Lyr Req: Driver's Song (Ewan MacColl)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Driver's Song (Ewan MacColl)
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 17 Dec 10 - 03:14 PM

"I know all the runs and all the beds from hell to breakfast time"
Am I right in remembering that that one is called 'Twenty One Years' and starts?

I am a waggon driver boys, Phil Healey is my name,

I'd forgotten about it - thanks
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Driver's Song (Ewan MacColl)
From: Big Phil
Date: 17 Dec 10 - 02:27 PM

I know all the runs and all the beds from hell to breakfast time
I know every cafe and caf me boys, I know all the highway signs
I've eaten me cake at Dirty Dicks, at the Jungle they know me
I've been serving of me twenty-one years on chips and mugs of tea.


The Jungle was a Transport Cafe on the old A6 out of Kendal heading North. It was frequented by "ladies of the Night". You could get much more than a bacon sarnie and a mug of tea if you parked here at night.

Its now the site of Kendal Caravans I believe.

Regards

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Driver's Song (Ewan MacColl)
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 16 Dec 10 - 03:00 PM

The Driver's song was written for the Radio Ballad 'Song of A Road' which was broadcast by the BBC on 5th November 1959 - it was the second programme in the series and was centred on the building of the M1 motorway, Britain's first.
The idea for the song came from actuality recorded from Jack Hamilton from County Sligo, who drove a gigantic concrete-laying machine which he claimed was "So easy to handle that a leddy (lady) could drive it".
MacColl earlier wrote a song called Champion at Keepen' 'Em Rollin; this was for a radio programme on long-distance lorry drivers.
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Driver's Song (Ewan MacColl)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 16 Dec 10 - 02:32 PM

According to this rather official- and thorough-looking discography, Ewan MacColl did indeed write a song called THE DRIVER'S SONG and it begins "Come all you gallant drivers, wherever you may be" © 1963 (although it also bears the date 1958)

Lyrics have been posted here: Lyr Add: DRIVER'S SONG (Ewan MacColl)

Although the word "bulldozer" doesn't appear in it, it is clearly about digging and road-building, and it mentions a "Cat"—short for Caterpillar, a brand of bulldozer.

I was curious about the origin of the term "bulldozer" so I looked it up in Wikipedia and found this:

* Around 1880: In the USA, a "bull-dose" was a large and efficient dose of any sort of medicine or punishment. 'Bull-dosing' meant a severe whipping or coercion, or other intimidation such as at gunpoint.

* Late 19th century: "bulldozing" meant using big force to push over or through any obstacle.

* 1930s: applied to the vehicle.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: MacColl Driver's Song
From: Snuffy
Date: 04 Feb 06 - 06:55 AM

Bob, the original class D used ordinary saturated steam, but when a superheated version was introduced it naturally became known as a Super D

Subject: Lyr Add: THE FITTER'S SONG (Ewan MacColl)
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 04 Feb 06 - 01:50 AM

G'day Snuffy,

Purely to satisfy my curiosity: Why Super D's ... ? What were ordinary D's? (Well, we don't seem to have had these out here in the Antipodes.)

BTW: Our original requester, Konrad, doesn't seem to have come back ... perhaps he was discouraged by all the people who dived in with songs about 'train-drivers' and 'truck-drivers' ... when he had written (requested):

"... There a not a lot of folksongs about bulldozer -driver ..."

I wasn't all that accurate with my quick recollection of Ewan MacColl's The Fitter's Song, which is about a bulldozer fitter, if not bulldozer driver ... The words should have been more like:

I am a roving rambler, a fitter to me trade,
I can fix you anything, a camshaft to a spade.
I can fix a dodgy gearbox - or mend a broken tread;
Decoke a Leyland engine while I'm standing on me head.
          So it's shift, boys, shift! Do the job and draw your pay.
          When this road is finished, I'll be moving on me way.
          I'll clean me tools, and wrap 'em, in a pair of oily jeans.
          You'll always find me working where you find the big machines.

