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Lyr Add: Song of the Lower Classes |
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Subject: Lyr Add: THE SONG OF THE LOWER CLASSES^^ From: Wolfgang Date: 08 Mar 00 - 09:57 AM I know this song from the singing of Martin Carthy on 'Out of the Cut'. The version below is very close to his singing and comes from J. McDonnell (Ed.), Songs of Struggle and Protest. Wolfgang
SONG OF THE LOWER CLASSES The writer, Ernest Jones, stood unsuccessfully as a Chartist MP in 1847, was arrested in 1848 and sentenced to two years of solitary confinement. From 1951 on, he started publishing a weekly magazine, Notes to the People, in which this song was published in March 1852. ^^ |
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Song of the lower classes From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 08 Mar 00 - 08:22 PM My God, he took a fair old time before started publishing his magazine in 1951, didn't he? |
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Song of the lower classes From: Garry Gillard Date: 09 Mar 00 - 09:39 AM Thanks Wolfgang! Garry |
Subject: Lyr Add: THE SONG OF THE LOWER CLASSES^^ From: Garry Gillard Date: 10 Mar 00 - 09:41 AM The version you put up, Wolfgang, does not have one stanza that Martin Carthy sings. In that stanza, I cannot catch two of the lines. You'll see the ??
We plough and sow we are so low
Down down we go we are so low
We're low we're low we're rabble we know
We're low we're low we are so low |
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Song of the lower classes From: Wolfgang Date: 10 Mar 00 - 10:23 AM Garry, this verse comes from the web (http://www.strongcomet.com/wyatt/lyrics/lyrics3.htm), a Robert Wyatt site. It says (lyrics adapted from 'The Song Of The Lower Classes'). I'm not at home here, so I can't check whether it fits. Wolfgang
We're low - we're low - mere rabble, we know |
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Song of the lower classes From: Liz the Squeak Date: 14 Aug 00 - 06:54 PM That's very nearly the one - I don't remember the last verse ending that way, but what the hell, maybe I rewrote it!! Don't remember the bit about taxes either, but it seems appropriate now, as I work for the IRS! Thanks everyone, will be relearning it soon, so listen out for a hearme one day...... LTS |
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Song of the lower classes From: Burke Date: 16 Aug 00 - 07:01 PM I thought I remembered some other messages in this thread! I have on Martin Carthy's The Collection. I also have the music for the psalm tune Otford in The Singing Seat transcription by Edwin Macadam and Tony Singleton, c1995. It's Common Meter , ie 8686, but Carthy makes it fit by dropping the very, very's, other words here & there and putting 2 syllables on 1 note in a number of places. He gets 8 lines out of 4 lines of music by doubling both sections of the music - aabb instead of ab. The version Carthy used was 3 parts, while this one is 4 but the tune & the fuge are basically the same. It must have been popular in it's day as a psalm tune as there was a printed version in 1746, Carthy's was a hand copy from ca1813, & the Singing Seat version is from a hand copy 1830's. Cool use of a psalm tune.
Here's my reading of the questioned verse & a few more words with a line break to correct the next. |
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Song of the lower classes From: Burke Date: 16 Aug 00 - 07:07 PM P.S. Liz, you can't really sing this one by yourself. The 2nd half has 3 parts with staggered lines & no one has the melody. Find some West Gallery or Sacred Harp singers to do it. We do fuging tunes like this all the time. |
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Song of the lower classes From: Chris Green Date: 31 Mar 10 - 05:25 PM The version Wolfgang found on 10 March 2000 is from a recording by a folk-techno band called Ultramarine with Robert Wyatt on vocals. It can be found on their 1993 album 'United Kingdoms' which is well worth a listen if you can get hold of a copy (I think it's since been deleted!) |
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Song of the Lower Classes From: Jim Dixon Date: 01 Apr 10 - 08:47 PM What I take to be the first publication of this song can be seen in Notes to the People by Ernest Charles Jones (London: J. Pavey, 1851), page 953. The title is THE SONG OF THE LOW. The only indication of a tune is the phrase "To a popular melody." It has 5 verses that are identical to those posted above, plus the following chorus: We're low—we're low—we're very very low, As low as low can be; The rich are high—for we make them so—- And a miserable lot are we! And a miserable lot are we! are we! A miserable lot are we! |
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Song of the Lower Classes From: GUEST,mg Date: 01 Apr 10 - 11:50 PM What is the one that Roy Bailey sings? So low so low we are so low so low we touch the ground. mg |
