The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #156430 Message #3688489
Posted By: Reinhard
21-Feb-15 - 09:50 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Owd Joe Biggin
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Owd Joe Biggin
Owd Jow Biggin was written by Frank Sutton and it's on Muckram Wakes' same-named Trailer album of 1976, Muckram Wakes. Sutton wrote in the sleeve notes:
"This song is based on a fragment, from my home village of Coal Aston, which I found in Chantry Land (Armytage, c.1910), an exhaustive volume of the social history of the old north east Derbyshire parish of Norton. As I remembered it when I wrote the song, the line ran as follows:
Owd Joe B---- took boggart at t' moon.
'Biggin', being a common name locally, was an obvious choice to fill the gap (no disrespect intended). The word 'boggart' is usally connected with the supernatural and in the context of the song, a near, though inadequate translation would be 'fright'.
I now mus confess that, subsequent to writing the song, I came across the book again and was surprised to find that out wild-eyed friend's name was George B----. I hope George will forgive my mistake and I ask anyone listening to this track, as they join Muckram Wakes in the chorus, to help make amends by singing, not 'Joe Biggin', but 'Geo. Biggin'!"