Songs about Southampton

Subject: Songs about Southampton
From: GUEST,Taunus Bop
Date: 13 Jun 00 - 11:51 PM

Hi all I am searching titles & lyrics of songs about the city of Southampton. Can anybody help me? Cheers TB

Subject: RE: Songs about Southampton
From: The Shambles
Date: 14 Jun 00 - 01:55 AM

There is a chap who writes and sings about Hampshire. I can't for the life of me think of his name but watch this space, it may come to me.

Subject: RE: Songs about Southampton
From: The Shambles
Date: 14 Jun 00 - 03:01 AM

Not got the name yet but I do remember where I heard about him.

There was a terrible TV film made by Ken Russell, about 'Folk'. It featured Fairport Convention and this chap, singing songs about his local area.

His name was ??????????????

Subject: RE: Songs about Southampton
From: The Shambles
Date: 14 Jun 00 - 01:01 PM

Bob Appleyard. This is an 'ad' that I found (circa March 1998).

Home recordings. Songs of Lymington I&II, Songs Of The (New) Forest & The Lost Village. 19 Solent Close, Lymington, Hampshire SO41 3ST. TEL [phone].

I know the titles of these sound a bit rural but he may be able to help?

Subject: RE: Songs about Southampton
From: Ed Pellow
Date: 14 Jun 00 - 01:25 PM

I've got a book: "Folk Songs of Old Hampshire" edited by John Paddy Browne which has got a few songs specifically about Southampton:

"The Southampton Tragedy" (concerning the murder of Naomi Kingswell in 1856

"The Knife and Scissor Man" about a Southampton pedler, which mentions lots of place names

The Woolston Ferry about, erm, the Woolston Ferry

I'm too busy and too slow at typing to post them all now, but let me know if you want anything more on any of them.

Ed

Subject: RE: Songs about Southampton
From: GUEST,Taunus Bop
Date: 15 Jun 00 - 02:06 AM

Thanks for the cooperation, but I thought there would be songs about the city itself, rather than particular issues. Anyways Ed I'll be gald to get the lyrics of the Woolston Ferry sometime or any additional info of my requirement. Cheers, TB

Subject: RE: Songs about Southampton
From: The Shambles
Date: 15 Jun 00 - 08:01 AM

This may also be of some help.UK Folkies.

Subject: Lyr Add: The Woolston Ferry^^
From: Ed Pellow
Date: 15 Jun 00 - 06:05 PM

Taunus Bop,

As requested, here are the lyrics for 'The Woolston Ferry':

The Woolston Ferry

(1st part sung to the tune of 'Swing Low Sweet Chariot')

I looked over Woolston and what did I see
Coming for to carry me home
That old Woolston Ferry coming towards me
Coming for to carry me home

(Remainder sung to the tune of 'Midnight Express')

If you're ever up in Sholing
And don't want to go to town
Don't go by Bitterne
Take the long way round
Take a trip across the ferry
Take a trip across the sea
You can go for free

Chorus
On the Woolston Ferry
It doesn't travel very fast
It was never built for comfort
It was built to last

On two steel hawsers
Across the river it will creep
The silver glints in the sunlight
And flops back in the deep
And from the deck of the ferry
What a wonderful sight
They shipwrights grafting
At Thorneycroft's on the right

Go and see Lowry's painting
In the Art Gallery
Of the wonderful relic
Of a past century
And when I speak of it's construction
You'll be suprised to learn
That the bow going one way
Coming back becomes the stern

See the weather-beaten captain
With his weather-beaten tan
He don't wear no gold braid
He's a corporation man
But the captains of the ferry
They're a dying race
There ain't no ex-tram drivers
To take their place

But the floating bridge has had it
It will have to go
The motorists don't like it
16p a throw
So they've built a bridge of concrete
Very modern, very high
Every time I use it
I look down and heave a sigh
 

Ed

Subject: RE: Songs about Southampton
From: scouse
Date: 16 Jun 00 - 05:01 PM

Anyone remember the rest of the words to this little ditti

"When the Sun shines down on Totten,The stench is something rotten,but it's better when the Tide is coming in.?????????

Subject: RE: Songs about Southampton
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Dec 18 - 04:24 PM

Subject: RE: Songs about Southampton
From: RTim
Date: 18 Dec 18 - 05:31 PM

Wow - this an old old thread - OneI have never seen before.....
There are many songs about Southampton that are still valid today, even if this thread is old.
The writers of note are - Mike Sadler who wrote amongst them - the Woolston Ferry and Flaming June songs; and Graham Perry who wrote The Channels, Knife & Scissor Man, etc.. and Rick Keeling wrote wrote many songs of the area.