I've worked in far-off places since I left the coaly Tyne;
I work among the heavies and I wear a roving sign.
I keep the tractors on the job, a-turning up the soil,
And I've followed my nose around the world by the smell of diesel oil.
          So it's shift, boys, shift! Do the job and draw your pay.
          When this road is finished, I'll be moving on me way.
          You'll find me where the tractors are, on roads and hydro schemes,
          Playing the lousy nursemaid to a pack of big machines.

Ewan reckoned that the tune was the traditional Australian one for "Travelling Down the Castlereagh" (a folk setting of the of 'Banjo' Paterson's poem "The Bushman's Song") ... but I think his version of that tune has more of his accent (and Scots ancestry) than mine!

Regards,

Bob

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: MacColl Driver's Song
From: Snuffy
Date: 03 Feb 06 - 09:13 AM

Super D

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: MacColl Driver's Song
From: Josher
Date: 03 Feb 06 - 06:55 AM

Thanks Bob
Much obliged
Josher

Subject: Chords Add: SONG OF THE IRON ROAD (Ewan MacColl)
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 03 Feb 06 - 06:41 AM

G'day Josher,

The Essential Ewan MacColl Songbook has it in Dm:

The (Dm) iron road is a hard road and the (C) work is never end-(Dm) -ing ...
(Dm) Working (Am)night and day (Dm) - (G) on the iron (Dm) way,
We're the (Dm) boys who keep the engines rolling.

You (Dm) sign on at the loco shed., they (C) put you to the clean-(Dm) ing ...
(Dm) In your (Am) dunga - (Dm )rees, clean - (G) ing Super (Dm) D's,
You're a (Dm) sweeper (C) upper, (Dm) brewer (C) upper,
(Dm) Shovel (C) slinger, (Dm) spanner (C) bringer,
(Dm) Steam (C) raiser, (Dm) fire (C) dropper,
(Dm) General (C) cook and (Dm) bottle (C) washer,
(Dm) Learning (A7) how to jeep 'em (Dm) rolling.

Regards,

Bob

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: MacColl Driver's Song
From: Josher
Date: 03 Feb 06 - 06:20 AM

Hi all
does any one have the chords for the Song of the Iron Road?

Josher

Subject: RE: lyr.requ.MacColl Driver´s Song
From: GUEST,j
Date: 07 Jan 05 - 02:46 AM

Then there's the yellow JCB song, a search using JCB finds it in the DT.

( JCB is a make of vehicle, but I suspect JCBs get to Germany !)

h

Subject: Lyr Add: TWENTY-ONE YEARS (Ewan MacColl)
From:
Date: 06 Jan 05 - 08:50 PM

It's more than years than I care to think since I picked this up from somewhere.

I've always assumed that it came from the MacColl 'Road' programme.

Not a mention of 'bulldozer' but definitely a 'driver' song

TWENTY-ONE YEARS

I am a wagon driver boys, Bill Healy is me name
Year in, year out I roll me load in the heavy transport game
I keep my wagon rolling boys how ever tired I feel
When I'm serving of me twenty-one years behind the steering wheel

I've rolled 'em rough and I've rolled 'em smooth, I've rolled em night and day
I've rolled 'em fast and I've rolled 'em slow, I've rolled 'em every way
I've rolled the sixteen-wheeler jobs and the wrecks with the lousy loads
I've been serving of me twenty-one years with the wagons on the road

I know all the runs and all the beds from hell to breakfast time
I know every cafe and caf me boys, I know all the highway signs
I've eaten me cake at Dirty Dicks, at the Jungle they know me
I've been serving of me twenty-one years on chips and mugs of tea

I've had me servos fail me out a frosty night on Shap,
I've rolled around the rim me boys when the off-side front was flat
I've blown me cylinder-head and stalled on the run to Pontypool
I've been serving of me twenty-one years in the old rough-riding school

