Lyr Req: The Best Little Doorboy

Subject: Lyr Req: Best little doorboy
From: yrlancslad
Date: 17 Jun 03 - 06:18 PM

This song from Wales ,about door boys ( who worked down the coalmines ) was on Ewan MacColls first album of industrial songs( Shuttle and Cage )which I lost many years ago and is not on the several 12 inch albums put out in the USA subsequently, based on this 10 inch LP and the one that followed ( Second Shift ). I need the words , fast, for a workshop I'm doing at the Weekend. Anybody help?   
Malcolm

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Best little doorboy (MacColl)?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 18 Jun 03 - 11:56 AM

Hi, Malcolm - I added "MacColl" to the thread title temporarily to see if that helps us get an answer. This page (click) makes mention of the song. Apparently, it was collected by Alan Lomax. Only the words and music were printed on the album notes of the Shuttle and Cage album - it was not on the recording itself. But if you read further, you see that MacColl and Seeger did record it on their Second Shift of industrial songs album.
The tune is the ubiquitous "Villikins and his Dinah" (Sweet Betsy from Pike??).
Also see this page (click) for information about the Folktrax recording of this song by Lomax & Kennedy.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Best little doorboy (MacColl)?
From: masato sakurai
Date: 18 Jun 03 - 12:12 PM

According to Brunnings' Folk Song Index (Garland), "The Best Little Doorboy" is in The Shuttle and Cage by MacColl (New York: Hargail Music Press, 1954).

~Masato

Subject: DTADD: Best Little Doorboy
From: nutty
Date: 18 Jun 03 - 01:42 PM

The Best Little Doorboy

The workmen in the Rhondda are wonderful boys
They get to their work without any noise
They say thro' the Rhondda you never will see
A merrier lot than in Tipperaree
Tooraloo, Tooralay
The best little doorboys that's under Jim Grey

Old William, the lampman, and Dan with his horse
And Daniel. the sawyer, is alays so cross
They say etc.

Two girls from Treorchy pull out a full tram
They've holes in their stckings, they don't care a damn
They say etc.

O talk about hauling - its nothing but fun
To do her on the level as well as the run
To hook her and sprag her and holler "Gee-way"
I'm the best little doorboy that's under Jim Gray



FROM .. THE SHUTTLE AND THE CAGE
       Industrial Folk-Ballads
       EDITED BY EWAN MacCOLL
Contributed by Alan Lomax from the singing of Jack Randall

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Best little doorboy (MacColl?)
From: yrlancslad
Date: 18 Jun 03 - 01:46 PM

Thanks for the info.lads. Would you believe I had both these 10inch (!!) LPs when I was 16 and working down the pits in the UK myself.Used to put them on before I went to work in the morning to learn the words. Only found out years later that it drove my mother crazy hearing all those mining disaster songs just before my Dad and I went off to work in the pit for the shift!Of course those were the only ones she heard. Oh the ignorance of youth!
Malcolm

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Best little doorboy (MacColl?)
From: nutty
Date: 18 Jun 03 - 01:48 PM

I should have said that my copy of The Shuttle and the Cage was printed in 1954 by The Worker's Music Association Ltd, price 3/6d

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Best little doorboy (MacColl?)
From: yrlancslad
Date: 18 Jun 03 - 03:16 PM

Hey thanks Nutty, thats great! Of course all the words came right back as soon as I saw them.
Malcolm