Origins: Songs about being unable to feed children

Subject: Origins: Songs about being unable to feed children
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 18 Jun 11 - 06:44 PM

Does anyone know traditional songs, other than "Linstead Market" and the composed
"Downeaster Alexa" (by Billy Joel), which are written in first person in which the narrator makes a comment about being unable to feed /clothe their children?

Subject: RE: Origins: Songs about being unable to feed your ch
From: Susan of DT
Date: 18 Jun 11 - 07:01 PM

This song comes to mind
Hungry Child
I may think of more later.

Subject: RE: Origins: Songs about being unable to feed your ch
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 19 Jun 11 - 01:54 AM

In our Durham County, I am sorry for to say
That hunger and starvation is increasing every day...

The miner and his marra, too, each morning have to roam
To seek for bread to feed the hungry little ones at home ~~
===
Two extracts from Tommy Armstrong's song The Durham Lockout recording a pit dispute in Co Durham in 1892.

~Michael~

Subject: RE: Origins: Songs about being unable to feed children
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 19 Jun 11 - 03:34 AM

The Fields of Athenry is a song based on feeding children.... stealing corn to feed them>

Subject: RE: Origins: Songs about being unable to feed children
From: Raggytash
Date: 19 Jun 11 - 03:37 AM

Letter from Sunderland by Peter Bond is the story of a young man who commits suicide because he cannot feed his family and leaves his wife a widow at just turned 19.

Subject: RE: Origins: Songs about being unable to feed children
From: Jack Campin
Date: 19 Jun 11 - 04:35 AM

There's a Scottish children's game-song "Jenny Jo" (first written down about 1700) in the form of a dialogue between a mother and child in which the mother tells the child to wait until the grain has been grown, harvested, milled and baked into bread before she can eat - and she dies of hunger before it's ready. The same idea is used in the song "Earthly Life" fom Mahler's "Des Knaben Wunderhorn", so it must have been in German folklore too.

Subject: RE: Origins: Songs about being unable to feed children
From: JHW
Date: 19 Jun 11 - 09:55 AM

Watercress-O by Roger Watson

Subject: RE: Origins: Songs about being unable to feed children
From: GUEST,CalpeMike
Date: 19 Jun 11 - 10:23 AM

Polly (It'll end on a rope in the morning) is a good song written by John Richards (I think)and recorded by his band Maurice and the Minors. This deals with theft to feed the children.

Subject: RE: Origins: Songs about being unable to feed chil
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Jun 11 - 10:43 AM

Welcome, Bonny Brid!

Samuel Laycock (1825â€"93)


THA ’rt welcome, little bonny brid,        
But should n’t ha’ come just when tha did;        
       Toimes are bad.        
We ’re short o’ pobbies for eawr Joe,        
But that, of course, tha did n’t know,           
       Did ta, lad?        

Aw ’ve often yeard mi feyther tell,        
’At when aw coom i’ th’ world misel        
       Trade wur slack;        
An’ neaw it ’s hard wark pooin’ throoâ€"           
But aw munno fear thee; iv aw do        
       Tha ’ll go back.        

Cheer up! these toimes ’ull awter soon;        
Aw ’m beawn to beigh another spoonâ€"        
       One for thee;              
An’ as tha ’s sich a pratty face,        
Aw ’ll let thee have eawr Charley’s place        
       On mi knee.        

God bless thee, love, aw ’m fain tha ’rt come,        
Just try an’ mak thisel awhoam:              
       What ar ’t co’d?        
Tha ’rt loike thi mother to a tee,        
But tha ’s thi feyther’s nose, aw see,        
       Well, aw ’m blow’d!        

Come, come, tha need n’t look so shy,              
Aw am no’ blackin’ thee, not I;        
       Settle deawn,        
An’ tak this haup’ney for thisel’,        
There ’s lots o’ sugar-sticks to sell        
       Deawn i’ th’ teawn.              

