Subject: RE: Plains Of Waterloo From: Wolfgang Date: 02 Nov 01 - 12:47 PM I'll have a look at home, Richard, but won't be back before Monday or Tuesday. Wolfgang |
Subject: RE: Plains Of Waterloo From: John J Date: 02 Nov 01 - 12:54 PM bigJ: many thanks for posting the words. John J |
Subject: RE: Plains Of Waterloo From: Keith A of Hertford Date: 02 Nov 01 - 02:15 PM Suzanne, I have your version on an album by a band called Crows. The sleeve note justifies the line We foght for three long days... saying" the campaign began on the 16th with Napoleon's attack on the Prussians at Ligny.Many regiments in Wellington's army who foght at Quatre Bras on the evening of the 16th lost more men than they did in the subsequent engagement." Their vocallist is/was Mick Ryan. They say it comes from Canadian O.J. Abbott. Keith. |
Subject: RE: Plains Of Waterloo From: GUEST,Boab Date: 03 Nov 01 - 02:34 AM Just an aside; Terry Conway, my favourite Northumbrian singer/songwriter, used to perform regularly in Hexham club his song "Waterloo". I can't quote all lyrics, but my mind brings back--"Wellington and Marshal Blucher, underneath a sky of blue, on a golden day of summer, won the field at Waterloo" . Anyone familiar with this one? |
Subject: RE: Plains Of Waterloo From: Wolfgang Date: 08 Nov 01 - 03:45 AM Richard, the 'Plains of Waterloo' I have in Pollard's 'Ballads and Broadsides' is definitely the same song. The information, however, in my photocopy of the book is scarce. Here's all I have: ...contemporary broadside account of the battle of Waterloo which appeared in many nineteenth-century books of ballads but did not survive too well among singers... Wolfgang |
Subject: RE: Plains Of Waterloo From: Paul from Hull Date: 08 Nov 01 - 09:09 PM Good thread..well worth refreshing! Keith of Hertford, unsurprisingly, got in with all that I could add, & more, with referring to the one 'Crows' recorded. I've got that too (and the song done by the Wislons also) |
Subject: RE: Plains Of Waterloo From: richardw Date: 09 Nov 01 - 12:19 PM Wolfgang; Thanks for that. That is the first definite published hit I have been given. I cannot find it on any listing of broadsheets or sheet music. As I metnioned the date I have is 1877 and my guess is that it was transcribed from singing, rather than a roradhseet, as there are spelling and grammatical errors. Thanks for the help Richard |
Subject: RE: Plains Of Waterloo From: Malcolm Douglas Date: 09 Nov 01 - 03:52 PM To amplify a bit on Dan Milner's post earlier on, that particular Plains of Waterloo turns up in a number of places, amongst which: Frank Kidson's Traditional Tunes (1891) has a set obtained "from a country singer in Dumphriesshire", with tune. Only four verses are given. Kidson commented:
"The above version of the ballad is said to be the composition of a Sergeant Grant of the 92nd regiment, who wrote it directly after the battle... it is the copy most frequently met with on broadsides, ...is reprinted in Logan's Pedlar's Pack of Ballads, and a similar version is given by Christie..." [Traditional Ballad Airs, 1876 and 1881]. He adds that the air he prints is quite dissimilar from Christie's.
Ord, Bothy Songs & Ballads (1930) prints a 12-verse text (no tune) with an alternative final verse, about which he remarks "Half a century ago a version of this ballad was sung in the Feeing Markets of the North-east of Scotland." Since the book was published posthumously, that would likely be in the 1870s.
The Grieg-Duncan Folk Song Collection (vol. I, 1981) has 8 texts and 7 tunes; these were collected in the early years of the 20th century, at least one having been learned by the singer "about 60 years ago from an old soldier". Mr. Garioch's set was noted in 1907, so that would take us back to the the mid 19th. century.
The song has also been credited (cf. notes, Greig-Duncan) to "John Robertson, a bugler in the 92nd Highlanders" and "two soldiers of the Highland Brigade". I wonder if anyone has researched these attributions? None of these examples, incidentally, has a refrain. |
Subject: RE: Plains Of Waterloo From: richardw Date: 09 Nov 01 - 08:13 PM Malcom; Thanks for the references. Unfortunately I am not near a major library so will have to wait until I do so to look them up. Mine one does appear to have a chorus, however. And, as mentioned earlier, does not fit with any of the Laws versions. My 1877 date does fit nicely with some of the dates and refs you have. Thanks again. Richard |
Subject: RE: Plains Of Waterloo From: GUEST,yum yum Date: 10 Nov 01 - 04:40 PM Is not the version you seek on Frank Harts new CD 'My Name is Napoleon Bonaparte'. If not, he will have it. yum yum |
Subject: RE: Plains Of Waterloo From: Malcolm Douglas Date: 10 Nov 01 - 05:09 PM None of the Waterloo songs on Frank Harte's CD is the one Richard is looking into. Incidentally, Richard, I can always let you have copies if you can't get the material through a library. |
Subject: RE: Plains Of Waterloo From: richardw Date: 11 Nov 01 - 05:53 PM Malcolm has generously scanned and sent me a copy of the version printed in Frank Kidson's Traditional Tunes, 1891. it is the version I have been looking for. Kidson does not show a chorus. My version has what appears to be the same chorus as AndyG mentioned above. Kidson's has a range of a octave and a half --ouch-- so it is tough to sing for me. Thanks for all the help Richard Wright |
