Any sentimental Brit songs about places?

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: Mr Red
Date: 25 Mar 15 - 04:09 AM

Were/are English emigrants more likely to go by choice?

If you had to compare then "brogue" of SE England and Ozzie "strine" You would be a very foolhardy person to discount the obvious closeness compared to Welsh, Scottish, Geordie, West Country or even the Midlands.

I think you will find the surviving accent is heavily biased to London and the Home Counties. How's that for forced emmigration?

I am sure what I spotted will be commented on but I leave it to the debating chamber. Over to you.

BTW if you want italics try this:

<I> paste/type your text & italics text will appear </I>
(type as seen - I have used a bit of HTML to display it for you)

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: Thompson
Date: 25 Mar 15 - 03:30 AM

Thanks, DaveRO very handy!

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: GUEST,Dave
Date: 24 Mar 15 - 06:15 PM

Going back to the very first post in this thread, I would take Jerusalem over Country Roads though.

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: GUEST,Dave
Date: 24 Mar 15 - 06:02 PM

Dave the Gnome, had forgotten that, its supposed to derive from some utterly implausible legend involving Joseph of Arimithea, and the first verse poses four questions, the answer to each being a resounding 'no'. Parry's second best known hymn tune, but the lyrics were not Blake's finest hour.

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: GUEST,Guest Roger Jones
Date: 24 Mar 15 - 04:45 PM

"I'm Going Back To Rochdale" - Geoff Alexander

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: GUEST,DaveRo
Date: 24 Mar 15 - 09:44 AM

Thompson wrote: (How do you get it to go into italics, by the way?)

Like this:

<i>Something in italics</i>

(I use a bookmarklet to generate my quotes. If anybody wants it I've documented it HERE. I usually remove the "so-and-so wrote:" bit if I'm quoting a recent post. If you have questions about it I suggest a new tech: thread rather than here.)

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: GUEST,Dave the Gnome
Date: 24 Mar 15 - 08:48 AM

Forgot to ask, has anyone mentioned the WI anthem yet?

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: GUEST,Dave the Gnome
Date: 24 Mar 15 - 08:44 AM

On Owdam Edge, the grass is green
Nicest view that e'er 'ave seen
If tha' stands on t'top and looks about
Nowt but mills wi' a chimney spout...

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: Paul Reade
Date: 24 Mar 15 - 08:40 AM

How about Oldham Tinkers - Oldham's Burning Sands

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: GUEST,Dave
Date: 24 Mar 15 - 08:35 AM

Thomson, they may have been looking back longingly, but they were looking back to Yorkshire, or Liverpool, or Newcastle, or Norfolk, or Kent, or Cornwall, or London even. Not England.

DaveRo, not sure about being forced to emigrate, but many were transported as slaves to the West Indies after the Bloody Assize.

Dave the Gnome, exactly right. The reason that people are not nostalgic about England, is that England was exploiting them. In exactly the same way as it was the Scottish, Irish and Welsh. Hence it is to your city or county that your loyalty really lies.

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: GUEST,Allan Conn
Date: 24 Mar 15 - 08:27 AM

DaveRo there was mass movement off the land and both migration and emigration from the Lowlands of Scotland too. In fact some places like Berwickshire (which is on the English border) lost a higher percentage of folk than the vast bulk of Highland counties did in their peak period. It is just that the Highland Clearances were slightly later and more abrupt and are entrenched in the nation's consciousness more than the movement of the land in the Lowlands. Hence it still being called "Improvement" in the Lowlands. In the 1690s the north-east Lowlands lost vast amounts of people too during the so called ill-years. There was a massive movement off the land in England too and of course substantial emigration. Nothing in Britain on the scale of the Irish famine though!

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: GUEST,Dave the Gnome
Date: 24 Mar 15 - 06:14 AM

I have always argued that the first target of British Imperialism was the English working class! Maybe sentimental English songs about times gone by are more relevant than places? Still think there are plenty of such songs about places though. It is just that us English are more reserved than our neighbours and ex colonials... :-P

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: GUEST,DaveRo
Date: 24 Mar 15 - 05:10 AM

Were/are English emigrants more likely to go by choice?

I was thinking of the Highland Clearances and the Irish Famine. Was there an equivalent English event that forced so many to emigrate?

