The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #165660 Message #3983289
Posted By: Jim Carroll
20-Mar-19 - 05:54 AM
Thread Name: UK 60s Folk Club Boom?
Subject: RE: UK 60s Folk Club Boom?
Subject: RE: Origins: little shirt my mother gave to me? From: Jim Carroll - PM Date: 20 Mar 19 - 05:48 AM
By the way Dave - what id more folky Belfast town or Dirty old town The latter 0- hands down One of the distinctive features of folk song is its economy of line and its ability to reac a conclusion The former meanders without wever getting anywhere, is full of superfluous non information and it reaches no conclusion The song carries no description or characterization, the people are cyphers and the surroundings are indistinguishable It deals in sentimentality rather than sentiment
On the other hand, Dirty old town is precise and sharply defined as a working class town - the lovers are not a mass of undefinable humanity, but two very identifiable human beings It ends with a desire to tear down the place being sung about As a young man, me and a Salford girl over-snogged one night and I missed my last train home to Liverpool, so, finding four hours on my hands I walked the dark streets of Salford till about four o'clock in the morning - I was bowled over by the reality of MacColl's four verses up against the real thing so much I wrote to my lady friend and said so Compared to that reality, Belfast is chewing gum you enjoy for five minutes and spit out Only time will tell of course - let's see who is singing Belfast Town next year compared to (how old and how widely sung now?) Dirty old Town That goes for all of you 'folkie sounding' pop songs
"I was referring to Nancy Mulligan, Jim" Same difference Dave only loger and drossier - you have advocated for Galway Girl as well
"Nancy Mulligan Ed Sheeran I was twenty-four years old When I met the woman I would call my own Twenty-two grand kids now growing old In that house that your brother bought ya On the summer day when I proposed I made that wedding ring from dentist gold And I asked her father, but her daddy said, "No You can't marry my daughter" She and I went on the run Don't care about religion I'm gonna marry the woman I love Down by the Wexford border She was Nancy Mulligan And I was William Sheeran She took my name and then we were one Down by the Wexford border Well, met her at Guy's in the second world war And she was working on a soldier's ward Never had I seen such beauty before The moment that I saw her Nancy was my yellow rose And we got married wearing borrowed clothes We got eight children now growing old Five sons and three daughters She and I went on the run Don't care about religion I'm gonna marry the woman I love Down by the Wexford border She was Nancy Mulligan And I was William Sheeran She took my name and then we were one Down by the Wexford border From her snow white streak in her jet black hair Over sixty years I've been loving her Now we're sat by the fire in our old armchairs You know Nancy, I adore ya From a farm boy born near Belfast town I never worried about the king and crown 'Cause I found my heart upon the southern ground There's no difference, I assure ya She and I went on the run Don't care about religion I'm gonna marry the woman I love Down by the Wexford border She was Nancy Mulligan And I was William Sheeran She took my name and then we were one Down by the Wexford border"