Southampton and area songs are a subject in their own (write...) - need more info - write to me....

Tm Radford

Subject: RE: Songs about Southampton
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 21 Dec 18 - 06:23 AM

I've emailed the organisers of the Fo'c'sle (recent past and present) and Woolston and Bursledon folk clubs about this thread, in case they're able to add some information as well as Tim....

Kitty

Subject: RE: Songs about Southampton
From: GUEST,Mark Bluemel
Date: 21 Dec 18 - 06:37 AM

Brian Hooper has written some songs about Soton and Pompey.

Subject: RE: Songs about Southampton
From: GUEST,Brian Hooper
Date: 21 Dec 18 - 12:13 PM

The 2005 Forest Tracks album "Southampton in Song" might be a good place to start! By Jeff Henry and myself. Knife & Scissors Man (Graham Penny), The Sack of Southampton (Rob Sibthorpe), Looking Back (Roy Harrison), Poll of Itchen Ferry (anon), The Sinking of the Titanic (Stoneman), Northam's List (Barry Wake), The Woolston Ferry (Mike Sadler), The Bells of St Mary's (Furber & Adams), 4 o'clock on Thursdays (Ken Stephens), The Southampton Tragedy (anon), The Channels (Graham Penny), The Famous Itchen Ferry Song (Hooper & Henry), The Southampton Spitfire Song (King), Here in Southampton (Hooper & Henry).
There's quite a bit more too, from the pens of Barry Wake, Jeff Henry and me.

Subject: RE: Songs about Southampton
From: Andy7
Date: 21 Dec 18 - 01:30 PM

As a Sotonian myself, and having seen them many times, I can definitely recommend Jeff Henry, Brian Hooper and Barry Wake, both as songwriters and as performers.

Subject: RE: Songs about Southampton
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 21 Dec 18 - 03:41 PM

The Roud index lists 2 titles with Southampton in the title.

1. A fragment collected by Baring Gould (3v) - In Southampton City, scan of words and tune is in the entry.

2. A Most Strange and Trew Ballad of a Monstrous Child Borne in Southampton...1602... in Clark: The Shirburn Ballads, which you can find at archive.org. The child was born with extra mouths and ears, a sign of God's anger!

There are ca225 entries for songs actually collected in Southampton

Mick

Subject: RE: Songs about Southampton
From: GUEST
Date: 23 Oct 23 - 07:15 AM

Is it possible you could send me a photo of the lyrics please for "The Knife and Scissor Man" about a Southampton peddler jack?.
It was one of the first songs I was taught as a 10 year old on the guitar and I can remember most of the lyrics and the melody but would love to fill in the blanks. I'm 46 now so harder to remember lol

Subject: RE: Songs about Southampton
From: GUEST,The Man from UNCOOL
Date: 23 Oct 23 - 02:37 PM

Will have to e-mail peeps who could help:
Jeff Henry, Debra Chesman and [I think] Mike Goodall all sing Knife-&-Scissors Man.  Will post here if I get responses.
I have a large repository of the late Rick Keeling's stuff, which ought to be transcribed [a project for another day], but I did one yest. for a Zoom Festival which the person who alerted me to this thread heard.
Southampton gets MENTIONED in many songs, because it's a port, but it wouldn't satisfy the OP, who was interested in material ABOUT the city, not just glancing references.

Subject: RE: Songs about Southampton
From: RTim
Date: 23 Oct 23 - 04:17 PM

Unfortunately most of the Southampton and Hampshire songs were on Forest Tracks, but since the death of Paul Marsh..the whole company has been wound up...we don't even have the great web pages that Paul created and maintained...all very sad...

Tim Radford

Subject: RE: Songs about Southampton
From: GUEST
Date: 23 Oct 23 - 07:15 AM

Is it possible you could send me a photo of the lyrics please for "The Knife and Scissor Man" about a Southampton peddler jack?.
It was one of the first songs I was taught as a 10 year old on the guitar and I can remember most of the lyrics and the melody but would love to fill in the blanks. I'm 46 now so harder to remember lol

Subject: RE: Songs about Southampton
From: GUEST,The Man from UNCOOL
Date: 23 Oct 23 - 02:37 PM

Will have to e-mail peeps who could help:
Jeff Henry, Debra Chesman and [I think] Mike Goodall all sing Knife-&-Scissors Man.  Will post here if I get responses.
I have a large repository of the late Rick Keeling's stuff, which ought to be transcribed [a project for another day], but I did one yest. for a Zoom Festival which the person who alerted me to this thread heard.
Southampton gets MENTIONED in many songs, because it's a port, but it wouldn't satisfy the OP, who was interested in material ABOUT the city, not just glancing references.