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: Thompson
Date: 24 Mar 15 - 04:59 AM

GUESTDave wrote "Which is because England is not a country in the same sense that Scotland and Wales are, it is an amalgam of regions, created by Aethelstan and reinforced by the Norman invaders."
(How do you get it to go into italics, by the way?)

This statement astonished me. I would have thought that England, of all countries, with its history of colonisation and its colonists harking back to England, would very much be a country.

Were/are English emigrants more likely to go by choice? I don't think so; what's that famous painting - ah, Ford Madox Brown's The Last of England - with the emigrants looking longingly back to their homeland. And in every country where English people have settled they have retained their culture and customs with great care.

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: GUEST,DaveRo
Date: 24 Mar 15 - 04:46 AM

Thompson wrote: What this thread (so far) seems to prove is that songs of place, with that particular tone of longing and nostalgia that make such songs, are a thing in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, but not in England...

I don't think it does seem to prove that, but if it were so - that songs of 'longing and nostalgia' are more prevalent about Scotland and Ireland (and Wales?) - then this might be because of greater involuntary migration from those countries, particularly to America.

Perhaps emigrants from England were more likely to go by choice. Are there any songs along the lines of "Glad to see the back of Smethwick!"?

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: Mr Red
Date: 24 Mar 15 - 04:02 AM

"Dalesman's Litany", clues in the name? And it does rather tell it like it is - delivered.

There are more songs listed than sprang to my mind, but that was the intention. And English place songs are as likely to be self-deprecating in a way that other UK regions rarely exhibit. IMNSHO.

 If  there is any defining "Englishness" character, self-deprecating is on that list.

"London Pride" is one of Coward's best. Jingoism hidden in sentimentality. It was written to bolster the morale of the country in the face of difficulty. But one might (in a provocative vein) say it is a song about a flower............




I'll get my gardening coat.

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: GUEST,M
Date: 23 Mar 15 - 02:08 PM

London Pride by Noel Coward.

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: Thompson
Date: 23 Mar 15 - 02:46 AM

Bert, I'd call modern anything post-1940s, but especially anything 1960s on.

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: GUEST,Allan Conn
Date: 23 Mar 15 - 02:43 AM

"Which is because England is not a country in the same sense that Scotland and Wales are, it is an amalgam of regions, created by Aethelstan and reinforced by the Norman invaders."

Surely England was created in much the same way as Scotland was? That is there were various smaller kingdoms (ie the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms as well as British kingdoms to the west) which gradually through the centuries amalgamated into a wider entity. Scotland was the same. Pictland itself was created from smaller kingdoms then merged with Dalriadi which in turn merged with the Brittonic kingdom of Strathclyde to the south as well as half of Northumbrian Bernicia which had previously been the Kingdom of the Gododdin! I don't see much diffrence if any. Even Wales was previously several smaller kingdoms.

The idea that Scotland wasn't, and still isn't, made of regions is a bit daft!!! Surely every country on earth will be?

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: Bert
Date: 23 Mar 15 - 12:56 AM

Thompson, What do you call modern?

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: GUEST,Dave the Gnome
Date: 22 Mar 15 - 04:01 PM

...there's 20 miles of heathery moor twixt me and the coal pit's stack. And from Hull and Halifax and Hell the good lord has delivered me.

Maybe there are more sentimental 'Brit' songs than the initial post seems to suggest and it is the thread itself that is self deprecating>?

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 22 Mar 15 - 03:41 PM

"Dalesman's Litany - sentimental?
From Hull & Hell & Halifax Good Lord deliver me.
Self-deprecating honest schmozzal maybe! Sentimental? Tough love? - I don't think so.
.,,.

What about the "20 miles of heathery moor"? And where does the concept of 'tough love' come into the question whatever, Mr Red?

≈M≈

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 22 Mar 15 - 02:11 PM

Thompson --

"that particular tone of longing and nostalgia ... but not in England"

"The Oak & The Ash"?

≈M≈

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: GUEST,Dave
Date: 22 Mar 15 - 02:10 PM

Thompson, I think that there are plenty of songs in this thread which are nostalgic about regions of England, we have list of songs about London, the North East, the North West and the South West. Probably ones about Kent and Sussex too. But not about England as such. Which is because England is not a country in the same sense that Scotland and Wales are, it is an amalgam of regions, created by Aethelstan and reinforced by the Norman invaders.

