Origin: Flash Companie / Yellow Handkerchief

Subject: Flash Companie
From: victoria
Date: 24 Jul 98 - 01:11 PM

I would appreciate help in establishing earliest known date and source {if other than oral tradition) for song from Kennedy Folksongs of Britain and Ireland. Song title is "Flash Companie or the Yellow Handkercheif" I do not have access to Kennedy's book and live in a rural area so library is small. I'm searching for songs that would have been current in the period of the Revolutionary war. Thanks for any help, Victoria

Subject: RE: Flash Companie
From: Susan of DT
Date: 24 Jul 98 - 07:38 PM

Kennedy only traces it to 1906

Subject: RE: Flash Companie
From: Martin Ryan.
Date: 26 Jul 98 - 12:04 PM

1906 seems to be the date of collection by the EFDSS. Their publication "The Wanton Seed" refers to other collected versions - all with the same words. This usually means a well-circulated broadsheet - but there is no mention of one.

The item also suggests the air is Irish used, among other things, for "Green Bushes".

Interesting one.

Regards

Subject: Origins: Flash Company / Yellow Handkerchief
From: Joe Offer
Date: 31 Mar 00 - 01:23 AM

Here's the entry from the Traditional Ballad Index:

Yellow Handkerchief, The (Flash Company)

DESCRIPTION: Singer once loved a young girl who wore a yellow handkerchief. Unfortunately, he kept "flash company", and he is now ruined and destitute; "Like a flower in the garden all my color has gone."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Gardiner coll.)
KEYWORDS: disease love clothes lover floatingverses
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South,West))
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Gardham-EarliestVersions, "FLASH COMPANY"
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 360, "The Yellow Handkerchief" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 32, "The Yellow Handkerchief" (1 text, 1 tune); also 58, "The False-Hearted Lover" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #47, "The Myrtle Tree" (1 text, 1 tune)
Howson-SongsSunginSuffolk, #58, "Flash Company" (1 text)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #80, "Flash Company" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, FLASHCMP* (FALSHART*)
ADDITIONAL: Hugh Anderson, _Farewell to Judges and Juries: The Broadside Ballad and Convict Transportation to Australia, 1788-1868_, Red Rooster Press, 2000, p. 13, "Flash Company" (1 text, with a tune on p. 534)
Roud #954
RECORDINGS:
Phoebe Smith, "Yellow Handkerchief" (on Voice11)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(4190), "Flash Company" ("First I loved William, and then I loved John"), Thomas Smith (?), n.d
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Oh, No, Not I" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Green Grows the Laurel (Green Grow the Lilacs)" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [100 words]: MacColl and Seeger, for some inexplicable reason, identify their fragment-of-a-fragment with Laws O 37 ("Mary on the Silvery Tide"). Their version is clearly not a unity, but since it has the chorus and form of this song (and the other bits and pieces are too small to identify), here it files.
Including their text "The False-Hearted Lover" is even more of a stretch, but it consists of one verse certainly from this song, one that seems unique, and four floaters; where else do you file it? This point is discussed in some detail in the notes to Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs. - RBW
Last updated in version 7.0
File: K360

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FLASH COMPANIE (The Yellow Handkerchief)[DT Lyrics]
(Kennedy, Folksongs of Britain and Ireland

For once I loved a young girl as I loved my life
And I thought in my heart I would make her my wife.
With her white cotton stockings, and her high ankle shoes
And she wears a yellow handkerchief wherever she goes.

cho:

So take this yellow handkerchief in remembrance of me
And tie it round your neck, my love, in flash companie.
Flash companie, my boys, like a good many more
If it hadn't a been for flash companie I should never a been
so poor.

For with fiddling and dancing 'twas all my delight
In keeping such company it ruined me quite.
It has ruined me quite, my boys, like a great many more
If it hadn't a been for flash companie I should never a been
so poor.

cho:

For once I had a color as red as the rose
But now I'm as pale as the lily that grows.
Like a flower in the garden all my color has gone
So you see what I'm coming to from loving that one.


(Note: Supplementary verses reported by Kennedy)
First I loved Thomas and then I loved John
And then I loved William, he's a clever young man
With his white cotton stockings and his low ankle shoes
And he wears a blue jacket wherever he goes.

The rocks shall run to water and the sea shall run dry
If ever I prove false, my love, to the girl that loves I
In the middle of the ocean there shall grow a myrtle tree
If ever I prove false, my love, to the girl that loves me.

Come all you pretty flash girls take warning by me
And never build your nest in the top of any tree
For the leaves they will wither and the roots they will decay
And the beauty of a young girl will soon fade away.

Recorded by Holdstock & McLeod; by June Tabor on A Cut Above
@love @chorus @harmony
filename[ FLASHCMP
TUNE FILE: FLASHCMP
CLICK TO PLAY
RG

Subject: ADD Version: Flash Company (from Waterson)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 26 Jul 21 - 03:30 PM

Arlene Immerman sings a female version that's very nice. She sent lyrics to me.

Flash Company
Trad
S: Norma Waterson
From Waterson: Carthy Common Tongue

First I loved William and then I loved John
But now I love Thomas he's a clever young man
With his white coat and stocking and his high ankle shoe
He wears a velvet jacket like a flash lad he goes
Fiddling and dancing was all his delight
But keeping flash company has ruined him quite
Has ruined him quite and a great many more
If it hadn't have been flash company he'd never have been so poor

Take this yellow handkerchief in remembrance of me
And wear it around your neck when in flash company
Dry up your briny tears and don't look so sad
There's plenty more flash girls all around to be had

Rocks shall run to water and the sea shall run dry
If I should prove false to the lad that loves I
The sweetest strawberries shall grow in the sea
If I should prove false to the one that loves me

First I loved William and then I loved John
But now I love Thomas he's a clever young man
With his white coat and stocking and his high ankle shoe
He wears a velvet jacket like a flash lad he goes

Take this yellow handkerchief in remembrance of me
And wear it around your neck when in flash company
Dry up your briny tears and don't look so sad
There's plenty more flash girls all around to be had

Subject: RE: Flash Companie
From: RTim
Date: 26 Jul 21 - 04:29 PM

Earliest Version according to Steve Gardham's spreadsheet of Earliest versions is - 1850 broadside printed by Birt of London...

Tim Radford

Subject: RE: Flash Companie
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 26 Jul 21 - 04:39 PM

Yes, not many printings all about 1850. Jackson of Birmingham, Hodges, Such and Birt of London.

For one without imprint see Bodleian Harding B11 (4190) duplicated at Harding B15 (109a).

I haven't seen anything earlier but that doesn't mean that earlier versions weren't printed. All have the same title 'Flash Company'.

Subject: RE: Origin: Flash Companie / Yellow Handkerchief
From: Joe Offer
Date: 01 Sep 25 - 05:22 PM

June Tabor recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7ZwraTxnpo

Holdstock and MacLeod (2003): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsZG6A2YyxU