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History of Cotton in song
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Subject: History of Cotton in song From: Menolly Date: 30 Sep 08 - 06:07 PM My grandaughter has a project to do in the history of the cotton industry and she asked me if it could be done with folk songs. My first thoughts came up with The Four Loom Weaver, Go to work on Monday, Handloom v Powerloom, Pick a bale of Cotton, The Weaver and teh Factory Maid, King Cotton, Ashton Famine Song, July Wakes, The Little Piecer, In the Shade of the Old 'Arris Mill, Waiting for me Pay Day and The Weaver of Wellbrook. Any other ideas? |
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Subject: RE: History of Cotton in song From: John MacKenzie Date: 30 Sep 08 - 06:19 PM Oh dear me, the mill's gaun sae fast, the puir wee shifters canny get their rest. Shiftin' bobbins coorse and fine, they shairly mak ye wark fur yer ten and nine. Can't remember what it's called though. JM |
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Subject: RE: History of Cotton in song From: Jim Carroll Date: 30 Sep 08 - 06:34 PM "Oh dear me, the mill's gaun sae fast," It's called 'Oh Dear Me', written by Mary Brooksbank a Dundee weaver. Will dig out the text tomorrow if somebody doesn't beat me to it. Also by Mary is 'The Dundee Lassie'. Nice poem (Samuel Bamford or Edwin Waugh) made into a song by Harry Boardman called 'Shurat Weavers Lament' about the cotton famine during the American Civil War when the weavers were forced to use inferior cotton from Surat(?) in India which made their fingers bleed. (think I've still got a text somewhere). Will dig out anything I have if they are any use. Jim Carroll |
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Subject: RE: History of Cotton in song From: Mark Dowding Date: 30 Sep 08 - 06:48 PM Well... The Handloom Weaver's Lament The Merry Little Doffer The Bury New Loom (very double entendre - how old is she?) A Weaver's Song Hard Times Billy Suet's Song Shurat Weaver's Song Our Factory School Peterloo/With Henry Hunt we'll go The Spinner's Lamentation John o' Grinfilt jr (better than The Four Loom Weaver) The Little Piecer First Day at t' Mill Success to the Weavers A Piecer's Tale Manchester's Improving Daily Johnny Green's Trip from Owdham to see the Manchester Railway Poor Little Hauve Timer Spinning Shoddy The Cotton Lords of Preston Short Time Come Again No More Along the Rossendale Sewing Class Song There are probably a few more that I can't remember at this time of night. If it's any help I can send you a copy of the script of "The Lancashire Cotton Famine" and also a draft of "Singing Histories - The Lancashire Cotton Industry" that was performed by myself and a couple of others at Ryland's Library in Manchester in August. PM me with your email address please Menolly. I presume it's a school project. Where is she based - presumably Lancashire but could be anywhere of course. Is it primary/junior school or secondary school? Cheers Mark |
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Subject: RE: History of Cotton in song From: Menolly Date: 30 Sep 08 - 06:57 PM Thanks , this is a great help. I had thought of Bury New Loom but she is 11 and so I rejected it. |
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Subject: RE: History of Cotton in song From: Menolly Date: 30 Sep 08 - 07:01 PM Hi Mark, Yes North Lancashire and first year of high school. |
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Subject: RE: History of Cotton in song From: oldhippie Date: 30 Sep 08 - 07:31 PM The only time I have documented that folksingers lied; "When I was a little bitty baby, Mama would rock me in the cradle, In them old cotton fields back home....." (It's been rewritten to tell the truth - "in them old marijuana fields back home"). |
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Subject: Lyr Add: FIRE MARINGO From: Charley Noble Date: 30 Sep 08 - 07:33 PM "Fire Maringo" is a stevedore work song that was used for loading and compressing bales of cotton in the Gulf ports of New orleans and Mobile: Primarily from the singing of Forebitter Unmooring CD, © 1995 Mystic Seaport Museum. Tune by Royston Wood of the British folk revival group Young Tradition, 1967 Traditional Cotton Stowing Shanty Fire, Maringo Am----C-----D------------Am Lift 'im up an' carry 'im a-long, ----------G-------Bm--- Fire, Ma-rin-go, fire 'im a-way! Am-------------------------C---Em Lay 'im in the hold where he be-long, ---------------D--Am----G-Am Fire, Ma-rin-go, fire 'im a-way! Lay 'im down in the hold below... It's time for us to roll and go... Ease 'im down and let 'im lay... Screw 'im in and there he'll stay... Shift that bale, an' screw it down... Let's get back to Liverpool Town... When I gets to Liverpool Town... Gonna pass a line to little Sally Brown... Sally Brown, she's a handy little craft... Sharp up forward, rounded in the aft... Haul 'er high an' haul 'er low? Bust 'er blocks before I go? One more turn an' that'll do... We's the bullys to kick 'er through... Cheerily, Charley Noble |