Subject: RE: Songs about Southampton
From: RTim
Date: 23 Oct 23 - 04:17 PM

Unfortunately most of the Southampton and Hampshire songs were on Forest Tracks, but since the death of Paul Marsh..the whole company has been wound up...we don't even have the great web pages that Paul created and maintained...all very sad...

Tim Radford

Subject: RE: Songs about Southampton
From: GUEST,Paul Burgess aka Brock
Date: 15 Jan 24 - 12:36 PM

Here's a song by Rob (Sibby) Sibthorpe.
I transcribed it from 'Southampton in Song' by Brian Hooper and Jeff Henry

The Sack Of Southampton


In thirteen hundred and thirty-eight on the fourth day of October
There came a fleet of fifty galleys upon Southampton Water
They landed at the gravel close by the Weston Shore
Came rushing up Old Bull Street into the town did pour

Chorus after each verse:

So come you bold Southampton men listen to the call
You’d better be quick when you build your walls
Or you’ll do no building at all

They slew the children in the streets and the women in the houses
They stabbed the holy congregation running from St Michael’s
They filled the town with fire and filled the men with dread
The burgesses like cowards to the countryside had fled

All that day they reeked their will with fire and sword and dagger
While the men of old Southampton outside the town did gather
Their numbers swelled by volunteers from the countryside all round
At dawn we’ll be back and we’ll take revenge for the sacking of our town

By dawn the French and Spaniards and the other bold invaders
Slept exhausted from a day and night of evil favours
When suddenly the English came storming through the town
They drove the pirates to the sea and they cut the stragglers down

In thirteen hundred and thirty-eight on the fourth day of October
There came a fleet of fifty galleys upon Southampton Water
And for a while they held the town but gave the town away
Leaving homes and lives destroyed that flourished yesterday

The final chorus has 'you'll do no building at' repeated 3 times.
I'm not sure in the first verse whether it's supposed to be 'the western shore'. ie I'm not sure whether Weston Shore (on the other side of the Itchen from the main town) is correct or even whether it had that name back in 1338.

Subject: RE: Songs about Southampton
From: GUEST,Debra Chesman
Date: 05 Aug 24 - 03:49 PM

Only just noticed this thread today and several parts have already been answered by other past organizers of the Fo’c’sle, like me. I’m in the UK now without my Songs of Old Hampshire book which contains Graham Penny’s song Peddler Jack. But I believe that John Paddy Brown might still have copies for sale.

Subject: RE: Songs about Southampton
From: RTim
Date: 05 Aug 24 - 04:26 PM

There is NO song called "Peddler Jack" by Graham Penny in John Paddy Browne's book as quoted by Debra....There is "Jack the Painter" by Brian Hooper...and that is about Portsmouth...
John Edgar Mann gave me a copy of Folk Songs of Old Hampshire in 1987 for Christmas and it is in one of my bookcases all of 4 foot from my easy chair!!

Tim Radford

Subject: RE: Songs about Southampton
From: RTim
Date: 05 Aug 24 - 04:43 PM

The "Peddler Jack" song is actually called "The Knife and Scissor Man" and that was written by Graham Penny - Jack is the main character...so I owe Debra a little apology..

Tim Radford

Subject: RE: Songs about Southampton
From: Vic Smith
Date: 13 Sep 24 - 10:44 AM

Not a song but a story.....
I was booked to play and call a dance in Southampton with a bunch of musicians that that had not played together before or since. We called ourselves..... wait for it..... The Itchen Scratch Band

Subject: RE: Songs about Southampton
From: RTim
Date: 13 Sep 24 - 12:55 PM

The Itchen Scratch Band used to be put together by Rollo Woods (when he was alive)...and it could be any mix of players...some good...some not so good...(The Itchen is the river on the East side of Southampton..)


Tim Radford

Subject: RE: Songs about Southampton
From: GUEST,The Man from UNCOOL
Date: 11 Oct 24 - 10:10 PM

Paul Burgess [Brock]'s post with the lyrics to "The Sack Of Southampton" poses the question of Weston / Western Shore.  A locally-significant reference only, but the Western Shore was the beach replaced by Western Esplanade during the '30s land reclamation [which became the Western Docks, inter alia].  This would also fit with the fact that the attack was on the portion of the wall, which indolent merchants had allowed to fall into disrepair, since it meant they didn't have to port their goods [mostly wines, etc.] round via the city gates [which gave directly onto the water, back then], they could lower them down to the ships directly from their premises.
It was this weakness the marauders exploited, and subsequently resulted in fines from the King on those merchants, and an imposition to repair and maintain the walls to prevent repeat incidents.
Humans have always taken the 'easy' way out!