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Song of the Lower Classes From: Les in Chorlton Date: 22 Jul 13 - 06:29 AM These are the words from Bob Davenport - Common Stone CD Song of the other Ranks (Words e jones, b davenport,Tune pinched from prokoviev) We plough and sow we're very, very low That we delve in the dirty clay Till we bless the plain with golden grain And the vale with the fragrant hay Our place we know we are so low Down at the landlord's feet We're not too low the bread to grow Too low the bread to eat We're low we're low we're very, very low Yet from our fingers glide The silken flow and the robes that glow Round the limbs of the sons of pride And what we get and what we give We know and we know our share We're not too low the cloth to weave But too low the cloth to wear We're low we're low as to war we go To fight some foreign country That was yesterday our greatest friend But today's our enemy God bless our boys the papers scream Praise them the churchmen cry When the war is won and home we come Who care's if we live or die? We're low we're low 'till that happy day When we're called to a heaven on high When the freedom we never had in our lives Will be there on the day we die If you see no worth suffering hell on earth For the promise of a heaven above Why not join the fight that one day we might See a heaven down here below |
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Song of the Lower Classes From: GUEST,AlanG at work Date: 22 Jul 13 - 07:23 AM Les, Keith Price sang the Davenport vesion last week at Lymm, and excellent it was too. |
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Song of the Lower Classes From: Les in Chorlton Date: 22 Jul 13 - 07:42 AM That KP always nicking my songs!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Song of the Lower Classes From: GUEST,AlanG Date: 22 Jul 13 - 07:51 AM I thought you nicked it from BD!!! Anyway JJ always nicks mine. |
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Song of the Lower Classes From: Les in Chorlton Date: 22 Jul 13 - 08:19 AM Fair enufski - BD |
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Song of the Lower Classes From: GUEST Date: 02 Feb 17 - 07:33 PM Another song with the same title here: Sung by Windborne https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aE3s2IwgcAE Weasel |
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Song of the Lower Classes From: RTim Date: 02 Feb 17 - 08:37 PM Finest Kind recorded a version on "For Honour & For Gain" - with an extra verse written by Ian Robb. Tim Radford |
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Song of the Lower Classes From: GUEST,diplocase Date: 22 Sep 19 - 01:13 PM The vocal group Windborne sings the following last verse, written by Andrew Crockett: We are so low But soon we know That the low folk will arise The tyrants in their towers of gold Shall hear the people's cries No more shall they hold us in thrall Their lies we will not heed But every heart shall hear the call And the people will be free |
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Song of the Lower Classes From: GUEST,Windborne Date: 14 Nov 19 - 11:18 PM Hi all, Windborne here--thanks for mentioning our version of Song of the Lower Classes! (from our 2017 album Song on the Times) https://windborne.bandcamp.com/track/song-of-the-lower-classes In our version we sing three of the original verses by Ernest Jones, a verse by Bob Davenport (about war), and the final two verses written by us. The verse about refugees and immigrants was in response to the Syrian refugee crisis in 2016, and the final verse referencing "tyrants in their tow'rs of gold" gained a lot of attention when we sang it outside a particularly shiny gold tower on Fifth Ave in NYC in Jan 2017 (tinyurl.com/SOTLC). Our verses are below: We’re low, so low, into boats we go to flee war in our home country, And we’ll try to make a better life when we land across the sea. But it’s “Send them back!” the press cries out, “Back to where they came!” We’re far too low to feed and clothe but not too low to blame. We are so low but soon we know that the low folk will arise, And the tyrants in their tow’rs of gold shall hear the people’s cries! No more shall they hold us in thrall; their lies we will not heed. But every heart shall hear the call, and the people will be free! We're not sure who Andrew Crockett is (who was mentioned above), but he definitely didn't write that final verse :) |
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Song of the Lower Classes From: Stewie Date: 17 Nov 19 - 10:01 PM There is a fine rendition of basically the lyrics posted above by Garry Gillard by Fran Morter and Adam Rees on the Topic double CD: 'Voice + Vision: songs of resistance, democracy and peace'. --Stewie. |
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Song of the Lower Classes From: Stewie Date: 17 Nov 19 - 10:11 PM I just checked and it's available on YT: Click --Stewie. |
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