ADD: Lancashire Lads

Subject: Lancashire lads
From: GUEST,barrie mathers
Date: 15 Aug 00 - 06:09 AM

Anyone have the words to a song whose chorus is:- Oh , the Lancashire lads are comming Whatever shall we do? Leaving many a pretty maid to cry "What shall I do?"

Subject: Lyr Add: LANCASHIRE LADS
From: John J
Date: 15 Aug 00 - 06:27 AM

It goes sommat like this:

Said a mother to her daughter, “What makes you talk so strange,
For to want to marry a Lancashire lad, the whole wide world to range?”

CHO: The Lancashire lads have gone abroad. Whatever shall I do?
Leaving many a pretty fair maid to cry, “What shall I do?”

For soldiers are but rambling lads and get but little pay,
And they maintain a wife and child on 18 pence a day. CHO.

Said a mother to her daughter, “I'll have you close confined.
You’ll never marry a Lancashire lad. He'll be no son of mine.” CHO.

“Should you confine me seven long years and afterwards set me fre,
I'll go and look for me Lancashire lad when I've gained my liberty. CHO.

“My love he is dressed in scarlet and he marches with the blues,
And every town that he goes through to his sweetheart he'll be true.” CHO.

We'll get sweethearts enough, me boys, and girls that'll please our minds,
But we'll never forget sweet Lancashire (Manchester?) and the girls we left behind. CHO.

Hope this helps!
John (Manchester)

HTML line breaks added. --JoeClone, 9-Mar-02.

Subject: Lyr Add: LANCASHIRE LADS
From: GUEST,joan from wigan
Date: 15 Aug 00 - 08:56 AM

I can't believe I couldn't find this in the database, it has been so well known hereabouts - it must be over thirty years since I first heard it, and I thought everyone must know it! My copy goes:

LANCASHIRE LADS

Oh it was last Monday morning as I have heard them say
Our orders came that afternoon (Or alternatively, from Manchester), we were to march away
Leaving many pretty fair maids to cry what shall we do
For the Lancashire lads have gone away, whatever shall we do

Chorus: Oh the Lancashire lads have gone abroad, whatever shall we do
Leaving many a pretty maid to cry what shall I do

Said the mother to her daughter, What makes you talk so strange
For you to be a soldier's wife, the wide world for to range
For soldiers they are rambling boys and get but little pay
And how can they maintain a wife on fourteen pence a day?

Said the mother to her daughter, I'll have you close confined
You'll never marry a Lancashire Lad, he'll be no son of mine
Should you confine me seven long years and after set me free
I'll search for my Lancashire Lad when I've gained my liberty

My love is clothed in scarlet and turn-ed up with blue
And in every town that he goes through, to his sweetheart he'll be true
Oh we'll have money enough, brave boys, and girls to please our mind
But we'll never forget sweet Manchester (or Wigan, or wherever) and the girls we left behind

This song is normally done to a bouncy tune, but some years ago, Mike Harding sang it, without the chorus, to the tune of Star Of The County Down, as a slow air, which was extremely effective. Have fun singing it!

Joan

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Lancashire lads
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 15 Aug 00 - 09:28 AM

Joan, I didn't believe you that it wasn't in the DT but I can't find it either. I quite like the Star of the County Down idea.

Jon

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Lancashire lads
From: Ringer
Date: 15 Aug 00 - 09:44 AM

Dave Burland sings a version (don't I remember having heard that it was Nic Jones' version?) which has an extra (first) verse:

I'm going for a soldier, Jenny,
Going across the rolling sea.
I've got a shilling from the King
That they say has enlisted me.
I'm off to fight for the army,
As a Lancashire Fusilier,
Rolling my musket in my arms
Instead of my Jennie dear.

and it doesn't have a chorus, either. As to whether it's sung to Star of County Down I can't comment, for I don't know that tune.

Subject: Lyr Add: THE LANCASHIRE FUSILIER
From: GUEST,joan from wigan
Date: 15 Aug 00 - 11:51 AM

Bald Eagle, I recognise the verse you quote as coming from a completely separate song, which I sometimes tack onto the end of Lancashire Lads as they have the same rhythm and can be sung in the same key. I took the words down in time-honoured fashion from a Houghton Weavers LP, and some of them are simply the nearest sense I could make:

THE LANCASHIRE FUSILIER

I'm going for a soldier, Jenny
I'm off to the rolling sea
They've given me a golden guinea
Which they say has enlisted me

Chorus: I'm off to fight for the army
As a Lancashire Fusilier
Rolling my musket in my arms
Instead of my Jenny dear

No use to keep on crying
I'll heed your tears no more
For many's the day you've heard me say
You should've been kind before

With heart and spirits sinking
But if I should come to shame
You must know that I'm thinking
Your love will be to blame

You must know that I love you
You must full well have known
If my faith it had just proved true
I would never have restless grown

Fare thee well, the hours are flying
And it's time that I was gone
When another heart you're trying, Jenny
Look into your own

This is another song I was very surprised I couldn't find in the DT.

