Folk singers recording non-folk songs

Subject: Folk singers' recording non-folk songs
From: GUEST,The Input
Date: 26 Apr 08 - 06:52 AM

It occured to me that there are probably hundreds of songs that have been recorded by established folk singers/groups down the years that were originally written or recorded by completely non-folk singers/groups. I've listed some below and would be interested to see any others that people can think of.

Eliza Carthy - Wild Wood (Paul Weller)
Steeleye Span - Rag Doll (Four Seasons)
Steeleye Span - Peggy Sue (Buddy Holly)
Chris Wood - Out Come The Freaks (Was Not Was)
Martin Carthy - New York Mining Disaster 1941 (The Bee Gees)

You get the drift..............

Subject: RE: Folk singers' recording non-folk songs
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 26 Apr 08 - 06:56 AM

Pentangle - Jack Orion

Subject: RE: Folk singers' recording non-folk songs
From: Phil Edwards
Date: 26 Apr 08 - 07:00 AM

Ouch.

Subject: RE: Folk singers' recording non-folk songs
From: GUEST,The Input
Date: 26 Apr 08 - 07:01 AM

I thought Jack Orion was trad. If it isn't then who did the original (on record).

Subject: RE: Folk singers' recording non-folk songs
From: GUEST,The Input
Date: 26 Apr 08 - 07:15 AM

De Danann - Let It Be (The Beatles)

Gregson & Collister - One Step Up (Bruce Springsteen) - I Heard It Through The Grapevine (Marvin Gaye) - How Men Are (Aztec Camera)

Norma Waterson - Love Of My Life (Queen)

Subject: RE: Folk singers' recording non-folk songs
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 26 Apr 08 - 07:32 AM

'Jack Orion' was written by A L (Bert) Lloyd. He based it on the plot of the old ballad 'Glasgerion'. This is common knowledge among people who read sleevenotes; he made no secret of it. He set it to the tune Andy Stewart wrote for his own song 'Donald Where's Your Trousers'. That is less well-known (though Bert did tell people on occasion), but it's obvious if you think about it.

Subject: RE: Folk singers' recording non-folk songs
From: GUEST,The Input
Date: 26 Apr 08 - 07:38 AM

Thanks Malcom. So, basically, Jack Orion doesn't (as I suspected) qualify. So, what part of Bert Lloyd isn't a folk singer Sedayne?

Now any thoughts on the thread..........

Subject: RE: Folk singers' recording non-folk songs
From: the button
Date: 26 Apr 08 - 07:39 AM

Dave Burland -- Blue suede shoes

Subject: RE: Folk singers' recording non-folk songs
From: RolyH
Date: 26 Apr 08 - 09:02 AM

Steeleye Span released Buddy Holly's 'Rave On' as a single many years ago.

Subject: RE: Folk singers' recording non-folk songs
From: GUEST,The Input
Date: 26 Apr 08 - 09:04 AM

Thanks RolyH. I meant Rave On and not Peggy Sue! (Whoops). Thanks for that.

Subject: RE: Folk singers' recording non-folk songs
From: RolyH
Date: 26 Apr 08 - 09:09 AM

..... and another one, Martin Carthy - Heartbreak Hotel

Subject: RE: Folk singers' recording non-folk songs
From: GUEST,The Input
Date: 26 Apr 08 - 09:10 AM

Yes

Subject: RE: Folk singers' recording non-folk songs
From: Phil Edwards
Date: 26 Apr 08 - 10:04 AM

'Jack Orion' was written by A L (Bert) Lloyd. He based it on the plot of the old ballad 'Glasgerion' ... He set it to the tune Andy Stewart wrote for his own song 'Donald Where's Your Trousers'.

Perhaps an illustration would help. Picture the song as a swiss roll, with the cake (or words) wrapped around the jam (or tune)...

sorry, wrong thread.

