Pop songs done in the 'folk style'

Subject: RE: Pop songs done in the 'folk style'
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 15 Jun 19 - 06:04 AM

"Imagine" (John Lennon) us all living the one culture..? I would hate that but it is increasingly happening through globalisation/Americanisation.

Subject: RE: Pop songs done in the 'folk style'
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 15 Jun 19 - 07:11 AM

I think you are worrying unduly. Youngsters have always rebelled and western pop culture is an easy thing to associate with. Folk, Jazz, Blues and all the other minority genres have survived thus far and I believe they will continue to do so. We in the UK are probably most influenced by the USA yet our own culture is still holding its own and developing as we assimilate immigrants from all over the world.

Subject: RE: Pop songs done in the 'folk style'
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 15 Jun 19 - 07:13 AM

BTW, just off to play for our local Morris side. My concertina has developed a leak so I will be playing a harmonica. How's that for local culture :-D

Subject: RE: Pop songs done in the 'folk style'
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 15 Jun 19 - 07:25 AM

Great - I think the only tune I could, almost, play for Morris on my tenor recorder is English Country Gardens, but I love watching and hearing it.

And hope your concertina gets well soon - is it an Anglo or English concertina?

Subject: RE: Pop songs done in the 'folk style'
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Jun 19 - 08:30 AM

Walkabout- did you learn it from the Jimmy Rogers (not the yodellerpop version from the US about 1957 or from the Morrismen?

Subject: RE: Pop songs done in the 'folk style'
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 15 Jun 19 - 08:48 AM

Firstly, I said "almost" because I think I'd have to work on my metre to make it suitable for dancers and, frankly, I'd rather leave that to dance musicians; but the version in my repertoire of songs comes from Bert Clever's Fieldtown Dances and Jigs of the Morris Ring, and the lyrics (the exact same as Jimmy Rogers) from here.

(That took me back, as I did that sourcing way back when I was getting into folk around 2004; and, by the way, I used Mudcat for some of the other tunes and, where I could only find the lyrics, learn't the tune from a singer then, gradually, mimicked my own voice on the recorder, before writing down the notes in a kind of shorthand.)

Subject: RE: Pop songs done in the 'folk style'
From: GUEST,Mark Ross
Date: 15 Jun 19 - 09:10 AM

My partner in the '70's, Steve Cormier used to do COME ON KID, which I think was a hit for Frankie Laine.

Mark Ross

Subject: RE: Pop songs done in the 'folk style'
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 15 Jun 19 - 11:32 AM

It's an Anglo. I don't think it is serious but I just can't seem to seal it.

Subject: RE: Pop songs done in the 'folk style'
From: GUEST,Pismotality
Date: 15 Jun 19 - 06:22 PM

Bobby Vee under his real name of Robert Thomas Velline recorded a remake of Take Good Care of My Baby in a "sensitive singer songwriter"
style in 1972, slowly the tempo considerably. Apart from throwing in a "Take good care of my lady" and omitting the verse "My tears are falling" the song itself has not been altered and it sounds pretty good - makes you wonder why Vee was so perky in the original.

Subject: RE: Pop songs done in the 'folk style'
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 15 Jun 19 - 07:33 PM

I openly admit to being a Bobby Vee fan since even before I was a teenage punkfolkrocker,
and never knew that..
Cheers..

Subject: RE: Pop songs done in the 'folk style'
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 15 Jun 19 - 07:36 PM

T Vee

Subject: RE: Pop songs done in the 'folk style'
From: RTim
Date: 15 Jun 19 - 08:33 PM

I have ALWAYS been a Bobby Vee fan...a great singer in the 60's and a sad death later in life....

Tim Radford

Subject: RE: Pop songs done in the 'folk style'
From: GUEST,Warwick Slade
Date: 16 Jun 19 - 04:46 AM

Last week, at our club in Wimborne, we have ‘folk’ versions of Mountain Greenery, Multiplication and Comfortably Numb. It is this eclectic mix that make a evening interesting and entertaining

On the other side of the coin Thin Lizzy gave us Whiskey in the Jar.

Subject: RE: Pop songs done in the 'folk style'
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 16 Jun 19 - 05:08 AM

Indeed Warwick Slade. It seems that no one comments on pop, rock or classical acts playing folk songs but when a folk artist plays a pop, rock of classical song some people consider it sacrilage:-( I think we should live and let live and, as long as we enjoy the music, what does it matter what others think :-)

Subject: RE: Pop songs done in the 'folk style'
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 16 Jun 19 - 05:58 AM

T Rex in their original Tyranasaurus Rex incarnation were classed as psychedelic folk. Must have upset the traditionalists!

Subject: RE: Pop songs done in the 'folk style'
From: GUEST,15 June 0830
Date: 16 Jun 19 - 08:42 AM

Walkabout- it seems that Robert Jordan wrote the words in 1958 for the old Morris tune which became Jimmy Rodgers' 1962 pop hit 'English Country Garden'. I know not who RJ was but I like the fact that you learnt his words from a pop source and the tune from the Morris Ring repertoire - a nice combination which proves the interplay between folk and pop, showing the folly of drawing lines?

Warwick Slade - sounds healthy that your club is OK with 'pop' songs such as you list- just hope a little 'folk process' was in evidence rather than slavish copies? Also re balance, I think it's a bit worrying that you think Thin Lizzy's 'Whiskey in the jar' could be considered a 'folk' counterweight to the songs you mention.


