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Subject: Folklore: Study of the Billy Barlow Phenomenon From: Joybell Date: 25 Oct 08 - 10:01 PM "Hey Ho Raggedy-O. A Study of the Billy Barlow Phenomenon". By me. With lots of help from my friends. Well here it is. Ten years of study. Years in the writing. Lots and lots of hard work by my new and wonderful friend, Valda Low, who converted it for the web. Also, together we tracked down new material for the re-written chapter about Australia's very own Inimitable Barlow. Another new friend folklorist, Warren Fahey, believed in the project and gave me the chance to have my study of my dear Billy Barlow -- in his many, many manifestations -- out here in cyberspace. I can't properly convey my thanks to Warren and Valda. So here you go: http://warrenfahey.com/barlow/ Never can get these to work. Three Cheers and a Tiger for Billy Barlow Joy |
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Subject: RE: Folklore: Study of the Billy Barlow Phenomenon From: Ross Campbell Date: 25 Oct 08 - 10:48 PM http://warrenfahey.com/barlow/ There you go. Looks like a great project, Joy. Congratulations. I met Warren Fahey on my last trip to Oz - a very knowledgable bloke, and his website is well worth a bit of anyone's time. Ross |
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Subject: RE: Folklore: Study of the Billy Barlow Phenomenon From: Sandra in Sydney Date: 25 Oct 08 - 11:49 PM yah! finally done, congratulations Joy. I've started reading & am part way thru Ch. 1 - but as my left eye is sore, I'll go back later (said eye is not sore due to looking at your book, Joy) also congratulations to former Mudcatter Valda (Roo) & Warren Ross - it takes more than a "bit" of time to look at Warren's site, it's a gold-mine of Oz folklore. sandra |
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Subject: RE: Folklore: Study of the Billy Barlow Phenomenon From: Joybell Date: 26 Oct 08 - 01:57 AM Thanks, Ross. I always have trouble with those clickys. Hello Sandra. Oh no!! Just this morning I noticed that one of my current orphaned Magpies had made off with my little penguin's eye. The left one! (A little felt penguin Sandra sent me -- for those who are wondering.) He removed it with love and not malice. They're always trying to preen my eyelashes. I'll fix it and you'll be all better. OOOO scary. Cheers, Joy |
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Subject: RE: Folklore: Study of the Billy Barlow Phenomenon From: Ross Campbell Date: 26 Oct 08 - 02:26 AM Hi, Sandra I know, I know - but if you take it a bit at a time, you won't get overwhelmed! My own eyes are getting sticky. Clocks go back tonight, which promises an extra hour in bed, but it doesn't actually work if you stay up this late. Ross |
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Subject: RE: Folklore: Study of the Billy Barlow Phenomenon From: Sandra in Sydney Date: 26 Oct 08 - 03:58 AM Gidday, Ross We started Daylight Savings earlier this month, on the weekend of a Festival & several musos didn't change their clocks & missed the 9 o'clock session! sandra |
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Subject: RE: Folklore: Study of the Billy Barlow Phenomenon From: AliceinWonderland Date: 26 Oct 08 - 07:19 PM I must say I have thoroughly enjoyed working with Joy to get her beloved Billy online. It took a while but if you read it you'll see it has all been worth the effort! And thanks Joy for the kind words here. Not necessary at all, but much appreciated nevertheless. If anyone sees a problem in the formatting let me know. I'm sure there is something that looks different on other computers to the ones I checked it on. re- Warren's site: I actually do the site for him. Like Joy, he has been great to work with and we are gradually getting his massive collection online. Now... if only we had more room.... so much more to add! Valda |
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Subject: RE: Folklore: Study of the Billy Barlow Phenomenon From: Sandra in Sydney Date: 27 Oct 08 - 02:19 AM Gidday, Valda Warren's site is a full time job - it's an amazing site, congratulations to you both. sandra |
