Lyr Req: Stonecracker John (Weatherly/Coates)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Stonecracker John (Weatherly/Coates)
From: GUEST,GUEST,Paul F. Anderson
Date: 18 Jul 19 - 01:15 PM

VIDEO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvUoyw3nsRA

JENS ROADMAN

Who's sitting by the shelter
with hands where rags do cling,
with eye-patch made of leather
and shoes held on with string?

It's no one but Jens Roadman
who must, shall he be fed,
transform with his own hammer
the hard stones into bread.

And should you wake one morning
as dawn begins to soar
and hear a hammer clanging
once more, once more, once more,

It's no one but Jens Roadman
on old legs once so true
who sends wild sparks a-flying
from stones now wet with dew.

And should you travel townwards
behind the farmer's mares,
and pass beside an old man
eyes watering with tears --

It's no one but Jens Roadman,
straw-clad round legs and knees,
who seeks in vain for shelter
so he won't have to freeze.

And should you journey homewards
while showers and gales molest,
the evening star a-trembling
from cold in due southwest,

and hear the hammer singing
behind you close somewhere --
It's no one but Jens Roadman
who still is sitting there.

And so he smoothed for others
the road that's hard to go,
but when it came to Christmas
his arm said to him 'No.'

'Twas no one but Jens Roadman,
his hammer fell from sight,
they bore him o'er the heath on
a cold December night.

There stands within the churchyard
a board now half-decayed;
that skews obliquely sideways,
its paintwork faint and frayed.

It's no one but Jens Roadman,
his life was full of stones,
but on his grave they gave him
not one to mark his bones.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Stonecracker John (Weatherly/Coates)
From: GUEST,Paul F. Anderson
Date: 03 Aug 17 - 12:36 PM

"Jens Vejmand" was translated into English by R. P. Keigwin in 1944 and by Charles Wharton Stork in 1947.

2009 Translation by John Irons
http://johnirons.blogspot.com/2009/11/den-danske-sang-jens-vejmand.html

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Stonecracker John (Weatherly/Coates)
From: bradfordian
Date: 14 Sep 12 - 05:35 AM

To the best of my knowledge, there are 3 recorded versions of the Weatherly/Coates song:

1) by Ian Wallace on the CD "The Music Of Eric Coates"

2) by Brian Rayner Cooke on the CD "The Green Hills Of Somerset" (The songs of Eric Coates)

These two CDs are availble on the second hand market

3) by Peter Dempsey on the CD " A Song Remembered"
This is the most recent recording, but alas, Peter Dempsey passed away 2 weeks ago so it is not possible to obtain this CD just now, but maybe in the future.

If anyone is interested in this song, I would be happy to discuss it further via PM.

This song was a hit when it first came out and indeed the lyrics and the music make a great song that is worthy of reviving.

bradfordian

Subject: Lyr Add: JENS VEJMAND (Danish: Jeppe Aakjær)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 19 Dec 09 - 12:46 PM

Walter: regarding the Russian/Ukrainian song—it would be better to start a new thread for your request. It will attract more attention. Put the song title in the title of the thread, and mention that it is Russian/Ukrainian so that people don't confuse it with the Irish song, which is probably better known.

I was curious about the Danish song so I looked it up, and found this at http://www.kalliope.org/digt.pl?longdid=aakjaer2000092434. I don't know Danish, so I had to rely on Google for the translation, plus a few guesses of my own, so it is not very good, but possibly good enough to inspire an English-speaking songwriter to make something of it.

YouTube has a couple of recordings: one by Kim Larsen, and a piano version, with words displayed on the screen, by Erling Jan Sørensen

JENS VEJMAND
Jeppe Aakjær

Hvem sidder der bag Skjærmen
med Klude om sin Haand,
med Læderlap for Øjet
og om sin Sko et Baand?
Det er saamænd Jens Vejmand,
der af sin sure Nød
med Ham'ren maa forvandle
de haarde Sten til Brød.

Og vaagner du en Morgen
i allerførste Gry
og hører Ham'ren klinge
paany, paany, paany,
det er saamænd Jens Vejmand
paa sine gamle Ben,
som hugger vilde Gnister
af morgenvaade Sten.

Og ager du til Staden
bag Bondens fede Spand,
og møder du en Olding,
hvis Øjne staar i Vand —
det er saamænd Jens Vejmand
med Halm om Ben og Knæ,
der næppe ved at finde
mod Frosten mer et Læ.

Og vender du tilbage
i Byger og i Blæst,
mens Aftenstjærnen skjælver
af Kulde i Sydvest,
og klinger Hammerslaget
bag Vognen ganske nær —
det er saamænd Jens Vejmand,
som endnu sidder dér.

Saa jævned han for andre
den vanskelige Vej,
men da det led mod Julen,
da sagde Armen nej;
det var saamænd Jens Vejmand,
han tabte Ham'ren brat,
de bar ham over Heden
en kold Decembernat.

