their one-hour lunch breaks! As the ‘junior’ of this elite band, my task was to beat the Maths Dept’s charge to ‘own’ the domino-table. Five minutes before the lunch-bell the order was barked… ‘Duncan, nip upstairs, turn the bones around!’ It was akin to getting up early on holiday and setting towels down on the choice sun beds!
There are certain times you never forget; And this is one of them for me! Dashing into the sixth form common room clutching Steeleye’s latest vinyl ‘Please to See the King’, I threw off the record that was playing, yelling at ’em, ’You lot have GOTTA hear THIS!’
From Archibald Sinclair's "The Gaelic Songster.An t-Òranaiche" (Glasgow, 1879). Sinclair notes that the tune is called "Johnny stays long at the Fair," and that it was written on the first day of autumn, 1856, by Iain Camaron.
Despite being a 'child of the RAF' - with all the resultant moving here and there all through my first 18 years - I still spent a deal of glorious, wonderful quality time in the hills of Scotland as a boy.
Every school holiday we'd be sent to stay with our grandparents in Ayrshire; One set lived in the big 'town' of Ayr, the other, in a wee coal mining village in the hills. My brother, Donald, always opted for the town, I'd always opt for the countryside - my maternal grandparents tiny rented 'hoose' - The pit village consisted of just a few rows of semi-detached buildings divided into four dwelling; Each 'semi' a ground floor, four-room affair, with another family occupying the equivalent 'upstairs', which was accessed by a seperate stairway with its own ouside door. While staying there, I’d collect brandling wurrums, fae th’ midden, to catch brown trout - best reults when the 'burn' was in full spate, ‘tickling’ them, when there was no bait to be had, particularly in the finer, summer weather. I'd trek home with several wee 'troot', once caught, carried home in rather gory fashion on a stick (with a side shoot to provide a 'stop') which was passed through the gills and out the mouth! The very idea sends shudders through me these days - but as a wee boy, the traditional way of carrying home one's prizes never worried us for a moment! On other sunny days. along with the local children, we'd help dam the burn with large stones, then sods of turf to make a ‘dookie hole’ for swimming in. We'd have to wait a day or so for the mud to settle and the water run clear afore we could make the first plunge!
My mother's sister, our Auntie Anna (Morrison, married name) would lead us, of an evening, on her rampant piano-accordion; We made our own entertainment in those days! Ha! Twas party-piece time! ‘Come on now Donald & Duncan, stand up and gie us a song!
I noticed the ‘Penny Hedge’ when staying in Whitby; After reading the plaque by the River Esk, I headed for the nearby bookshop’s ‘local interest’ section. There I found ‘Foul Deeds & Murder on the North York Moors’ which contained the story of 'Richard of Veron' - how he gave away his wealth to the Abbey and became a hermit - how he probably became the first 'hunt protester'! - As a result of the research, I went back one year to watch the annual ceremony in Whitby, that takes place every year on Ascension Eve; Then, I just couldn’t resist turning the tale into a song!
Daniel McCurdie, my maternal grandfather, spent his working life in the pit village of Rankinston, Ayrshire. He worked down the mine five and a half days a week. He smoked incessantly; He liked a bet on the races - dogs, horses - made no difference - he'd sit on the back step and study form for hours! He also loved a wee dram now and again! Ever present on his head, Danny always wore his ‘bunnet’ - at all times, outdoors and indoors - even while bathing! But best of all, for my part, he kept racing pigeons! The whole village seemed to be involved in this pastime, sending baskets of them away on a lorry to be released hundreds of miles away. The anxious wait for their arrival back, the grabbing of the first 'in' to get the racing 'ring' from its leg and rush it to the official race-recorder was a very tense and exciting time.
My ‘Papa’, to be up for early shift, slept in the spare room whilst I slept top-to-tail wi’ m’ Grannie. The opening lines of this song are the two most common phrases she'd growl at me, the wriggling, talkative wee schoolboy that never wanted to go to sleep whilst staying up there - the time had to be made the most of! As a son of an RAF serviceman, I never stayed anywhere permanent; Yet here I got to stay up to twelve weeks a year… fishing, helping look after his racing ‘doos’. I never had a happier, carefree time.
This is my Papa, Danny McCurdie - and that's wee Duncan on his knee! Littlemill Pithead, Rankinston, Ayrshire - Danny worked below!
Popular with Victorian broadside printers - Walter Pardon's set is close to the printed versions - though not frequently collected, apparently.
