Getting distracted on a day off

[ladyofastolat]

I've posted before about why I love folk music. I think the summary was something like:

1. Because I love singing songs / playing tunes that have been sung for centuries
2. I like how they so often break "the rules". They're often modal, defy standard modern ideas of standard time signatures, and if the words demand a few extra syllables stuck in the middle of a line, then that's what we get.
3. Because I love the folk tradition, by which everyone is free to interpret the song or tune in their own way, and there is no right version, no author, and no copyright. (Though try telling that to the PRS)
4. Because I love democratic nature of the folk scene, in which even the superstars (usually) mingle with the audience in the bar, before strolling onto stage to do their bit, a pint of beer in one hand.

However, I missed reason number 5: Folk songs have some lovely turns of phrase, often rather unintentionally amusing. Here are some favourites that come to mind.


They had not sailed a league, a league,
A league but barely nine.

From some version of Patrick Spens. "A league but barely three" is the more usual version of this formulaic phrase, also applied to weeks, days, miles etc. Other versions of Patrick Spens go too far the other way:

They had not sailed a league, a league,
A league but barely one.

___

Go saddle me my milk-white steed,
My blanket is so speedy

This is written from memory, from many years ago when I was lucky enough to briefly have my hands on that Holy Grail of folk song books: Bronson's Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads. I think this version came from some old lady in the Appalachians. I don't know if it was here own mis-hearing, or is this version had been solemnly passed down through the generations. Most other versions say, "Go saddle to me my milk-white steed / My black is not so speedy", or words to that effect.

___


If I were a woman, as I am a man,
My bed-fellow you would be

From Willie o' Winsbury. The king's daughter is pregnant by Willie, a common man. The King is furious. Then the king sees Willie, and… phwoar! He instantly forgives all, and offers Willie the hand of his daughter and his entire kingdom. And all because Willie has milk-white skin, golden hair, and lovely silk clothing.

___

"That was a vile sin," said the King
"May God forgive it thee."
"Amen, Amen," said the Earl Marshall,
And a frightened man was he.

(Or, perhaps even better, as seen in one version: "but a quacking heart had he.")

Queen Eleanor's Confession is a fun song all round. The King has an idea to disguise himself as a friar to hear the Queen's confession, and takes the Earl Marshall with him. Trouble is, the Queen goes and confesses that she's been sleeping with the Earl Marshall for year, and has a son by him. Oops.

___

And Old Johnny More, and Young Johnny More,
And Jack o' North, all three,
The English lady, the little boy,
Went a' to Benachie.

The final verse of Lang Johnnie More. Most stories content themselves with a "and they all lived happily ever after."

___

And she did fire, and shot the squire.

And later in the same song:
She trigger drew, her uncle slew

From The Banks of the Sweet Dundee.

___

She turned me into an ugly worm,
And made me toddle about the tree

Yes, yes, I know I shouldn't envisage a little toddler, but I can't help it. I can see why Steeleye Span missed the toddling out when they sang Alison Gross. Actually, this song has some rather good verses: e.g.

She turned her three times round about,
And thrice she blew on a grass-green horn,
She swore by the moon and the stars up above,
That she'd make me rue the day I was born.

___

Ooh! And while we're onto oaths…

Jack Orion swore a bloody oath,
By oak, by ash, by bitter thorn.

___

"Welcome stone, welcome bell,
"But Christ save me from the apes of Hell!"

Brass Monkey's version of the Maid and the Palmer is one of the best songs to sing aloud, with feeling.

___

And, Pellinor, what's the verse I like about someone abusing the man who built the boat, and the wind, and the sea etc. etc.?

___

I bet there are hundreds more I've forgotten, and hundreds more great lines that I've never yet encountered. Any suggestions?

And, while I'm here: This site is wonderful for all the different versions of the Child ballads, though it's sadly music-less. Grr! These things are songs, not poems.

Comments

[king-pellinor.livejournal.com]

This one?

