Lyr Req: Songs by Harry Clifton (1832-1872)

Subject: RE: Help: Harry Clifton Songwriter
From: GUEST, Sminky
Date: 20 May 10 - 10:40 AM

We can now date 'Paddle', 'Kangaroo', 'The hardware line' and 'Girls of ------ Road' to no later than 1865.

The Word on the Street website (courtesy of the National Library of Scotland) has some dated broadsides which themselves list a 'Catalogue of Newest Song' - this one for example (scroll down for the list).

Jemima Brown also appears, again with an 1865 date.

Subject: My Mother-in-Law
From: Artful Codger
Date: 20 May 10 - 05:57 AM

New thread for the song "My Mother-in-Law" (or "Advice to Persons About to Marry"):
http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=129590

It seemed a suitable companion piece for "My Old Wife" and "My Rattling Mare and I". A PDF of the sheet music is available in the Lester S. Levy Collection; lyrics and (soon) MIDI are the new thread.

Subject: RE: Help: Harry Clifton Songwriter
From: Artful Codger
Date: 20 May 10 - 02:52 AM

Words for "My Old Wife" posted in the thread for "My Rattling Mare and I"; the former was apparently the precursor of the latter, and the tune is the same for both (already posted).

Subject: RE: Help: Harry Clifton Songwriter
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 19 May 10 - 05:00 PM

I'm about to send the scores for 'Lannigans Ball' and 'Jones's Musical Party'.
If anyone else has any particular preference for a Clifton song not already posted please let me know and I'll do my best. Artful has asked me to prioritise the comic songs and I will do so. If anyone wants any of the motto songs do ask. Even if I haven't got the score I might have the text on a broadside.

Subject: The Young Man on the Railway
From: Artful Codger
Date: 19 May 10 - 09:27 AM

New thread for the song "The Young Man on the Railway" (or, "The Mail Train Driver"):
http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=129575

Subject: RE: Help: Harry Clifton Songwriter
From: GUEST, Sminky
Date: 19 May 10 - 06:39 AM

Steve,

Extracts from an account of John Mcgregor, quoting entries in his diary, from the year 1865:

"Idea about canoe voyage was in germ to-day,"
and ten days later, "Canoe project hatched."
On June 21 he wrote, "Went to see my canoe the Rob Roy"
and on the 27th, "Saw the Rob Roy completed."
A month after that he started on his first famous tour.

So an 1863 date for 'Paddle', based on Mcgregor's exploits, is plainly wrong.

In 1890 Fanny Edwards was appearing in 'The Gondoliers', playing the part of the Duchess, at the Chicago Opera House.

Fred French crops up regularly, particularly after HC's death, being credited on a number of occasions with the authorship of HC's songs. Indeed, it was these spurious claims which prompted some of the letters to The Era, quoted above. Mr French "never achieved such success and popularity as Harry Clifton, whose songs he frequently sang" (Era, Jun 3, 1899).

Subject: RE: Help: Harry Clifton Songwriter
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 18 May 10 - 06:50 PM

Oxford Library OLIS has 85 Clifton songs catalogued online and available for inspection or purchase of copies. Some are in multiple copies and a few are duplicated in the 85.
They are part of the Bodleian Collection pre 1920 Catalogues, either in the Harding Music Collection or in Music Vol III.
Go to the search and bring up authors then enter 'Clifton, Harry'
Useful for serial numbers, dates, lithographs and first lines, etc.

Subject: RE: Help: Harry Clifton Songwriter
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 18 May 10 - 03:16 PM

Here is a much fuller listing of Hopwood and Crew's serial numbers for HC's sheet music chronologically arranged.
1862

407
416

1863

485
492
493
495
496
(589)

1864

516
563
573

1865

588
600
607
703
732

1866

737
760
766
787
795
936
944
952
988
989
995
996
997
(1371)
(1477)

1867

1158
1215
1222
1258
1263
1267
1389

1868

1383
1429
1479
1480
1542
1589
(1893)

1869

(1388)
1601
1656
1723
(2183)

1870

1851
1879
1944
1947
2172 may be later (1871)

Apart from a few misplaced they seem to follow a regular pattern well enough to date any others that turn up without a date.

Subject: RE: Help: Harry Clifton Songwriter
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 18 May 10 - 03:03 PM

As Welcome as the Flowers in May, published by Metzler actually credits Rowley as having sung it, but his name doesn't appear on any of the Hopwood and Crew covers I've seen. The other singer who crops up a lot is Fred French.
I think the editor of Era has got the wrong date on 'Paddle' unless there was an earlier edition. The serial number fits in the 1866 bracket which is the date given by the Era in the contemporary mention.
These early references prior to 1860 are very interesting. We know very little about this period. The Music Hall was just in its infancy then.

I think it says somewhere in the thread earlier on that Fanny emigrated to America in about 1889.

