The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #3265   Message #2353415
Posted By: Malcolm Douglas
30-May-08 - 07:37 PM
Thread Name: Byker Hill: background info anyone?
Subject: RE: Byker Hill: background info anyone?
If I'm right in thinking that 'dlynn' meant to ask 'Is "My Dearie Sits Up Ower Late' traditionally sung in the middle of "Byker Hill"?', then the answer is no, it isn't; at least if by 'traditionally' you mean as sung by traditional singers. The combination of the two separate songs is, so far as we can tell (and as discussed earlier in this ten-year-old thread), a novelty of the Revival instigated by Bert Lloyd. If by 'traditionally' you mean 'habitually nowadays' then sometimes, yes; depending on which Revival performer one has learned the song from.

This answer may not make a great deal of sense to people who think that all those who sing traditional songs are traditional singers, or who don't understand why I make a distinction between tradition and revival in discussions of this kind; but I can't help that.

The 'Cottars' sing an arrangement of the Young Tradition set; that isn't the original tune to which the song was sung. Again, that is discussed earlier on here.