Lyr Req: English Songs about Tramps

Subject: Lyr Req: English Songs about Tramps
From: DaveJohnson
Date: 18 Sep 24 - 02:18 AM

I am putting together a show about 'going on the wallaby', 'humpin bluey, waltzing matilda and am looking to find an english folk song that describes being on the tramp in the 1800s in England. This is to provide historical context as tramping was not uncommon in England with laws such as the Vagrancy Act and such to deal with the numbers, estimated as 60,000 in 1821!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: English Songs about Tramps
From: The Sandman
Date: 18 Sep 24 - 02:28 AM

tramps and hawker lads, scottish

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: English Songs about Tramps
From: The Sandman
Date: 18 Sep 24 - 02:34 AM

the Hebridean tramping song SCOTTISH

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: English Songs about Tramps
From: The Sandman
Date: 18 Sep 24 - 02:37 AM

A Wayfarers life

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: English Songs about Tramps
From: The Sandman
Date: 18 Sep 24 - 03:18 AM

american songs ?hallelujah im a bum

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: English Songs about Tramps
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 18 Sep 24 - 03:26 AM

Little beggar girl, To the begging I will go.

Robin

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: English Songs about Tramps
From: The Sandman
Date: 18 Sep 24 - 04:35 AM

Tramps and begging, a tenuous connection

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: English Songs about Tramps
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 18 Sep 24 - 04:56 AM

Glasgow Dan, the Music Man
Lovely song by Gaberlunzie, also Scottish, but describes the subject of the song as having served in WW2, so not quite the era you were looking for, although he did tramp the country round.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: English Songs about Tramps
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 18 Sep 24 - 06:49 AM

Try Music Hall stuff - Burlington Bertie sprang to mind but he is an idler rather than a tramp. I Googled "English tramp songs" and found The Tramp.

"Collected from the singing of:
unknown; England : Staffordshire : 1952
Bradley, May; England : Shropshire : 1959
Mills, Bob; England : Hampshire : 1978
Modern Performances
Jon Wilks"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: English Songs about Tramps
From: DaveJohnson
Date: 18 Sep 24 - 08:28 AM

That is the only one I have come across so far using Lord Google. Thanks for the suggestion.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: English Songs about Tramps
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Sep 24 - 12:01 PM

Knight of the Road, written by Joe Beard.
I am unsure if it has ever been recorded but it it well worth seeking out.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: English Songs about Tramps
From: GUEST,Richard
Date: 18 Sep 24 - 02:03 PM

Spencer the Rover?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: English Songs about Tramps
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 18 Sep 24 - 02:48 PM

I agree that beggars and tramps are not neccessarily the same, however some versions of the two that I put forward seem to suggest the tramp lifestyle.

Robin

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: English Songs about Tramps
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 18 Sep 24 - 02:50 PM

Thinking of similar lifestyles, perhaps there is a connection to Streets of London?

Robin

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: English Songs about Tramps
From: DaveJohnson
Date: 18 Sep 24 - 06:46 PM

Thanks for the suggestions so far I will check them all out to see if anything fits what I have in mind. There is some overlap with the travelling folk so Ewan McColl's radio ballads may offer something too.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: English Songs about Tramps
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 18 Sep 24 - 06:52 PM

Dave, are you planning something for the Bush Traditions Gathering?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: English Songs about Tramps
From: The Sandman
Date: 19 Sep 24 - 03:35 AM

Tramps apparently often chose the lifestyle, in a similar fashion to travellers , that is different from streets of london.https://www.rte.ie/culture/2022/0323/1288017-songs-of-the-open-road-traveller-singer-thomas-mccarthy-in-focus/

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: English Songs about Tramps
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 19 Sep 24 - 08:52 AM

Please Let Me Sleep On Your Doorstep Tonight

Billy Bennett; Almost a Gentleman - Songs and Recitations; Topic TSCD 780 Three songs of a kind are Don't Send My Boy To Prison, Please Let Me Sleep on Your Doorstep Tonight and She was Poor But She Was Honest, cod melodramatic Victorian songs, sung by Bennett in his best beery voice (and always pitched just a little too high, to achieve the right slightly strangulated delivery), accompanied by similarly beery male chorus and minimal banjo. Great fun. mustrad

HOMELESS WASSAIL (by Ian Robb of Finest Kind)

"Wassail, wassail, all over the town,
Our cup is white and our ale is brown"
But huddled on the iron grate
we poor and hungry curse our fate.

        No wassail bowl for such as these
        No turkey scraps, no ale nor cheese,
        This Christmas Eve our heart's desire
        Is a bottle of gin and a trashcan fire.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: English Songs about Tramps
From: GUEST,Tom Patterson
Date: 19 Sep 24 - 10:27 AM

Not really 19th century and not exactly about a tramp but my song, Theodore Lamb tells the story of a working Oxfordshire hermit who had a shack he lived in beside a country road not too far from Banbury. He was   a trained clockmaker and repairer who travelled miles every day looking for work. He died around 1950. He was very much a local celebrity and is still talked about in that area. There are a number of wonderful photographs on the internet.

Theodore Lamb was a Sibford boy, a stranger to the town
Greenwoods and fields about him were his joy
He loved the turning seasons, nature's colours, every sound
He never saw the hours passing by.

But farming gave him little pay, he left to learn a trade
Through honest labour he would find his way
Clockmaker and repairer, his future surely made
He never saw the hours passing by

When the Great War came to blight the land, Theodore had changed
He lived a life that few could understand
Unkempt in tattered clothing his whole world rearranged
He never saw the hours passing by.

They called him up to serve the King but he refused to fight
He said he didn't start the thing and killing wasn't right
He never saw the hours passing by, he never saw the hours passing by.

His matted beard hung down his chest, he plaited his long hair
Soon wearing sackcloth led to his arrest
They claimed he was indecent but he just didn't care
He never saw the hours passing by.

He played his wind-up gramophone, a penny for each song
Fixed watches in his run-down shack alone
He dragged his cart through winter, travelled miles all summer long
He never saw the hours passing by.

Time brought fame to Theodore, the hermit on the hill
Rich people came to see a man so poor
He charged them two and sixpence, their privilege his will
He never saw the hours passing by.

Respected for his dignity, nobody said he lied
He had no truck with charity and worked until he died
He never saw the hours passing by, he never saw the hours passing by.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: English Songs about Tramps
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 19 Sep 24 - 12:10 PM

I'd forgotten Spencer the Rover. Lovely song.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: English Songs about Tramps
From: GeoffLawes
Date: 19 Sep 24 - 07:09 PM

Please Let Me Sleep on Your Doorstep Tonight · Barry Coope · Lester Simpson · Fi Fraser · Jo Freya    https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=4OZQoY1RGA4

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: English Songs about Tramps
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 20 Sep 24 - 12:37 PM

Irish one!! https://youtu.be/mvPOTucka4w?si=dB89x5ahIwclUed8