Subject: RE: Help: Harry Clifton Songwriter
From: GUEST, Sminky
Date: 18 May 10 - 10:48 AM

"A Chat with David Gray

On Monday, May 1st, 1865 - so well do I remember the date - I entered the service of Hopwood and Crew, in Bond-street. They were then the publishers of all the popular songs.

...............

I was twelve years with Hopwood and Crew, and in those cirumstances met most of the well-known artists of that day - Harry Clifton, for instance, whose 'motto' songs were mostly set to Mr Coote's waltzes, such as the 'Cornflower', 'Queen of the Harvest' and 'Innocence'."

Era, Sep 25, 1897



"Editorial

Now, Harry Clifton was his own lyric author and composer, and very rarely sang any but his own compositions. In London he was an immense favourite, and made a speciality on motto songs. Amongst these effusions may be mentioned 'Never look behind', 'Up with the lark in the morning', 'It's not the miles we travel', 'There's nothing succeeds like success' and 'Paddle your own canoe', a song that is still sung in remote parts of the country. We heard an old boy of seventy-two struggle through it only a couple of Easters ago.

One scarcely looks for the subject of a comic song in the Bible, but that's where the sentiment of 'Paddle your own canoe' comes from. When this ditty was written - 1863 - Mr J Mcgregor was travelling all over Europe with his celebrated boat, the Rob Roy, and canoes were all the vogue. Mr Clifton also gave 'The dark girl dressed in blue', 'On board the Kangaroo', 'My Matilda Jane', but the greatest of all his successes was undoubtedly 'Pretty Polly Perkins'.

..........

Mr W H Morrish, still happily alive, "ran" Mr Harry Clifton and his concert party through all the principal towns in England in 1867, when 'Polly Perkins' and 'Paddle your own canoe' were, perhaps, the most popular items.

It may be pointed out that at least one song, 'Percy St Barbe', was written and composed by Charles Blatherwick. Many of the composers of the day supplied him with melodies, including F A Springthorpe, J Holbrook, Charles Coote jnr, M Hobson and G Operti. But Harry Clifton did the lion's share of the numberless songs he presented to the laughter-loving world.

Poor Harry Clifton! He was a most successful man, cast off in the very prime of life, for he died as far back as 1872, on July 15th, aged only forty years. But he did more than most of us, for he certainly added to the gaiety of his fellow man and he left behind him several compositions that are still alive."

Era, Jun 3, 1899


"To the Editor of the Era

..............

I may add that I enjoyed the acquaintance of the late Harry Clifton. Harry Clifton was very near my prototype. I made up the characters as he did, and sang his songs long after his death at Evans's Hotel - 'Jolly Old English Squire', 'Welcome as the flowers in May', etc, and Mr Charles Coote, of the firm of Hopwood and Crew, printed my name on the title pages.

Yours faithfully, J W Rowley
156 Lambeth-walk. June 8th."

Era, Jun 10, 1899


The above is presumably the same J W Rowley for whom Joseph Bryan Geoghegan wrote Down in a coal mine.

Subject: RE: Help: Harry Clifton Songwriter
From: Artful Codger
Date: 18 May 10 - 10:32 AM

Does that mean the round's on you?

Subject: RE: Help: Harry Clifton Songwriter
From: Leadfingers
Date: 18 May 10 - 08:27 AM

100

Subject: RE: Help: Harry Clifton Songwriter
From: GUEST, Sminky
Date: 18 May 10 - 06:56 AM

"St Jude's, Dublin

Mr Harry Clifton, the celebrated comic vocalist, introduces his new songs (local, social, jovial, critical, and political), among others 'The Galway Lever line', 'Out for the night' and 'Dublin Rhymes', etc, etc"

Freeman's Journal, Dublin, Feb 12 1859


"Mr Harry Clifton was clever as usual, and in his 'Rhymes on the Times; or, Edinburgh in 1863' made a humerous allusion to Councillor McNish and his "difficulties", which provoked a good deal of laughter at that gentleman's expense; but we admire him far less in these and other "sensation" songs than in his Irish ballads, such as 'The Ould Grey Mare' and the 'Wedding at Ballypoorreen', the last of which he gave in answer to an encore, and which contains more of real humour, and, we may add, of real music than all his impersonations of 'Old Bob Ridley's' and 'Perfect Cure' put together."

Caledonian Mercury, Edinburgh, Feb 16 1863

Subject: RE: Help: Harry Clifton Songwriter
From: GUEST, Sminky
Date: 18 May 10 - 05:23 AM

Steve,

Yeah, sorry about those first two songs, they happened to be in my head when I was looking through Axon!

It was frustrating coming across entries stating that HC sang 'several new songs' on a particlar night, but no titles given.