He abused the man who builded the boat
He abused the captain who sailed her
He abused the winds and the waters clear
That let Polly run away with her sailor

SOmething like that, anyway.

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

That's the one. What song is it? I went right through all the Martin Carthy CDs, and couldn't find a likely-looking song. Am I wrong in thinking it's one that he sings?

[king-pellinor.livejournal.com]

It could be Peggy, not Polly, and it may be a soldier insted of a sailor. You know how these things go.

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

Ah. Yes! Peggy and the Soldier, on Digitrad: http://www.mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=4639

It's on his album called "Second Album", which we presumably have, to know the song, but hasn't got as far as my computer, hence me missing it. I wonder where it's wandered off it.

[helflaed.livejournal.com]

I rather like this verse in Fair Flower of Northumberland. She's helped him to escape and has run off with him when he informs her in not very complimentary terms that he diapproves of her morals and that he is already married. She offers to be his cook, because she can't go home. His response?

"It's cook in my kitchen ye cannae well be
Oh but her love was easy won
For my lady she winnae hae servants like thee
So get ye back tae Northumberland"

Ooooch. Nasty.

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

Ouch! I don't know that ballad, though I've heard the name. *goes off to read it*

[helflaed.livejournal.com]

It is listed as fair flower of northumberland 2 at Mudcatcafe.org

[greenwoodside.livejournal.com]

I love Queen Eleanor's Confession - have to admit I was more than a little delighted when I saw it referenced in The Return of the Native.

One of my own favourites, from The Battle of Otterburn.

‘But I have dreamd a dreary dream,
Beyond the Isle of Sky;
I saw a dead man win a fight,
And I think that man was I.’

And from The Baron of Brackley, Peggy goads her husband to go out and fight.

‘How can I rise, lady, and turn them again?
For whaur I hae ae man I’d lief to hae ten.’
She called on her marys to come to her hand,
Says: ‘Bring your rocks, lasses, we will them command.’

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I like that Battle of Otterburn one. I have to admit to not having properly read most of the Border battle ballads. *shamed look*

re. the second quote: Another thing I like about ballads is that the women are often rather capable. While some of them exist only to get seduced, pregnant or murdered (or often all three), quite a lot of them take their fate into their own hands. I like the heroine of Tam Lin, who kirtles up her skirts and charges off to do everything she's been told not to, and ends up saving her man. Or the girl in The Outlandish Knight ("Six pretty maids you have drown-ed here, but the seventh one has drown-ed thee."). Or the one in Broomfield Hill. And so on.

[greenwoodside.livejournal.com]

Yes, I love that. It's wonderful that the old songs - as pretty much the only surviving voice of the common people of the British Isles - are full of women, strong ones and others.

The version of the Battle of Otterburn I know is sung by June Tabor. I rarely sit down and read the ballads - normally, I just wait until I find a recording.

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

I greatly prefer to hear them sung, not to read them. That's how they were intended, after all. But, when I haven't got a recording of a ballad, I do try to read them instead. People seem far more fond of recording the soap opera ballads or fairy ballads, rather than the battle ballads (though I do have a few recordings of the Battle of Harlaw.)

[greenwoodside.livejournal.com]

I think I've just got the one of the B of Harlaw. Probably the singers miss the 'sex' element from the 'sex and violence' mix the border ballads do so well, and that's why they stick to the Tam Lin, Clark Saunders type!

[gileswench.livejournal.com]

(loves folk music all to pieces and back again)

I was singing Queen Eleanor's Confession before I had any proper idea what it all meant. Ah, and there's nothing like a good folk song about slaughter and unauthorized sexual congress!

That does it. I have to sit down today and watch A Mighty Wind again.

And I leave you with a sage bit of advice from a more modern song, Take Her In Your Arms by Andy M Stewart:

Now depression's not a million laughs
But suicide's too dangerous
Don't go leppin' out of buildings
In the middle of the night

It's not the fall but landing
That'll alter social standing
So go first and ask your father
Oh I'm sure he'll set you right

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

I must watch A Mighty Wind again. Like with Spinal Tap, the songs in it are often better than the songs they're parodying.

