The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #33180   Message #3262325
Posted By: Artful Codger
23-Nov-11 - 05:27 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Cadgwith Anthem
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Cadgwith Anthem
See other threads on the song. Contrary to the hype, it wasn't "written in the 50's by Cadgwith fisherman," and although some more verses have been added (that also is described in those threads), the earliest collected version (1901) consisted of only two verses--as it happens, those sung in Cadgwith by the fishermen's choir, with a few alterations; a fuller four-verse version was published in 1906.

Of the verses reportedly "written" at the session you refer to, only three seem to have "entered the tradition", and two of the three have proven to be just slight variants of the verses in the 1906 text. I don't doubt that additional verses were written, but they don't appear to have acquired legs--the relevance of that session is inflated.

(BTW, why would the children expect their fathers to come robbing this way? Do the robbers follow a route, like caroling children? "Here we come a robbering..." Clearly too much liquor at that session.)

Next we'll be hearing that Steeleye Span actually wrote the song, time-travelled to Cadgwith and taught it to the fishermen, who mistook the line "beautiful (roast of) catsmeat" (actually, loin chops) for "the beautiful (rose/daffodil/hydrangea/invasive weed of) Cashmere". Then the fishermen time-travelled back to the 1890's, taught it to seamen, and the rest, as they say, is revisionist history. I'm off to tell Bert Lloyd, John Jacob Niles and George Bush...