I suspect many of his songs had done the rounds before they were announced to the public, so may be older than stated. 'Mary Ann (a reference to his wife?); or the Roving Gardener' was already 'an immense hit' by the time it was 'released' in 1864.

Incidentally, Fanny Edwards seems to have given up the Music Hall soon after 1876 and took up Comic Opera. She joined the D'Oyly Carte company and had a successful career, by all accounts, up to the end of the century.

Still searching.....

Subject: RE: Help: Harry Clifton Songwriter
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 17 May 10 - 02:40 PM

Sminky,
I'm pretty sure 'Brigham Young' is Joe Geoghegan, not Clifton. Also I think 'Jerusalem Cuckoo' predates Clifton, although he did use the tune in one of his medleys. The 1862 I have not seen before. Great stuff.

To facilitate further dating I've compared your 'Era' dating with the serial numbers on my original sheets and come up with the following table that is pretty consistent.

Upto and including 1863 485-589
1864                     563 (some discrepancy here.may have been    registered earlier)
1865                     703-732
1866                     737-995 (outlier On Board Kangaroo=1371)
1867                     1215-1258
1868                     1429-1542

These are all Hopwood & Crew serial numbers preceded by H&C. Some Clifton songs were also published by B Williams, Metzler & Co, Ashdown & Parry, Edwin Ashdown.
Clifton was said to have written 500 songs.
In the period we have survivals for which appears to be c1862-1872 I have about 120 song titles.

Subject: RE: Help: Harry Clifton Songwriter
From: GUEST, Sminky
Date: 17 May 10 - 11:57 AM

...and finally a song about him:

Death of Harry Clifton

Subject: RE: Help: Harry Clifton Songwriter
From: GUEST, Sminky
Date: 17 May 10 - 11:55 AM

Send Back My Barney To Me/John Bull and (Jonathan) the Yankey

Where the Grass Grows Green

Subject: RE: Help: Harry Clifton Songwriter
From: GUEST, Sminky
Date: 17 May 10 - 11:54 AM

Some HC songs amongst the Axon Broadside Collection:

Brigham Young

Jerusalem Cuckoo (Donkey Driver)

Subject: RE: Help: Harry Clifton Songwriter
From: GUEST, Sminky
Date: 17 May 10 - 11:34 AM

'The dream of John Bull and Jonathan'
Jan 12 1862

'The teetotal alphabet'
Mar 9 1862

"Marylebone Music Hall
High-street Marylebone
(Proprietor, R.Botting)
Unprecedented attraction - The best entertainment in London - Great success of Harry Clifton with his wonderful GHOST (Patented)."
Sep 6 1863

"Mr Harry Clifton, who appeared for the first time this season, treated the audience to two very silly compositions entitled in the programme, 'Glasgow Sensations', and 'The Miller's Daughters'. Why the former was entitled 'Glasgow Sensations' we are at a loss to understand, unless it was on account of a total absence of allusion to Glasgow in the song. We have yet to learn that Mrs Yelverton, Garibaldi, or the Davenports can be reckoned as Glasgow sensations".
Jan 15 1865

Subject: RE: Help: Harry Clifton Songwriter
From: GUEST, Sminky
Date: 17 May 10 - 08:29 AM

Well done with those songs, you men.

I'm still digging so I might have some more snippets later today.

Subject: More Harry Clifton finds
From: Artful Codger
Date: 17 May 10 - 02:16 AM

Lyrics for three other songs lifted above in the Bodley broadside collection:

Barclay's Beer
Shelling Green Peas
Trifles Light as Air

Subject: More Clifton song finds
From: Artful Codger
Date: 17 May 10 - 12:01 AM

Browsing a bit more at the Bodley with an expanded list of song titles, I found the lyrics to the following:

As Welcome as the Flowers in May (aka The Jolly Miller)
        I live at the mill at the foot of the hill
*Granny Snow!
*Jones' Musical Party
*Mary Ann, or the Roving Gardener
*My Old Wife. Harding B 11(2576)
Poor Old Mike
Put the Break [sic] On When You're Going down the Hill
There's a Smile Waiting for Me at Home
Water Cresses! Harding B 11(4046)
The Watercress Girl
*The Way to Be Happy
The Weeping Willer
Up a Tree
*The Young Man on the Railway (= The Mail Train Driver)

Steve Gardham has sheet music or scans for the starred items, which means I may be posting MIDIs and/or ABCs for them in due course.

"My Old Wife" uses the same music and nearly the same chorus as "My Rattling Mare and I," for which I've already posted music. Steve noticed this similarity, and theorized that it was a parody written after Clifton jilted his wife and took up with Fanny Edwards.

Note: Someone somewhere along the line wondered if "The Weepin Willer" was a Geordy parody of "Polly Perkins". Judging from my brief inspection, I'd say no.

I forgot to check the titles found in the HC Comic Songster, which I haven't yet incorporated into my personal list.