Der staar paa Kirkegaarden
et gammelt frønnet Bræt;
det hælder slemt til Siden,
og Malingen er slet.
Det er saamænd Jens Vejmands.
Hans Liv var fuldt af Sten,
men paa hans Grav — i Døden,
man gav ham aldrig én.

JENS VEJMAND
[Words:] Jeppe Aakjær [1905; Music: Carl Nielsen]

Who sits behind the screen
with cloths on his hand,
leather patch on his eye
and on his shoes a ribbon?
It is really Jens Vejmand,
by its acidic distress
with a hammer must transform
the hard stone into bread.

And you wake one morning
in the very first dawn
and hear the hammer blade
again, again, again,
it is really Jens Vejmand
in his old bones,
which would cut off sparks
morning view of stone.

And again you to the city
behind the peasant's fat bucket,
and you will meet an old man,
whose eyes stand in the Water --
it is really Jens Vejmand
with straw on the legs and knees,
hard to find
a shelter from frost.

And you'll return
in showers and wind,
while the starry night trembles
from cold from the Southwest,
and hammer blades
very close behind the car --
it is really Jens Vejmand,
which still sits there.

Then he leveled the other
the difficult path,
but as it drew on toward Christmas,
when the arm said no;
It was certainly Jens Vejmand,
he lost hammer abruptly
they carried him over today
a cold December.

It stands in the churchyard
an old Frønes pad;
leaning badly to one side,
and the paint is bad.
It is really Jens Vejmand.
His life was full of stones
but on his grave - in death,
They gave him none.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Stonecracker John (Weatherly/Coates)
From: GUEST,WalterCairns
Date: 18 Dec 09 - 05:11 AM

Very interestingly, Carl Nielsen wrote the tune to a Danish "Stonecracker John" poem called "Jens Vejmand" - but which has a much greater element of social critique about it.

Is there anyone who can help me find sheet music for Russion/Ukrainian "The Soldier's Song", which was sung so wonderfully well by Alexander Kipnis? - my email is [e-mail]

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Stonecracker John (Weatherly/Coates)
From: Suegorgeous
Date: 15 Mar 08 - 09:46 PM

Thanks Martin and Barbara - those things together are just what I want!

Sue :)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Stonecracker John (Weatherly/Coates)
From: Martin Graebe
Date: 15 Mar 08 - 01:55 PM

Sue

I have just sent a PDF of the dots and an MP3 of the tune to your e-mail address.

The Weatherly text differs very slightly from what George sings as given by Barbara (it's the folk process in action!)

In the first line of the refrain 'Yes' and 'So' should be reversed.

Verse two starts 'When the grand folks go by on their wild-cat machinery',

Verse three, line 2 should be 'What makes all the young men so moody and muddlesome?'.

Verse four, line 1 should be 'But I mayn't live much longer to continue my history.

Otherwise small differences actually sound the same when transmitted orally.

I hope that makes amends for my earlier inexactitude.

Martin

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Stonecracker John (Weatherly/Coates)
From: Suegorgeous
Date: 14 Mar 08 - 05:03 PM

Barbara - oh, that's great! thank you. Do you have a link to somewhere I can hear a music file? would prefer that to the dots, really...

Sue

Subject: Lyr Add: STONECRACKER JOHN (Weatherly/Coates)
From: BB
Date: 14 Mar 08 - 04:01 PM

The following is as George Withers sings it:

STONECRACKER JOHN

I sits by the roadside with great regularity
And I cracks up the stones for the highway authority;
Oh, whack-fol-the-riddle-O, I earns all me pay
For I cracks 'em and whacks 'em for nine pence a day;
Yes I do now, so I do now
For nine pence a day.

When the rich folks comes round with their wild-cat machinery
Oh, they kicks up the dust and they spoils all the greenery;
Oh, whack-fol-the-riddle-O, I chuckle and say
I would crack 'em and whack 'em, if I had my way;
Yes I would now, so I would now
If I had my way.

When the sweethearts go by and the girls look so cuddlesome
Well, it makes all the young men so moody and muddlesome;
Oh, whack-fol-the-riddle-O, if I had my way
I'd take 'em and shake 'em and show 'em the way;
Yes I would now, and I could now,
I would show 'em the way.

Well, now I draw near to the end of my history,
And what's to become of me? Well, that's a mystery;
So whack-fol-the-riddle-O, like the stones I d'say
You may crack me and whack me
But I've had my day;
Yes I have now, so I have now,
Yes I've had my way.
Oh, whack-fol-the-riddle-O, I chuckle and say
You may crack me and whack me
But I've had my day.

If you want the tune, PM me and I may be able to help.