Joan

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Lancashire lads
From: Ringer
Date: 15 Aug 00 - 01:12 PM

I think I may have mis-remembered the word "shilling", which I believe D Burland sings as "guinea". Was a guinea ever the sum used to mark the contract when someone enlisted?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Lancashire lads
From: GUEST,joan from wigan
Date: 15 Aug 00 - 02:09 PM

Bald Eagle, although the "King's Shilling" was the original fee for enlisting, it has increased over the years, along with everything else - inflation is not a new phenomenon. I'm not sure what the current fee is, but it is certainly feasible that at some stage in the past it could well have been a guinea. Does anyone have more specific information?

Joan

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Lancashire lads
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 15 Aug 00 - 05:49 PM

I do suppose songs were updated in this way. Whereas Joan's version above has 'fourteen pence a day', Finbar and Eddie Furey, on their 'Farewell Album', sang 'eighteen pence a day'. I also have a very good version by the Old Blind Dogs on 'Legacy', but I haven't got the words ready so can't check their position in the inflation chain ... - Susanne

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Lancashire lads
From: GUEST,barrie (nottinham)
Date: 16 Aug 00 - 11:02 AM

Many thanks to Joan, John J, Jon Freeman, Bald Eagle, et al for the info on Lancashire. I'm also digging back 30 years or more on this!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Lancashire lads
From: GUEST,John Hill
Date: 20 Apr 01 - 06:39 AM

I always sing this to the Irish aire "My love Nell" the same as Mike Harding.. (The Star of the County Down is just another song that has used this tune in recent times)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Lancashire lads
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 20 Apr 01 - 09:15 AM

The Recruited Collier refers to "the golden guinea" (A shilling was not gold but silver) The shilling would be a day's pay. Recruits do still get payed for the day they enlist but it is simply their first day of service now. An extra bounty was often given as an inducement to enlist and this would be the guinea of these songs.
Keith.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Lancashire lads
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 20 Apr 01 - 12:47 PM

For more on the Scottish tune Gilderoy, which spread throughout England and Ireland and was used by Cathal McGarvey for his new song, Star of the County Down around 1920 or so, see, amongst others, this thread:  Songs to Star of the County Down

Apparantly, the song My Love Nell, which John Hill referred to above, was written by William Carleton (in the 1860s?), to the same traditional air, which he knew as "Come All Ye".  Carleton was a stage entertainer in America who apparantly specialised in Irish subjects, often comic; not to be confused, I assume, with the popular Irish novelist of the same name who lived around the same period.  There is a songsheet at the Library of Congress  America Singing   collection:

My Love Nell

Malcolm

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Lancashire lads
From: Metchosin
Date: 21 Apr 01 - 12:54 PM

Old Blind Dogs does a mighty fine version of this on their Legacy CD

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Lancashire lads
From: dumbo
Date: 22 Mar 07 - 11:26 AM

I remember The Pendlefolk performing this song back in the 70's
(Royal Hotel Waterfoot) I wander what Roger's doing these days
also Peter Nash a tidy player

Subject: Dave Bulmer
From: GUEST
Date: 12 Jun 24 - 06:57 AM

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Lancashire Lads
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 13 Jun 24 - 02:13 AM

From Mainly Norfolk, with thanks; Dave Burland sang The Lancashire Lads and Going for a Soldier, Jenny in 1996 on his CD Benchmark. He noted:

The Lancashire Lads and Going for a Soldier, Jenny were broadsides which were reworked by a group called The Halliard, which had in its members Dave Moran and Nic Jones. Nic wrote the tune to Going for a Soldier Jenny [and added the chorus], and Dave wrote the tune to The Lancashire Lads.

According to Dave Moran on the goldilox website; "Nic [Jones] and I and mandolin/guitar player Nigel Paterson made up the Halliard. We were looking to develop some new music and we took the advice of song-writer Leslie Shepard. We decided to add tunes to Broadsides that we discovered, uncovered or collected – we checked out the Harkness Collection at Preston and the collections in Manchester etc.

We also used Ashton's Street Ballads and Victorian Street Ballads (Henderson) and on a couple of occasions we dipped into Thomas D'Urfey's Pills to Purge Melancholy that is where we found Mad Maudlin (Tom of Bedlam or the Boys of Bedlam).

Nic and I wrote all the tunes together usually sitting in the front of the Mini and singing and working out tunes as we drove – as the mandolin was the smallest instrument and Nigel was in the back, he always played the tunes.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Lancashire Lads
From: GeoffLawes
Date: 17 Jun 24 - 06:39 PM

Lancashire Lads - with new words written for the play "Dare Devil Rides to Jarama " https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDshdqSfuFk

The musical director of"Dare Devil Rides to Jarama" was John Kirkpatrick.