If anyone has music for these titles, aside from Steve's holdings, please send me scans! PM me for an email address.

Also, can some friendly soul Down Under scan the music to "The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe" in the National Library of Australia and send it along?

Subject: Actual Clifton song finds
From: Artful Codger
Date: 16 May 10 - 07:36 PM

Google Books has a number of entries that are sets of old songsters combined into a single e-book. In two of these sets I found lyrics for some of the Clifton songs mentioned in this thread but for which no lyrics or tune has been previously posted or cross-referenced.

Note that the folks putting these up at Google decided (for the most part) to reset the pagination for each book, so you can only specify a page number once you've scrolled into that particular songster--a search on title would probably be quicker. For this reason, I list all the songsters within an entry, regardless of whether they contain songs I wish to list or not.

I have not attempted to list ALL the Clifton songs contained in these songsters, mainly just the ones not yet found elsewhere. Be forewarned that these lyrics were probably altered somewhat from Clifton's own--he is seldom credited at all, even when a songster generally gives credits. Those starred I believe to be unharvested, those with query marks might correspond to the indicated Clifton titles (also unharvested).


Tony Pastor's 201 Bowery Songster
http://books.google.com/books?id=l4kvAAAAYAAJ
Tony Pastor 201 Bowery Songster:
        A Motto for Every Man (p.53)
        My Old Wife (p.67)
        *Pull Back (p.33 = The Pull-Back)
        The Railway Belle (p.27)
        *Up a Tree (p.39)
        Where There's a Will There's a Way (p.66)
Tony Pastor's Carte de Visite Album Songster (1865)
        *Hardware Line (p.31)
        Jemima Brown (p.67)
        *Number One (p.59 ?= I'm Number One)
        ?Sewing Machine (p.20)
Clown's Songster
Agnes Wallace's Little Diamond Songster:
        *As Long as the World Goes Round!
        *I'll Go and Enlist for a Sailor (p. 57)
        Pulling Hard against the Stream
Songs Sung by Jim Wambold / Comic Song Book
Gus. Williams Water Mill Songster (1877)


Billy Andrews' Comic Songster
http://books.google.com/books?id=mIkvAAAAYAAJ
Billy Andrews' Comic Songster
Billy (W.E.) Burke's Barnum and Great London Circus Songster (with tunes)
Jennie Engle's Upon the Grand Parade Songster
        On Board of the Kangaroo (p. 50)
The Fieldings' Songster
John Foster's Favorite Clown Songster
        Bachelor ?= Family Man (p.8)
        Pulling Hard... (p.35, with music in dyads)
        ?Awfully Clever (?= Awfully Jolly)
                (p.12, with music in dyads), wm: G.W. Hunt)
        *Broken Down (p.56)
        *I'll Go and Enlist for a Sailor (p.57)
        *Never Look Behind (p.44)


Another mystery solved: from scans which Steve Gardham just sent me, it appears that "The Mail Train Driver" is just an alternate title for "The Young Man on the Railway". Transcriptions to follow shortly.

Subject: RE: Help: Harry Clifton Songwriter
From: Artful Codger
Date: 16 May 10 - 06:58 PM

** SPOILER ALERT **
Of course, the preceding post was my little joke, inspired by a question from Steve Gardham: whether Clifton wrote any songs about senility. I could make you do a "Where's Waldo?" to find all the real Clifton song titles, but being a kind sort, I'll provide the key:

Could I Live My Time Over Again
The Family Man
Have You Seen the Ghost?
He Had Such a Wheedling Way
I'll Go Enlist for a Sailor
I'm Such an Agreeable Man
Isabella, the Barber's Daughter
A Motto for Every Man
Mr Double Stout
True Blue and Seventy-Two
Paddle Your Own Canoe
Pushing Hard Against the Stream
Put the Brake On When You're Going Downhill
Deny It If You Can
Where the Green Grass Grows
Where There's a Will There's a Way

Subject: Rare Clifton songs
From: Artful Codger
Date: 16 May 10 - 06:57 PM

A rare find! I was contacted by a great-niece of Clifton's asking if I'd be interested in a limited-edition topical songster of Clifton's songs. Unfortunately, the asking price was worlds beyond my means, but she emailed me a scan of the table of contents:

Harry Clifton's Artful Codger Songbook (1871)

11        Could I Live My Childhood Over Again
7        The Fumble-y Man
9        Have You Seen My Glasses?
18        He Had Such a Wheezing Way
16        I'll Go Enlist in a Rest Home
15        I'm Such an Agrievèd Old Man
4        Isabella, Your Father's Dotty
14        A Maalox for Every Man
5        Mr Dribble Spout
3        No Clue and Seventy-Two
6        Paddle Your Young Ne-phew
8        Pushing Hard to Form a Stream
13        Put Depends On When You're Going Downtown
12        Recall It If You Can
10        Where the Great Grouse Groans (or, Get off my Lawn!)
17        Where There's a Willy There's a Wilt

Subject: The Railway Belle
From: Artful Codger
Date: 16 May 10 - 12:36 PM

New thread for "The Railway Belle":
http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=129519

Subject: RE: Help: Harry Clifton Songwriter
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 15 May 10 - 03:59 PM

Artful,
You may be right, but in the 1850s there was a vogue for burlesque songs and Shakespeare's plays was one of the targets. Hamlet, Macbeth and Richard III took a bashing. Sam Cowell was the most famous performer of them.