Which, to be political for a moment, is the whole problem with William Hague's "English Votes for English Laws" proposal. There is no coherent English identity.

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: Thompson
Date: 22 Mar 15 - 11:21 AM

What this thread (so far) seems to prove is that songs of place, with that particular tone of longing and nostalgia that make such songs, are a thing in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, but not in England; there are a few English songs of place, but they're a) mostly slightly ironic, and b) modern.
Odd, that; as far as I know, all other countries - Ireland, France, Spain, Germany, the US, African countries - have such songs in abundance. Don't know about Scandinavia.

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: GUEST,Dave the Gnome
Date: 22 Mar 15 - 08:25 AM

Manchester Rambler is about Manchester people & rambling and Kinder Scout is implied.

Have you ever actually listened to the song Mr R? :-) Kinder is far more than implied as are many other places, in quite a sentimental way. It's not about Manchester people particularly either although the title says so. I see it as far more about anyone from and industrial area wanting to get to any of our lovely countryside when the working week is over.

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: Mr Red
Date: 22 Mar 15 - 08:17 AM

Dalesman's Litany - sentimental?
From Hull & Hell & Halifax Good Lord deliver me.
Self-deprecating honest schmozzal maybe! Sentimental? Tough love? - I don't think so.

Like defining Folk, every take is different. Manchester Rambler is about Manchester people & rambling and Kinder Scout is implied. Manchester gets a mention but doesn't get a vote on the sentimental spectrum. IMNSHO.

But there you are.


Anyone care to write a complimentary song about Wednesbury - I couldn't (didn't).

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: GUEST,Bill S in Adelaide
Date: 22 Mar 15 - 12:02 AM

There are loads of them, an obvious few include
Gorton Town
The Manchester Rambler
Dalesman's Litany
Oldham Edge
Sheffield on Saturday night
The wonderful effects of the Leicester Rail road
Sheffield's a Wonderful Town, O
Truro Agricultural Fair
The Barnsley Anthem
The Scenes of Manchester
Helston Furry

and I have kept to England

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: Bert
Date: 21 Mar 15 - 10:28 PM

While London sleeps.

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: GUEST,bernieandred
Date: 21 Mar 15 - 09:52 PM

Some may say it isn't about any specifc place, but "We'll Gather Lilacs" by Ivor Novello. Beautiful melody, & a fine lyric which brings a tear to the eye of this expat whenever I hear it.

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 21 Mar 15 - 08:23 PM

Shame upon me for not mentioning songs from my home town of Edinburgh - not all sentimental and not all naming the actual place - songs of people like Burns, Tannahill, Lady Nairne and Ferguson.
Ae Fond Kiss
Rattlin' Roaring Willie
Silver Tassie (er, Leith - not Edinburgh!)
Willie's Gone tae Melville Castle
Bonnie Dundee (no, it's NOT about Dundee!)
'Twas within a Mile of Edinburgh Toon
Caroline of Edinburgh Town
The Union Canal and Forth Bridge songs by Robin Laing
"The Edinburgh Rambler" (based on "The Manchester Rambler" but with changed locations - Ed Miller)
A Sandy Bell's Man
Greyfriars Bobby
The Keel Row (Edinburgh version!)
and a much more recent one by Scott Murray "We'll Follow the Music"
and others I'll remember later! (Or see thread re Edinburgh songs)

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: GUEST,Tim hague
Date: 20 Mar 15 - 08:55 PM

My late friend, Malcolm Jones's song, Building boats in Stony Stratford.

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 20 Mar 15 - 07:15 PM

Show of Hands have already captured the spirit of south west towns in 'Yeovil Town'.

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: Mr Red
Date: 20 Mar 15 - 03:05 PM

Ah! The self-deprecating Brit character re-surfaces.

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 20 Mar 15 - 06:47 AM

I couldn't write a sentimental song about my west country home town
without recourse to words such as "narrow minded, pissheads, thugs, depressing, shit hole, etc"

It would be very difficult....


BTW.. That Bath song is toe curlingly cringeworthy...