If the old ballads were being written today, they'd have thousands of people writing furious letters of complaint about the sex and violence, and demanding that they get banned. Ah, but things were so nice and fluffy and gentile in the Old Days...

Ah, but things were so nice and fluffy and gentile in the Old Days

[the-marquis.livejournal.com]

Oy Vey, Matty Groves was Jewish?!

Re: Ah, but things were so nice and fluffy and gentile in the Old Days

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

But of course! Didn't you realise? That's why Lord Arnold killed him. The "sleeping with my wife" thing was only an excuse. The whole song is actually a searing indictment of the anti-Semitism that was endemic in medieval Europe. :-P

Re: Ah, but things were so nice and fluffy and gentile in the Old Days

[the-marquis.livejournal.com]

Ahh the power of folk song :)

[westerling.livejournal.com]

Hi, I was trolling around looking for other Molly/Morris dancers on LJ and found your journal, and have friended you. Just so you know. :) I dance on a women's side in Western Massachusetts called Wake Robin---we primarily do Fieldtown, but I'm also tangentially involved with a new Molly team, also in Western Mass. I live in a highly morrisicized area.

We also share a number of other interests regarding fantasy fiction, etc. So, *waves from across the Atlantic.* Nice to meet you.

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

Hello! *waves back* Until I joined morris dancing LJ communities, I hadn't realised that Morris dancing was even done in America. I was very pleased to see that it was. How well known is it amongst the wider population? What sort of public image does it have? (Over here, everyone knows about it, but most of them laugh at it and think it's quite sad and silly.)

[westerling.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure if people have paid enough attention to it for have much of a widespread public image. But we get a lot of individual reactions, ranging from, "Yay, here come the Morris Dancers!" to "OMG Morris Dancers, RUN!" to "We all think it's some kind of cult," to, most commonly, "WTF?????????" I particularly like the last reaction, because it means we've stirred people up and brought some much-needed surreality into their lives. :) Even with all the teams in the area, there are still lots of people to surprise.

I dance, as I said, on a women's team, and our "brother" team is Juggler Meadow Morris Men. We also interact regularly with: Green River Tap and Die (the new mixed Molly team), Rapscallions (women's rapper sword), Hartsbrook Garland (a little too girly for my tastes, but different strokes and all that), Guiding Star Clog Morris (mixed), Jack in the Green (men's team from southern New Hampshire), Borderlines (mixed Border team), and the Marlboro Morris Men (another men's team). There are other teams in the area that we don't see so much of (*ahem* so to speak), and there's another big community in the Boston area (with whom we are dancing tomorrow). Other hotbeds of Morris activity that I know about are in Berkshire County, Mass.; southern Vermont; Southern New Hampshire; Ithaca, NY; London/Toronto, Ontario; Washington, D.C.; New Haven, CT; and probably there are others that I don't know about. Many of these teams started in the mid- to late-seventies.

One of the things that fascinates me about Morris dancing is the way it attracts people who have a certain...attitude about life? Or something. I don't quite know how to define it, but there is definitely a thread of commonality.

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

That is so heartening - to see such a lovely long list of active teams.

I know what you mean about the typical Morris person, though I couldn't put my finger on quite what it is. Slightly non-comformist, I suppose. Not afraid to stand up and do something that others think is silly, unfashionable or uncool. I always find it amusing when we try to get a macho-looking, "cool" man to join in with our joining-in dance, and he gets this look of utter terror on his face and runs away. He probably thinks he's showing his coolness by refusing to join in such an unfashionable pastime, but to me, he's just showing that he's insecure, obsessed with image, and a coward.

[westerling.livejournal.com]

One of my friends described morris dancing as "chess club for rowdies" which kind of sums up the geek factor as well as the discordian nature of being on a morris team.

I think the Northeast U.S. is a pretty fertile area for morris dancers, for some reason. And also parts of Canada.