Subject: RE: Folk singers' recording non-folk songs
From: Willa
Date: 26 Apr 08 - 10:59 AM

June Tabor I'll be Seeing You written by Irving Kahal, Sammy Fain rec by Billie Holliday
It's a long Way to Tipperary written by Jack Judge/Henry williams

Norma Waterson Rags and Old Iron written by Otis Brown Jr rec by Nina Simone

Subject: RE: Folk singers' recording non-folk songs
From: Phil Edwards
Date: 26 Apr 08 - 11:09 AM

June Tabor did a cracking "White Rabbit".

Subject: RE: Folk singers' recording non-folk songs
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 26 Apr 08 - 11:55 AM

September Song by Bob Davenport - who appears to believe that folk songs are figments of the imaginations of academics!
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Folk singers' recording non-folk songs
From: GUEST,The Mole Catcher's unplugged Apprentice
Date: 26 Apr 08 - 12:29 PM

Depending on your definition of folk or non-folk (heads for the hills)

The Albion Band - Christmas Must Be Tonight (composed by Robbie Robertson)
the original to be found on the LP/CD Islands by The Band

Charlotte R

Subject: RE: Folk singers' recording non-folk songs
From: Peace
Date: 26 Apr 08 - 01:22 PM

Dave Edmunds "Crawling From the Wreckage". OK, so he was never folk, but it's a rockin' song.

Subject: RE: Folk singers' recording non-folk songs
From: Acorn4
Date: 26 Apr 08 - 01:34 PM

Agree with "Crawling from the Wreckage" - and in fact the whole of "Repeat when Necessary".

The Doonan Family :"So Strong" by Labi Siffre -excellent!
Oyster Band: "Rose of England" by Nick Lowe.

Subject: RE: Folk singers' recording non-folk songs
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 26 Apr 08 - 01:37 PM

Any Peter Bellamy Kipling song
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Folk singers' recording non-folk songs
From: Surreysinger
Date: 26 Apr 08 - 01:39 PM

Bob Copper- Rags and Old Iron (as well)

Martin Carthy ... the Bee Gees song "Mining Disaster...." (sorry, can,t remember the full title !

Subject: RE: Folk singers' recording non-folk songs
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 26 Apr 08 - 01:57 PM

I've a dim memory of Martin Carthy covering a Gilbert O'Sullivan song at some point - can't remember which one - Ooh-Wakka-Doo-Wakka-Day maybe?

As for Bert Lloyd, surely he's one of those aforementioned academics whose imaginations folk songs are the figment of - hence Jack Orion presumably. Hitherto I've loathed this particularly pretentious conceit, if only because of the innumerable hours of my life I've lost enduring the bloody thing in singarounds, but now that I know the melody is based on Donald Where's Yer Troosers? it is, to a certain extent, redeemed. As ever, Malcolm, I doff my proverbial cap to ye!

Subject: RE: Folk singers' recording non-folk songs
From: Acorn4
Date: 26 Apr 08 - 01:59 PM

I think "Nothing Rhymed" was the GOS song covered bu Martin Carthy.

Subject: RE: Folk singers' recording non-folk songs
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 26 Apr 08 - 02:13 PM

It was indeed Nothing Rhymed; thanks for that.

Subject: RE: Folk singers' recording non-folk songs
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 26 Apr 08 - 02:28 PM

Which non folk songs did Ewan McColl record? I think that it would be a wease to dub electric guitars and drums to his voice!

Subject: RE: Folk singers' recording non-folk songs
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 26 Apr 08 - 02:40 PM

Anything he wrote himself.
......to dub electric guitars and drums to his voice!
Why not; If Peter Kennedy could do it with any traditional singer he could lay hands on.......
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Folk singers' recording non-folk songs
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 26 Apr 08 - 07:43 PM

Joan Baez has recorded many songs that might qualify - The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, Oh Happy Day, Plaisirs d'Amour.

Judy Collins got some mileage out of Send In The Clowns, also the one about Pirate Jenny.

Phil Ochs did one of the early Beatles songs. It wasn't on any album he released, but after he died it came out on a cassette called The Broadside Tapes.