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: GUEST,Wee Jock
Date: 20 Mar 15 - 06:18 AM

The Road and the Miles tae Dundee a great favourite of mine as i am a very proud Dundonian.

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: Long Firm Freddie
Date: 20 Mar 15 - 05:37 AM

The City of Bath held a competition to find a Song for Bath in 2011. The winner was The Golden City written and composed by Charlie Groves, YouTube performance with photos of Bath here:

The Golden City

When the sun shines on the golden stones.
Then I know that I've come home.
And the streets rise out of history.
I can never be alone.
Let's go down town
By the Avon banks tonight.
Watch this jewel in the valley
Waking up tonight !

The Golden City, where the stones come alive.
The Human City, where my heart has arrived.

You're a medal-winner, a world-class singer
In the great and the good
Or maybe you are a voice like me
Just trying to be heard
Let's join hands and run
Let the music lead the way
To the Party in the City
Turn it up Loud !

The Golden City, where the stones come alive
The Human City, where my heart has arrived.

The Golden City, where the stones come alive
The Human City, where my heart has arrived.

A hundred thousand hearts
Stirring at the sound
The choirs singing out
A hundred thousand times
This is our home.. this is our time

And the waters rise from the ground below
Like they did in ancient times
And I'm seeing greatness all around
In the reason and the rhyme
Let's get carried away
By the Recreation crowd
As the boys start to rise
Victory is ours !

The Golden City, where the stones come alive
The Human City, where my heart has arrived.


Where the stones come alive
The Human City, where my heart has arrived.

LFF
(I have no connection to the Bath Tourist Board!)

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: Mr Red
Date: 19 Mar 15 - 05:53 PM

OK quit squabbling.
I could have been very patriotic and asked if there were any allegorical love songs about my nationality - Staffordshiremanish

well?

I won't accept anything about "Sagar Maker's Bottom Knocker" and yes I do know what a sagar is.
I have written songs about Wolverhampton and Wednesbury but they are hardly sentimental, and not remotely about love of the towns. More sort of honest.

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: GUEST,Dave
Date: 19 Mar 15 - 05:42 PM

Patriot, you are wrong.

None of my children were born in Britain. All are British and have been since birth. They have consular birth certificates which say so. They didn't live in Britain for the first few years of their lives either. But they were still British. They are British citizens by descent.

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: GUEST,patriot
Date: 19 Mar 15 - 03:46 PM

something in what you say, Allan Conn but it's misunderstanding of the geographical situation.... British equals 'from Britain' surely?

I can't call myself Welsh or Scottish just because I want to!

Mind you, how many war films are there where the fiendish Nazi says in broken English something like 'Ve vill destroy ze Engeland and vin ze var, schveinhund'
Bet a lot of Scots Irish & Welsh soldiers still get annoyed about that!

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: GRex
Date: 19 Mar 15 - 06:08 AM

"Shining Down on Senen" from the Cornwall Song Writers.

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: Mr Red
Date: 19 Mar 15 - 04:39 AM

well thats a fair collection but
Ilkla Moor Baht 'At. rather proves my point about the tendency to the self-deprecating British style. It is a comedy song and never an allegory for love of the place.

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 18 Mar 15 - 10:08 PM

More from John Watt:
Fife's got Everything
John Thomson came frae Bowhill
Pittenweem Jo
The Kelty Clippie

Andy Shanks' "The Dancing's the dancing" mentions Kirkcaldy.

And there are loads mentioning various Scottish islands and towns on them.

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: GUEST,Allan Conn
Date: 18 Mar 15 - 06:48 PM

UK citizen isn't what it says on your passport! Look at it. It says British Citizen. British is the general adjective for someone from the UK. Like it or not that is so.......not unless we are being called United Kingdomers now!!!

Saying that I fully realise many people in Northern Ireland wouldn't want to be called that. In fact there are a good many people on the island of Britain who don't want to be called that either. That is why I say you can't dictate to other people whether they are or aren't British. People will do that for themselves.

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: Bert
Date: 18 Mar 15 - 06:10 PM

Thanks ≈M≈ I didn't know that.