Cecil Sharp noted a couple of versions at the beginning of the 20th century and Elizabeth Bristol Greenleaf included a set in her
The original song has no chorus - and the Yo-Ho one we sing, given here, is entirely of my own invention.
There are further 'notes' on this song in the 'All Rogues and Villains' CD song section, below - which raises a point that some folks have raised... Yes, there are some songs on this 'acoustic band' album that have already appeared on previous McF albums. The answer is quite simple - there's a good number of dMb 'acoustic' fans (knowing we were to record an acoustic band CD) that actually asked us to record these particular versions of such songs - often citing that they 'prefer' our acoustic outfit's arrangements to those found on the 'electric' ban's CDs, or the more sparse version on my 'solo' CDs. Who are we to disappoint our fans!?!
It should have described one evening in March, snow falling, my daughter, Kiera, newly born. Verses should have described my first seeing her face; Described how, in that reflex action that all wee babies have, her tiny hand grasped and clung on to my extended finger…
Variants of the ‘Hangman’ story abound. Mine, as you’d probably expect by now, comes from hearing the peerless Nic Jones sing it!
We change tempo right at the end as I envisage the poor soul that escapes the noose, in the final verse, promptly legs-it over the horizon before they changed their minds!
A more recently added ‘tunette’ has revived it a tad. It’s a reminder to my daughter that, though she’s left the nest now, there’s always a place ‘back home’ when needed.
Three Gypsies – a variant of ‘THE WRAGGLE-TAGGLE GYPSIE’S . Dorothy Scarborough in her "Song Catcher from the Southern Mountains" says that in the earliest edition of the ballad, the gypsy is called Johnny Faa, a name common among gypsies. When the gypsies were banished from Scotland in 1624, Johnny Faa disobeyed the decree and was hanged. This, though, is not that version!
The tune of ‘Jacky Tar’ provides this well-known tale with a new lease of life; The three gypsies, by the end, danced to a different tune, too!
We’ve all been there, we all know them! We all pretend this isn’t us! And all the band look sheepish when we do this one!!!
The picture shows the famous drinking scene that most of us are familiar with - Otley, on a folk club night!
Persons guilty of adultery, drunkenness and other such misdemeanors were frequently placed on the repentance stool at the front of many a Kirk. The minister would berate them in front of the assembled congregation. This ordeal was a most trying one. What better way to round off our Drinking Song’s accusatory tone, then?
A fine Trad song with varying opinion on origin and many place names appearing depending on where you hear it sung.
Apt really, Geoff and I have been guitar-sparring for 30 years together and that piece was on our first album together in 1977!
But the main purpose it’s in there is to give this poor vocalist a breather when we do the song ‘live’!
One much played source for me is a double CD of Harry Cox, ‘The Bonny Labouring Boy’ – my starting point for this song.
Okay, I own up to a boyhood obsession with Pirates! After growing up reading ‘classics’ like Treasure Island, Swiss Family Robinson, Swallows & Amazons – and slaked by Sunday Matinees in black and white on TV – there had to be a ‘Yo-ho-ho’ drawn out of me some time!
Popular with Victorian broadside printers - Walter Pardon's set is close to the printed versions - though not frequently collected, apparently. Cecil Sharp noted a couple of versions at the beginning of the 20th century and Elizabeth Bristol Greenleaf included
Learned from the singing of an Otley FC stalwart, one Ian Hill; if I’ve got this right, he’s a North-Easterner of Irish descent
that more than raised an eyebrow that this Yorkshire resident - a Midlands-born nomad of Scottish descent
In the Yorkshire Evening Post publication 'Memory Lane Volume Two' I saw a photo of two skulls and read the
‘In Crown Court, an alleyway between Kirkgate and the Corn Exchange in Leeds there are two stone skulls set high on a wall of a former stable. These are to commemorate two men who were press ganged (crimped) into the army at the time of the Peninsula war (1803-14). They were locked overnight in a stable where they sank, all too comfortably, into a bed of straw and suffocated’. Further research revealed….
They were asphyxiated by the ammonia gas given off by the rotting hay and the military authorities had the skulls carved and placed on the building “pour encourager les autres” The stone skulls, once on the walls on Ion Dyson Ltd, were removed in 1974 when the firm moved to
Buslingthorpe and they incorporated them in the wall there, two miles out, and to rather an inappropriate setting and location in my opinion!
A few years back I read an article in my quarterly RSPB magazine which discussed reasons for their decline in the UK.
There was also a poem by one John Marshall. I remembered various phrases for some time and built the lyric round
Anna was a 4/4 instrumental written to try and recreate the kind of tunes my dear departed Auntie Anna (Morrison)
used to play me on her piano accordion when I was a wee lad up in Scotland. She was a grand player! Bless.