I like to hear the tyres hum when they're belting on the road
I like to hear the engine purr when I've got a heavy load
Give me a moonlight stretch without a single cop in sight
When I'm serving of me twenty-one years a-rolling through the night

When I turn me wagon in me lads and I've had me chips at last
Just plant me by the road where I can hear the wagons pass
Just bury me by Scotch Corner or the road outside Carlisle
And I'll lie and hear the heavy stuff go tearing up the miles


Cheers, Jack

Subject: RE: lyr.requ.MacColl Driver´s Song
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 11:29 PM

G'day Konrad,

Would you be thinking of Ewan MacColl's The Fitter's Song, which is about a bulldozer repairer ... ?

It's not in the Digital Tradition (DT) ... at least, not under that name ... but it's the one that starts:

I am a roving rambler, a fitter to my trade,
I can fix you anything, a camshaft to a spade.
I can fix a dodgy gearbaox - repair a broken head;
De-coke a Leyland engine while I'm standing on my head.

So it's shift, boys, shift! Do your job and draw your pay.
When this dam is finished, I'll soon be on my way.
I'll clean my tools, and wrap them, in a pair of oily jeans.
You'll always find me working where you find the big machines.

It only has a couple of stanzas - and a variable chorus. I guess I identify the (imaginary) character as a stock type of those Pommy fitters I met when I worked on Hydro Schemes, here in Australia, in the 1960s.

Regards,

Bob

Subject: RE: lyr.requ.MacColl Driver´s Song
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 07:20 PM

35974- "Come all Ye Gallant Drivers" posted by Dave Bryant in 2002. A number of recent requests could be answered by simply entering a key word such as drivers in the Lyrics and Knowledge Search box.
Come All Drivers

Subject: RE: lyr.requ.MacColl Driver´s Song
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 06:55 PM

Then there is Champion at Keeping Them Rolling, a truck driver's song, again found using the search box in the top right hand corner. If you enter MacColl's name you'll get a full list of all the songs associated with him (not just the ones he wrote, unfortunately) that are in the DT.

However, I've never come across an English language song about a bulldozer.

Subject: Lyr Add: SONG OF THE IRON ROAD (Ewan MacColl)
From: Peace
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 06:07 PM

This is all I can find that seems related.

SONG OF THE IRON ROAD
Ewan McColl

The Iron road's a hard road and the work is never ending
Working night and day on the iron way
We're the boys who keep the engines rolling
You sigh on at the local shed, they put you to the cleaning
In your dungarees, cleaning super dees
You're a sweeper-upper, brewer-upper, shovel slinger,
spanner bringer Steam raiser, fire dropper, general cook and bottle washer

Learning how to keep 'em rolling
When you've done your time at the loco shed and had your share of trouble
On the old footplate, you're the driver's mate
And you're married to a lousy shovel
It's check the water, check the tools and chuck the blooming coal in
Give the gauge a wipe, check injector pipe, now it's
Swing your shovel at the double, give her rock watch the clock
Steam rising, sweat running, back aching, bone shaking
Fireman, fireman, keep her rolling
When you've shoveled a million tons of coal some ten or twelve years later

And your only dream is of raising steam
Then they hand to you your drivers papers
The iron road is a hard road and the work is never ending
Working night and day on the iron way, we're the
Local drivers, early riser, lodging turners, mile burners
Eleven quid a week earners
We're the boys that keep 'em rolling

---

Song of the Iron Road in the Digital Tradition

Subject: RE: lyr.requ.MacColl Driver´s Song
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 05:48 PM

Most of these songs are in the Digitrad, use the search box at the top of the page.
Giok

Subject: lyr.requ.MacColl Driver´s Song
From: GUEST,Konrad
Date: 05 Jan 05 - 05:42 PM

There a not a lot of folksongs about bulldozer -driver, so I am very interested in the word.
thank you from the german north-sea-coast