ballads/tunes about ladies of the night

Subject: RE: ballads/tunes about ladies of the night
From: GUEST,DavidfromSydney
Date: 21 Apr 04 - 08:06 PM

Turning of the Tide - Richard Thompson

Subject: RE: ballads/tunes about ladies of the night
From: Fiona
Date: 22 Apr 04 - 09:43 AM

On Martyn Bennetts album GRIT he has Jeanie Robertson singing 'The Bonnie Wee Lassie Who Never Says No' all wrapped round with a thumping dance beat, the finished song is called 'Ale House' and wonderful stuff it is too!

Subject: RE: ballads/tunes about ladies of the night
From: GUEST,Jaze
Date: 22 Apr 04 - 01:13 PM

San Francisco Mabel Joy -written by Mickey Newbury

Subject: RE: ballads/tunes about ladies of the night
From: HuwG
Date: 23 Apr 04 - 10:17 PM

Another Jacques Brel classic that should have occurred to me instantly:

Amsterdam

Subject: RE: ballads/tunes about ladies of the night
From: Scoville
Date: 23 Apr 04 - 10:23 PM

I always assumed "Ella Speed" was one, although nothing in the song actually says it.

"Little Sadie", and Hazel Dickens' "Tomorrow's Already Gone"

Subject: RE: ballads/tunes about ladies of the night
From: GUEST
Date: 24 Apr 04 - 08:25 PM

Dave Van Ronk does a great little a capella number on his "Going Back to Brooklyn" album. It's called "The Whore of San Pedro."

"The whore of San Pedro
Is older than God,
And her beard tumbles down
to her tits.
With one single bump
of her ponderous rump,
she'll grind your poor pecker to bits."

And there's a second verse that I forget....

Subject: RE: ballads/tunes about ladies of the night
From: Naemanson
Date: 24 Apr 04 - 08:34 PM

Note: If you run across an old song with the phrase "Ladies Of The Town" then you can be sure it is refering to ladies of the night. That is the old term.

There is a wonderful book about the murder of a young whore in New York in 1824 (I think). The book goes into detail on the trade as well as the life of the young woman in question and her murderer. I found it in a library but it is a very well written book.

Subject: RE: ballads/tunes about ladies of the night
From: Uncle Jaque
Date: 24 Apr 04 - 08:47 PM

I learned "Charlotte The Harlot" from a Texas Fella while in the Army back in '68, and posted what I knew of the several verses here about 4 years ago.

I ain't a-gonna post 'em agin, neither!

That first verse is a little different than the one I heard, but pretty much in the same vein. It all goes downhill from there!

It ain't the sort of thing that any God-fearing Baptist has any business whatsoever singing out loud anywhere attall!

Well; not sober anyhow...

Alas; poor Charlotte! {B^{(~

UJ

Subject: RE: ballads/tunes about ladies of the night
From: Scoville
Date: 24 Apr 04 - 10:10 PM

Naemanson--do you mean Patrician Cline Cohen's the Murder of Helen Jewett: the Life and Death of a Prostitute in Nineteenth-Century New York, about the murder of Helen Jewett in 1836? My brother got me a copy at Half-Price Books or somewhere for $1--which I think was extremely cheap--and it's very, very, interesting.

Subject: RE: ballads/tunes about ladies of the night
From: Hrothgar
Date: 25 Apr 04 - 09:56 PM

You're right, Dave - "Polly on the Shore."

Subject: RE: ballads/tunes about ladies of the night
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 25 Apr 04 - 11:12 PM

Venezuela ("I met her in Ven-e-zu-e-la. . .") I don't find my tape of it but I thought Dyer-Bennet sang it. Or McCurdy.

As far as McCurdy goes, he did a good job of cornering the market. Look for his Blood Booze 'n Bones and Sin Songs, Pro and Con. I'll list the contents. You'll find a smattering of songs on the subject, but you'll find lots of references.

