The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #17189   Message #4209450
Posted By: GUEST,Nick Dow
08-Oct-24 - 03:26 PM
Thread Name: Origins: Billy Brink / Bluey Brink
Subject: RE: Origins: Billy Brink / Bluey Brink
Yes you've put it very well. I think Lloyd's tune use was misleading. The tune for the Weaver and the Factory Maid, was collected by Sharp in Somerset and was the melody for 'The Irish Lad' a rather obscure song. The tune for Jack Orion was 'Donald Where's your trousers' other tunes were adapted. The Devil and the Feathery wife' was unpublished when I was first aware of it, and in Buchan's 'Secret Songs of Silence, a copy of which was given by Lloyd to Martin Carthy who gave a copy to me and I gave it to Nic Caffrey who passed it on to the publishers who eventually put it into print. Lloyd's tune is fairly obviously 'Rosin the Beau'. The list goes on. Trim rigged Doxie is a fabrication based on the 'Rambling Sailor'. The big worry is how much of Lloyds 'Industrial Folklore was also manufactured. I am not expert enough to comment upon that, and will leave it to my contemporaries. Maybe your good self Robert. I spent many years admiring Bert, and in many ways I still do, especially his writing style. His rolling prose in a great influence on my published work, but once again I will retreat into the safe haven of subjectivity to approach his songs. That's really what you have said (but maybe a bit less longwinded.)