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: GUEST,patriot
Date: 18 Mar 15 - 06:49 AM

You can be a UK citizen but if you were not born in and don't live in the island of Britain, including its islands, you cannot be British, English, Scottish or Welsh, no matter how much you want to for ethnic/political reasons! Maybe you could qualify to play football (or cricket) for England via your grandparents (like Ireland also does in reverse) but you cannot be British, English, Scottish or Welsh- you could even vote for UKIP, God help us, but you still don't qualify.

Recent arrivals in Britain from Eastern Europe or Asia have a much better claim!
Eggshells indeed

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: GUEST,Allan Conn
Date: 18 Mar 15 - 03:57 AM

Sometimes people do sing songs which are about places but maybe Brits sometimes do it in a more subtle manner. So there is the likes of "Big River" by Jimmy Nail and "All This Time" by Sting both about Newcastle and the River Tyne."Tinsel Town In The Rain" by The Blue Nile about Glasgow.

More in your face examples are "Highlands" by Teenage Fanclub. "Mother Glasgow" by Hue And Cry.

Then the less pop/rock British type are "I Have Seen The Heilands" by Matt McGinn and who was it did "Ain't No Ferry To Glastonbury"?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBrvVdr6PsU


As to the British/UK thing. Egg shells there. In Northern Ireland there are a great many people who do class themselves as British Citizens. At least that is on their passports if they decide to take a UK passport. And I had one client recently from there who said that some youngsters (don't know if this is valid or not) who would maybe prefer to take a UK passport now take an Irish one just to qualify for free uni fees in Scotland. Of course there are also many who would hate to be called British. So I don't think we outsiders can dictate how they see themselves.

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 18 Mar 15 - 02:22 AM

"Easter Bonnet" won't do -- not a Brit song, but title-number of a 1930s Hollywood musical: there is no such thing in our tradition to match NY's Easter Parade down 5th Avenue, and pretending to adapt the Irving Berlin song to make up such occurring in Rotten Row was a terrible swiz! Our equivalent social occasion for ladies to show off their new hats is Royal Ascot.

≈M≈

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: Bert
Date: 18 Mar 15 - 01:40 AM

Burlington Bertie
Blaydon Races
Widdecome Fair
I live in Trafalgar Square
In my Liverpool Home
Botany Bay
The Dear Old Shannon Shore
Winchester Cathedral
Durham Town
Land of my Fathers
Swansea Town
I do like to be beside the Seaside
The white cliffs of Dover
A Nightingale Sang in Berkley Square
It's a Long Way to Tipperary
Noreen Bawn (There's a glen in old Tirconnel)
The old Woman from Wexford.
Around the Marble Arch
In your Easter Bonnet
Nice Quiet Day
Follow the White Line
Little Millie
I painted 'em

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: Mehitabel
Date: 17 Mar 15 - 09:53 PM

The Slow Train - Flanders and Swan

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 17 Mar 15 - 06:28 PM

My Little Stick Of Blackpool Rock

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: DMcG
Date: 17 Mar 15 - 06:20 PM

Valley of Tees, by Vin Garbutt
Ring of Iron, by the Teesside Fettlers
Ah U Ma Hinny Bird

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 17 Mar 15 - 05:53 PM

"Tour of the Dales: sung by Mike Waterson.

≈M≈

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: Gallus Moll
Date: 17 Mar 15 - 05:46 PM

'Always Argyll' and 'Home to the Kyles' are songs about the Tighnabruaich area of Cowal Peninsula (and composed locally)

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: Jack Campin
Date: 17 Mar 15 - 05:37 PM

The Bonny Hills of Kielder
The Rolling Hills of the Borders
Byker Hill and Walker Shore

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: GUEST,patriot
Date: 17 Mar 15 - 03:03 PM

Kernow?- yes it is part of UK- not of England maybe...lucky sods

and don't forget 'Sunset over Spennymoor' and 'Lovely Lochgelly'

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 17 Mar 15 - 02:29 PM

Going Up Camborne 'ill Coming Down....


Oops, forgot that Kernow isn't part of the UK....

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 17 Mar 15 - 02:26 PM

English country garden?

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 17 Mar 15 - 01:46 PM

No. we are not. We are naming songs about places, that's all.

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Mar 15 - 12:54 PM

are we compiling the UKIP campaign trail song book ???