Sin Songs: PRO

Jolly boatsman
How happy is she
Roving gambler
I once had virtue
Gambler's song
Good boy's song
Good old mountain dew
Ballad of a young man
Rye Whiskey

Sin Songs: CON (second side)
Tobacco is an Indian weed
Three pretty fair maids
Young people who delight in sin
Poor Polly, the mad girl
Gambling on the Sabbeth day
She plays the game
John Adkin's farewell
Frozen Charlottie (this is a personal favorite!)
An address to all concerning death

Blood Booze 'n Bones
Darlin' Cory
Josie
Dublin murder ballad
Four nights drunk
Cowboy's lament
Kentucky moonshiner
No more booze
Farewell to grog
Portland County jail
Banks of the Ohio
John Hardy
Pig and the inebriate (another favorite!)
Stackerlee
Lamkins
Yo Ho Ho (The derelict)
Lulu
Drunkard's doom (boy, does this one get you!)

Then there are McCurdy's four Daliance albums. But the message there has more to do with sex and pleasure than the business prostitution.

A lot of cheating songs out there--and those are on the whole very funny. As I type this I'm listening to Dyer-Bennet and "Charleston Merchant" is on. "I'm goin' off to sea and I've come to get my chest. . ."

I have a Smithsonian collection around here some where with a whole bunch of blue (not to be confused with "The blues") songs and again, a smattering of songs like "If I can't sell it I'm sitting on it."

SRS

Subject: RE: ballads/tunes about ladies of the night
From: cetmst
Date: 26 Apr 04 - 07:47 AM

Yes, Richard Dyer-Bennet recorded "Venezuela", also recorded by Burl Ives, Susan Reed, Belafonte and Cyril Tawney. Can't find anything on the origin other than 'Trad'

Subject: RE: ballads/tunes about ladies of the night
From: Snuffy
Date: 26 Apr 04 - 09:12 AM

Venezuela was written by JJ Niles, although he tried to pass it off as trad at first

Subject: RE: ballads/tunes about ladies of the night
From: Joe_F
Date: 26 Apr 04 - 05:12 PM

Desert Dancer: The lines

But the boys in the firehouse draped it in black,
And the ball team wore mourning that week.

suggest that Aunt Clara was, at any rate, widely available to bachelors before she left town.

Subject: RE: ballads/tunes about ladies of the night
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 26 Apr 04 - 06:03 PM

Hmm, yes, I'd forgotten that verse, Joe! It's been a while, and I have a tendency to try to give people the benefit of the doubt (maybe indulging in some selective recollection as a result).

~ Becky

Subject: RE: ballads/tunes about ladies of the night
From: A Wandering Minstrel
Date: 27 Apr 04 - 08:11 AM

Seriously
Sally Racket

and perhaps not so seriously, Eddie Walkers
"Candy are you really a Lady"

Subject: RE: ballads/tunes about ladies of the night
From: GUEST,dick feller/ daisy hill
Date: 13 Nov 04 - 08:51 AM

Subject: RE: ballads/tunes about ladies of the night
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 13 Nov 04 - 09:45 AM

Late again, late again.

How about "Dicey Riley"? Not the drinking one, the prostitute one. (Which I learned from Debbie McClatchy and she said, I think, she learned from Dominic Behan.)

"One woman put them all to shame,
Only one was worthy of the name,
And the name of the same is Dicey Riley."
. . .

"The balance paid, their looks all fade,
Out of all that brave brigade,
Ah the heart of the raul is Dicey Riley."

I, too, like to think Aunt Clara was just lucky in love . . .

Linn

Subject: RE: ballads/tunes about ladies of the night
From: Deckman
Date: 13 Nov 04 - 09:54 AM

"Star of Bannock" comes to mind. This is an wonderful ballad with a haunting melody. It might not be considered so much a song of "ladies of the night" as it is a murder ballad. CHEERS, Bob

Subject: RE: ballads/tunes about ladies of the night
From: GUEST,winnie
Date: 13 Nov 04 - 01:52 PM

"Cindy's Crying" by Tom Paxton is one of my favorites, very poignant.
I can't remember all the words off the top of my head, but the first verse:
   Cindy's crying but it ain't no use
   She's got a habit she can't turn loose
   She's started (grabbing?) every man she meets
   She's gonna be a hooker down on Bleeker Street....

Good tune; makes the connection between prostitution and addiction.

Subject: RE: ballads/tunes about ladies of the night
From: Genie
Date: 13 Nov 04 - 11:28 PM

Here's a song I was taught in (a Southern Baptist) college:

Sadie, Sadie, she was a cutie,
Lived in a house of ill reputie,
And all the men would come to see
Sadie, Sadie, Sadie on her bed of ease.

