Lyr/Tune Add: Droylsden Wakes

Subject: RE: Lyr & Tune add: Droylsden Wakes
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 13 Nov 04 - 09:24 PM

For more detailed information and further text, see the recent revised re-issue of Penguin: Classic English Folk Songs

A cumulative list of Additions and Corrections for the book, together with additional, related material, will be available online in the near future; including the whole of the relevant text relating to this song from Harland and Wilkinson.

Subject: RE: Lyr & Tune add: Droylsden Wakes
From: Joe Offer
Date: 13 Nov 04 - 09:02 PM

Here are the notes from Penguin:

Droylsden Wakes (FSJ V 204)
This Lancashire dialogue song was once associated with a folk ceremonial attached to the local 'wakes' or annual holiday. The custom was for two men in comic dress, one of them travestied as a woman, to sit in a cart with a spinning-wheel before them, spinning flax as they sang the song, and collecting money from onlookers. The ceremonial may go back to ancient times, though it does not seem to have reached Droylsden until early in the nineteenth century. The tune is of the primitive sort often used for wassails, May Day songs and other festive ceremonial purposes. There is some doubt whether the refrain means 'Tread the wheel' or 'Thread ye well'. A description of the ceremonial, with a text of the song, is in John Harland's Ballads and Songs of Lancashire (1865).

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Here is the entry from the Traditional Ballad Indes, which has only the one songbook citation, Penguin:

Droylsden Wakes

DESCRIPTION: Man and woman alternately brag and insult each other over their prowess at spinning.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1865
KEYWORDS: bragging weaving ritual dialog
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Vaughan Williams/Lloyd, p. 36, "Droylsden Wakes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3290
Notes: "This Lancashire dialogue song was once associated with a folk ceremonial attached to the local 'wakes' or annual holiday." - A. L. Lloyd. The role of the woman was played by a man in woman's clothing; the two participants sat on a cart with a spinning-wheel spinning flax and collecting money from onlookers. - PJS
File: VWL036

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Are there any other versions of this song?
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr & Tune add: Droylsden Wakes
From:
Date: 13 Nov 04 - 07:06 PM

Subject: Lyr & Tune add: Droylsden Wakes ^^
From: Alan of Australia
Date: 21 Jan 00 - 08:07 PM

G'day,
From the Penguin Book Of English Folk Songs, Ed Pellow's rendition of the tune of Droylsden Wakes can be found here.

DROYLSDEN WAKES

Sung by Allan Bates, 'heard at Droylsden, Lancs.' (A.G.G. n.d.)

Man:

It's Droylsden Wakes, an' we're comin'to town,
To tell you of sommat of great renown;
An' if this owd jade'll let me begin,
Aw'll show you how hard an' how fast Aw can spin,

So it's threedywell, threedywell, dan dum dill doe,
So it's threedywell, threedywell, dan dum dill doe.

Woman:

Thou brags of thysel, but Aw dunno' think it's true,
For Aw will uphold thee, thy faults aren't a few,
For when thou has done, an' spun very hard,
Of this Aw'm well sure, thy work is ill-marred.

So it's threedywell, etc.

Man:

Thou saucy owd jade, thou'd best howd thy tongue,
Or else Aw'll be thumpin' thee ere it be long,
An' if 'at Aw do, thou'rt sure for to rue,
For Aw can ha' mony a one's good as you.

So it's threedywell, etc.

Woman:

What is it to me who you can have?
Aw shanno' be long ere Aw'm laid i' my grave,
An' when 'at Aw'm dead, an' ha' done what Aw can.
'You may find one 'at'll spin as hard as Aw've done.

So it's threedywell, etc.

Previous song: The Devil And The Ploughman.
Next Song: The False Bride.

Cheers,
Alan ^^