Subject: Bear It Like a Man
From: Artful Codger
Date: 15 May 10 - 04:45 AM

New thread for "Bear It Like a Man", with lyrics, ABC of the melody and (soon) MIDI of the melody, as given in the Weston & Hussey book:
http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=129496

I also posted "Pulling Hard Against the Stream" from the same source, with lyrics and melody ABC; MIDI to come. It's in one of the "Do Your Best for One Another" threads (this being a common title for the song):
http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=111338#2907353

Subject: RE: Help: Harry Clifton Songwriter
From: Artful Codger
Date: 14 May 10 - 10:30 PM

Tunes/lyrics for several Clifton songs have turned up in the book "Weston and Hussey Minstrels' Book of Songs, No. 1"; see this message by Jim Dixon and mine following, in the "Work, Boys, Work" thread:
http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=129400#2906879


Steve, just a guess, but by "Shakespearean burlesques" they may have meant songs like "Wait till the Turn of the Tide" which was inspired by the quote:
"There is a tide in the affairs of men, which,
Taken at the flood, leads on to fortune."

Subject: RE: Help: Harry Clifton Songwriter
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 14 May 10 - 04:06 PM

Wow!
The only thing I can add for the moment is that his material went through a robust revival in the late nineteenth century.
Well done, Sminky! Some very revealing info and the dates to the songs are very useful.
Someone should attempt a proper biography now!
I wish Coote had given us a more thorough rundown of his contributions.

Subject: RE: Help: Harry Clifton Songwriter
From: GUEST, Sminky
Date: 14 May 10 - 11:49 AM

"Harry Clifton's Songs
To the Editor of the Era

Sir, - Your article in last week's Era respecting the songs sung by Harry Clifton is somewhat inaccurate. The success of 'Paddle your own canoe' was far greater than 'Pretty Polly Perkins'; in fact, 'Paddle your own canoe' was the greatest success Harry Clifton ever had, and the song sells at the present day.

.................

I (then Charles Coote, jun.) wrote the music of the song 'Paddle your own canoe', the valse refrain of which is taken from 'The Queen of the harvest' valse, composed by me, and, furthermore, the music of the following songs, to many of which Harry Clifton's name appears as composer, was taken from valses composed by me, viz. 'Modern times', 'Bear it like a man', 'Could I live my time over again', 'I'm number one', 'Never look behind', 'Motto for every man', 'One of the olden time' etc.

The name of Harry Clifton does there [Harry Clifton's Song Book] appear as composer to several songs of which the music is mine.

Yours faithfully,
Charles Coote (no longer junior)
Managing Director of Hopwood and Crew, Limited
42 New Bond-street, June 6th."

Era Magazine, Jun 10 1899

Subject: Isabella, the Barber's Daughter
From: Artful Codger
Date: 14 May 10 - 11:05 AM

New thread on "Isabella, the Barber's Daughter": 129482
With lyrics from authorized Clifton sheet music; MIDI soon to appear there as well.

Subject: RE: Help: Harry Clifton Songwriter
From: GUEST, Sminky
Date: 14 May 10 - 10:55 AM

.....but not before correcting an error in the extract dated Jan 10 1869 - the song title should read 'The wedding of Biddy M'Grane'.

Subject: RE: Help: Harry Clifton Songwriter
From: GUEST, Sminky
Date: 14 May 10 - 10:31 AM

Things start to go downhill from now on. There is an unexpected break in his 'Grand Tour', some of the performers leave, there are no more new songs. Finally....

"Death of Harry Clifton

Lovers of song and seekers after rational amusement in all parts of the kingdom will hear with regret the death of Harry Clifton, whose fame as a comic and 'inotto' vocalist was world-wide, and whose songs were equally as popular and acceptable in the drawing-room of the rich as in the cottages of the poor. Harry Clifton died on Monday last at his residence, Shepherds Bush, at the early age of forty. His health had been gradually giving way for some months, but he did not take to the bed from which he was never to rise again until the Friday immediately preceeding his death.

Mr Clifton was a native of Hoddesden, in Hertfordshire, and was educated at Cheshunt. At an early age he was left an orphan, and soon afterwards left home to seek a maintenance by the exercise of his own energy.

.................

