Lyr Req: Old Sam (Peter Dodds)

Subject: Lyr Req: Old Sam - Canal Song
From: GUEST,Ian Hendrie
Date: 14 Oct 08 - 05:51 AM

Can anyone provide the lyrics/music for a UK canal song entitled 'Old Sam' which appears in the book 'West Midlands' Ballads' by Michael Raven. I don't want to buy the whole book just for one song!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Old Sam - Canal Song
From: GUEST,baz parkes
Date: 14 Oct 08 - 06:39 AM

Hi Ian

Is it the one that starts

Come gather round me bonny lads
let loose your pretty girls
and I'll tell you a famous tale
about the old canals

Now Sam he came down from Pensnet
Hard by an ancient mine
And everyday ere sun would set
He'd haul the old mainline...?

If so I used to sing it over 30 years ago..and the rest is in my head somewhere...I'll keep thinking...

It's also in Folklore and Songs of the Black Country, an A3 (?) size
self produced book that Mike and Jon bought out in the sixties. I have a copy, but having recently moved house I'd be lucky to find it.

Another verse..but not sure of the sequence

Now Oldbury's a filthy place
No trees noleafy glades
But you could see Sam's smiling face
Go locking through the brades

Perhaps somebody else can fill in the gaps

Tek care

Baz

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Old Sam - Canal Song
From: GUEST,Ian Hendrie
Date: 14 Oct 08 - 07:11 AM

Thanks Baz, it sounds like this is the one. Let's hope the gaps can be filled by other mudcatters.

I am looking for it to add to my website Songs of the Inland Waterways. Any other canal songs would also be welcome.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Old Sam - Canal Song
From: GUEST,baz parkes
Date: 14 Oct 08 - 09:08 AM

It's coming back slowly...last two and a half verses...

....
Hw wooed a fair maid but
When they got wed to settle down she med im leave the cut

Old Sam he broke his heart and died
Twere never of old age
With his last breath he cursed the bride
As scorned his heritage

Dow be misled by pretty women
And curse all those who try
And if you are a boatman born
A boatman you must die

Sadly, I can't remember where he met her, though Oldbury rings a bell.

What's really spooky is I've just worked out that I sang this in a Black Country based show we put on in the Sixth Form. I don't know whether tobless or curse you for reminding me of my wasted youth :-))

Baz

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Old Sam - Canal Song
From: GUEST,baz parkes
Date: 14 Oct 08 - 09:14 AM

It wasn't Oldbury at all...
The missing line is

Up near Wolverhampton town

For full effect of courseAMp sing it as WolVERAmpton...

That may be it

Baz

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Old Sam - Canal Song
From: Charley Noble
Date: 14 Oct 08 - 10:45 PM

Ian-

Are you only interested in traditional canal songs or are more recent creations welcome, such as by John Warner (Oz) or C. Fox Smith during the World War 1 period?

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Old Sam - Canal Song
From: Charley Noble
Date: 14 Oct 08 - 10:48 PM

Whoops, I should have checked your list on your website before asking. You really have a comprehensive collection, including the one from C. Fox Smith.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Old Sam - Canal Song
From: mg
Date: 14 Oct 08 - 11:16 PM

I am interested in canal songs because I found out my great grandfather and his brothers almost singlehandedly built the Erie and probably others. I am interested in knowing how they had families with them.they did...children were born..and how they lived...did they build huts beside the canal? They couldn't have had much money to rent places even if they were available. Tents? Wagons? I read somewhere that said they lived in what would be today considered doghouses. True? False? mg

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Old Sam - Canal Song
From: Charley Noble
Date: 15 Oct 08 - 10:01 AM

Ian-

Maybe you should consider asking Joe Offer (chief moderator) for permission to start a "perma thread" on canal songs, or revive an older one if it's already started; that would also give you editing powers for that thread. Such a thread would really be an asset for this forum.

I'd also love to see some graphic headers for some of the songs on your website; I bet you already have quite a collection.

Glad to see John Warner's song "Telford's Bridge" in your collection,

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Old Sam - Canal Song
From: Ian Hendrie
Date: 15 Oct 08 - 02:42 PM

Charley,
Thanks for the suggestion but there is already a Canal Songs (UK) thread which surfaces occasionally.
I do have the C Fox Smith song - because you kindly provided it!
Thanks,
Ian

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Old Sam - Canal Song
From: Ian Hendrie
Date: 20 Sep 11 - 07:05 AM

Three years on from the original posting I now have the lyrics which are posted here on the Songs of the Inland Waterway website.

Does anyone know the tune?

Ian

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Old Sam - Canal Song
From: Jack Campin
Date: 20 Sep 11 - 07:10 AM

That last line is appalling.

Somebody rewrite the last verse, quick.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Old Sam - Canal Song
From: Charley Noble
Date: 20 Sep 11 - 07:47 AM

Jack-

I would certainly do some revising of the last verse if I were singing this song (I do that kind of sacrilege with old songs and poems on a regular basis) but that's the way the composer laid it out.

There does appear to be a typo in the first line of the second verse:

"Old Same he came from down Pensnett,"

Should read:

Old Sam he came from down Pensnett,

Of course I never can find "typoes" in my own work!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Old Sam - Canal Song
From: Ian Hendrie
Date: 20 Sep 11 - 08:51 AM

Thanks for spotting the 'typo'. I must agree about the last line which struck me as particularly 'naff'.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Old Sam - Canal Song
From: Charley Noble
Date: 20 Sep 11 - 09:01 PM

Ian-

It's still important to post the songs as we find them, warts and all. Then we all have a starting point for folk processing. And people can see what we started from.

Hope you've taken Moonlight Shadow out for a spin.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: Lyr Add: OLD SAM (Peter Dodds)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 22 Sep 11 - 10:43 PM

Might as well have it here, too, don't you think?


OLD SAM
By Peter Dodds

Come gather round, my bonny lads.
Let loose your pretty gals,
And I'll tell you a famous tale
About the old canals.

Old Sam he came from down Pensnett,
Hard by an ancient mine,
And every day till the sun had set,
He worked the old main line.

Now Oldbury's a filthy place—
No trees, no leafy glades—
But you could see Sam's smiling face,
As he's locking down the Brades.

In Netherton he loaded slack,
For Wolverhampton due.
In Dudley Tunnel, on his back,
He legged the old boat through.

Now up in Wolverhampton town,
He wooed a fair maid, but
When he got wed to settle down,
She made him leave the cut.

Old Sam he broke his heart and died.
'Twas never of old age.
With his last breath he cursed the bride,
Who killed his heritage.


Words taken from 'West Midlands' Ballads' by Michael Raven. (ISBN 978 0 906114 85 8). No tune was given.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Old Sam - Canal Song
From: Charley Noble
Date: 23 Sep 11 - 07:58 AM

Ah, so the last verse was evidently someone else's add on.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Old Sam - Canal Song
From: GUEST,Ian
Date: 23 Sep 11 - 09:53 AM

I not sure how you've come to that conclusion Charley. The above lyrics are exactly as given in the book.

Ian

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Old Sam - Canal Song
From: Charley Noble
Date: 23 Sep 11 - 10:35 AM

Ian-

Which book?

I'm losing track. I was thinking of the "last verse" posted by Baz Parkes as he remembered it:

"Dow be misled by pretty women
And curse all those who try
And if you are a boatman born
A boatman you must die."

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Old Sam - Canal Song
From: Ian Hendrie
Date: 24 Sep 11 - 05:45 AM

Well spotted Charley, I really must pay more attention.

The last verse from Baz Parkes which you quote does not appear in the printed version but is certainly a better ending to the song.

Ian