Later, working at a school, a French Mistress (not my mistress I must point out!) had me ‘make up’ a piece
on guitar for her students during a ‘form period’. The class asked for the title and I (silver tongued as ever)
told them it was called after her, Karine (LeBot) – yep a French Mistress in an English school that was actually French!
Lady Franklin, some versions call it; certainly, the last verse is her thoughts put into words. The narrative also has one verse apparently from an ordinary seaman dreaming concerning the ill-fated gent.
I’ve added Stan’s chorus after singing along with it that way at a Nottingham Folk Club way back; seemed very appropriate.
I picked it up from an old vinyl LP ‘Nonesuch for Dulcimer’ by Roger Nicholson (credited sung by none other than a pre-Steeleye 'Robert Johnson' I believe) which was on Leader Sound Ltd, Trailer LER 3034 - released in 1972 I think!
Being meddlesome-me, I had to insert new sections of music; the band, being the band, had to rock it up some!
I also took the liberty of changing the bulk of the proceedings from a 3/4 or 6/8 feel into basic 4/4
Here, in just one lady's past, was the lyric of several traditional folk songs - all rolled into one.
Raised by her mother as Mark, a boy, to fool her absentee Sea-Captain father, Mary eventually ran off and lived life to the full
as a sailor, soldier, publican (during which time she lived briefly as a woman for the first time when a young soldier had taken
Captured and condemned to hang along with her pirate companions (lovers?) Anne Bonny and Captain Calico Jack Rackham, the two ladies were given temporary stay of execution as both were pregnant - Jack wasn't so lucky!
Big thanks to Ellie (Cambs) for sending me the lady’s story with the suggestion I might write about Mary.Thanks, Ellie! < Mary Read
This is based on a true account from Luddite Riots near Cleckheaton, West Yorkshire. I read about it in 'Tales from West Yorkshire' by Leonard Markham. I got ‘nabbed’ at a gig by a ‘local’ to the area that insisted I pronounce ‘Hightown’ as ‘Eetown’!
I also had the pleasure of being booked as guest at a folk club, some time after writing it, in the very pub – the Star at Roberttown
– allegedly haunted by those that died there. Oddly enough, the lights there flickered on and off as I performed the song!
I performed this one-vox-one-guitar on my first solo album. I hadn’t done my homework properly at the time and hadn’t twigged the major rewrite Guv’nor Carthy had given it. So for this version, having gone back to the earliest recorded lyric (and seen just why Martin had revamped it!) - I set about my own rewrite.
My last verse was written originally as..... ‘you’ll see me everywhere…..not a Big Issue to the state, but a thorn to Mister Blair’
I was trying to maintain Mr C’s trend (he gave Thatcher a mention). But I’ve recently had to alter it to….
‘you’ll see me round the town…..not a Big Issue to the state, but a thorn to Mister Brown’? It’s going to need continual updates, then?
The band has a real soft spot for the Bay – especially for drinking down at the foot of the hill in the Dolphin before starting gigs
at the Grosvenor, back up at the top. As we invariably booked accommodation, therefore negating the spectre of driving,
we soon found the trek (up and down the hill) one much better accomplished with this – our ‘drinking song’!
The lyric for this is a moveable feast – there are verses specially for Christmas – and other occasions!
This particular composite of verses benefited from an expression gleaned from a chap (eating at the next table to us)
at Cleckheaton Fest 07 – the band were having an Italian meal before our gig there and heard him use it!
The ‘away’s and ‘hey’s and ‘ho’s that keep appearing throughout are the typical stage yelps that I use to ‘conduct’ the band onstage ‘live’. When we recorded our first album, many a fan moaned that the songs didn’t sound the same without these ‘trademarks’.
We recorded the songs ‘live in the studio to get as much down in one take as poss – Anne, Geoff, Tony
We’d record my vocal as a guide on each track– and, while most of it was discarded later for a full vocal run through,
Tony being unavailable for a studio session or two, I nipped in and grabbed the chance to play bass on
Botany, Spadge, Mary Read & Atholl High (though not on the first two tunes of that set – Anna & Karine)
Geoff then turned up with my cittern (he’d kept it at his house for two years!) so once he’d recorded his contribution on it
- and stupidly left it at the studio – I made sure I ticked the list for one more by putting some cittern on too.
the last time round of each tune on the Cuckoo/Ship set. The artwork had already been sent off for print
Our ‘Woodshed’ album tailed off with an unaccomp version of ‘Goodnight Song’ – where we got a few mates
Numpty (me) should have taken a picture or two of those that turned up on the night – and a list of names!
