Schooldays Over - sung by Chieftains

Subject: Lyr Req: Beauitful song sung by Chieftains
From: lefthanded guitar
Date: 16 Mar 12 - 11:37 AM

The other night the Chieftains , along with The Low Anthem, a young folk/rock group, performed a beautiful song, that gave me goosebumps, on the Letterman show (who still has the best music venue on tv I've EVER heard anywheres)


It sounds traditional, but I don't know it: First verse (not exact words) go

Schoolday's over
C'mon then John
Time to be getting your pit boots on
On with your sark and oilskin trousers
Time to be on your way
Time to be learning the pitman's job
Earning the pit man's pay.

Very haunting song- I would like to learn it to sing at a Irish song themed jam I'm going to- does anyone know title and chords?

Thanks.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Beauitful song sung by Chieftains
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Mar 12 - 11:43 AM

Schooldays Over

Schooldays over, come on then John
Time to be getting your pit boots on
On with your sack and your moleskin trousers
Time you were on your way
Time you were learning the pitman's job
And earning a pitman's pay.

Come on then Jim, it's time to go
Time you were working down below
Time to be handling a pick and shovel
You start at the pits today
Time to be learning the collier's job
And earning a collier's pay.

Come on then Dai, it's nearly light
Time you were off to the anthracite
The morning mist is on the valley
It's time you were on your way
Time you were learning the miner's job
And earning a miner's pay

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Beauitful song sung by Chieftains
From: GUEST,Peter Laban
Date: 16 Mar 12 - 11:45 AM

Sorry, that was me. Not an Irish song, one of Ewan McColl's.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Beauitful song sung by Chieftains
From: Owen Woodson
Date: 16 Mar 12 - 11:56 AM

It's from the BBC radio ballad, The Big Hewer.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Beauitful song sung by Chieftains
From: lefthanded guitar
Date: 16 Mar 12 - 12:41 PM

Thanks, Peter (and Owen). Ewan MacColl must be one of the greatest underrated songwriters.

Now the question is: Ewan, born in England to Scottish parents? Can I still sing that song at an Irish music jam? ;)

Subject: RE: Schooldays Over - sung by Chieftains
From: GUEST,kenny
Date: 16 Mar 12 - 01:46 PM

I first heard it sung by the London / Irish group "The Peelers", so if it was good enough for them.............why not? And McColl's origins certainly never stopped any number of Irish singers singing "Dirty Old Town".

Subject: RE: Schooldays Over - sung by Chieftains
From: GUEST,Peter Laban
Date: 16 Mar 12 - 01:52 PM

Ah no, ofcourse not, Luke Kelly, Damien Dempsey, Mary Black, they all sing (or sang) Schooldays over. I was just saying it's not intrinsically an Irish song. not too many songs about miners here (maybe a few around Arigna but it's not a big subject in Ireland).

Subject: RE: Schooldays Over - sung by Chieftains
From: Owen Woodson
Date: 16 Mar 12 - 01:56 PM

"Now the question is: Ewan, born in England to Scottish parents? Can I still sing that song at an Irish music jam? ;)"

Why not? I wish I had a fiver for every song that MacColl either wrote or popularised which ended up being thought of as "of Irish origin".

Subject: RE: Schooldays Over - sung by Chieftains
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 16 Mar 12 - 02:30 PM

No reason to think of this one as in any way Irish, though. The three stanzas are set respectively in the Tyneside, Notts/Derby, and S Wales coalfields, where the boy is told respectively to prepare himself , in local dialect nomenclature, for life as a 'pitman', a 'collier', and a 'miner'. A wonderfully succinct summary of regional similarities and differences. A most accomplished piece of verse, in fact; and with a wonderful tune.

So I think it could surely be sung, and appreciated, anywhere, just for its intrinsic quality.

~Michael~

Subject: RE: Schooldays Over - sung by Chieftains
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 16 Mar 12 - 03:37 PM

From the Radio Ballad ' The Big Hewer ' properly called ' Schooldays End '

Dave H

Subject: RE: Schooldays Over - sung by Chieftains
From: Mark Dowding
Date: 17 Mar 12 - 06:14 AM

I note that Peter has corrected "oilskin trousers" to "moleskin trousers" which is fine but is the word "sark"(meaning shirt)as posted by Lefthanded guitar correct rather than "sack"?

A lovely song - I sing it along with "The Little Piecer" and "First day at t' Mill" as one song with some guitar twiddle between each song. A nice trio about children starting work in an industrial environment. Not done it for a while so I must revive it in my repertoire.

Cheers
Mark

Subject: RE: Schooldays Over - sung by Chieftains
From: Anglo
Date: 17 Mar 12 - 03:53 PM

"Why did the chicken cross the road?"'
"To record with the Chieftains."

Subject: RE: Schooldays Over - sung by Chieftains
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 17 Mar 12 - 05:36 PM

MtheGM--

Great post!

Subject: RE: Schooldays Over - sung by Chieftains
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 17 Mar 12 - 06:50 PM

What MtheGM said.

When I was at school we used to be informed that Ireland had few natural resources - no coal, no iron, just peat in the middle and barren mountains on the outside. Only when I started listening to Radio Eireann in the seventies (even the regular music programmes would carry the occasional folk or traditional song) did I begin to hear about active coal mines, silver mines, gold mines and more. These were still pretty peripheral to the economy, and never on the scale that created whole communities serving the mines as occurred in the UK and elsewhere, but they did exist.

As Michael suggests, there was time enough in the life of the mining industry in the various regions of Britain for distinct language and customs to develop around similar trades and activities.

It's a great song, sing it by all means, but don't sell yourself or your audience short by telling them it's Irish.