Subject: RE: Folk singers recording non-folk songs
From: GUEST,The Input
Date: 27 Apr 08 - 03:31 AM

You're all really showing your age :-) Anything more contemporary?

Subject: RE: Folk singers recording non-folk songs
From: RolyH
Date: 27 Apr 08 - 03:43 AM

Peter Bellamy did the Rolling Stones 'Worried About You'.It's on the "Wake The Vaulted Echoes" 3CD set.

Subject: RE: Folk singers recording non-folk songs
From: GUEST,stu
Date: 27 Apr 08 - 03:53 AM

"Anything more contemporary?"

How's about HERE?

Subject: RE: Folk singers recording non-folk songs
From: the lemonade lady
Date: 27 Apr 08 - 03:53 AM

Aren't they doing it to attract attention from 'the otherside'? To get those who think folk is namby pamby to hear what a folk singer can do with 'their' songs?

Sal

Subject: RE: Folk singers recording non-folk songs
From: GUEST,The Input
Date: 27 Apr 08 - 04:32 AM

I doubt it Sal. I guess they're doing it because they simply think they're great songs. Nothing more!

Subject: RE: Folk singers recording non-folk songs
From: Acorn4
Date: 27 Apr 08 - 04:33 AM

I seem to remember in the far distant past, Steve Tliston doing a rather excellent version on the Beatles "I Feel Fine".

Subject: RE: Folk singers recording non-folk songs
From: GUEST,The Input
Date: 27 Apr 08 - 04:37 AM

There also lies the 'problem' with folk music. By making it accessible to lovers of folk music only and not to 'the other side', it will always be laughed at and frowned upon. We shouldn't wrap it in cotton wool and get all precious about it. If we want the word to spread of how many great songs and singers there are, then we have to expose it.

Subject: RE: Folk singers recording non-folk songs
From: GUEST,Volgadon
Date: 27 Apr 08 - 04:43 AM

Dick Gaughan recorded Ruby Teusday!

Subject: RE: Folk singers recording non-folk songs
From: GUEST,Andymac
Date: 27 Apr 08 - 05:22 AM

Dick Gaughan also recorded "Games People Play" by Joe South
Dave burland recorded "It's all over Now" by sthe Stones as a follow-on to "The Man of Kyandra" (I think that's the right title...

A

Subject: RE: Folk singers recording non-folk songs
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 27 Apr 08 - 05:33 AM

"By making it accessible to lovers of folk music only and not to 'the other side'"
Wonder how Martin Carthy singing Ooh-Wakka-Doo-Wakka-Day and Heartbreak Hotel popularises folk song? I'll have to think about taht one!
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Folk singers recording non-folk songs
From: Grab
Date: 27 Apr 08 - 11:04 AM

Show of Hands play a cover of "Time after time."

They also cover "First we take Manhattan", as do many other people. That song itself is in a somewhat dodgy category, because Leonard Cohen is fairly well recognised in the folk world, but that album was more of a rocked-up chanson kind of thing, and he's since become rather too keen on Casio keyboards and cheap drum machines.

And conversely, whilst Paul Weller is best known for his electric stuff, "Wild Wood" is a very folkie song. Rather like Dire Straits' "Why worry" and "Romeo and Juliet" which crop up periodically at folk clubs.

Graham.

Subject: RE: Folk singers recording non-folk songs
From: GUEST,Captain Swing
Date: 27 Apr 08 - 11:15 AM

Surely anyone can perform or record anything they want to (within copyright laws etc). What's all this 'other side' nonsense?

Subject: RE: Folk singers recording non-folk songs
From: mattkeen
Date: 27 Apr 08 - 12:20 PM

Norma Waterson - Black Muddy River by Grateful Dead, so prob Jerry Garcia wrote it

Subject: RE: Folk singers recording non-folk songs
From: Santa
Date: 27 Apr 08 - 12:20 PM

Fairly up-to-date is Norma Waterson's Black Muddy River.

But I'm sure there were many many more - and why not?