Now Sadie, Sadie, her form grew thinner
Due to the lack of vitamins in 'er.
She started taking Fleischmann's yeast,
But all in all her form decreased.

Now Sadie died and she went to Heaven,
Charged St. Peter a buck-ninety-seven.
St. Peter didn't like what she had to sell,
So Sadie, Sadie, Sadie went straight down to Hell.

Now, Sadie, Sadie, she's six feet under,
Went to Hell like a bolt of thunder!
The Devil liked what she had to sell,
So Sadie, Sadie, Sadie's makin' money in Hell!

The tune/rhythm is sort of generic blues/honky-tonk. I have no idea of the source of the song.

Anyone else familiar with it?

Genie

Subject: She Was Poor (It's The Same The Whole World Over)
From: Genie
Date: 13 Nov 04 - 11:47 PM

In the DT:
She Was Poor, But She Was Honest

It may also be listed as "It's The Same [Syme] The Whole [The 'Ole] World Over."


The words, as I learned them from a Theo Bikel record, are:

She was poor, but she was honest,
Victim of the squire's whim.
First he loved 'er, then he left 'er,
And she lost 'er nyme to 'im.

Then she went awy to London,
There to 'ide 'er grief and shyme,
But she met another squire
An' she lost 'er nyme agyn.

See 'er ridin' in a carriage
In the park an', oh, so gay,
Where the nooks an' nobby persons
Come to pass the toim o' day.

See the little old world cottage
Where the ayncient parents live
Drinking the champyne she send 'em --
But they never can forgive.

In the rich man's arms she flutters
Like a bird with broken wing.
First 'e loved 'er, then 'e left 'er,
But she 'asn't got a ring!

See 'im in the 'ouse of Commons
Myking laws to put down crime,
While the girl that 'e 'as ruyned
Toils awy thru muck an' slime!

See 'er on the bridge at midnight
Crying, "Farewell, blighted luv!"
Then a scream! A splash! Good 'eavens!
What is she a-doin' of?!

When they fished 'er from the river,
From 'er clothes the water wrung,
And they thought that she 'ad drownded,
But the corpse got up an' sung:

"IT'S THE SYME THE 'OLE WORLD OVUH --
IT'S THE POOR WHAT GETS THE BLYME!
IT'S THE RICH WHAT GETS THE PLEAS-YOO-UH!
AIN'T IT ALL A BLOOMIN' SHYME!!?"

Subject: RE: ballads/tunes about ladies of the night
From: Charley Noble
Date: 14 Nov 04 - 10:14 AM

Genie-

Hi! Best wishes to you all in Portland-West.

The "Sadie" song you posted above is probably better known as "Poor Lil" or "Lil, Poor Lil" with lyrics in ROLL ME OVER, Oak Publications, pp. 70-71, which probably dates back to the 1930's.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: ballads/tunes about ladies of the night
From: GUEST,frog
Date: 14 Nov 04 - 11:33 AM

Subject: RE: ballads/tunes about ladies of the night
From: GUEST,frogette
Date: 14 Nov 04 - 11:35 AM

Lady of the Night by Les Sullivan is available if required on Echoes of Mingulay and HergaKitty sings one about Kitty Cain thats good too

Subject: RE: ballads/tunes about ladies of the night
From: Bill D
Date: 14 Nov 04 - 11:39 AM

a more elaborate version of "Poor Lil" which is very close to what I have been singing for 30 years...My 'version' in parenthesis)

Her name was Lil, and she was a beauty, (Lil, se was a famous beauty)
And she lived in a house of ill reputy.
The gentlemen came from far to see (menfolk can from miles around)
Airy-fairy Lillian in her deshabillé.(just to see Poor Lil in her low-cut gown)
Airy-fairy Lillian in her deshabillé.

Now Lil was comely, Lil was fair,
And she had lots of yaller hair. (she had lovely golden hair)
But she drank too much of the Demon Rum,
And she smoked hashish and o-pi-um.
And she smoked hashish and o-pi-um.

And day by day her cheeks grew thinner
From insufficient protein(s) in her.
She grew deep hollows in her chest
And she had to go around completely dressed.
And she had to go around completely dressed.

Now clothes may make a girl go far,
But they have no place on a fille de joie .
And Lillian's troubles all began (stared when)
When she concealed her abdomen.
When she concealed her abdomen.