Ross

Subject: RE: Schooldays Over - sung by Chieftains
From: Little Robyn
Date: 17 Mar 12 - 07:24 PM

Ray and Archie Fisher used to sing it too. Lovely.
Robyn

Subject: RE: Schooldays Over - sung by Chieftains
From: GUEST,Rab Raeburn
Date: 01 Apr 15 - 03:05 PM

Living in what used to be a mining town in Central Scotland I learned this song by listening to Dick Gaughan's version

Rab R

Subject: RE: Schooldays Over - sung by Chieftains
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 01 Apr 15 - 03:53 PM

Luke for me.

Subject: RE: Schooldays Over - sung by Chieftains
From: GUEST,Jim Younger
Date: 02 Apr 15 - 02:51 PM

The tune Tom Madden used to sing with the Peelers wasn't exactly MacColl's tune - fewer notes, less heroic maybe, but more wistful to my ear.

Subject: RE: Schooldays Over - sung by Chieftains
From: GUEST,Guest jr
Date: 02 Apr 15 - 07:54 PM

If I recall correctly the title is Schooldays End.

Subject: RE: Schooldays Over - sung by Chieftains
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 03 Apr 15 - 02:36 AM

Guest jr. I refer you to my earlier post.

Dave H

Subject: RE: Schooldays Over - sung by Chieftains
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 03 Apr 15 - 03:53 AM

Luke Kelly, Mary Black & the Chieftains, and other artistes who have recorded the song, use title "Schooldays Over". Many others call it "Schooldays End". Both titles seem to be viable, and perfectly identifiable.

"Schoolday's Over, Come on Then, John..." is the title that appears in online list of "Ewan MacColl Lyrics" by "Lyrics.com" (but this seems imperfect -- what is the precise use of the apostrophe here?).

It would seem, in sum, that there is no consensus as to which of these two alternatives constitutes the definitive title; but little or no difficulty or confusion will surely be caused by the use of either.

≈M≈

Subject: RE: Schooldays Over - sung by Chieftains
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 03 Apr 15 - 04:26 AM

The 'Essential Ewan MacColl Songbook'(edited by Peggy) gives the title as 'Schooldays End' - 'Schooldays Over' in the index directs "see 'Schooldays End'"; the earlier, 'Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger Songbook' also uses 'Schooldays End'.
Surely the most powerful singing of the song was that of Louis Killen, Ian Campbell and (I think) Bob Davenport on the Radio Ballad, 'The Big Hewer' where it was interspersed between each verse with miners talking about their first day down the pit - that, for me, underlines the genius of this, and many of MacColl's songs.
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Schooldays Over - sung by Chieftains
From: GUEST,jim bainbridge
Date: 03 Apr 15 - 04:29 AM

Re Ireland having no natural (mineral) resources- as someone else said, the Arigna area of North Roscommon /Leitrim had a thriving small-scale coal industry- drift mines rather than deep mines. Thereis still a tourist attraction in Arigna called the Mining Experience' and one of Irish music's greatest ever flute players, John McKenna worked at the Arigna mines before heading off to fame in New York.

also. what about...
'And in Kilkenny it is reported
There's marble stones there as black as ink'

(from 'Carrickfergus'- a very old song)- any local knowledge?

Subject: RE: Schooldays Over - sung by Chieftains
From: Richard Mellish
Date: 03 Apr 15 - 10:19 AM

A while back MGM·Lion (in his previous existence as MtheGM) said
> The three stanzas are set respectively in the Tyneside, Notts/Derby, and S Wales coalfields, where the boy is told respectively to prepare himself , in local dialect nomenclature, for life as a 'pitman', a 'collier', and a 'miner'.

I have assumed the middle one to be Scotland. But whichever it is, McColl's choice of the respective terms (as well as Dai going specifically for the anthracite) are icing on the cake of his songwriting BUT not always respected by later singers.

Subject: RE: Schooldays Over - sung by Chieftains
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 03 Apr 15 - 11:56 AM

Am I issing something here?
I hadn't heard 'The Chieftains!!' version of Scooldays Over, so I Googled it.
What I got was a quite nice choral piece followed by a fairly dire Gene-Autrey- soundalike rendition of what I know to be a good powerful song - the pseudo Mid-Atlantic accent really didn't help.
Is this what passes for good nowadays?
It seems like the older I get, the more the Emperor's new clothes look like bare flesh.
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Schooldays Over - sung by Chieftains
From: BrendanB
Date: 03 Apr 15 - 03:50 PM

The choir with which I sing, a men's choir in Northumberland, sing a version of this song arranged by Sandra Kerr, who was very close to Ewan McColl. It is a powerful depiction of what many lads from pit villages could look forward to. It really doesn't need any decoration or prettification.

Subject: RE: Schooldays Over - sung by Chieftains
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 03 Apr 15 - 04:01 PM

There seem to be more than one online Chieftains version. The one with the young American-sounding man in the beanie hat I take to be the one Jim disliked so much, and it is middling dire indeed. But the one with Mary Black didn't strike me as too terrible.

≈M≈

Subject: RE: Schooldays Over - sung by Chieftains
From: Musket
Date: 04 Apr 15 - 01:59 AM

When I started in folk clubs and worked down the pit I never used to sing mining songs. I left that to social workers and cost accountants.

However, with this song I made an exception. (OK. I also sang The Recruited Collier.)

As I had been listening to my older brother's MacColl records whilst still at school, I started at the pit thinking I knew a few terms and words to describe things. But most of the words weren't ones we used down our pit nor indeed the training centre at Orgreave. Hewer, paddy train, collier... Had to get them out of my head!