Subject: RE: Folk singers recording non-folk songs
From: mattkeen
Date: 27 Apr 08 - 12:36 PM

Captain Swing

the other side nonsense that you refer to is an example of the bollox that some folk music types get into - cos of course you are right, and whats more they shouldn't have to explain why they play what they play to anybody

Subject: RE: Folk singers recording non-folk songs
From: GUEST,Captain Swing
Date: 27 Apr 08 - 12:58 PM

This is one of the reasons I no longer play at folk clubs and prefer the open mic format. People play whatever they want in whatever style they choose. Traditional material sits happily with blues, rock, self-penned stuff, covers etc. It seems to me to be a more realistic arena - the songs stand on their own ( and the performers' ) merits, not falsely preseved ( pickled?) in the hermetically sealed environment of the folk club.

Subject: RE: Folk singers recording non-folk songs
From: Santa
Date: 27 Apr 08 - 01:15 PM

I don't know about hermetically-sealed atmospheres - well, actually, as an engineer perhaps I do, and in this context it sounds bollocks to me - but I do know that I do not want to go out on an evening to listen to blues. It seems only sensible to choose to pass my time in an environment where I am likely to encounter the kind(s) of music I do like, and to avoid those where I am not. I've been known to survive music that is not folk on even the broadest definitions, and even the occasional (Good Heavens!) blues or country.

Equally, it seems sensible for you, Captain Swing, to display your presumed talents to an appreciative audience rather than to me. Good luck: but to badmouth those of other sensitivities makes you appear callow and selfish. I don't suppose you care to play in front of audiences who prefer chamber music, brass bands or symphony orchestras either. It's all that pickled and preserved music, all that exists outside your own little world. I guess they are not realistic enough.

Subject: RE: Folk singers recording non-folk songs
From: Little Hawk
Date: 27 Apr 08 - 01:27 PM

"Folk singers recording non-folk songs"

HORRORS!!!!!! TELL me it isn't true!

Subject: RE: Folk singers recording non-folk songs
From: the lemonade lady
Date: 27 Apr 08 - 02:10 PM

When I say 'the otherside' I mean ask anyone in the street who Jasper Carrot is. They all know. Then ask them who Keith Donelley is. They won't know that he was one of Jasper's joke writers. Now in the folk world most of know 'Oh no it isn't!' and The Bear Son. Ask anyone in the street who The Old Rope String Band is. The folkies know. There is a world that hasn't broken out. If it did and these brilliant artists appeared on TV etc., they'd have to keep coming up with new material. As it is Les Barker can still hawk the 'Shipping Forecast' around the festivals as tho it was new, and of course we all love it.

Sal

Subject: RE: Folk singers recording non-folk songs
From: GUEST,The Mole Catcher's unplugged Apprentice
Date: 27 Apr 08 - 02:25 PM

Rock On - The Bunch...the Fotheringport Confusion crowd

Charlotte R

Subject: RE: Folk singers recording non-folk songs
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 27 Apr 08 - 02:31 PM

Didn't Ewan McColl record "Control Freakin'" with an appropriate dance?

Subject: RE: Folk singers recording non-folk songs
From: Phil Edwards
Date: 27 Apr 08 - 04:55 PM

Captain Swing:

I no longer play at folk clubs and prefer the open mic format. People play whatever they want in whatever style they choose. Traditional material sits happily with blues, rock, self-penned stuff, covers etc

Apart from the 'mic' thing (we hates 'em, precious) that sounds like our folk club - it's eclectic to a fault. As long as I'm not the only person doing traditional stuff I'm happy - hopefully we can inspire some of the singer/songwriter types to investigate some of that there 'folk' music.

Subject: RE: Folk singers recording non-folk songs
From: GUEST,Jim Knowledge
Date: 27 Apr 08 - 05:03 PM

I `ad that Phil Edwards in my cab the other day. `e said "Could you take me to my folk club please?"
I said "Sure. What sort of folk club is it then?" being of the persuasion, y`know.
`e said "It`s an eclectic one, ennit?"
I said "What? 240 volts?"
`e said "Eclectic, not electric, you wally!!"

What am I lke??