The deceased was buried on Thursday, at Kensal-green Cemetery."
July 21 1872


"The cause of death was dropsy."
Glasgow Herald, July 21 1872


"Miss Fanny Edwards (Mrs H Clifton) accompanied by the celebrated company of the late Mr Harry Clifton, are achieving unequivocal success."
Oct 13 1872


"The Late Harry Clifton

The will of this well-known composer and comic singer is to be opposed by his widow, Mrs Mary Ann Clifton, an application having been made to the Probate Court on Tuesday morning before the Registrars for directions. It appeared that the testator had lived apart form his wife and by his will bequeathed his property of the value of £6000 to Miss Frances Edwards, who had travelled with him as one of his company."
Dundee Courier, Nov 17 1872


Unfortunately, I don't know what the outcome of the challenge was (a check of the London Probate records should give the answer). Fanny, or "Mrs Harry Clifton" as she called herself, carried on with the show until 1876. Hopwood and Crew, his publishers, obviously suffered financially after his death and they ran periodic 'half price sales' of his works:

"Harry Clifton's celebrated Motto songs

'Trifles light as air'
'Welcome as the flowers in May'
'As long as the world goes round'
'Don't be after ten'
'Could I live my time over again'
'Always do as I do'"
The Graphic, Nov 22 1873


And a few years later sold off the copyright of some of his songs:

'As welcome as the flowers in May' (£72)
'It's really very singular' (£82-10s)
'Pulling hard against the stream' (£67-10s)
'Robinson Crusoe' (£132)
'Very suspicious' (£330)
Penny Illustrated Paper, Feb 20 1875


And that's about it. I have NO DOUBT that I have missed things - the search engine, though extremely helpful, is not 100% accurate (I found several entries by accident that the search had missed) - and of course, I am only human (no, really), so I will have made mistakes. Still, I think we know more about Harry now than we did before.

I am now going to lie down.

Subject: RE: Help: Harry Clifton Songwriter
From: GUEST, Sminky
Date: 14 May 10 - 09:23 AM

All extracts are from Era Magazine unless otherwise stated:

'Awfully jolly'
Mar 29 1868


'The way to be happy'
May 31 1868


'True blue and seventy two'
'It's not the miles we travel, but the pace that kills' "(one of the best he has ever written)"
Sept 12 1868


"A Pleasing Testimonial - Mr Harry Clifton, the well-known and talented artist, has received a splendid and massive gold watch from the publishers of his favourite songs."
Sept 20 1868


'Very suspicious'
Oct 11 1868


'Broken down'
Oct 18 1868


'Seventy two and hard as steel'
Nov 15 1868


'Wait for the turn of the tide'
Dec 27 1868


"Mr Harry Clifton, now in the fifth year of his tour of the United Kingdom (it having extended over fifty consecutive months) will have the honour of introducing to the public his new comic songs, 'Uncle John's birthday', 'Musical miseries', 'The wedding of Buddy M'Grane', and a new song with a sentiment, 'Wait for the turn of the tide'."
Jan 10 1869


"Mr Harry Clifton's Concert Company

Miss Theresa Egan (Soprano)
Miss Amelia Packer (Contralto)
Miss Annie Kinnaird (Ballad and Serio-Comic)
Mr Ernest Fox (Baritone)
Mr W Halliday (Solo Pianist)
Mr Harry Clifton (Comic)
Agent in advance, Mr A Shields."
Jan 10 1869


'Look before leaping'
'The Dutchman's courtship'
'Cupid in the kitchen'
May 23 1869


"Died, Sept 19th, from effusion of the brain, Albert Charles Shields, Agent-in-advance to Mr Harry Clifton."
Sept 25 1870

Subject: RE: Help: Harry Clifton Songwriter
From: GUEST, Sminky
Date: 14 May 10 - 05:01 AM

I will continue where I left off yesterday (though I confess I did have a sneaky-peek ahead to learn about the fallout after his death - details to follow).

Steve - here's one to look out for:

"The great Comic Songs of the Great Comic Singers, in sixpenny books (music and words). Published by C. Sheard, London, 1866.

40 songs of Harry Clifton. 6d."

Bargain!

Subject: RE: Help: Harry Clifton Songwriter
From: Artful Codger
Date: 14 May 10 - 04:27 AM

I've posted transcriptions for "The Calico Printer's Clerk", prepared from Clifton's authorized sheet music, in this thread: 5232
There you will find the lyrics, chords, ABC and (shortly) a MIDI. From the ABC, you can generate a score.

Subject: RE: Help: Harry Clifton Songwriter
From: Artful Codger
Date: 13 May 10 - 06:55 PM

The Coote tune is the one used in the Pluck & Squeeze clip (see my previous post), which I imprecisely referred to as "Clifton's tune", intending to mean the tune Clifton sang. The original sheet music says, "Written and Sung by HARRY CLIFTON. Composed by C COOTE Jun." All clear?