So Lillian went to the house physician
For him to prescribe for her condition.
He said, "You have, as we doctors say, ("You have got", the doc did say)
"Perni-ci-ous a-ne-mi-ay."
"Perni-ci-ous a-ne-mi-ay."

***He offered to her for its view (I think this verse was added somewhere..it feels wrong)
His penthouse on Park Avenue.
He came to see her every day,
And he shot her with his big X-Ray.
And he shot her with his big X-Ray.***


So Lil took treatments in the sun, she drank Scott's emul-si-on.
And she ate Mr. Fleischmann's yeast, (3 times daily, she ate yeast)
But still her clientle decreased.
But still her clientle decreased.

For you must know Lillian's clientelly
Rested largely (chiefly) on her belly.
She rolled it like the deep Pacific—
And that was something calorific.
And that was something calorific. (never liked this line, but have not improved it)

As Lillian lay in her dishonor
She felt the hand of the Lord upon her. (the Devil's hand upon her)
She cried,"my sins I now repents"
"But Satan, it'll cost you fifty cents!"
"Satan, it'll cost you fifty cents!"

(this last verse doesn't seem to me to 'fit' here- I have heard it, in some form, mixed in above, without the last line. I prefer to do without it)

Now Lillian underwent baptism,
And she adopted mysticism.
And every night when she went to sleep
She prayed the Lord her soul to keep
High above Park Avenue.

Subject: RE: ballads/tunes about ladies of the night
From: Charley Noble
Date: 14 Nov 04 - 12:26 PM

Frogette-

As Jenny-O in one of the earliest posts mentioned John Warner's "Kitty Kane" is one of the best ballads commemorating the survival of one of these intrepid ladies of the night, in the goldfields of 19th century Australia.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: ballads/tunes about ladies of the night
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 14 Nov 04 - 01:00 PM

Charley

Yes, Kitty Kane is a wonderful song, and I sing it with the second verse that was omitted from Pithead in the Fern, because it's such a great verse - "Pregnancy, injury, theft and brutality threatened and scarred me again and again, but in black lace and silver I waltzed with the miners and I shone in their vision, for I'm Kitty Kane".

Les Sullivan's Lady of the Night is pretty good too. But I'm biased, because I sing the harmony for it on Echoes of Mingulay.

Kitty

Subject: RE: ballads/tunes about ladies of the night
From: GUEST,j
Date: 14 Nov 04 - 01:12 PM

The tinker Nancy Miles

'by the age of twenty-one, a hundred men had been and gone '

Though my other half claims the men were simply rejected suitors :(

Subject: ballads about ladies of the night / Yellow Rose
From: Genie
Date: 14 Nov 04 - 02:48 PM

How about the original "Yellow Rose Of Texas?"

I imagine her story is discussed somewhere in the mudcat forum, but I didn't find that song mentioned here.

G

Subject: ballads about ladies of the night - Yellow Rose
From: Genie
Date: 14 Nov 04 - 03:00 PM

There's some discussion of the history of the "yellow Rose" and of the song in this thread:
LYR ADD: Yellow Rose Of Texas

Her identity, and especially her status as Santa Ana's girlfriend or as a camp follower, are still subjects of dispute. But I think YROT deserves mention in this thread, if only because the legend persists that she was either or both.

Subject: RE: ballads/tunes about ladies of the night
From: Snuffy
Date: 14 Nov 04 - 06:29 PM

And a very different take on "Lady of the Night", also by Les Sullivan on "Echoes of Mingulay" is Only Natasha Knows.

Subject: RE: ballads/tunes about ladies of the night
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 14 Nov 04 - 06:37 PM

Snuffy

For another, different, take, you should hear Les sing Jennifer Pettifer!

Kitty

Subject: RE: ballads/tunes about ladies of the night
From: frogprince
Date: 14 Nov 04 - 07:00 PM

Oscar Brand recorded the deeply raunchy servicemans song "Miss VD of Guam", which I heard from a record in the barracks shortly before being order to Guam for a year and a half. I've tried every-which-way to look it up online, but can find only a reference to the resultant obscenity trial. I can remember fragments, if anyone wants to stoop that low.

