The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #119547 Message #2595388
Posted By: GUEST,Jim Knowledge
23-Mar-09 - 12:26 PM
Thread Name: 1954 and All That - defining folk music
Subject: RE: 1954 and All That - defining folk music
I `ad that Minister of Culture in my cab the other day. `e looked well pleased with `imself and `ad a wapping great pile of papers under `is arm. `e said, "`ouse of Commons, please Jim." I said, "You look like a cat that`s `ad all the cream. What`s going on , then?" `e said, "Well, you know all this `owjadoo about our culture dying out.? I`m going to introduce a bill to redress the balance." I said, " What. You gonna make music and singing in schools part of the old curriculum again, like we `ad years ago?" `e said, " Nah. We`re gonna fast track it. It`s gonna be illegal for the working man to `ave a telly or computer games. That`ll get `em singing again!!"
Whaddam I Like??
But, seriously though. I`m just looking through a book called Victorian Street Ballads. It `as loads of songs and doggerel they found printed on `andbills and broadsheets from the early 1800`s. Well, you could`ve knocked me down with a feather. `undreds of `em are what we sing in our band and we`ve always reckoned they`re folk songs. After `aving read all the stuff above I don`t know whether I`m on me `ead or me `eels. Cop an eyeful of this list below for starters.
Riggs of the Times We`re All Jolly Felows That Follows The Plough. Hop Picking In Kent My Father Kept A Horse Miles Weatherill ( I got Nick Jones doing that one) Female Transport Tarpaulin Jacket ( `e asks to be wrapped up in it when `e dies) Polly Perkins I Likes A Drop Of Good Beer Free And Easy Old Horse (this is the one with `edges , ditches, etc.) Massa`s In The Cold Cold Ground