Origins: Terror Time (Ewan MacColl)

Subject: Terror Time
From: PKD on Teesside
Date: 22 Jul 99 - 08:03 AM

Hi,

I've been browsing the database & come across "THE TERROR TIME" by Ewan MacColl. This is from the radio ballads & is about winter (the terror time) as a gypsy.

My question is, I have an extra verse which is not in the database & which I cannot recall ever hearing anyone sing. I have known the song for 25 - 30 years & I THINK (you know how it is!) that I learned it from the original radio ballad. I know I haven't made the verse up!! Can anyone shed any light??

The verse is:

The snow will not thaw/And the stove will not draw/There's ice in the water churn/In the mud and snow you're sloshing/Trying to do your bit of washing/And the kindling will not burn.

Cheers

Paul

Subject: RE: Terror Time
From: Allan C.
Date: 22 Jul 99 - 08:12 AM

No, you didn't dream it up. I have heard it by one other person. (It has been quite a few years!) But I don't know any more about it.

Subject: RE: Terror Time
From: GeorgeH
Date: 22 Jul 99 - 12:53 PM

Well you could always buy the recently re-released CD of the original Radio Ballads (on the Topic label in the UK); when I posted on this to r.m.f. someone added a US source which a search of DejaNews would show up . . Sorry I can't do that myself but DejaNews seems good at crashing Netscape ATM. The CDs, unlike the earlier vinyl releases on Argo, are of the complete broadcasts.

That being said, I have a sneaking feeling it was more common for extra verses to find their way into versions outside the Radio Ballads (where time was limited) . .

Also - can anyone recall the (UK) South Bank concert where June Tabor paired one of the "Travelling People" songs with "All our trades are gone"? If so, can they remind me which song it was. Unfortunately the CD which came out not a lot later only had "Trades. ." on it.

G.

Subject: RE: Terror Time
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 22 Jul 99 - 02:24 PM

Camsco Music (click on the logo to get to Wally's web page) has been offering the radio ballad CDs at a discounted introductory price. Check it out!

Sandy

Subject: RE: Terror Time
From: Jeri
Date: 22 Jul 99 - 02:38 PM

It's deja vu all over again! That was me who posted it in r.m.f, and it was Camsco I linked to. Small world, ain't it?

(Hi George!)

Subject: RE: Terror Time
From: Bill D
Date: 22 Jul 99 - 03:29 PM

I have been singing that verse for years..it was in italics on record notes, I believe.(noted, but not sung)..and I simply added it to my version..

I will have to look it up to be sure, but I believe the original, in dialect, went

"the shaw wilna' lift....etc.." Jean Redpath recorded this, but did not sing that verse..wonder why?

Subject: RE: Terror Time
From: Roger in Baltimore
Date: 22 Jul 99 - 06:10 PM

Paul,

This is not a hidden verse. The reason it does not appear on radio or Jean Ritchie's recordings is because it is clearly a thinly veiled drug reference.

The snow will not thaw = the cocaine is not dissolving in the ether.

And the stove will not draw = the bong is clogged.

There's ice in the water churn = someone put methamphetamine in the punch bowl.

In the mud and snow you're sloshing = you're taking too much brown heroin (Mexican Mud) and too much cocaine (see first line).

Trying to do your bit of washing = you're trying to clean up your habit, but obviously not too successfully (see previous line).

And the kindling will not burn = the marijuana is of poor quality.

Those of you who remember Spiro Agnew (former Baltimore County Executive here in Maryland) will know that we in Maryland are more keenly aware of the drug pushers' use of popular songs, especially folk songs, as a vehicle to vend their dangerous products (see PUFF, THE MAGIC DRAGON).

I applaud the BBC and Jean Ritchie's record company for standing up for the family and for all that is right in this world by not falling for the tricks of the notorious drug distributors.

Big RiB ;)

Subject: RE: Terror Time
From: Bill D
Date: 23 Jul 99 - 01:43 AM

ummm..hmmmm, Roger..you just may have hit on it...yes, sir! Those Gypsies had this secret code, see, and Ewan MacColl was just tansmitting the details for future generations...(or then again, you MAY have just spent too long in the tavern and dissolved too many brain cells..)

;.]