Subject: RE: ballads/tunes about ladies of the night
From: el_punkoid_nouveau
Date: 15 Nov 04 - 02:51 AM

Then there is always "The Girls Of Glossop Road" - a tale of the red light district of Sheffield, and one man's fall from grace...

epn

Subject: RE: ballads/tunes about ladies of the night
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 15 Nov 04 - 02:34 PM

Well, I suppose since many cleaning ladies work at night, I could put forward the song "Sadie, the cleaning lady".

Subject: RE: ballads/tunes about ladies of the night
From: pavane
Date: 16 Nov 04 - 07:42 AM

I found this one in the Bodley collection - the tune is well known as a Morris dance

Beaux of London City

Subject: RE: ballads/tunes about ladies of the night
From: GUEST,jimp
Date: 16 Apr 11 - 06:17 AM

Put on your old red panties
That once were your Aunties
And let's go wrestle in the hay
And, while the bee's make honey,
Let your ass make money,
In the good old-fshioned way.

Subject: RE: ballads/tunes about ladies of the night
From: GUEST,John in Cornwall
Date: 16 Apr 11 - 05:22 PM

How about David Campbell Slightly Faded
lyrics here Slightly Faded

Subject: RE: ballads/tunes about ladies of the night
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 17 Apr 11 - 04:52 AM

"Rum and Coca-Cola" and "Yankee Dollar" both calypsos, deal with WWII prostitution in Trinidad.

Subject: Lyr Add: Fan Mi Solja Man
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 25 Jun 11 - 08:39 PM

Fan Mi Solja Man
(Traditional. From "Mango Time: Folk Songs of Jamaica)
1. Sake-a coolie-man bangle,
Sake-a coolie-man bangle,
Sake a coolie-man silver bangle,
Oh, gyal yu characta gone!

(Chorus)

Fan mi solja man, fan mi,
Fan mi solja man, fan mi,
Fan mi solja man, fan mi,
Oh gyal yu characta gone!

2. Whe' di use yu a haul-up, shawl-up,
Whe' di use yu a haul-up, shawl-up,
Whe' di use yu a haul-up, shawl-up,
An' yu characta gone!

(Chorus)

3. Whe' di use yu a lace-up, stace-up,
Whe' di use yu a lace-up, stace up,
Whe' di use yu a lace-up, stace-up,
An' yu characta gone!

(Chorus)
4. Gyal wha mak yu so faas and facey,
Gyal wha mek yu so faas and facey,
Gyal wha mek yu so faas and facey,
An' yu characta gone!

(Chorus)

5. Since di baby come bawn
An' him daddy gone a Contingent,
Ev'rybody come bawl out sey
"Gyal yu characta gone!"

Subject: RE: ballads/tunes about ladies of the night
From: Big Ballad Singer
Date: 26 Jun 11 - 12:02 AM

"Go To Sea Once More" has to do with spending one's fishing pay on whores. One verse has the whores laughing at the poor slob who wasted all his money and was forced to ship out again.

"Cathouse Blues" was recorded in 1974 as a demo for the Buckingham Nicks album. Stevie Nicks gave it the old smoky-voiced, Calamity-Jane treatment. Lyrics below:

Song Title »
Cathouse Blues
    Authors »
Stevie Nicks

    Year Written »
1974

    Lyrics »

I got the Cathouse Blues...
I wear the highest
of high heel shoes
Whoa, darling, it's hard to be surrounded
Where the women are lazy,
And the men are rude

I got the cat walk, don't talk blues...
I creep on cat's feet,
I don't speak loose
Yourself in velvet,
Forget we ever met...
I got the closed in,
The cathouse blues...

Blue gray eyes that say...
I guess you don't remember
I guess that I was younger
Touche, the cat sleeps alone,
Sleeps only in the sun
But she'll awake at night
And she'll be gone...

Singing the cathouse blues
I need some new red velvet shoes
I'm still a dreamer's fancy...
They say I'm pretty classy...
I'm just a feline silky cat come true...
I'm just a feline silky cat come true...
I'm just a feline silky cat come true
Yeah.

Here's a link to it:
The Cathouse Blues

Subject: RE: ballads/tunes about ladies of the night
From: nickp
Date: 26 Jun 11 - 04:57 AM

Painted Ladies - Richard Thompson (sometimes introduced as a song about a species of butterfly...)