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Subject: RE: History of Cotton in song From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 30 Sep 08 - 08:31 PM Boll Weevil Song This litle critter did great damage to the cotton bolls and put some cotton farmers out of business. |
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Subject: RE: History of Cotton in song From: mg Date: 30 Sep 08 - 11:11 PM Cotton Jenny Cotton Mill Girls |
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Subject: RE: History of Cotton in song From: mg Date: 01 Oct 08 - 02:11 AM Aragon mill? About cotton? I can't remember. Poverty knock. This is a big project for an 11 year old...but there are some great songs. She will need to understand a bit about slavery and how it is all connected...how hard the work was in the fields, in the mills, etc. mg |
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Subject: RE: History of Cotton in song From: Dave Hanson Date: 01 Oct 08 - 03:33 AM Mary Brooksbanks song is also called ' The Jute Mill Song ' nothing to do with cotton. eric |
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Subject: RE: History of Cotton in song From: GUEST, Sminky Date: 01 Oct 08 - 05:32 AM Harland and Wilkinson's Ballads and songs of Lancashire, ancient and modern is available online and contains the texts of several songs mentioned above, plus others. The Minor Victorian Poets site houses the complete works of Bamford, Billington, Laycock, Waugh etc. |
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Subject: RE: History of Cotton in song From: Bryn Pugh Date: 01 Oct 08 - 05:43 AM For a little light humour, "Droylsden Wakes" ? Marie Little used to sing "The Story of Cotton", and might still, for all I know. Either Marie or her Old Man Pete Smith, set this poem, I think. It might be worth trying to get hold of "Deep Lancashire", Topic, which had not a few of the Lancashire songs to which Mark D makes reference, supra. Regards, B |
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Subject: Lyr Add: ROLL THE COTTON DOWN From: Dead Horse Date: 01 Oct 08 - 06:33 AM ROLL THE COTTON DOWN.
Sea shanty used for stowing cotton on vessels bound for England & beyond. |
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Subject: RE: History of Cotton in song From: GUEST, Sminky Date: 01 Oct 08 - 06:37 AM For anyone interested in the Lancashire Cotton Industry Spinning the Web is an excellent online resource. It also includes songs (use the search facility for a complete list). |
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Subject: Lyr Add: JOHNNY COME DOWN TO HILO From: Bryn Pugh Date: 01 Oct 08 - 07:38 AM There is a (I think) Caribbean shantey, "JOHNNY COME DOWN TO HILO" : I never (nebber)seen the (de) like since I been born When a big buck n*g*e* with (wid) his se-boots on sang (Omnes) Johnny come down to Hilo- Poor ole man ! Chor: O wake her! O shake her! O wake dat gal wid de blue dress on When Johnny comes down to Hilo- Poor old man. I lub a little gal across de sea She a Bajan beauty and she say to me Johnny come down to Hilo - Poor ole man. (Cho.) Hab you see de cotton plantation boss Wid he black-haired woman an he high-tailed hoss Sing! Johnny, etc. (Cho.) O was you ebber in Moblie Bay A-screwin' de cotton at a dollar a day, Sing! Johnny, etc. (Cho.) Love this one for the tune. We learned this at an all-lads grammar school in the mid-1950s. There was one black lad in the class, and everyone looked at him when the first verse was sung. But, we didn't know any differently, then. |
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Subject: RE: History of Cotton in song From: John MacKenzie Date: 01 Oct 08 - 08:15 AM Yes it is a song which was inspired by working in a Jute Mill, but it is about the 'Work O' the Weaver', and doesn't mention jute, or cotton. As such it's an example of the hard life endured by mill workers. JM |
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Subject: RE: History of Cotton in song From: Menolly Date: 02 Oct 08 - 06:11 PM Thank you for all the help. I haven't found the words to all the songs mentioned but I have quite a thick file and I am sure she/we will make something useful from them all. I bet the teacher will be surprised! Gillian |
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Subject: RE: History of Cotton in song From: Barry Finn Date: 02 Oct 08 - 11:07 PM Mike Harding's King Cotton is a great song that sings of how the industry plays a role of it's surroundings. Barry |
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Subject: RE: History of Cotton in song From: VirginiaTam Date: 03 Oct 08 - 02:44 PM I think the following is a negro holler about waiting for the steamer boat carrying cotton to dock at some port on the Mississippi in the hopes of gettting work unloading the cotton bales. but I can't find the anything about in a google search. Following is all I know of the song: Sittin by the river on the levee Waitin for the sun to go down Cotton mills are loadin mighty heavy for miles and miles around thought I heard the steamer when she landed landed on the levee below Sittin by the river on the levee Waitin for the sun to go down who built the ark, brother Noah Noah who built the ark, brother Noah Noah Broher the Noah built the ark |