Subject: RE: Help: Harry Clifton Songwriter
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 13 May 10 - 05:27 PM

Steve

The modern tune has been credited in several threads already eg Lyr Add: Calico Printer's Clerk and Tune Req: Calico Printers Clerk.

Mick

Subject: RE: Help: Harry Clifton Songwriter
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 13 May 10 - 05:04 PM

Sminky,
I'd love to know which Shakespearean burlesques he sang. This was very much the province of Sam Cowell with pieces like Macbeth. Could it be that Clifton was the natural successor to Cowell. I have a copy of the cover of 'The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe' written and sung by Harry Clifton. The cover is much more reminiscent of Cowell's sheet music in that it has a little cameo of Clifton at the top and the rest consists of 10 comic cartoons of Crusoe's adventures.

Subject: RE: Help: Harry Clifton Songwriter
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 13 May 10 - 04:28 PM

Wonderful stuff, Sminky
Please keep 'em coming.

Mick,
Yes, that's the tune. I'm now presuming who I heard was Stefan, as I'm sure someone would have chipped in by now if it was Robin.
When we get the thread up and running it will be good to be able to credit the modern tune properly.

Subject: RE: Help: Harry Clifton Songwriter
From: GUEST, Sminky
Date: 13 May 10 - 12:34 PM

For reasons of space - and my sanity - where there is simply the announcement of a new song, I will just give the title and date. If there is anything unusual/interesting I will quote the extract in full:

'The Railway Belle'
'Michaelmas Day'
'Where there's a will there's a way'
'Orpheus in the Music Halls' Feb 11 1866

"Mr.Harry Clifton's comic Songs and Ballads for 1866, sung at his popular concerts in Great Britain and Ireland:-

'Waiting for thee' sung by Miss F.Edwards
'The younger son' sung by Mr Harry Clifton
'Meet me by sunset' sung by Mr A Bremner
'My old wife' sung by Mr Harry Clifton
'Up a tree' sung by Mr Harry Clifton
'Send back my Barney' sung by Miss F.Edwards
'The bridesmaid' sung by Miss F.Edwards
'Mr Double Stout' sung by Mr Harry Clifton
'Parting in anger' sung by Mr A Bremner
'Shabby genteel' sung by Mr Harry Clifton"

July 1 1866


'The will and the way'
'Motto for every man'
'Work, boys, work and be contented'
'Up with the lark in the morning' July 8 1866


"Mr Harry Clifton's Chorus Songs

'Up with the lark in the morning'
'The will and the way'
'Work, boys, work and be contented'
'The motto for every man'
'Paddle your own canoe'

Mr Harry Clifton's Popular Ballads and Serio-Comic Songs

Sung by Miss Fanny Edwards

'I'm waiting for thee'
'Meet me at sunset'
'The holly bush tree'
'He must have a thousand a year'
'The bridesmaid'
'Send back my Barney to me'
'Love and pride'

Mr Harry Clifton's Comic Songs

'The rattling mare'
'My old wife'
'Up a tree'
'Railway Belle'
'Michaelmas Day'
'Barclay's beer'
'Faithless Maria'
'Double stout'
'Shelling green peas'
'The mother-in-law'
'Paddle your own canoe'
'Good-tempered man'
'Calico printer's clerk'
'Waterford boys'
'The mail-train driver'
'Hardware line'
'The pull-back'
'Rocky road to Dublin'
'Weepin willer'
'Darby Maguire'
'On board of the Kangeroo'
'Mary Ann; or the roving gardener'
'Have you seen the ghost?'
'The commercial [?convivial] man'
'Isabella, the barber's daughter'
'Polly Perkins of Paddington Green'
'Poor old Mike'
'Water cresses'
'Lanigan's ball'
'Charity crow'
'Jemima Brown'"

1866

'Pulling hard against the stream' Feb 3 1867

'Bear it like a man' Mar 24 1867

'I'll go and enlist for a sailor' Apr 28 1867

'The family man'
'There's a smile waiting for me at home'
'The happy policeman'
'Where the grass grows green'
'I'm such an agreeable young man' Aug 4 1867

'I'm one of the olden time; or fifty years ago' Sep 29 1867

'The agreeable young man'
'The family man'
'I'm number one'
'Folly and fashion' Nov 3 1867

'What's a married man to do?' Mar 1 1868

Subject: RE: Help: Harry Clifton Songwriter
From: GUEST, Sminky
Date: 13 May 10 - 10:10 AM

"Another Great Success

'Water Cresses'

And she promised for to marry me
Upon the first of May
When she left me
With a bunch of Water Cresses

Written, composed and sung by Harry Clifton." Aug 30 1863


"New Music

'The Commercial Man; or Sold Again'

'Mary Ann; or the Roving Gardener'