Barbara

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Stonecracker John (Weatherly/Coates)
From: Suegorgeous
Date: 14 Mar 08 - 12:51 PM

Refresh - still looking for that Weatherly/Coates song!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Stonecracker John (Weatherly/Coates)
From: Suegorgeous
Date: 13 Mar 08 - 04:38 PM

Whoops, SBG I meant.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Stonecracker John (Weatherly/Coates)
From: Suegorgeous
Date: 13 Mar 08 - 04:37 PM

Thanks Martin, and I'll just have to keep an eye out for the other song somewhere!

Best to you and Shan (was on the SG school in autumn).

Sue

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Stonecracker John (Weatherly/Coates)
From: Surreysinger
Date: 13 Mar 08 - 02:55 PM

Thanks for the info re George's song, Martin! It's a while since I've heard him sing it in person, or indeed listened to my copy of his CD (shame on me!) ... I had a sneaky suspicion that it wasn't actually a trad song that he was singing, so that just confirms it.
All the best
Irene

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Stonecracker John (Weatherly/Coates)
From: Martin Graebe
Date: 13 Mar 08 - 02:07 PM

My apologies that I have caused confusion with the attribution to Sir E. German - at the time that I wrote the notes for the song book I believed this to be the case - I probably got confused with 'Glorious Devon' for which German was certainly responsible. My copy of 'The Edwardian Song Book'. confirms that the 'other' Stonecracker John (copyrighted in 1909) has words by Fred E. Weatherly and Music by Eric Coates. First line is 'I sits by the roadside with great regularity' and this is the one that I have heard George Withers sing. When I wrote the song in the early 70s I was not aware that the title was not original - though the ideas in the songs are completely different.

I hope this clears things up.

Martin Graebe

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Stonecracker John (Weatherly/Coates)
From: GUEST,surreysinger at work
Date: 13 Mar 08 - 09:12 AM

Hi Sue

I was about to post something to the same effect, as I can find nothing on Googling to suggest that Sir Edward German ever wrote anything with that title!! Next time I see or speak to Martin I shall have to remember to ask him!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Stonecracker John (Weatherly/Coates)
From: Suegorgeous
Date: 12 Mar 08 - 09:23 PM

Surrey - that's really fascinating, thank you. So now there are 2 songs to track down instead of one! A bit of Googling reveals:

Eric Coates' work is in the tradition of polished melodic light music started by Sir Arthur Sullivan and continued by Edward German.

AND

Coates initially was inspired by Edward German, the leading figure in British light music at the start of the 20th Century.


I do wonder if Martin maybe somehow made a mistake about the songwriter? as Coates and German were contemporaries and did work together. Maybe it IS just one song...

Sue

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Stonecracker John (Weatherly/Coates)
From: Surreysinger
Date: 12 Mar 08 - 07:06 PM

I've just picked up my copy of Martin Graebe's songbook, and he records there that his own song was "inspired by two images, firstly that of the road-mender with whom Richard Hannay changes clothes in The Thirty Nine Steps and secondly by the description of the stonecracker in Grace Broadbeer's book "The Land that Changed its Face" where she writes about South Devon in the years between the two wars. At the time I hadn't ever heard of Sir Edward German's song the same name" ... so if he's right in that, it would seem that there is a third song of the same name, after all!!

He then goes on to say that it was only some time after that that he read Sabine Baring-Gould's account of Robert Hard - one of the singers from whom he had collected, who was an old stonecracker, and died of hypothermia - "frozen to death on a heap of stones by the roadside."

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Stonecracker John (Weatherly/Coates)
From: GUEST,c.g.
Date: 12 Mar 08 - 06:13 PM

That's the Martin Graebe one.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Stonecracker John (Weatherly/Coates)
From: Fliss
Date: 12 Mar 08 - 05:43 PM

...in the pale moonlight
its a ribbon of light
in a hundred years it will still be the same
says Stonecracker John.

Bob Hadley sings it at the Boat Inn Session

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Stonecracker John (Weatherly/Coates)
From: Suegorgeous
Date: 12 Mar 08 - 12:20 PM

Granny
Thanks for your PM, which I've only just opened, and I will respond.

Sue

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Stonecracker John (Weatherly/Coates)
From: GrannyInWales
Date: 11 Mar 08 - 10:37 PM

Suegorgeous I have sent you a PM ..... please respond!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Stonecracker John (Weatherly/Coates)
From: Surreysinger
Date: 11 Mar 08 - 08:40 PM

Hi Barbara. I still haven't found my copy of George's CD - and yes, I've no doubt it isn't a traditional one, knowing the breadth and variety of George's songs [grins]... I still have fond memories of his self-penned song about the MBE which wiped the floor with the opposition at the last National Festival in Sutton Bonington !!!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Stonecracker John (Weatherly/Coates)
From: BB
Date: 11 Mar 08 - 04:00 PM

George Withers' song starts 'I sit by the roadside with great regularity...' I haven't time to listen to it all now, but the bit I've listened to doesn't sound a bit traditional to me, except perhaps in the style in which it's sung.