Bernie, Babs S, Sue S, Dave S, Alan, Eric S, Mike W, Longdog Mike (who travelled an hour and twenty mins on the train to be there!), Kay, Dave, Heather, Pam, Max
- eek – I must rack m’ brain more – loads missing! Please email me if you were there & I'll add you – thanks - Duncan
Only Steve knew it as a shanty. After we recorded it, I played ‘em my Pint and Dale CD. Jaws dropped!
Oh, and Ally Hulett and I tweaked the lyric some! Ali Russell and Ally H belted out some additional vocals to the band’s efforts for the hook line – Ali R actually providing an ‘echo’ of the hook in two part harmony that we just couldn’t decide whether to use or not.
Thankfully the ‘cut’ was made for us by an oversight on ‘saving’. Many of the extra vocals were housed on a separate device.
Interesting to have the phrase ‘rock and roll’ (the ship’s sea-going motion?) in the original lyric – way before the 1950’s and not a motorbike or quiff in sight!
The first one goes ‘We are the Wombles of Wimbledon Common’ – the second section and third I’ll not print here!
Perhaps when you see us live, you might just catch us mouthing the words we let rip at each other during rehearsals!
I was present at a festival ‘ interview’ where Tim Laycock and Chris Sugden told the tale that Harry Cox was banished to his woodshed on his own whenever he wanted to sing and play- His wife not wanting to hear that nasty folk music in the house.
In that outbuilding, he played his part in maintaining the tradition, undiscovered, for some twenty or more years.
Now I can’t remember who said which line – and Chris told me (when I stalked him at a concert) that he can’t recall the conversation at all! But this how I heard it. . . . .
Bing!!! That light bulb appeared above my head and I scribbled the words down on my festival programme straightaway.
The definitive version, for me, is on the wonderful Nic Jones’ Penguin Eggs album. It’s no secret I’m a HUGE fan of his! I wouldn’t want to attempt an acoustic version after that, so here's an electric one.
Tailors were often ‘figures of fun’ in old songs - the estate agents of yore perhaps? I learned this song after listening to Eliza Carthy’s Red Rice version – a stark voice and piano only. Beautiful.
The original extra tune I added (untitled yet again) was scrapped when the band pointed out I’d ripped off a part of Led Zep’s ‘Stairway to Heaven’ - so the present one emerged hastily!
I must confess, I didn’t think the second attempt was as good as the first – now I can’t even remember how the original effort went.
The ‘flea’ mentioned, was supposed to be a put-down of Napoleon’s small stature – and ‘casters away’ a reference to beaver(?)-skinned hats being tossed in the air in a joyous hurrah! There’s a fair bit of speculation on Mudcat if you’d like to search it out.
We’ve usually opened our live sets with this since this band’s first gig with the present line-up in Jan ‘02. We’d previously done two gigs before that, but only Anne, Geoff and myself were on board until then. The band has been stable ever since - ‘cause we’re all mates, love one another, and (above all) this music lark is pure FUN to us.
I understand that Mary (or her estate) never got anything for this piece despite it being recorded by many – and even that ‘someone else’ has the rights registered (with what claim?).
I do hope that the mess is sorted – and that something will eventually be received by her estate, or perhaps ploughed back into Dundee in some way. My apologies for attempting to spell it how it sounds.
Thanks Ally H inspired me to approach lyrics from a different angle.....Something I’ll try to build on.
Just because there’s more than one song on this CD on the subject, don’t get the idea that the demon drink
Once again, the band has been very cruel about my added tunette (untitled again, how lazy can one get?),
This song has gone full circle - I heard it on Australia’s Margaret Walter’s solo CD, ‘Power in a Song’. She learnt it from the singing of the excellent Peter Bellamy. Anne B played me a few tunes when I needed inspiration for the instrumental break.
Margaret has chastised me via email for including another tune at all. I tried various arguments to justify it – she won’t have any of it! Sorry M – it’s in there now. And I didn’t tell her of the wee lyric addition. Eek! Still love me, M?
Geoff and I originally recorded it this (on vinyl!) back in ‘77 - and John Peel played it on his BBC Radio One show – as we performed under the name ‘Luigi Anna da Boys’, he introduced us as 'a bunch of itinerate waiters from Leeds' if I remember correctly.
On which Maggie Boyle shines! Two vocal parts and flute from her on this. ’There aren’t enough Parting Songs’ she said (as she left)!
We close this album with not a sad song, but a song of hope. Come and see us some time, we’ll be happy to see you too.