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Subject: RE: Folklore: Study of the Billy Barlow Phenomenon From: Malcolm Douglas Date: 27 Oct 08 - 09:25 AM One thing you might do is check the css links. Most of them seem to lead to a copy of the stylesheet on your home computer rather than the web server, and the filepath in the default index page is wrong, which prevents some older browsers from loading the html page itself. |
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Subject: RE: Folklore: Study of the Billy Barlow Phenomenon From: Joybell Date: 27 Oct 08 - 05:23 PM Hello Malcolm. Thank you. Alice, my Wonderland Friend. It really looks good, doesn't it. I'm so stuck in the 19th century, I never could have presented Billy online. They would have been amazed -- all the Billys. Never did do a count of how many BBs I found. Hundreds though. Then there were the race horses called BB. Never be free. Never. Cheers, Joy |
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Subject: RE: Folklore: Study of the Billy Barlow Phenomenon From: Desert Dancer Date: 28 Oct 08 - 10:52 AM I'd only ever heard of the the one in the song ("let's go hunting") and didn't realize he was part of a bigger story. Thanks for that. ~ Becky in Tucson |
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Subject: RE: Folklore: Study of the Billy Barlow Phenomenon From: Joybell Date: 28 Oct 08 - 04:54 PM Becky -- That's the song that started me off. I found a little booklet about a performer here in Australia called Billy Barlow. I thought the two might be connected. (Those two bits of information actually have little to do with Billy it turns out. The performer rarely, if ever, used the BB character and "Let's Go a-huntin'" may be also just be an example of the use of the name.) Next thing the lounge-room wall was covered with Billy Barlows and lines and arrows. Connections within connections, within connections. I love patterns and I love a puzzle. Now it's 10 years on and I still haven't found all the pieces let alone all the connections. Here's one I never found: I believe there's a BB song somewhere with the line -- "...stuck in the mud like Billy Barlow..." Or a similar phrase. I found two references to it. One from New Zealand and one from the Civil War diary of a soldier. It must pre-date the American Civil War. In both of these the line is used as a well-known one. There are hundreds of BB songs, because they were topical. Some performers sang new ones every night. I never could get interested in collecting them, but they are valuable in filling in the gaps in the BB story. Such fun. Cheers, Joy |
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Subject: RE: Folklore: Study of the Billy Barlow Phenomenon From: AliceinWonderland Date: 30 Oct 08 - 08:46 PM Sorry I didn't say thanks Sandra, for the lovely comment about the Folklore site but I've been away. So now that I'm back - thank you!! I really appreciate it. I've been helping Warren for about 6 years now to get his collection online. I do it for the love of it and because I feel it is important. The same with Joy's Billy. It is so important to get these things "out there" for now and future generations to have. Malcolm, the stylesheet is the one for Warren's site and Barlow doesn't point to it or need it (even though I see in my cutting and pasting I have left it inadvertently in the source files for Barlow) I didn't realise it effected the Barlow "look" in any way. (If you want to PM me at all feel free and I will try to correct whatever it is you see and I don't) regards, Valda |
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Subject: RE: Folklore: Study of the Billy Barlow Phenomenon From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 30 Oct 08 - 09:37 PM Billy Barlow reference- "In Bohemia, with Du Maurier," 1896, by Felix Moscheles, with 63 original drawings by G. Du Maurier. On line. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/13517/13517-h/13517-h.htm One might have to use- http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13517 120-122 of the Gutenberg text reproduction. "(Billy Barlow was, I really don't know why, for the time being, synonymous with George du Maurier.)" A whole section there- Oh! dear Raggedy, oh! "Ah! Chopin's 'Impromptu'! Schubert's 'Serenade'! Have you ever heard these pretty decently played? If you haven't, old fellow, I'll merely observe That a treat most felicious you have in reserve. Lord! How Billy's soul grazes in diggins of clover, While Stefani rapidly fingers them over, Feelingly, fervidly fingers them over. Illusion that enervates! Feverish dream Of excitement magnetic, inspired, supreme, Or despairing dejection, alternate, extreme! Gad! These opium-benumbing performances seem, In their sad wild unresting irregular flow Just expressly concocted for William Barlow. Oh! dear Raggedy, oh!" Sorry, but the writing in that book just flows- Couldn't help but put some of it down. I hope this lead isn't false, but I think a Barlow-stick in the mud reference is somewhere in that classic. |
