Folklore: Songs to do with May Day

Subject: Folklore: Songs to do with May Day
From: Amy_Florence_Nthants
Date: 30 Apr 09 - 04:04 PM

Been thinking about songs related to May Day

Any suggestions?

May Songs ' Good Morning Ladies and Gentlemen'
'arise my Love'
'now is the month of maying'

Happy Mayday tomorrow to you all!

And if there is a previous thread of this that i have missed please link me?

thank you

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs to do with May Day
From: Cats
Date: 30 Apr 09 - 04:23 PM

Unite and Unite...

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs to do with May Day
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 30 Apr 09 - 04:25 PM

OhC'mon

Hal an Tow

The BOld FIsherman

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs to do with May Day
From: Amy_Florence_Nthants
Date: 30 Apr 09 - 04:35 PM

Hal an Tow ... oops how could i forget?

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs to do with May Day
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 30 Apr 09 - 05:51 PM

There are lots of versions of the May Day Song as many villages in the midlands had their own version.
It usually starts
I've been a rambling most of the night and the best part of the day,
And now I am returning back again, I have brought you a branch of may.

The Pleasant Month of May

Then to the maypole haste away.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs to do with May Day
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 30 Apr 09 - 06:07 PM

Of course May Day is really a pagan ceremony and all May songs can be traced back to the Druids, blah, blah blah ... fertility ceremonies ...Green Man, blah, blah, blah ... Sir James Frazer, death and resurrection ... Golden Bough, blah, blah, blah ... Ahhh, Morris dancing round the Maypole, blah, blah, blah ... fertility ceremonies!

Gosh, I'm glad I've cleared that up ... Any questions?

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs to do with May Day
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 30 Apr 09 - 06:10 PM

We'll have a May Day, my oh my.....

Kitty

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs to do with May Day
From: Jack Campin
Date: 30 Apr 09 - 07:14 PM

And to be a bit more explicit, Herga Kitty is referring a a great song by Matt McGinn.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs to do with May Day
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 30 Apr 09 - 07:37 PM

There are lots of beautiful (formerly sung at least)

Queen of lovely blooming May

Bring FLowers of the fairest (one of the prettiest songs ever)

Well, there are more but I can't remember them right off. mg

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs to do with May Day
From: Terry McDonald
Date: 30 Apr 09 - 07:41 PM

Issy Emmeny's '(Tomorrow is the)First of May' - wonderful song. I sang it tonight, 30 April, at Wimborne.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs to do with May Day
From: Leadfingers
Date: 30 Apr 09 - 07:46 PM

SO Many Songs - Look at Dave Webber's stuff for Padstow for a kick off !

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs to do with May Day
From: Tug the Cox
Date: 30 Apr 09 - 07:51 PM

Steve above has identified one of the ubiquitous Day day songs. Another Midland song we usee to do on Mayday in Leicester went

' maypole day is a very fine day
please to remember the first of May
   a rig and a jig and a maypole.'

   And quite a bit more I can't remember, but in 1984 when Anstey Morris did a jack in the green procession around Anstey with the Garland dancers from the local primary schoolo, I produces a sheet with may day dances collected in leicestershire for all to sing. Don't know whether I still have a copy.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs to do with May Day
From: mark gregory
Date: 30 Apr 09 - 08:42 PM

Uncommon People
Birth of a Holiday: The First of May
Eric Hobsbawm

".. the only unquestionable dent made by a secular movement in the Christian or any other official calendar, a holiday established in not one or two countries, but in 1990 officially in 107 states
What is more it is an occasion established not by the power of governments or conquerors, but by and entirely unofficial movement of poor men and women. I am speaking of May Day, or more precisely of the First of May, the international festival of the working-class movement, whose centenary ought to have been celbrated in 1990, for it was inaugurated in 1890...."

Let us note three facts about the original proposal. First, the call was simply for a single, one-off, international manifestation.
Second, there was no suggestion that it should be a particularly festive or ritual occasion.. Third, there is no sign that this
resolution was considerd particularly important at the time...."

"... the extent to which workers took part in these meetings amazed the people who had called upon them to do so, notably the
300,000 who filled Hyde Park in London, which thus, for the first and last time, provided the largest demonstration of the day..."

"... Unlike politics, which was in those days 'mens business', holidays included women and children. Both the visual and the
literary sources demonstrate the presence of women in May Day from the start.
What made it a genuine class display ... was precisely
that it was not confined to men but belonged to families .... If a working life of wage-labour belonged chiefly to men, refusing to
work for a day united age and sex in the working class."

"... it came from below. It was shaped anonymous working people themselves who, through it, recognised themselves, across lines of
occupation, language, eevn nationality as a single class by deciding, once a year, deliberately not to work: to flout the moral,
political and economic compulsion to labour."

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs to do with May Day
From: Joe_F
Date: 30 Apr 09 - 09:01 PM

http://www.marxists.org/history/ussr/sounds/lyrics/moskva-majskaia.htm

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs to do with May Day
From: Anne Lister
Date: 01 May 09 - 03:17 AM

My own "May Morning" song ....

Anne

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs to do with May Day
From: Sailor Ron
Date: 01 May 09 - 04:01 AM

The 'Red Flag', up the workers!

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs to do with May Day
From: Mr Fox
Date: 01 May 09 - 05:28 AM

Two from the repertoire of the Albion Band:-

Geoff Collings

Written by Ashley Hutchings - A modernisation of the traditional Clerk Colville complete with implications of human sacrifice in modern London.

The Green Mist

Written by Cathy Lesurf from a Lincolnshire legend.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs to do with May Day
From: GUEST,Mrs Scarecrow
Date: 01 May 09 - 05:29 PM

Hey o hey o
Welcome in the May o
Cant you hear the small birds sing

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs to do with May Day
From: mark gregory
Date: 01 May 09 - 06:21 PM

Australian poet Henry Lawson wrote two poems celebrating May Day, one in 1891 during the Shearer's Strike and to celebrate the first May Day march in Australia which took place in Barcaldine, and one a year later celebrating the flag of rebellion - the red flag.

These poems have since acquired tunes so can be regarded as May Day songs

Freedom on the Wallaby http://unionsong.com/u021.html

The Old Rebel Flag In The Rear http://chriskempster.net/songs.html

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs to do with May Day
From: doncatterall
Date: 02 May 09 - 07:38 AM

my particular favourite:-

The First of May – from the singing of Dave Houghton (Crockett)

This morning is the first of May
The bright time of the year
If I should live and tarry well
If I should live and tarry well
If I should live and tarry well
I'll come another year

chorus
So ladies all both great and small
We wish you a joyful May
So ladies all both great and small
We wish you a joyful May

Now step into your dairy for
A jug of your best cream
A jug of cream I do not mean
A jug of cream I do not mean
A jug of cream I do not mean
But a jug of your brown ale

The clock's struck one
I must be gone
No longer can I stay
So come down stairs my pretty maid
So come down stairs my fair pretty maid
So come down stairs my pretty maid
And view a garland gay

A garland gay we've brought you here
Before your door it stands
It's well set out and well spread about
It's well set out and well spread about
It's well set out and well spread about
By the work of our Lord's hand

Now take the Bible in your hand
And read the scripture through
And when the day of judgement comes
And when the day of judgement comes
And when the day of judgement comes
The Lord will remember you