Subject: RE: Plains Of Waterloo From: GUEST,Bill Hewitt Date: 30 Apr 05 - 05:45 PM There is a version of "18th Day of June" under the title Waterloo - which I am in the process of learning. Its on a CD by Dave Webber and Anni Fentiman According to the sleeve notes this version was found in the Frank Kitson collection - the words are similar to several of the other sets posted but has the first verse repeated as a chorus after each subsequent verse There are enough verses in this trail which would fit the tune to put together a realy interesting or very long version - the lyrics are given below WATERLOO (F or F#) On the eighteenth day of June me boys , eighteen hundred and fifteen Both horse and foot they did advance , most glorious to be seen Both horse and foot they did advance and the bugle horns did blow And them sons of France we made them dance on the plains of Waterloo On the fifteenth day of June me boys , in Flanders where we lay The bugles sounded the alarm , before the break of day We British , Belgians , Brunswicker's and Hanovarians too All Brussels left that morning for the plains of Waterloo On the eighteenth day of June me boys …………….. By a forced march we did advance till three in the afternoon Each British heart was there to beat to cut the tyrant down At Quatre Bras we met the French and his shape to us he'd view For in steel armour he was clad on the plains of Waterloo On the eighteen day of June me boys ......... Napoleon to his men did say , before they had begun My hero's if we loose this day our nation is undone For the Prussians we've already beat , we must beat the British too And display victorious Eagles on the plains of Waterloo On the eighteen day of June me boys............ Napoleon like some fighting cock fermented on some corn Did sorely wish to represent great Mars the God of War On a high platform he did stand and loudly did he crow But he drooped his wings and he turned his tail on us at Waterloo On the eighteen day of June me boys............. |
Subject: RE: Plains Of Waterloo From: Malcolm Douglas Date: 30 Apr 05 - 09:12 PM Evidently a collation by the Fentimans of various verses from the two sets in Kidson's Traditional Tunes, with the third verse of one pressed into service as a chorus and the title changed (probably to avoid confusion with the well-known Canadian song). A couple of things. It's "my boys" rather than "me boys", though Dave and Annie tend to pronounce "my" as "me" when singing; they'd write it as "my", I should think, as Kidson did. People do tend to assume that if it's a folksong it must be "me" (see other examples in this thread) but that's accent rather than dialect, so it isn't compulsory. You might also like to compare the words as you hear them with some already quoted in this thread; "fermented on some corn", for instance, is a mis-hearing of "far mounted on a car". The Fentimans seem to have altered some of the wording, but I doubt if they really sang that! The second text Kidson quotes is from a broadside and has 18 verses, so the "long version" is already available; you can see an example at Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads (there are also shorter ones): Plains of Waterloo!. |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Plains of Waterloo From: smpc Date: 07 Jul 09 - 09:41 AM i have yet another version i have quite recently heard on a cd come all you young lovers of high and low degree i pray you attention and listen unto me for t'is all about young man and his tale i will tell unto you gor he fought in Spain and in Portugal but was slain at waterloo. . .. . . . . . . . . . . unfortunetly there are a few words/phrases i can't make out. does any1 know this version. |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Plains of Waterloo From: GUEST Date: 17 Jun 15 - 10:18 AM Ahead of tomorrow's Bicentenary, here is an excellent piece on one of the many songs related to the events at Waterloo 200 years ago, in the current issue of English Dance & Song Magazine: EDS Summer Edition: The Eighteenth Day Of June |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Plains of Waterloo From: Keith A of Hertford Date: 17 Jun 15 - 01:04 PM I will do Plains tomorrow at hertford. Maybe Napoleon Banaparte, and Bonny Light Horseman too. And some other redcoat/greencoat songs. And Bonny Bunch of Roses. |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Plains of Waterloo From: GUEST Date: 17 Jun 15 - 01:58 PM Smpc : details of the CD? There's at least one version sung in Ireland that opens like that. Regards |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Plains of Waterloo From: GUEST Date: 17 Jun 15 - 01:59 PM That's me, Martin Ryan, with a missing cookie! |
Subject: RE: ADD Versions: Plains of Waterloo From: Joe Offer Date: 26 Jul 21 - 04:35 PM Joe - needs cleanup |
Subject: RE: ADD Versions: Plains of Waterloo From: Joe Offer Date: 20 Jun 22 - 03:13 PM At the Mudcat Worldwide Singaround today, David Kidman sang an inspired rendition of Les Barker's Trains of Waterloo. |
Subject: RE: ADD Versions: Plains of Waterloo From: GUEST,henryp Date: 20 Jun 22 - 04:22 PM The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday, 18 June 1815. The Trains of Waterloo; Railway workers are striking over pay and job cuts on Tuesday 21 June 2022, Thursday and Saturday. Passengers are being advised not to travel unless it's essential. The strike will affect travel to the famous Glastonbury Festival. Arrival dates between Wednesday 22 June and Friday 24 June were expected to see almost 20,000 extra customers travelling to Castle Cary station in Somerset. |
Subject: RE: ADD Versions: Plains of Waterloo From: GUEST,henryp Date: 26 Jun 22 - 12:43 PM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yq_KB9Qtv0I O J Abbott O.J. Abbott sang Plains of Waterloo in a field recording made by Edith Fowke in Ontario in August 1957. It was printed in her Penguin Book of Canadian Folk Songs and was included in 1975 on the accompanying Leader album Far Canadian Fields. (Mainly Norfolk) Edith Fowke (editor) The Penguin Book of Canadian Folk Songs Harmondsworth; Penguin Books, 1973 ISBN 0 14 0708 42 1 Far Canadian Fields Companion to The Penguin Book of Canadian Folk Songs recorded on location by Edith Fowke Leader LEE 4057 (LP, UK, 1975) O.J. Abbott also contributed; O.J. Abbott: By the Hush, Me Boys (Roud 2314) O.J. Abbott: The Plains of Waterloo (Roud 960; Laws N32) O.J. Abbott: The Bonny Bunch of Rushes Green (Roud 831) O.J. Abbott: The Weaver (Roud 2311) |
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