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Mar 15 - 12:52 PM

"There'll always be an England"

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 17 Mar 15 - 12:34 PM

white cliffs of dover

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: Dave Sutherland
Date: 17 Mar 15 - 12:03 PM

"Canny Newcastle"
"North Country Maid"

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 17 Mar 15 - 10:59 AM

Waterloo Sunset, Oh England ,My Lionheart, Pasties and Cream .

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 17 Mar 15 - 10:49 AM

Day Trip to Bangor

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: GUEST,Van
Date: 17 Mar 15 - 10:40 AM

Dahn to Margate

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: GUEST,patriot
Date: 17 Mar 15 - 09:30 AM

John Watt's 'I don't like Dundee' also such gems as

'Take me back to Scunthorpe'

'Sheppey's Lovely Shore'

'Snodland Rhapsody' and

'The Lovely Groves of Hackney'

....doesn't really work, does it?

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: GUEST,DTM
Date: 17 Mar 15 - 08:33 AM

They don't come any better than this ....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3hqdm0C_d8

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 17 Mar 15 - 08:30 AM

Of course there's "Trouble Over Bridgwater" too! Sorry, I haven't a clue where that came from!

There's Glorious Devon, best heard sung by Peter Dawson (it's on YouTube but I can't do links), in spite of some slightly curious pronunciations!

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: GUEST,DaveRo
Date: 17 Mar 15 - 08:29 AM

The original thread title is "British" songs, which would cut out "United Kingdom" songs…

Unless the OP meant from the Britsh Isles.

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Mar 15 - 08:22 AM

RED SMED - Bridgwater

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 17 Mar 15 - 08:21 AM

I Wish I Was Back Home In Derry by Bobby Sands.

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: Scabby Douglas
Date: 17 Mar 15 - 08:17 AM

From a Scottish perspective, there are many of these:
Adam McNaughtan's "The Glasgow That I Used to Know"
Trad: "Bonnie Glenshee"
Michael Marra's : "Mother Glasgow"
R.Y. Bell and Ian Gourley: "The Song of the Clyde"
"The Northern Lights of Old Aberdeen"
"Bonnie Udny"
Ian Davison's "Going Home to Glasgow"
and many, many more...

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: Thompson
Date: 17 Mar 15 - 08:13 AM

The original thread title is "British" songs, which would cut out "United Kingdom" songs… I don't know that there are (currently sung, anyway) loving songs of place in Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) in the same way that there are in Ireland; perhaps in Scotland, perhaps in Wales, but I don't know that it's a thing in England. Maybe that intense commitment to a home place is a particularly Gaelic thing.

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: Thompson
Date: 17 Mar 15 - 08:10 AM

If It Wasn't For The Ouses In Between
Ilkley Moor Bar Tat (sp?)

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 17 Mar 15 - 08:10 AM

Sweet Thames by McColl.

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Mar 15 - 08:05 AM

Richard Thompson's 'Sights And Sounds Of London Town'

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: GUEST,DaveRo
Date: 17 Mar 15 - 07:52 AM

Summerfield Avenue by Chris Wood recalls a very specific place. But it's also evocative of hundreds of post-war estates and childhoods spent on the edge of the receding countryside.

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: GUEST,mayomick
Date: 17 Mar 15 - 07:42 AM

Arrivederci Roma

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 17 Mar 15 - 06:51 AM

Over The Moor To Margate
Fields of Hythe 'n' Rye
It's a Long Way to Tipton, Mary



I'll get me coat then...

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: GUEST,M
Date: 17 Mar 15 - 06:47 AM

Taking a more folky approach, I'm not sure "sentimental" is quite the adjective, but Jez Lowe's "Greek Lightning" is pretty much anchored in its geography.

And though the places aren't explicitly identified, Huw Williams' songs "The Summer Before The War" and "Travelling By Steam" seem to have a locality in mind.

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: GUEST,M
Date: 17 Mar 15 - 06:40 AM

Will Fly suggested Noel Coward's "London Pride" - I've just taken part in a theatrical production featuring that song, and it's amazing. The "interlude" bit that you don't tend to hear too often is remarkable, taking a surprising turn from the main melody.

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 17 Mar 15 - 06:34 AM

"Ashby-de-la-Zouch By The Sea", where "the skies are full of blue and the cows are full of moo", c 1940 -- actually an American spoof (Al Hoffman / Milton Drake / Jerry Livingston - writers also of Mairzy Doats), based on the fact that the town is in Leicestershire, about as far from the sea as you can get in England.

