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Lyr Req: The Old Man's Tale (Ewan MacColl)

05 May 99 - 09:24 PM (#75925)
Subject: Ewan McColl
From: Pat

Anybody know this song which starts:

"At the turning of the century I was a lad of five My father went to fight the Bohr And never came back alive .........."

Please supply a title or the rest of the words or where I can get it on record. Thanks

05 May 99 - 11:03 PM (#75962)
Subject: RE: Ewan McColl
From:

Check Peggy Seeger's homepage for MacColl's records

06 May 99 - 02:40 AM (#76011)
Subject: RE: Ewan McColl
From: Wolfgang

I definitely know we had it in the Forum ("The old man's tale"), easy to find when the search in the "body" will be possible again.

Wolfgang

06 May 99 - 03:33 AM (#76018)
Subject: RE: Ewan McColl
From: Steve Parkes

It is "The old man's tale", and it's by Ian Campbell. I've got the words somewhere, but I won't be able to get them for several days, so if anyone else has 'em ...

Steve

P.S. It's "boer", by the way. Excuse me if I'm teaching my grandmother to suck eggs, but it's Dutch for "farmer": it's what the Brits called the Afrikaaners in what were properly called the South African wars. We learn something new every day!

06 May 99 - 03:48 AM (#76023)
Subject: RE: Ewan McColl
From: Roger the zimmer

I have a sign above my desk which reads "Each day I learn one new thing, the trouble is, I forget two others"

06 May 99 - 06:37 AM (#76039)
Subject: RE: Ewan McColl
From: Susan of DT

I have it on a record. I'll listen to it and transcribe it if no one beats me to it.

06 May 99 - 06:38 AM (#76040)
Subject: RE: Ewan McColl
From: Wolfgang

Pat,
it was not easy but I found it. It is buried in the long Songs about getting really old thread . Go to Pete M.'s post from 14. Oct. 97, combine it with my post from 15. Oct. 97 and you have what you want.

Wolfgang

06 May 99 - 06:50 AM (#76044)
Subject: Lyr Add: THE OLD MAN'S TALE (Ewan MacColl)
From: Wolfgang

OK, I'll do the combinatorial work to save Susan the transcription and to make it easier for transferring it to the DT-database. My version is slightly different, but what you read here is Pete's version with 2 verses and an additional line from me (that is The Big Red Songbook).

Wolfgang

THE OLD MAN'S TALE

At the turning of the century, I was a boy of five.
Me farther went to fight the Boers and never came back alive.
Me ma was left to bring us up. No charity she'd seek.
She washed and scrubbed and scraped along on seven and six a week.

At the age of twelve, I left the school and went to find a job.
With growing kids, me ma was glad of the extra couple of bob.
I'm sure that better schooling would have stood me in good stead,
But you can't afford refinement when you're struggling for your bread.

When the Great War came along, I didn't hesitate.
I took the royal shilling and went off to do me bit.
I lived on mud and tears and blood, three years or thereabouts,
'Til I copped some gas in Flanders and got invalided out.

And when the war was over, and we'd settled with the Hun,
We got back into civvies and we thought the fighting done.
We'd won the right to live in peace, but we didn't have such luck,
For very soon we had to fight for the right to go to work.

In twenty-six, the general strike found me on the streets,
Though I'd a wife and kids by then and their needs I had to meet.
But a brave new world was coming and the brotherhood of man,
But when the strike was over we were back where we began.

I struggled through the thirties, out of work now and again.
I saw the Blackshirts marching and the things they did in Spain,
But I raised my children decent and I taught them wrong from right,
But Hitler was the man that came and taught them how to fight.

My daughter was a land girl. She got married to a Yank,
And they gave me son a gong for stopping one of Rommel's tanks.
He was wounded just before the end, and convalesced in Rome,
Got married to an Eyetie nurse and never bothered to come home.

My daughter writes me once a month, a cheerful little note,
About their colour telly and the other things they've got.
She's got a son, a likely lad. he's nearly twenty one,
And she tells me now they've called him up to fight in Vietnam.