Aw know when furst aw coom to th’ leet        
Aw ’re fond o’ owt ’at tasted sweet;        
       Tha ’ll be th’ same.        
But come, tha ’s never towd thi dad        
What he ’s to co thi yet, mi ladâ€"              
       What ’s thi name?        

Hush! hush! tha munno cry this way,        
But get this sope o’ cinder tay        
       While it ’s warm;        
Mi mother us’d to give it me,              
When aw wur sich a lad as thee,        
       In her arm.        

Hush a babby, hush a beeâ€"        
Oh, what a temper! dear a-me,        
       Heaw tha skroikes!              
Here ’s a bit o’ sugar, sithee;        
Howd thi noise, an’ then aw ’ll gie thee        
       Owt tha loikes.        

We ’n nobbut getten coarsish fare,        
But eawt o’ this tha ’st ha’ thi share,              
       Never fear.        
Aw hope tha ’ll never want a meel,        
But allus fill thi bally weel        
       While tha ’rt here.        

Thi feyther ’s noan bin wed so long,              
An’ yet tha sees he ’s middlin’ throng        
       Wi’ yo’ o:        
Besides thi little brother, Ted,        
We ’n one up-steers, asleep i’ bed        
       Wi’ eawr Joe.               60

But though we ’n childer two or three,        
We ’ll make’ a bit o’ reawm for theeâ€"        
       Bless thee, lad!        
Tha ’rt th’ prattiest brid we han i’ th’ nest;        
Come, hutch up closer to mi breastâ€"              
       Aw ’m thi dad.

Subject: RE: Origins: Songs about being unable to feed children
From: mg
Date: 19 Jun 11 - 01:08 PM

I have some about the potato famine. You can pM me.

There are surprisingly few Irish songs I have heard. Dan O'Hara is one. I would think the Ukrainian famine might have some..read up on that and google. There are some horrifying pictures. I would also think there would be some dust bowl songs by WOodie Guthrie perhaps..

One Irish one...I have nto heard it..just give me 3 grains of corn mother.

North Korea is in famine mode again I believe...mg

Subject: RE: Origins: Songs about being unable to feed children
From: Mrrzy
Date: 19 Jun 11 - 02:10 PM

There is a long Bob Dylan one about starving on a South Dakota farm...

In Woody Guthrie's talking dustbowl blues the singer refers to his children as "mighty skinny kids - looked like a tribe of thermometers running around"

In Woody Guthrie's Tom Joad, which is the Grapes of Wrath book put to song, there is starvation and migration therefore, and there is a mention of "the hungry little kids in the jungle camp" but they aren't the singer's own kids.

mg, we'd love you to post about the potato famine songs.

Subject: RE: Origins: Songs about being unable to feed children
From: JHW
Date: 19 Jun 11 - 02:32 PM

Hollis Brown (Bob Dylan as above)

Subject: RE: Origins: Songs about being unable to feed children
From: GUEST,Gail
Date: 20 Jun 11 - 09:18 AM

About 40 years ago Carolyn Hester recorded a wonderful song called 'Ain't That Rain' about a poor farm worker who can't work because of the rain. One verse goes something like 'children sick and hungry, yes I know, but if the sun would only shine then to work I'd go'.

Can't find a link to her singing it, sorry.

Subject: RE: Origins: Songs about being unable to feed children
From: RTim
Date: 09 Sep 21 - 10:29 PM

Information on the song mentioned by Guest:Gail above.
Tim Radford


Ain’t That Rain – Carolyn Hester
Composer: G. Tomsco, A. Tomsco

Clouds bring darkness now, I can hardy see
Can’t pick cotton now, Life seems mean to me.

Cos it looks like rain, Ain’t that rain

Walk inside my door, being tired and poor,
My bones are wracked with pain, Can’t take anymore

Ain’t that rain, O Ain’t that rain….

