Lyr Add: In the Bar-Room

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: In the Bar-Room
From: Wolfgang
Date: 17 Jan 01 - 04:01 AM

Thanks all for the additional information. I had overlooked that this song had already been posted with a different title.

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: In the Bar-Room
From: bill\sables
Date: 15 Jan 01 - 05:29 PM

Hi NSC, I know the Birtley club well. I used to go there in the 60s but had to move away down south . The last time I was there was for the 35th anniversary ceilidh. Give Pat and John my regards and also Doreen and Brian Henderson. Also would you give Pat my condolences regarding Pete's death. It was a sad loss for Folk Music in the North.
Cheers Bill

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: In the Bar-Room
From: NSC
Date: 15 Jan 01 - 02:35 PM

bill\sables

Marra is a term of endearment meaning close friend, not simply a workmate. Not only would friends try to get jobs in the same area of the pit but they would also socialise together with their spouses and families.

The Elliotts club club, in Birtley, is still running 38 years after Jack Elliott started it. It is one of the oldest continuing clubs in the UK. It is also one of the best.

Pat Elliott, together with John Elliott, Jack's son, are the current custodians of the club

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: In the Bar-Room
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 15 Jan 01 - 01:30 PM

See also  Celebrated Working Man  for a slightly different variant posted by Conrad.  Actually, he also posted it again in another thread, but this link goes to the one with some accompanying discussion.

Malcolm

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: In the Bar-Room
From: bill\sables
Date: 15 Jan 01 - 11:21 AM

One or two notes regarding this song from Bert Lloyd's "Come all ye Bold Miners"
It seems Lloyd collected it from Jack Elliot of Birtley Co. Durham (Not Ramblin Jack Elliot, but Stumbling Jack Elliot)The song was composed by Irish miner Ed Foley in Pennsylvania in 1892. It was brought to Durham during the first world war by a miner from Kentucky called Yankee Jim Roberts with whom Jack Elliot's brother,Rees, "worked marras" (Worked together). An earlier reference of this song is printed in George Korsons "Minstrels of the Mine Patch"(Philadelphia 1938.)
It is also known a Celebrated Working Man and Shoveling Back the Slate.
Cheers Bill

Subject: In the Bar-Room
From: Wolfgang
Date: 15 Jan 01 - 08:43 AM

Here's one for you, Susanne, and for all others. It is copied from the booklet coming with the CD 'There's a man upon the farm', Vol. 20 of the CD series 'The Voice of the People' (highly recommended). The McCalmans sing a similar version titled 'Bar-Room' on their 'Smugglers' LP.

Wolfgang

IN THE BAR-ROOM

I'm a celebrated working man, from work I never shirk.
I can hew more coals than any man from Glasgow down to York,
And if you like to see my style call around on me,
When I've had several beers in the bar-room.

Chorus: In the bar-room, in the bar-room, that's where we congregate
To drill the holes and fill the coals and shovel back the slate,
And for to do a job of work, oh, I'm never late.
That's provided that we do it in the bar-room.

I can judge a shot of powder to the sixteenth of a grain.
I can fill my eighteen tubs though the water falls like rain,
And if you'd like to see me in the perpendicular vein,
It's when I'm setting timber in the bar-room.

At putting [moving the tubs] I'm a dandy - I hope you will agree -
And gannin [going] along the gannin-board I make the chummins flee [empty tubs fly]
[the ganning-board was used for transporting coals from the workings].
Your Kelly sweeps and back-o'er turns [points on the railtrack] they never bother me,
When I'm sitting on the limmers in the bar-room.
[limmers are the supports connecting the pit pony's harness to the leading tub]

And now my song is ended, perhaps we'll have another.
Now, don't you fire any shots in here or we will surely smother.
The landlord here will sooner pull beer than go to all the bother
To put up the ventilators in the bar-room.