Now that I have a bit more time....

Joe Wilson was a song machine. He took everyday events and wrote songs insptired by them. He is known for going with the original version without editing.

As with a few other important song writers of his time and region Joe was also a publisher. This is of interest. Did he write songs as songs or songs to publish......Mixing business with folk.....

Wilson was a performer as well as writer. First in Pubs, then in organized concerts, then in song halls. He became a publican then gave it all up and wrote and performed temperance pieces.

Could this transition have been because of demand shift for his songs. The temperance movement did become more important.

Wilson's work centered around Geordie Genre pieces- daily life, everyday happenings, births, life with chidren, death. He had a few characters- the gallogate lad and also covered sporting heros and events- primairly boat races.

One wonders how Wilson's speech would have sounded in his everyday life. How real was the Geordie? As with Cruikshank the famous engraver and artist Wilson like so many others of his time focused upon these quaint scenes. As in London efforts in Newcastle were underway to bring people to the city. Cruikshank accomplished this as purpose behind many of his London life scenes. One reads Wilson's work and one can come away with the feeling that he is saying- come here and encounter these wonderful folk.....could this be the purpose behind the publishing and writing? Was it really just to take home a memory of a song hall night or to sing at home.

Some day I may have the time to look for inconsistancies in Wilson's dialect. If these exist in great numbers then it is more likely that the dialect was part of the act rather than the reality.

How many of the songs of Wilson were actually sung at home.....in pubs.....this will have to wait until diaries and personal communications are studied more in depth.

Certainly with his commercial connections Wilson is more the Tin Pan Alley type writer rather than a collector. One wonders at times at the accuracy of the life he portrays- is it fun and fiction or record of life. Close call.

The songs are amazing- and he certainly produced hundreds of them. Interesting also are the tunes. Lots of these as well although he tended to use several a few times. Some day I will get a list of tunes together and start chipping away at them. A job in itself.

One thing Wilson does is give us a good Ideal of the song hall stage and local concert scene. We do know what the people went to hear even if it may not be a reflection of life or part of the oral tradition.

Certainly after Wilson's time many of the songs were forever stampped upon the memory of many people who took them to their lives and to the pubs and social settings they visited.

What we need today is to inspire new singers to sing and recite the work of Joe Wilson. Today it is available as never before. We just need to find those willing to put it to use.


Conrad Bladey
Peasant