Children sick and hungry - yes I know
If the sun would only shine, then to work I’d go

But Ain’t That rain..mmm Ain’t that rain

Lord I love you now, but sometimes I cry
Just bring the sun to me, before I die

But Ain’t that Rain…mmmm….Ain’t that Rain

Clouds bring darkness now, I can hardy see
Can’t pick cotton now, Life seems mean to me.

Cos it looks like rain, Ain’t that rain


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOnlKBxDd3U&list=RDgOnlKBxDd3U&start_radio=1

Subject: RE: Origins: Songs about being unable to feed children
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Sep 21 - 11:03 PM

I OFFER THE MEXICAN TRADITIONAL SONG: "LA LLORNA". BOB(DECKMAN)NELSON

Subject: RE: Origins: Songs about being unable to feed children
From: Phil Cooper
Date: 09 Sep 21 - 11:55 PM

The song, Written in Our Eyes, by Charlie Madigan mentions children being hungry in the second verse. The song was also about the custom of photographing the guest of honor at funerals. It was inspired by the book Wisconsin Death Trips which had photo of people who died on flu in Black River Falls, Wisconsin in the 19th century. It was also inspired by Newt Gingrich saying that the quality of life was better in the 18th and 19th centuries. Here's a link to the song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofq1liIbGq0

Subject: RE: Origins: Songs about being unable to feed children
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 10 Sep 21 - 03:36 AM

Faustus did a whole CD about the cotton famine with songs that fall into this categorie.

Robin

Subject: RE: Origins: Songs about being unable to feed children
From: Joe_F
Date: 10 Sep 21 - 05:32 PM

Crowdie

Subject: RE: Origins: Songs about being unable to feed children
From: GUEST,joyfulisa
Date: 10 Sep 21 - 06:51 PM

Perhaps not quite what you're looking for but the song often sung to children/babies, "All the Pretty Little Horses" (or ponies) is about an enslaved wet-nurse having to feed the master's baby while she can hear her own child screaming for food.

Subject: RE: Origins: Songs about being unable to feed children
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 11 Sep 21 - 12:09 PM

There's a great song by Scottish songwriter, Ian Walker, which uses Robert Burns' Selkirk Grace as the chorus: not only does it mention children going hungry, but also the vast waste of food in other areas.

SOME HAE MEAT      (Ian Walker/Robert Burns)

From my armchair window on this world
Before my eyes appearing
Foods for breakfasts, dinners, teas
For in between meals feeding

Chorus

Some hae meat and cannae eat
Some would eat that want it
But we hae meat and we can eat
Sae let the Lord be thankit

From my armchair window on this world
I see butter mountains rising
And fish thrown back into the sea
And leaders compromising

And then I see one bowl of rice
A child’s eyes staring at me
With feeble bones life never owned
Reaching out to touch me

Just down the road a million miles
Our children they are crying
Too weak to eat, they’ve got no meat
They spend their living dying

But the ill divisions of this world
Exist because we let them
The choice is ours, ‘tween need and greed
To help or just forget them.

And here he is singing it with Ian Bruce:
Some hae meat

Subject: RE: Origins: Songs about being unable to feed children
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 11 Sep 21 - 12:14 PM

Then there's this one - Eric Bogle's very powerful "Feed the Children" - the lyrics are in the comments section below the video:
Feed the Children

Subject: RE: Origins: Songs about being unable to feed children
From: The Sandman
Date: 11 Sep 21 - 12:32 PM

Shortest story, Harry Chapin

Subject: RE: Origins: Songs about being unable to feed children
From: Neil D
Date: 11 Sep 21 - 12:54 PM

Empty Handed by Mudcatter George Papavgeris

Subject: RE: Origins: Songs about being unable to feed children
From: GUEST,JohnH
Date: 13 Sep 21 - 08:04 AM

Here's The Tender Coming

"If they catch you Geordie how will we get bread?
Me and little Jackie'dbetter off be dead."