Is it OK to do so? Well, anyone who might read the early written versions of a song such as ‘Begging Song’
And let’s not forget, those early written versions themselves may have had a tweak when put to paper!
It’s merely that there are original tunes of mine wedged in somewhere to form instrumental sections.
(though that’s tempting fate I guess! - I always remember Steeleye’s wonderful sleeve note regarding the chap
Take the first track for example – a sea shanty with that typical line-and-response thing going on. We don’t do it in that, more usual, manner! Out go the responses ‘tween every line. No kind of statement being made – we just used the song as a template to head off on a different tack.
We don’t see this version as a replacement for the tried and tested at all. I look forward to attending a sea-shanty session at a festival near me this summer, where I will belt out the accepted trad format with gusto and verve with everyone else
– Thus, I hope, helping preserve the tradition the way some prefer it. Our attempts are merely to run parallel with others.
If in any way even one soul, that wasn’t into folk (particularly trad) music before, is drawn to explore it further - because our way was closer to the musical style that they prefer – then that’s a result!
And will continue to do so whilst I have the capability – this electric stuff is just there ‘as well’ – don’t take it too seriously.
In the Yorkshire Evening Post publication 'Memory Lane Volume Two' I saw a photo of two skulls and read the accompanying paragraph which stated...
In Crown Court, an alleyway between Kirkgate and the Corn exchange in Leeds there are two stone skulls set high on a wall of a former stable. These are to commemorate two men who were press ganged (crimped) into the army. They were locked overnight in a stable where they sank, all too comfortably, into a bed of straw and suffocated.
It transpires a second version was printed in the actual YEP in the eighties in a nostalgia section under the heading ‘Settle That Argument…’ where a Mr M.A. Green, Moseley Wood Walk, Leeds wrote in to ask 'What happened to the skulls which were once to be seen on the walls of Crown Court, near Leeds Corn Exchange, and what was the legend?'
The stone skulls, once on the walls on Ion Dyson Ltd., were removed in 1974 when the firm moved to Buslingthorpe and they incorporated them in the wall there. Legend has it that at the time of the Peninsula war (1803-14) many soldiers were stationed here and some were billeted at the Crown Inn, opposite the Corn Exchange. Warned that they were about to be drafted to the Peninsula, two soldiers hid themselves in the hayloft of the reconditioned building the skulls were later to adorn.
They were smothered by the hay and the military authorities had the skulls carved and placed on the building “pour encourager les autres”
of England to the newly established penal colonies in Australia where the exclusively male population were becoming increasingly unruly! The women were allowed to bring men on board at each port they stayed at on the journey. They used every opportunity to earn money to set themselves up for their new life. The ship therefore became known as The Floating Brothel!
I heard the story of the Lady Juliana – first ship to carry such a cargo – in a book review on ‘Women’s Hour’ (BBC Radio 4). I went out, bought and read the (excellent) book – ‘The Floating Brothel’ by Sian Rees – this song was the result.
Which I first heard (and learned) from Steeleye Span's 'Please to see the King' in my last sixth form year! Even though it's the only version I ever heard (my rock years intervened) I've always loved the tune and I couldn't resist trying it out in the guitar style I'd begun to develop over the last two years. I've never heard a solo artist do it - or even an acoustic version! Trad words, but the tune isn’t traditional, it was put together by Halliard members Dave Moran & Nic Jones!
I like listening to, and writing songs, that tell a tale. This song is a great story, and that make's it instantly a winner in my book. It's just up my (Barrack) street. Probably my second favourite track off 'Penguin Eggs'. There's a Barrack Street less than a mile from home here in Leeds - and I considered 'dressing-up' in a woman's shirt and apron for a photo by the street sign for the website. Haven't had the bottle yet - but who knows!
This was on a vinyl LP I had back in college ('72?) T'was Tim Hart and Maddy Prior's 'Summer Solstice'
Only after working my way into C modal tuning in recent years have I got round to finding a way I can play it! I wish I'd not lost the LP somewhere over the years. Traded it in for 'pence' along with so many albums at a shop opposite the fForde Grene pub in Leeds when I was struggling to make ends meet having run off from college without finishing! Can't remember the shop's name - but many a student (or poor person) used to trade-in their favourites there out of need! Anyone out there know the name? Anyone out there got a copy? I'd really like to hear it again - especially one track that I can only vaguely remember - 'Cannily, Cannily' - I believe - though the spelling might be wrong.
Misc: Various DMcF songs that I get requests for the lyrics of, while out at gigs... Not necessarily on albums...