Lyr Req: songs in the play 'Love on the Dole'

Subject: Lyr Req: Love On The Dole
From: GUEST,chris
Date: 16 Aug 10 - 07:30 AM

Hi

I'm trying to track down some songs referenced in the play. They are performed on concertina. One is called The More We Are Together (could it be the more we get together?) and the other has the following lyrics...

We'll laugh and we'll sing and we'll drive away care,
I've enough for meself an' a little bit to spare.
If a nice young man should ride my way
I'll make him welcome as the flowers in May

Any help greatly appreciated!

Chris

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Love On The Dole
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 16 Aug 10 - 08:48 AM

I recall

"The more we are together, together, together,
The more we are together,
The merrier we shall be"

as a sort of campfire or pub-chorus song, one of those that everyone seemed to know, in my early 1930s childhood, about the time Love On The Dole was published [novel 1933, play 1934; I was born 1932].

It went on, IIRC,
"For my friend is your friend,
And your friend is my friend ~
So the more we are together...&c".

I have no idea of its provenance [music-hall, perhaps?]. As I say, it was just one of those songs that were *there*. And Walter Greenwood, & Ronald Gow, the adaptor into a play, would ∴ have presumed it would be familiar to all readers/audience.

~Michael~

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Love On The Dole
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Aug 10 - 09:15 AM

Thanks Michael

That's the one! I think I have found it now, credited to Irving King. Still no joy identifying the other tune...

Chris

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Love On The Dole
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 16 Aug 10 - 12:19 PM

Indeed ~~ so I think you will be interested in following from Wikipedia, Chris:~

>>Irving King was a pseudonym used during the 1920s and 1930s by the British songwriting team of James Campbell and Reginald Connelly. Primarily lyricists, they generally worked in collaboration with composers.
Their compositions included the Froth Blowers' anthem, "The More We Are Together"[1], the famous "Show Me the Way to Go Home" (1925), "If I Had You" (1928, written with Ted Shapiro), "Goodnight Sweetheart" (1931, with Ray Noble) and "Try A Little Tenderness" (1933, written with Harry M. Woods).<<

~Michael~

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Love On The Dole
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 16 Aug 10 - 12:24 PM

Further ~~~

>For five years [from 1925] the Froth Blowers extolled Britishness and "Lubrication in Moderation". Their song The More We Are Together, an adaptation of Oh du lieber Augustin specially written by the pseudonymous Irving King, [2] was heard everywhere.

The more we are together, together, together
The more we are together
The merrier we'll be.
For your friends are my friends
And my friends are your friends,
And the more we are together
The merrier we'll be.<<

You will note that this accords with my dim 70+ year old memory as instanced in my post above...

~Michael~

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Love On The Dole
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Aug 10 - 05:27 PM

It seems the song is now more commonly known as The More We Get Together rather than The More We Are Together. Just enough to make me doubt. Thanks for your help Michael

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Love On The Dole
From: leeneia2
Date: 17 Aug 10 - 11:21 AM

The tune of 'Ach du lieber Augustin' is also the tune of 'Did you ever see a lassie.'

Subject: Lyr Add: AS WELCOME AS THE FLOWERS IN MAY (Clifton
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 18 Aug 10 - 11:16 PM

Found in Gem of the West and Soldiers' Friend, Volume 7, No. 3 (Chicago, March, 1873), page 128:


AS WELCOME AS THE FLOWERS IN MAY
Harry Clifton

1. I live at the mill, at the foot of the hill,
Where the stream runs rippling by.
For ten miles around, there cannot be found
A merrier fellow than I.
For I laugh and I sing and I drive away a care.
I've enough for my wants and a little to spare.
If a poor old friend should pass my way,
I make him welcome as the flowers in May.

CHORUS: For I laugh and I sing and I drive away a care.
I've enough for my wants and a little to spare.
If a poor old friend should pass my way,
I make him welcome as the flowers in May.

2. The jolly old mill, it stands there still,
As it did in my father's time,
Who often used to sing to me
This little bit of rhyme:
Remember, my boy, don't turn up your nose
At poorer people in plainer clothes,
But think for the sake of your mind's repose
That wealth is a bubble that comes and goes.

3. I never saw the pleasure yet
Of dressing very loud.
I think there's little good to get
By looking very proud,
Of crossing over, when you meet,
A poor acquaintance in the street.
I may be wrong, but then, you know,
That's merely the style of the miller—just so.

4. I think it just as well to try
To pay your tailor's bill,
To pay a wrong or injury
With good instead of ill.
In fact, I think it best to do
As you'd see others do to you.
I may be wrong, but then, you know,
That's merely the style of the miller—just so.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: songs in the play 'Love on the Dole'
From: GUEST,guest - Jim Younger
Date: 19 Aug 10 - 02:41 AM

When I re-read the novel Love on the Dole (Walter Greenwood) a while back, it occurred to me that some of the imagery in Ewan MacColl's song Dirty Old Town was inspired by the opening couple of pages of the book.

Sort of off-topic, but sort of not-off-topic at the same time ...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: songs in the play 'Love on the Dole'
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Aug 10 - 04:13 AM

Jim you read my mind!

Anyone have the sheet music or a recording of As Welcome As The Flowers In May?

Many thanks

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: songs in the play 'Love on the Dole'
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 19 Aug 10 - 07:46 AM

There is musical notation for the voice part only of Harry Clifton's AS WELCOME AS THE FLOWERS IN MAY on page 111 of a 140-page PDF doctoral thesis called "Vernacular Song from a North Yorkshire Hill Farm: Culture, Contexts and Comparisons, Volume II" by David Hillery. Click to download.

This seems to be a folk-processed version collected in the wild, so to speak, and might not be exactly the same as the original sheet music.

Several libraries have copies of the sheet music, but I have not found any that are viewable online. See WorldCat.org for a list.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: songs in the play 'Love on the Dole'
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Aug 10 - 09:27 AM

That's fantastic! Thanks Jim.

I wonder if any recorded versions are out there?