Subject: RE: Terror Time
From: Legal Eagle
Date: 23 Jul 99 - 07:10 PM

Roger, don't I remember you being all for a bit of rectitude?

Subject: RE: Terror Time
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 23 Jul 99 - 09:24 PM

Har de har Rog. You put a smile on face!
rick

Subject: RE: Terror Time
From: Naemanson
Date: 19 Jun 02 - 02:37 PM

I came across this thread looking for chords for "Terror Time" so I thought it might be time for a REFRESHing bit of information. I was listening to Archie Fisher's version and decided I'd like to try playing it.

Anyone have the chords for this song?

Subject: RE: Terror Time
From: BB
Date: 13 Dec 05 - 02:59 PM

Didn't want to start a new thread on this, but if anyone is aware of recordings of this song, I'd appreciate the information, i.e. the singer and the name of the album, at least.

Many thanks.

Barbara

Subject: RE: Terror Time
From: Wayne Mitchell
Date: 13 Dec 05 - 05:58 PM

Jean Redpath did it on a self-titled album put out by Philo Records in 1975 (PHILO 2015), with a galvanizing cello accompaniment by Abby Newton.

Subject: RE: Terror Time
From: GUEST,Susanne (skw, temporarily cookieless)
Date: 13 Dec 05 - 08:49 PM

Apart from the 1987 Jean Redpath recording mentioned, I have the following:

Tannahill Weavers on 'Tannahill Weavers IV' (1981)
Heather Heywood on 'Lassies Fair and Laddies Braw' (2000, mail order available from The Living Tradition)
Finbar & Eddie Furey on 'Four Green Fields' (1972, plaene)
Arthur Johnstone on 'Generations of Change' (1985)
Archie Fisher on 'Archie Fisher' (1968)
Iain MacKintosh on 'By Request' (1974)

I'd have to look up the publishers if you need them, but most of these recordings are probably only available second hand, if at all.) If a tape would do, I'd send you one. Just send a PM to Susanne (skw).

Subject: RE: Terror Time
From: nutty
Date: 14 Dec 05 - 03:50 AM

Just for the record, 'The Essential Ewan MacColl Song Book' gives the verse discussed earlier as..............

The snaw winna lift and the stove winna draw
There's ice in the water churn
In the mud and snaw you're sloshing
Trying to do a bit o' washing
And the kindling winna burn

Subject: RE: Terror Time
From: BB
Date: 14 Dec 05 - 02:27 PM

Many thanks for your help, Susanne. I can get hold of the Heather Heywood recording.

Barbara

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Hunger time/The Terror Time (MacColl)
From: Dave Sutherland
Date: 18 Dec 09 - 03:14 AM

The song comes from the Radio Ballad "The Travellers" (sometimes called "The Travelling People") it is just one of a number of classic pieces contained therein.

Subject: Origins: Terror Time (Ewan MacColl)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 10 Dec 23 - 05:18 PM

For the record, here are the lyrics from the Digital Tradition:

---

THE TERROR TIME
(Ewan MacColl)

The heather will fade and the bracken will die
Streams will run cold and clear
And the small birds will be going, and it's then you will be knowing
That the terror time is near.

Whaur will ye gan an' whaur will ye bide
Noo that the work's a' done
And the fairmer disnae need ye, and the cooncils winnae heed ye
And the terror time is come?

The woods give no shelter and the trees they are bare
Snow is falling all around
And the children they are crying, for the bed on which they're lying
Is frozen to the ground

When you need the warmth of your own human kind
You move near a town and then
The sight o' you's offending, an' the police they soon are sending
An' you're on the road again.

Whaur will ye gan an' whaur will ye bide
Noo that the work's a' done
And the fairmer disnae need ye, and the cooncils winnae heed ye
And the terror time is come?

@winter @poverty
Copyright Stormking Music, Inc.
filename[ TERRTIME
TUNE FILE: TERRTIME
CLICK TO PLAY
RG

I couldn't find a recording by MacColl, but here's one by Janet Russell and Christine Kydd: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opOtjH7imhc

And by Karine Polwart: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8J4kVTihG0

And Jean Redpath: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYCE2XlS7E0

And Windborne: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzDnA7o9P4o