Subject: RE: ballads/tunes about ladies of the night
From: lynnc
Date: 11 Nov 11 - 04:50 AM

Does anyone know anything about the origins of "Poor Lil", that would be Lil the famous beauty who lived in a house of ill reputy?

There are 2 or 3 versions earlier in this thread, the lyrics I know are very close to what BillD posted. I've always associated it with New Orleans. Google turned up nothing but mudcat references and not many of those.

just wonderin

Lynn

Subject: RE: ballads/tunes about ladies of the night
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 11 Nov 11 - 05:00 AM

JEAN AND DINAH
Mighty Sparrow (Slinger Francisco) 1956

1. Well, the girls in town feeling bad,
No more Yankees in Trinidad.
They goin' to close down the base for good,
Them girls have to make out how they could.
Brother, it is now they park up in town,
In for a penny, and in for a pound,
Believe me it's competition for so,
Trouble in the town when the price drop low.

CHORUS: So when you bounce up Jean and Dinah, Rosita and Clementina,
Round the corner posin', bet your life it's somethin' they sellin',
And when you catch 'em broken, you can get 'em all for nothin',
Don't make no row, the Yankees gone and Sparrow take over now.

2. Things bad is to hear them cry,
Not a sailor in town, the nightclubs dry,
Only West Indians like me or you,
Go in to get a drink or two.
And as we have things back in control
Ah seekin' revenge with me heart and soul,
Brother when ah spread the news around
Is to see how them cavemen come in to town.

(Chorus)

3. When the Yankee was in full swing,
Just imagine how I was suffering,
Mavis tell me straight to me face,
She find I too fast and out of place.
No, no, no, they will start to fret,
Money or not poor Sparrow can't get,
With the Yankees they have it cool,
Calypsonians too hard to fool.

(Chorus)

4. It's the glamour boys again,
We are going to rule in Port-of-Spain,
No more Yankees to spoil the fete,
Dorothy has to take what she get,
All of them who used to make style,
They takin' two shilling for a smile,
No more hotel to rest your head,
By the sweat of thy brow thou shalt eat bread.
(Chorus)

Subject: RE: ballads/tunes about ladies of the night
From: Kenny B (inactive)
Date: 11 Nov 11 - 04:12 PM

Fronm the well revered Scottish comedian Hector Nicol
to the tune of "Put on your old grey Bonnet"

Put on you're old grey bustle
Get youre fanny out and hustle
Tomorrow the rent is due
If you run into a bookie
Who is lookin for his nookie
We can pay the butcher too

Subject: RE: ballads/tunes about ladies of the night
From: Charley Noble
Date: 11 Nov 11 - 09:21 PM

lynnc-

I think you'll find that "Pool Lill" goes back to the late 19th century. My mother picked it up in the 1920's but it was well seasoned by then.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: ballads/tunes about ladies of the night
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 12 Nov 11 - 12:38 AM

Unless I have missed them in this long thread, we don't seem to have had ref to the Barrack-St/Peter-St/Patrick-St/Ratcliffe-St family.

Nor to The Magdalene's Lament {I think Frankie Armstrong calls it The Whore's Lament on one of her albums}, about the imprisoned prostitute who attributes her fall to gang-rape ("Four & twenty of Geordie's men Kissed* me against my will-o"), enjoyed her brothel ('tavern-house'*) days but is now being ill-treated in prison ("Now I'm in the correction-house And whipped into my turn-o"), and looks forward hopefully to a reformed & respectable married life on her release ("Then I'll be a wedded wife When my forty days are done-o").

~Michael~

*In this one, I find of particular interest the euphemisms like 'tavern-house' when a brothel is clearly meant, and 'kissed' for an obviously rather more intimate form of congress!

Subject: RE: ballads/tunes about ladies of the night
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 12 Nov 11 - 12:45 AM

... and what about "Rag Fair" as sung by Frank Purslow and Peter Bellamy? ~~ like Barrack St &c, a distinguished member of the familiar sailor-robbed-by-whore hardluck-story group.

~M~

Subject: RE: ballads/tunes about ladies of the night
From: Bernard
Date: 12 Nov 11 - 06:36 AM

I'm really quite surprised no-one has yet mentioned Bernard Wrigley's trilogy of songs about 'Knocking Nelly'...!

The Ballad of Knocking Nelly
Knocking Nelly and the Sixty-Niner
Knocking Nelly and the Mothman