Lyr Req: Princess Royal

Subject: Lyr Req: Princess Royal. Lyrics required.
From: GUEST,Glyn Owen
Date: 31 Jul 03 - 06:09 PM

Hi.
Would anyone be able to help me find the words to accompany the morris tune Princess Royal. Mrtin Simpson (in the notes for his Bramble Briar CD) mentions that the tune has a set of lyrics in praise of Nelson. Is this true? Where can I find them?

Cheers

Glyn

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Princess Royal. Lyrics required.
From: Charley Noble
Date: 31 Jul 03 - 06:14 PM

Clearly this is not a request for the lyrics to "The Bold Princess Royal," a great traditional song about escaping capture by pirates.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Princess Royal. Lyrics required.
From: GUEST,Glyn Owen
Date: 31 Jul 03 - 06:26 PM

Correct. I know The Bold Princess Royal, but I would love to be able to sing along with The Princess Royal as it is a tune I play for Morris (Ducklington style)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Princess Royal. Lyrics required.
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 31 Jul 03 - 06:46 PM

The Ilmington (Warwickshire) Morris tune Nelson's Praise is a variant of The Princess Royal. Cecil Sharp got a song, Bold Nelson's Praise, from Tom Gardiner of Blackwell, Warwickshire (Worcestershire at the time), in September 1909, which was sung to a Princess Royal variant, and this is probably the song meant. It has been published several times.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Princess Royal. Lyrics required.
From: Micca
Date: 31 Jul 03 - 07:31 PM

with a little gently easing, the poem " the ballad of the good Lord nelson" by Laurence Durrell can be coaxed to fit and it makes a right good song!! including the immortal verses

" so there he stands with a phallic air
Nelson stylites in Trafalgar Square
to remind the British of what Once they were
on board the good ship Victory

If we treated women in the Nelson way
there'd be fewer frigid husbands every day
and a lot more heroes on the Bay of Biscay
on board the good ship Victory!"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Princess Royal. Lyrics required.
From: Snuffy
Date: 31 Jul 03 - 07:58 PM

IIRC there are three sets of lyrics to the tune on Lesley Nelson's Contemplator site

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Princess Royal. Lyrics required.
From: Snuffy
Date: 31 Jul 03 - 08:08 PM

This will get you Bold Nelson's Praise and there are links on that page to the other two sets of lyrics

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Princess Royal. Lyrics required.
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 31 Jul 03 - 10:06 PM

The first is the set collected by Sharp; the other two are unrelated songs, though set to variants of the same tune. The attribution to Carolan goes back a fair way (further back than Grattan Flood, fortunately, as his opinions are nowadays considered pretty worthless) but is not conclusive.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Princess Royal. Lyrics required.
From: Joe Offer
Date: 31 Jul 03 - 11:51 PM

See also the thread called Hunt for Princess Royal. Now, I realize that Bold Princess Royal is a different song, but I cross-indexed them together because people tend to mention them in the same breath.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Princess Royal. Lyrics required.
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 10 Aug 03 - 05:25 AM

Barry Dransfield sings Bold Nelson's Praise in a set called Bold Nelson's Favourite which includes a very fine fiddle version of The Princess Royal on the second Bill Leader recording (with brother Robin) - Trailer LER 2026, long deleted, but the track is included on the Free Reed compilation Up To Now.

Not to be confused with the silly version on Morris On with the famous false start!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Princess Royal. Lyrics required.
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Aug 03 - 05:42 PM

Thanks to all who helped me on this. I looked up the Illmington tune in the black book and have driven my wife crazy over the weeks holiday trying to learn the song. I'm just about there.
Cheers again

GLYN.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Princess Royal. Lyrics required.
From: greg stephens
Date: 13 Aug 03 - 05:46 PM

The Saucy Arethusa was written to this tune.Cant do a clicky to the words I'm afraid

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Princess Royal. Lyrics required.
From: mouldy
Date: 14 Aug 03 - 02:52 AM

And if you listen carefully near the start of the "Fantasia on British Sea Songs" during the Last night of the Proms, you'll hear the tune "Saucy Arethusa", which is one of the variations of the commonly known morris tune. (I've got it in my very easy piano book of English tunes!)

Andrea