all around my hat

Subject: all around my hat
From: The Sandman
Date: 19 Jun 14 - 07:41 AM

Anyone got the original words, i believe Steeleye put 2 songs together farewll she and all around my hat, or am i barking mad.

Subject: RE: al around my hat
From: GUEST,Guest TF
Date: 19 Jun 14 - 08:11 AM

I knew "Farewell She" long before Steeleye.
Is it not in Marrowbones?

Subject: RE: al around my hat
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 19 Jun 14 - 08:52 AM

You are correct, Dick. You'll find lots of versions of All around my Hat on the Bodleian website.

Farewell he/she is at least as old as the 17th century but the copy on the Bodleian site Douce 2 261b is a very badly disfigured copy. I have a transcription if you need it and will scan and email if needed. Title 'The Young Man's Lamentation'.

Otherwise more recent broadsides go under the title 'Fare thee well, cold winter.'

Guest TF, it's not in Marrow Bones but it is in the 2nd book in the series, The Constant Lovers p32 under 'Farewell He'.

'Let him go, let him tarry' is of course a modern Irish fragment of it.

Subject: RE: al around my hat
From: The Sandman
Date: 19 Jun 14 - 12:15 PM

thanks Steve, do i just google bodleian website.

Subject: RE: al around my hat
From: Jeri
Date: 19 Jun 14 - 12:22 PM

There are two versions in the DT.

Here
and here.

Subject: RE: all around my hat
From: The Sandman
Date: 19 Jun 14 - 12:37 PM

thanks jeri , the second one is one of original versions,the first has farewell she mixed in with it

Subject: RE: all around my hat
From: GUEST,LK867
Date: 19 Jun 14 - 01:04 PM

I recall it in the pop music charts around January 1975, it did quite well.

Subject: RE: all around my hat
From: Richard Mellish
Date: 19 Jun 14 - 03:54 PM

Not only did Steeleye glue two songs together: they used two with disparate plots. I recall someone (Brian Peters?) saying that he had carefully studied everything that Steeleye did with their version, and then carefully avoided all of that.

Subject: RE: all around my hat
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 19 Jun 14 - 05:16 PM

Brian Peters sings the more traditionally authentic version superbly. His singing of it was one of the very high points of the Bob Copper memorial concert at CSH all those years ago. It is also on one of Peter Bellamy's early records -- Fair England's Shore iirc.

~M~

Subject: RE: all around my hat
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 19 Jun 14 - 05:48 PM

Hi Dick,
Sure, Googling Bodleian Broadside Ballads should get you there, then just use the search facilities.

Subject: RE: all around my hat
From: Mr Red
Date: 19 Jun 14 - 06:58 PM

Charles Chilton of radio ballads fame cobbled together a version, (probably to claim copyright). I have seen it in one of his books.
Peter Dawson made a record of A A M H but I am not clear what version he sang. Possibly in the days of 78's. Possibly Chilton's version.

"the reason why I wears it" with a scansion that differs from the Steeleye version.

And didn't the Irish sing a version with a green ribbon instead of a willow? Signifying the person is waiting for a lover - "who is far far away"

Subject: RE: all around my hat
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 19 Jun 14 - 08:02 PM

At the top of the page, I see a list of "related threads". I'm guessing everything that can be said about this song has already been said in one or another of those earlier discussions.

Subject: RE: all around my hat
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 20 Jun 14 - 12:18 AM

There is an Irish nationalist version in which the singer wears 'a tricoloured ribbon' for political reasons. It is on one of Frank Harte's records.

There was a C19 cockney variant which is a lament for a girlfriend transported for stealing; contains lines something to effect: "All around my hat until death comes to me, Cussed be the judge what sent my true love a-vy" [i.e. 'away' in C19 cockney]. IIRC some elements of this theme remain in Brian Peters' version I mentioned above.

~M~

Subject: RE: all around my hat
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 20 Jun 14 - 12:27 AM

Indeed, Brian acknowledged as much on the "Misleading DT Note" thread I OP'd on this song 3 years ago, in list above qv - 6 May 11 0529 AM.

~M~

Subject: RE: all around my hat
From: Brian Peters
Date: 20 Jun 14 - 11:25 AM

Hi All,
Yes we did thrash this one out pretty thoroughly a few years back. Unfortunately the links I posted to pages in the old Take 6 archive don't work any more - since the replacement of Take 6 with The Full English - and it doesn't seem to be possible to make links direct to the appropriate pages of TFE. But the stuff's all there, with a little searching.

Putting Roud 22518 in the box will get you quite a few hits, including at least three different songs with the 'Hat' chorus: (1) the one starring Phoebe and William (very like 'Twas On One April Morning'); (2) 'The Nobleman's Wedding' (from Mrs. Crawford - should be under Roud 567); (3) the cockney costermonger's transportation broadside on which I based my own version.

There is some sorting out to be done on TFE regarding both this song and 'Twas on One April Morning'. A version of the latter from Cecil Sharp is listed correctly under Roud 1546 (which for some reason also brings up 'The Pilchard Fishery'), but the Devon version that Cyril Tawney and Tony Rose used is listed under Roud 191 ('The White Cockade').

I think I did make that remark about avoiding everything that Steeleye Span did with the song, but it was more a tongue-in-cheek comment about my successful avoidance of commercial success than the trad snobbery you might expect.

Subject: RE: all around my hat
From: Reinhard
Date: 20 Jun 14 - 12:03 PM

Brian, the direct links to The Full English are shown at the bottom of the individual entries as "Permanent URL", e.g. http://www.vwml.org/record/GB/6b/1

Subject: RE: all around my hat
From: Brian Peters
Date: 20 Jun 14 - 01:16 PM

Thanks Reinhard, I thought there must be a way.

Testing, testing...

All Around My Hat (Phoebe & WIlliam)

All Around My Hat (Nobleman's Wedding)

All Around My Hat - cockney broadside

'Twas On One April Morning