Sounds like ammunition for Jim Carroll to me!- be afraid.....

Subject: RE: Pop songs done in the 'folk style'
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 16 Jun 19 - 08:57 AM

To be clear, Guest, years ago, I got the words from the above-linked folk music site and found, yesterday, that they are the same that Jimmy Rodgers used when I web-searched that. Are we sure he didn't just go pop with the trad English lyrics - similar to Simon and Garfunkel with "Scarborough Fair"..?

Subject: RE: Pop songs done in the 'folk style'
From: GUEST,15 June 0830
Date: 16 Jun 19 - 09:05 AM

Doesn't sound like trad lyrics to me- as I said it was allegedly written in 1958- Maybe FOR Jimmy Rodgers or maybe not, but I think the words would be long-forgotten but for the pop hit?- it's a bit younger than Scarborough Fair, I'd say.

No criticism intended but the terms trad & folk are often applied without any real justification....

Subject: RE: Pop songs done in the 'folk style'
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 16 Jun 19 - 09:35 AM

"Jimmie Rodgers sang a well-known version ("English Country Garden"), which reached Number 5 in the UK charts in June 1962. The lyrics refer to several species of bird which are not native to England but are found only in the Americas." (Wiki)...For what it's worth, I think I'll replace those species with natives with the same number of syllables before I sing it again.

Subject: RE: Pop songs done in the 'folk style'
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 16 Jun 19 - 10:02 AM

The best version is

"How many crows can you pick from your nose
In an English country garden
You pick 'em and you lick 'em and you roll 'em and you flick 'em
In an English country garden"

Subject: RE: Pop songs done in the 'folk style'
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 16 Jun 19 - 10:05 AM

I think I'd rather eat worms, Dave!

Subject: RE: Pop songs done in the 'folk style'
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 16 Jun 19 - 11:17 AM

How many tory c***s sat sipping Pimms
in an English country garden..
exploiting the gardeners
treating them like slaves
in an english country garden..
..etc..etc..

Hoorah for the folk process...

Subject: RE: Pop songs done in the 'folk style'
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Jun 19 - 09:56 AM

what is the **** rhyme for Pimms'?

Subject: RE: Pop songs done in the 'folk style'
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 17 Jun 19 - 11:03 AM

I can immediately think of one.. but it's rude... and it's definitely not "hymns"...

Anyway, rhyming is our least concern so near to the end of human civilisation...

Subject: RE: Pop songs done in the 'folk style'
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Jun 19 - 11:33 AM

yes right- RAAB is apparently Dutch for turnip

Subject: RE: Pop songs done in the 'folk style'
From: GUEST,Snuffy
Date: 18 Jun 19 - 10:51 AM

what is the **** rhyme for Pimms'?

Quims

Subject: RE: Pop songs done in the 'folk style'
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 18 Jun 19 - 11:21 AM

Drinking Pimm's while playing the Sims?

Going to gyms?

Hacking off limbs?

Looking through horn rims?

Going to a chemists called Timms?

While acting on her whims?

Sure there are more...

Subject: RE: Pop songs done in the 'folk style'
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 18 Jun 19 - 11:30 AM

Keep going DtG..

You're in the process of writing a new folk song for our times..

I'll imagine Ian Dury singing it..

Subject: RE: Pop songs done in the 'folk style'
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Jun 19 - 02:20 PM

Quims- pretty obscure, that one- I've never actually heard it used in speech & I go to some doubtful places!

** it maybe is an anlgicisation of Irish 'Coom' or Welsh 'Cwm' or valley?

Subject: RE: Pop songs done in the 'folk style'
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 18 Jun 19 - 02:39 PM

I haven't got around to my replacement natives yet, but my Imagined English Country Garden definitely has nice limbs, to view while sipping Pimm's (or perhaps just an ordinary G&T).

Subject: RE: Pop songs done in the 'folk style'
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 18 Jun 19 - 02:44 PM

In my kind of west country garden we'd be sipping cider from quims..

Actually, I don't live that far distant from Glastonbury... hmmm...

Subject: RE: Pop songs done in the 'folk style'
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 20 Jun 19 - 02:36 PM

Just for you, PFR

Anarchy

Should rattle some cages :-)

Subject: RE: Pop songs done in the 'folk style'
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 20 Jun 19 - 02:38 PM

From the "Beginner's guide to English Folk" CD3 btw. So it must be folk!

:D

Subject: RE: Pop songs done in the 'folk style'
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 20 Jun 19 - 06:11 PM

I'm sure I heard Glastonbury began as primarily a folk festival, with one or two American rock acts from America.

Subject: RE: Pop songs done in the 'folk style'
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 21 Jun 19 - 03:46 AM

I know some folk acts have appeared there in the last few years. The Boat Band for one.

Subject: RE: Pop songs done in the 'folk style'
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 21 Jun 19 - 12:23 PM

...The Unthanks in 2015

Subject: RE: Pop songs done in the 'folk style'
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 21 Jun 19 - 12:34 PM

Around 1976 or 77 our band of mates took a drive to Glasto
and found a free festival in a field with a band set up on a flat bed lorry..
There wasn't much of an audience.
But there were a few nudey hippy girls walking freely about.
Including two 16 year olds who were our college friends and backing singers...

We were told that was Glastonbury Festival...

The next and only other time I went was I think 1982,
when it had become a colossal sprawling alternative tented city...
More a part of the upper classes organised summer season events calendar
than a free spontaneous hippy happening...