Written and composed by Harry Clifton." May 22 1864


"New Music

'On Board of the Kangaroo' - Hopwood and Crew, 42 New Bond-street - Mr.Harry Clifton's new song is calculated to meet all the requirements of its class. As a specimen of the modernized Dibdin lyric, now much in vogue, it has undoubted merit. The vocal phrasing is clear and forcible, and the words are simple and homely." July 24 1864

"'The Weeping Willer'

She sat by the side of the bubblin water
Under the weepin willer tree." Oct 23 1864

"'Darby Maguire'
Written by D.K.Gavan and sung by Harry Clifton." Jan 15 1865


"Harry Clifton sings his last three original comic compositions

'The Calico Printer's Clerk'
'The Mail Train Driver' and
'The Good-Tempered Man'

at his Cosmopolitan Concerts. Pianist - David Williams." Feb 26 1865


"New Music

'The Calico Printer's Clerk'. The song is by Harry Clifton and, of its class, is a very good one. The music is by C. Coote jnr." July 9 1865

I take that to be Charles Coote junior. A chance, maybe, to track down the original tune?

Subject: RE: Help: Harry Clifton Songwriter
From: GUEST, Sminky
Date: 13 May 10 - 09:10 AM

"Harry Clifton, Author of the Sensation Comic Songs, 'The Dark Girl Dressed in Blue', 'Uncle Joe' and 'Paddington Green' respectfully intimates that the Irish comic songs 'Lannigan's Ball', 'The Rocky Road to Dublin' and 'Darby M'Guire', written expressly for him by Gavan of Galway, are copyright and legally protected; consequently, he politely requests his brother Comiques from singing them in public without permission.

Harry Clifton's last new comic songs, 'Barbara Box', 'Paddington Green' and 'Obadiah, Oh!' (the latter sung by Templeton's and the Christy Minstrels) will shortly be published by Hopwood and Crewe, 42 New Bond-street, London." Feb 22 1863

"Notice to the Profession
Harry Clifton's three new
Original and Copyright Songs

'Isabella, the Barber's Daughter'
'Polly Perkins of Paddington Green' and
'Poor Old Mike'

which are creating such a sensation in London, are now ready, and may be had for fifteen stamps each." July 12 1863

Subject: RE: Help: Harry Clifton Songwriter
From: GUEST, Sminky
Date: 13 May 10 - 07:19 AM

A couple snippets about HC from Era Magazine:

"His several Shakesperian (burlesque) songs are well composed and still better sung." August 1859

"City Hall, Glasgow. The comic department was admirably represented by Mr.Harry Clifton, whose reappearance was greeted with enthusiastic cheering. His extraordinary use of extempore rhyming - making the burden of his songs consist of the things he sees and hears about him - was exercised with a peculiarly happy effect on this occasion." Sept 1861

Subject: Calico Printer's Clerk
From: Artful Codger
Date: 13 May 10 - 05:50 AM

This "Calico Printer's Clerk" info should probably be placed in one of the song-specific thread, but...

I'm still working on a full ABC transcription of the Clifton music suitable for generating a score and MIDI. In the meantime, let me point you to the rendition on YouTube by Pluck & Squeeze, who essentially use Clifton's tune: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdbks7d7xbo

Subject: RE: Help: Harry Clifton Songwriter
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 12 May 10 - 06:04 PM

Steve

Did you hear it to the original tune or Dave Moran's?

If the tune is the same one as this: Calico Printer's Clerk (chorus at 00:28), then this is Dave Moran's (of the Halliard) tune. He put it to a broadside text he found in Preston Library.

I don't recall any of the others singing it (though I saw Stefan Sobell rarely), but if this was the tune their source was The Halliard.

Mick

Subject: RE: Help: Harry Clifton Songwriter
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 12 May 10 - 05:24 PM

Mick,
To be honest I don't remember Nic Jones from that period at all. I'm pretty certain he was not booked at our club at the Bluebell, Hull, not until about 1972. I'd heard 'Calico' being sung by Dransfield or Sobell long before this, and I must have heard it frequently for me to be able to sing the chorus now after 40 odd years. They may have got it from Nic but I later assumed they'd picked it up off Harry Boardman. If that's the case he probably got it off a broadside. I know Harry and Roy Palmer included a broadside printing of it in one of those street literature folders they published in the 70s.

Subject: RE: Help: Harry Clifton Songwriter
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 12 May 10 - 05:54 AM

Not ex-Halliard Nic Jones then? (I can't see any references to any of the others you suggested doing it; Nic definitely did!).

Mick

Subject: RE: Help: Harry Clifton Songwriter
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 11 May 10 - 06:46 PM

Mick,
This is the 3rd attempt to reply. My replies keep vanishing when I submit. The solo singer I remember was with guitar and it would most likely have been Robin Dransfield.