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Subject: RE: History of Cotton in song From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 03 Oct 08 - 05:15 PM Sittin' by the River, and Noah Built the Ark are two different songs, combined into a recording (can't remember who). Both covered by previous threads- Sittin' by the River- Sittin' Didn't Noah Build the Ark- Built the Ark The songs are not hollers. |
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Subject: Lyr Add: COTTONMILL (The Gordons) From: GUEST,AnneMC Date: 04 Oct 08 - 07:19 AM This is a cotton song that I have recently acquired. Sung by The Gordons, and I think they wrote it too. From the perspective of a 12 year girl. A sad haunting sort of tune, about the harshness of life for cotton workers. COTTONMILL Sung by The Gordons Years ago a letter came, from far across the sea Saying "Come, orphan child, to the land of the free No more shall you be homeless, I'll pay your daily bread Come to the great America, a place to lay your head. Now I am only 12 years old, my eyes are growing dim My hands I've worked them to the bone, My face is pale and thin And every hour is like a day, Each day a year goes by I wither in the gloomy light, alone I sit and cry CHORUS: Oh cotton mill, you'll never be my home Seems I've worked a hundred years, I'll work a hundred more Oh cotton mill, you robbed me of my soul I'll never see the sun come up, behind your cold prison door Now I live my life in shame, No-one knows my name No freedom at the cottonmill, My journey was in vain If I could only fly away, no more to weave and sew I'd warn the child who follows me of loneliness and woe |
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Subject: RE: History of Cotton in song From: greg stephens Date: 04 Oct 08 - 07:23 AM Has anyone mentioned Mike Harding's song...was it called King Cotton? Then there's Cotton Eyed Joe, but it's not about cotton. |
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Subject: RE: History of Cotton in song From: VirginiaTam Date: 04 Oct 08 - 08:30 AM Q - I sit partially corrected. I did say I "think" it is holler song. Thanks for the clarification and links. However the Who Built the Ark I referred does not resemble what I read in the link you provided or in any other mudcat or google search. There are verses that have a lot of New testament references in. So perhaps what I heard was a concoction of several songs or has new stuff added in. The song I heard and described in above post is titled Who Built the Ark (traditional). It is credtied to "Forbitter" a shanty crew based at Mystic Seaport Museum, USA. Richard Halpert originally collected the song in 1939 from Josephine Douglas who was an imate at a women's correctional farm in Mississippi. It is described as a rousing gospel style river song. If anyone is interested the recording is on Flickering Light by Ramskyte Ramskyte thread on Mudcat Morris shop where you can buy CD |
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Subject: RE: History of Cotton in song From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 04 Oct 08 - 02:58 PM There are probably as many versions of that 'ark' song as there were black churches in the South. Floating verses and many biblical references, some not all that pertinent, appear in the songs. Here are some fragments. Who built the ark? Noah built the ark; Some say Noah was a foolish man, But I says he's a wise man, For he built his ark on hard ole ground, He built his ark of gopher wood. All beasts' kind went to his ark, Noah came riding by, And they poked a scorning finger at him, Old Noah tell the ark to move, move, move. Auburn, AL, 1915 No-eh built de ark, Yes he di-id, etc. NC, 1919, heard c. 1907. The song and its variations was already popular among white people at that time. N. I. White, American Negro Folk Songs, pp. 99-100. Who built the ark? Brother Noah-e, etc. Gospel Messengers, thread 38691. Many white groups have added variants of the song to their repertoire. I am not surprised that modern shanty singers have revised it for their groups. Courlander collected a version at Ramsey State Prison Farm that combines it with the songs about the rainbow sign and Noah (Norah) swinging his hammer, "ring in the timber." Scarborough (1925) also has the story made into a hammer song. Well, who built de ark? Norah build it. Hammer keep a-ringin', said "Norah build it!" Etc. |
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Subject: RE: History of Cotton in song From: GUEST Date: 05 Oct 08 - 04:14 PM Arkie-Okie NE Ark cotton picker ! Song about cotton I remember is: "Them ole cotton fields back home" When I was a little bitty baby my Mama used to rock me in the cradle In them ole cotton fields back home Now when them cotton balls get rotten you can't pick very much cotton In them ole cotton fields back home Now it was down in Lousiania Just a mile from Texarkana in them ole cotton fields back home Not sure other words or the author or the singer ! |
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