I'm living on the pension now. it doesn't go too far,
Not much to show for a life that's been like one long bloody war.
When I think of all the wasted lives, it makes you want to cry.
I'm not sure how to change things, but by Christ we have to try.


Verse 7b: "my daughter writes me once a month, a cheerful little note,
About their colour telly and the other things they've got,
She's got a son, a likely lad; he's nearly twenty one,
And she tells me now they've called him up to fight in Vietnam."
^^

06 May 99 - 06:52 AM (#76048)
Subject: RE: Ewan McColl
From: Wolfgang

skip the last "verse", just a mistake.

06 May 99 - 10:30 AM (#76083)
Subject: RE: Ewan McColl
From: Pat

Thanks to all the the response. I heard this song 25 years ago and it still runs through my head from time to time. Wolfgang, you're a hell of a man. Cheers, Pat

06 May 99 - 10:42 AM (#76089)
Subject: RE: Ewan McColl
From: Pat

Thanks for the info. Hate to be a bore Steve Parkes, but are both Great Britain's wars against the Transvall (ie 1880-81, and 1899-1902) knows as the Boer War. Thanks for the posting. Pat

06 May 99 - 11:46 AM (#76113)
Subject: RE: Ewan McColl
From: Steve Parkes

Well, I was just being polite to the Afrikaaners - it;'s not as if they're French, or anything!

06 May 99 - 08:03 PM (#76223)
Subject: RE: Ewan McColl
From: Pat

Pas de tout! Fin

07 May 99 - 06:12 AM (#76344)
Subject: RE: Ewan McColl
From: AndyG

Pat,

Not a period I'm well informed on, but a net search turned up a reference to "The First Boer War", as well as "The Boer Rebellion" for the 1880-81 conflict.
I've only heard reference to "The Boer War" or "The South African War" for the later, 1899-1902, war.

AndyG

07 May 99 - 02:26 PM (#76437)
Subject: RE: Ewan McColl
From: Pat

Thanks Andy. And thanks to all who've posted. Pat

21 Aug 01 - 06:37 AM (#532328)
Subject: RE: Ewan McColl
From: Wolfgang

a note for the harvesters of 'The old man's tale':

writer: Ian Campbell (tune traditional, 'Nicky Tams')

Wolfgang

21 Aug 01 - 06:39 AM (#532330)
Subject: RE: Ewan McColl
From: Wolfgang

sorry, sorry, sorry, my mistake. The correct information is already in the DT.

Wolfgang

21 Aug 01 - 12:26 PM (#532516)
Subject: RE: Ewan McColl
From: GUEST,Dita (at work)

Wolfgang, I thought you might like to see these verses I wrote to update Ian's song. (Although that now makes he singer ~106 years old).

........
She had a son a likely lad he was nearly twenty one
And then they sent him off to go and fight in Vietnam

I always liked the horses, I still do to this day,
I never bet too much, just a couple of bob each way.
A young lad he placed my bets, son o' the folk next door,
To get Thatcher re-elected, he was killed in the Falklands war.

My sister always kept in touch, wi' a card at Chriatmas time,
She was due one from the Queen herself, made it through to ninty-nine,
But then she lost the will to live, her heart it did expire,
When she lost her grandson in the Gulf, victim o' some "friendly fire".

I'm living on the pension now .......

love, john.

21 Aug 01 - 06:51 PM (#532820)
Subject: RE: Ewan McColl
From: Susanne (skw)

Thanks, John, for the extra verses. I think they carry on the song's spirit very well, which is all that counts. I was living in Wales in 1981/82 and still remember that infamous Sun headline with a shiver down my spine ...

22 Aug 01 - 04:08 AM (#533039)
Subject: RE: Ewan McColl
From: Wolfgang

Yes, John, you're right, I liked to see the additional verses, though if you go on, you may be forced to insert a verse like 'That's what my father told me when he was still alive, now I am old and watch the kids...' . That might help until the 2020s.

Wolfgang