Subject: RE: Songs about Southampton
From: RTim
Date: 13 Oct 24 - 05:08 PM

Of course there is the song Written and performed by Pink Floyd...But it really about the Iron Lady...Maggie Thatcher....

Southampton Docks.

They disembarked in 45
And no-one spoke and no-one smiled
There were to many spaces in the line.
Gathered at the cenotaph
All agreed with the hand on heart
To sheath the sacrificial Knifes.

But now
She stands upon Southampton dock
With her handkerchief
And her summer frock clings
To her wet body in the rain.
In quiet desperation knuckles
White upon the slippery reins
She bravely waves the boys Goodbye again.

And still the dark stain spreads between
His shoulder blades.
A mute reminder of the poppy fields and graves.
And when the fight was over
We spent what they had made.
But in the bottom of our hearts
We felt the final cut.

Songwriters: Roger Waters

Subject: RE: Songs about Southampton
From: The Man from UNCOOL
Date: 14 Oct 24 - 01:22 PM

Heard a song referencing Southampton [and incorporated into the lyrics in the correct metre, not always a given even in some quite widely-sung material!] at FOCSLE Music last week [8th Oct.]
"From Halcyon" by Will Varley
rather strong writing, I thought [no tune found online, tho' anyone signed up to certain lyrics/music sites might find it]

The best, most sense-making version I can find, from several variants

I finished writing this song in the summer,
now I’m watching the snowflakes fall.
As the years go by, I wonder if I really like it here at all.
Well, I woke up this morning in a strange town,
the truth is I thought I’d be dead by now.
I guess I’ll keep on going until they find me out,
with love from halcyon.

I’m glad that I stayed out drinking,
put some medicine in my mind,
to distract me from this grain of sand
in the middle of space and of time.
This morning my head is losing the war,
it’s cold outside as I walk out the door
and I get the feeling this has happened before,
with love from halcyon.

I can feel myself disappearing in the early morning sun.
I fade with the road that I’m walking,
with love from halcyon.

As the morning breaks over Southampton,
I’m wondering how long and how far.
Still thinking about that old friend, as the waitress trips over my guitar.
See he stopped singing songs and he moved away —
I can picture him now singing “Lowlands Away” –
heard he’s picking apples down near Rattlesnake Bay*,
with love from halcyon.

I remember early evening the first time Summer showed her face,
we were sat outside with a <------> ?GB?** and wine,
talking about the golden days.
We woke up laughing in the Paris dusk,
and a man on the boat pulled a knife on us.
If time is money and money ain’t much,
with love from halcyon.

And I could feel us disappearing in the early morning sun,
for we were just dead men walking,
with love from Halzephron.

And I’ll be moving on in the morning,
to go searching across this land.
Well, I don’t know what I’ve been looking for yet
and I doubt that I’ll ever understand.
I’m a copy of a copy in my own version of time.
I’ll never see yours and you’ll never see mine
but we still see the same sunsets,
walk the same lines,
with love from halcyon.

I started writing this song in the winter,
now I’m watching the spring blossoms fall.
Tell me how can the difference between hours and years,
feel so endless and yet so small.
Well, I left that house about four this morning,
I got a feeling that they’ll carry on going;
’til the cigarettes freeze over and the whisky stops flowing,
they’ll be singing “Lowlands Away”.

And if halcyon is the days gone by,
then they’re the ones that I love.
If now is the place that I’m supposed to be,
it isn’t long enough.

Some day soon I’ll be a photograph,
underneath my grandson’s bed.
I heard there’s a universe somewhere,
where this song wasn’t written yet.
So, if you feel yourself disappearing in the early morning sun,
just smile and keep on walking,
with love from halcyon,
with love from Halzephron.

Halzephron is a cliff formation in Cornwall, where WV was on a walking tour when he wrote the song

* more likely Florida than Mississippi [which is renowned for its landscape, thus less likely to have commercial orchards — unless “picking apples” is another ** !!!!]
** I’m not into drug refs., if that’s what this suggested transcription is

Subject: RE: Songs about Southampton
From: Mrrzy
Date: 14 Oct 24 - 08:31 PM

Knife and Scissor Man lyrics pls? The google knows nothing, Jon Snow.

Going to be in Southampton one day this coming May. Literally. The 12th.

Subject: RE: Songs about Southampton
From: RTim
Date: 15 Oct 24 - 10:40 AM

I have created a separate post with the Lyrics of "The Knife and Scissor Man" by Graham Penny..please look there...

Tim Radford