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Subject: RE: Folklore: Study of the Billy Barlow Phenomenon From: Joybell Date: 31 Oct 08 - 11:13 PM Ah! Q, thank you. That's a reference I haven't seen. I must take a look there. If the "stuck in the mud" line is there it will be another later reference -- a puzzle-piece none-the-less. Coppin and Cowell both used "William Barlow" at times -- especially when they were being pompous. Off to look at the book. Alice, Alice. Lookee here! Cheers, Joy |
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Subject: RE: Folklore: Study of the Billy Barlow Phenomenon From: Joybell Date: 31 Oct 08 - 11:24 PM Hmmm. I can't figure out the connection either. Haven't read the whole thing yet. There's a reference to Poe along with BB too. I do know that Poe was sometimes called "a Billy Barlow" by his publisher. |
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Subject: RE: Folklore: Study of the Billy Barlow Phenomenon From: Joybell Date: 31 Oct 08 - 11:32 PM I don't think the "stick in the mud" line is connected. Where it's used in the references I'm looking at it means actually stuck in mud. Here are the examples: 1. "...the beautiful sloughs where Billy Barlow will sometimes get stuck in the mud." 2. and, like "Billy Barlow" (of dear childhood's memory), stuck in the mud. The first from a Civil War Diary. The second from a New Zealand newspaper. |
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Subject: RE: Folklore: Study of the Billy Barlow Phenomenon From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 31 Oct 08 - 11:45 PM Oh dear, lackaday, oh |
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Subject: RE: Folklore: Study of the Billy Barlow Phenomenon From: Joybell Date: 02 Nov 08 - 10:16 PM It's off through the shadows with Billy Barlow. |
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Subject: Study of the Billy Barlow Phenomenon. New bits From: Joybell Date: 22 Jul 11 - 08:24 PM 3 years on and I'm trying to focus on just one "Billy Barlow". I'm dealing with his story. However, I can't help finding bits and pieces that fit with my 13-year study of the whole BB thing. Here goes: 1. "...stuck in the mud like Billy Barlow". I now have many references to this line, mostly from here in Australia and from New Zealand. Up to the 1870s. The latest comes from just west of where I live. It seems the line was used whenever a town-council was a bit tardy about fixing a road. Or when there was a flood. All of these post-date the line from the American Civil War soldier mentioned above. NB he says it's "childhood's memory". The line must come from a song popular enough to easily slip into public consciousness. 2. A friend tells me that, in his part of Victoria, Australia, "a bit of a Billy Barlow" -- said of a particular type of character --is still part of race-track cant. 3. "Little Billy Barlow". Just found a reference to this title as given to my current subject of study. It comes from his performances in Aberdeen in the 1840s. Did he sing a song containing this line in Australia? Is that why I heard it as a song-fragment, in Forbes? Watch this space. All further ideas and links welcome. Cheers, Joy |
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Subject: RE: Folklore: Study of the Billy Barlow Phenomenon From: Joybell Date: 31 Mar 13 - 08:43 PM More references to "stuck in the mud like Billy Barlow". One has "stuck in the mud was Billy Barlow". Another has, "I'm fairly stuck in the mud. Billy Barlow" This one is from an article from Portland, Victoria, Australia in 1846. This may indicate that a Billy Barlow song with a line "stuck in the mud..." was well known by this early date. Still haven't found the song but it seems I need to keep looking before 1846 in English and American collections. Cheers, Joy |
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