If I get time later, I'll type out the words.

Barbara

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Stonecracker John (Weatherly/Coates)
From: Suegorgeous
Date: 11 Mar 08 - 01:24 PM

Seamus - yes, it is the same Weatherly who wrote Danny Boy.

Granny - would it be possible for you to make it into a clicky link? Or you could just write out the link here? I have a rule I don't give out my personal details to anyone online. Thanks.

Surrey - I'm sure they're not the same. I suppose there could be 3, but likely that Withers thought it was trad. Probably a lot of people might think Danny Boy is trad(!)?

Sue

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Stonecracker John (Weatherly/Coates)
From: Surreysinger
Date: 11 Mar 08 - 11:41 AM

Some of those postings suggest that the two songs are one and the same. As far as I'm aware they are both very different in both words and tune - the one that Martin sings is the one that he himself wrote, and it's a totally different beast from the Coates/Weatherly one. Unless I'm much mistaken George Withers has recorded the non-Graebe one, but I'm pretty certain it's credited as "Trad" on his CD .... and at the moment I can't lay my hands on my copy of it to check. Presumably there can't be three songs with the same title ??

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Stonecracker John (Weatherly/Coates)
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Mar 08 - 06:52 AM

refresh

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Stonecracker John (Weatherly/Coates)
From: GUEST,GrannyInWales
Date: 11 Mar 08 - 06:01 AM

Suegorgeous if you will text me on 07910-252829 with your email address hopefully I will be able to attach it to an email and send you

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Stonecracker John (Weatherly/Coates)
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 11 Mar 08 - 01:45 AM

I believe that this is the same Frederick Weatherly who wrote danny Boy.

Seamus

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Stonecracker John (Weatherly/Coates)
From: Suegorgeous
Date: 11 Mar 08 - 01:20 AM

Yes, thanks - but you can't listen to that track! I've found loads of references to the cd, but can't find a listenable file or the lyrics anywhere...hence this thread. (I don't want to buy the cd.)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Stonecracker John (Weatherly/Coates)
From: GUEST,Granny In Wales
Date: 10 Mar 08 - 09:38 PM

"The Green Hills O' Somerset" (The Songs of Eric Coates) by Brian Rayner-Cook and Raphael Terroni, available at Amazon now. Has Stonecracker John as well as other Somerset songs....

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Stonecracker John (Weatherly/Coates)
From: Suegorgeous
Date: 10 Mar 08 - 08:18 PM

refresh

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Stonecracker John (Wetherly/Coates)
From: Suegorgeous
Date: 09 Mar 08 - 12:30 PM

Yes, it does seem to be readily available in several songbooks and on cds - but I'm hoping I can just find the words/music file online somewhere.

Sue

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Stonecracker John (Wetherly/Coates)
From: masato sakurai
Date: 09 Mar 08 - 10:35 AM

According to Plymouth Song Index, "Stonecracker John" is in The Edwardian songbook: drawing-room ballads, 1900-1914, from the catalogue of Boosey & Co., selected and introduced by Michael R. Turner and Antony Miall (Methuen, 1982).

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Stonecracker John (Wetherly/Coates)
From: Suegorgeous
Date: 09 Mar 08 - 09:42 AM

Thanks, but I already know Martin's song very well, have the cd, and am thinking of learning that song. That's the whole reason I'm curious to hear/see the Weatherly/Coates version! which I imagine is very different.

Sue

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Stonecracker John (Wetherly/Coates)
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 09 Mar 08 - 06:46 AM

Yes, Martin Graebe wrote this song and it's on the CD, 'Parallel Strands' by MG and Shan Cowan (Wild Goose Records, WGS 323 CD).

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Stonecracker John (Wetherly/Coates)
From: Cats
Date: 09 Mar 08 - 06:41 AM

Martin Graebe sings it and I have e mailed him asking if he will post the words for you. Watch this space.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Stonecracker John (Wetherly/Coates)
From: Peace
Date: 08 Mar 08 - 07:43 PM

Sue, I'm finding many places from which to purchase the sheet music, but no mp3s. Not on Youtube, either.

Please note the spelling of Weatherly. I will continue to look, but I think if Jim Dixon sees this before I return you'll have your answer.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Stonecracker John (Wetherly/Coates)
From: Peace
Date: 08 Mar 08 - 07:37 PM

Frederic Edward Weatherly
Eric Coates

Subject: Lyr Req: Stonecracker John (Wetherly/Coates)
From: Suegorgeous
Date: 08 Mar 08 - 05:58 PM

Anyone got the words for this version, or even link to an mp3/listenable file?

Thanks
Sue