≈M≈

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: Stu
Date: 17 Mar 15 - 06:28 AM

"Since when are Northern Sky, Shipbuilding or Life in a Northern Town about specific places?"

They're about place in the north and places wot build ships.

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: GUEST,Dave
Date: 17 Mar 15 - 06:07 AM

Tunnel of Love is about Whitley Bay

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: GUEST,Dave
Date: 17 Mar 15 - 06:05 AM

Streets of London (obviously)

Farewell to Whalley Range (which is in Manchester)

Aird Ui Chuain, though in the Irish language, is about a part of the United Kingdom

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Mar 15 - 05:42 AM

Bit tenuous, Stu.

Since when are Northern Sky, Shipbuilding or Life in a Northern Town about specific places?

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: GUEST,ST
Date: 17 Mar 15 - 05:36 AM

Have a listen to Dick Henrywood's Both Barrels

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: Stu
Date: 17 Mar 15 - 05:17 AM

Dirty Old Town is about Salford.

Lambeth Walk
Bells Rhymney
The Derby Ram
Sweet Thames Flow Softly
King of Rome
Swansea Town

or lotsa pop songs:

Solsbury Hill
Mull of Kintyre
Sunshine on Leith
Birmingham Blues
Northern Sky
At the Chime of a City Clock
The Eton Rifiles
London Calling
Mancunian Way
Blackberry Way
Shipbuilding
Baker Street
Life in a Northern Town
Glastonbury Song

etc etc

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: GUEST,DaveRo
Date: 17 Mar 15 - 05:14 AM

My contribution would be the Adge Cutler song rarely sung by Acker Bilk "Down in Nempnett Thrubwell"....

Sounds fascinating, but your link is recursive, Mr Red.

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: Will Fly
Date: 17 Mar 15 - 05:12 AM

Noel Coward's "London Pride"

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: GUEST,Ed
Date: 17 Mar 15 - 05:11 AM

Bella Hardy - Peak Rhapsody

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 17 Mar 15 - 05:08 AM

Beautiful dale home of the Swale
Farewell Manchester
Galway Bay
What's the name of the one Sid Calderbank does about Friesland ?

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: Will Fly
Date: 17 Mar 15 - 05:04 AM

The Leaving of Liverpool.

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: GUEST,Ed
Date: 17 Mar 15 - 04:56 AM

Pink Floyd's Grantchester Meadows

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Mar 15 - 04:51 AM

Over the Lancashire Hills

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 17 Mar 15 - 04:50 AM

Ilkla Moor Baht 'At.

Dave H

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Mar 15 - 04:48 AM

Ferry Cross the Mersey

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: GUEST,Ed
Date: 17 Mar 15 - 04:40 AM

The Beatles 'Penny Lane' & 'Strawberry Fields Forever'

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: GUEST,Ed
Date: 17 Mar 15 - 04:38 AM

The Kinks: Waterloo Sunset

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: Leadfingers
Date: 17 Mar 15 - 04:34 AM

The Yetties - Dorset be Beautiful

Subject: RE: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Mar 15 - 04:18 AM

John Shuttleworth's You're Like Manchester...

Subject: Any sentimental Brit songs about places?
From: Mr Red
Date: 17 Mar 15 - 03:53 AM

It has long crossed my mind that British Songs about our places are rare and often specific. Historic songs apart why can't we come up with songs like "Georgia on my Mind" "Train they Call the City of New Orleans", "Nutbush City Limits", "Country Roads"

We have "I Belong to Glasgow" and inevitably a London has to be in on the act "Maybe it Because I'm a Londoner" which, lets face it, are parochial and territorial. "Caledonia" at least stands apart from those but ......

So what songs do we have that compare to the American tradition of allegorical love for a place without saying it directly? I have difficulty coming up with many.

What does the Mudcat community come up with?

My contribution would be the Adge Cutler song rarely sung by Acker Bilk "Down in Nempnett Thrubwell" but if it is a love song it is about the love of cider. And Brit humour replaces any nostalgia. Satisfying two of my passions but not in the same league as the typical American fare.