Lyr Add: The Newcombe Gauger

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Newcombe Gauger
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 07 Feb 07 - 12:37 AM

It's a Scottish song (as if that needed confirming); there's a text in Ord, Bothy Songs and Ballads and seven, some with tunes, in the Greig-Duncan collection (vol 5, which I don't have). MacColl used a lot of material from Greig-Duncan, frequently grafted onto fragments he had learned from his father. Here, the hero seems to have been demoted; he is usually an admiral or at least a captain.
Number 2343 in the Roud Folk Song Index.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Newcombe Gauger
From: Greg B
Date: 06 Feb 07 - 05:53 PM

Is the recording to which you refer 'Haul on the Bowline' with
Ewan MacColl, A L Lloyd, and Alf Edwards?

MacColl was particular about pronunciation...is 'gouger'
perhaps the Scottish pronunciation? The rest of the song
seems to be in Scots dialect.

Perhaps you need to haul your OED a bit further north :-)

On the recording I have, MacColl is at his best, as is
Alf Edwards' concertina.

Both powerful, strident, and pumping away at this wonderful
song.

Subject: The new-come (was
From: Richard Mellish
Date: 06 Feb 07 - 05:34 PM

I own up to having a pirated copy of a McColl recording (copied MANY years ago from a copy already pirated by someone else before it reached me). I've had most of it in my head ever since, and recently thought I might learn it completely. I came here to see what I could find, and found the version in the system here under the title "The Newcombe Gauger". The McColl recording from which that version was taken down must be substantially different from the one that I have, which I have notated below.

While I'm about commenting: McColl pronounces the title as if it were "gouger", i.e. someone who gouges, rather than someone who gauges. I've always been suspicious about that, and I've just now checked in the OED, which confirms the pronunciation that one would expect.

And I'm sure it's not "Newcombe" gauger but "new-come", i.e. newly arrived.

Richard
^^^
There was a sailor brisk and neat
A bonnie lassie he did entreat
A bonnie lassie he did entreat
For to wed wi' him, a sailor.

"Oh", says the bonnie lassie,"but that won't do
For my mother she'd be in an awful stew
My mother she'd be in an awful stew
If I went and married a sailor."

"Then what contrivance can we make,
Or what contrivance can we take?
What contrivance can we make?
For to beguile your mammy?"

"Oh you'll cast off your trousers blue
And you'll on wi' the garb o' the gauger true
You'll on wi' the garb o' the gauger true
And you'll come tae oor town a gauger."

And when you come into our town
Blythe and merry come you in
Saying "Have you any malt or gin?
For here am I, the gauger".

He's cast off his claes of blue
And he's on wi' the garb o' the gauger true
He's on wi' the garb o' the gauger true
And he's come to the town as a gauger.

And when he came into their town
Blythe and merry went he in
Saying "Have you any malt or gin?
For here am I, the gauger".

"Oh", says the lassie, "come awa'
Maybe we have a cask or twa.
Maybe we have a cask or twa.
Gin ye be the new-come gauger."

Yes (?) he's searched but and he's searched ben
He's searched out and he's searched in
But ne'er a drop o' the gin could he find
[The rhyme would be better with this line changed to "... could he find o' the gin"]
For he hadnae the wiles of a gauger.

"Come awa', lassie, and let me see
Where that cask o' gin may be
If I don't get the gin, lassie, I'll get thee
For the guiling o' the gauger."

"Oh", says the old wife, "and that's well done
For she's always ready with anyone
She's always ready with anyone
And most with the new-come gauger."

But long ere before a month was done
The gauger and the lass were one;
He's married her and off she's gone;
She's away wi' the roving sailor!

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Newcombe Gauger
From: Susan of DT
Date: 01 Apr 00 - 09:10 PM

A gauger is a tax collector. Presumably wore a uniform. Sailors generally were regarded as poor marriage prospects (by parents, at least).

The line, I think, is "come to oor town as a gauger"

If you enter "gauger" (without the quotes) in the blue search box at the top of the page, you'll find the lyrics. Fine song!

Subject: The Newcombe Gauger
From: GUEST,Geoff Grainger
Date: 01 Apr 00 - 08:56 PM

This song has driven me mad since hearing a Ewan McColl version not so long back. I would love to sing it myself but on the principle of only singing that which I understand, this song has been barred to me for some three months. My questions:

a) What is a gauger? (profession?, district Scotland, Northumbria?) b) What is the garb of a gauger? (and while we're at it, what's wrong with being a sailor?) c) Where is "the town of the gaugers?"

A recent trip to Yorkshire and untold excursions to reference libraries have brought no relief.

Please, please somebody, put me out of my misery,

Yours eternally grateful,

Geoff