Lyr ADD Back Buchanan Street (H & G Dison)

Subject: Corby, Speke, Back Buchanan Street?
From: Peter K (Fionn)
Date: 31 Aug 00 - 03:18 PM

Don't want to go to Corby, Don't want to Go to Speke,
Don't want to go from all I know in Back Buchanan Street.

That's all I can offer. Ring a bell with anyone? Who wrote it? The second "don't want to go to" could in fact be "to Skelmersdale or". I'm fairly sure Skelmersdale comes in somewhere, but maybe not in this line.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Corby, Speke, Back Buchanan Street?
From: Noreen
Date: 31 Aug 00 - 04:02 PM

Yes, Fionn-

Don't want to go to Kirkby, To Skelmersdale or Speke,
Don't want to go from all I know in Back Buchanan Street.

I've got some of the words in my head from way back, & could type them up if you can't find anymore.

Don't know who wrote it, but it's a song about the slum clearances in Liverpool of the 50s/ 60s, where people were moved out to such as the above places (which rapidly became synonymous with decay, neglect, unemployment etc. themselves).

Got to hand over the computer to the son now so this'll have to do for now.

Noreen

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Corby, Speke, Back Buchanan Street?
From: GUEST,Guest Kernow John
Date: 31 Aug 00 - 06:10 PM

Got this somewhere on a Jacki and Bridie album. Will dig it out if nobody beats me to it. Kernow Jon

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Corby, Speke, Back Buchanan Street?
From: Peter K (Fionn)
Date: 01 Sep 00 - 07:34 AM

So sadly I haven't produced this song out of my own imagination then, Noreen - always my first assumption when the DT can't help! That's interesting John. That coupling of names strike a chord, but it reminds me that there was a pair called the Two Bridies - they put out one or two albums I think. Would you happen to know if one Bridie is common to both duos?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Corby, Speke, Back Buchanan Street?
From: AndyG
Date: 01 Sep 00 - 09:05 AM

Jackie & Bridie were a Liverpool duo contempory to The Spinners (IIRC performing at the same club originally).

Can't remember their surnames but I do have a songbook back in Manchester, (where I'm not), which may even have this song in it. Can't remember the words either but it has been 30+ years.

The song is about forced house moves following the 1960's slum clearance schemes which affected both Liverpool and Manchester very heavily. `Skem', (Skelmersdale), being to Liverpool what Hattersley was to Manchester.

AndyG

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Corby, Speke, Back Buchanan Street?
From: AndyG
Date: 01 Sep 00 - 09:09 AM

Oh, just noticed, yhe correct place names are:

Kirby, Skelmersdale & Speke,

AndyG

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Corby, Speke, Back Buchanan Street?
From: Snuffy
Date: 01 Sep 00 - 09:17 AM

Yeah, but there's two K's in Kairby, Andy

Wassail! V

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Corby, Speke, Back Buchanan Street?
From: AndyG
Date: 01 Sep 00 - 09:53 AM

I knew that, honest, I really knew that, I did, honest.

Kirkby (not Corby)

Thanks Snuffy

AndyG

Subject: Lyr Add: BACK BUCHANAN STREET (H & G Dison)
From: Joan from Wigan
Date: 01 Sep 00 - 01:25 PM

Words from "Songs for Singing Folk" (The Jacqui and Bridie Song Book):

BACK BUCHANAN STREET
(words and music by Harry and Gordon Dison)

A fella from the council
Who's just left planning school
Has told us that we're bein'moved
Right out of Liverpool

Chorus:
They're sending us to Kirkby
Or Skelmersdale or Speke
Don't want to go from all we know
In Back Buchanan Street

We'll miss a lot of little things
Like puttin' out the cat
For there's no back door on the fourteenth floor
Of a "Unit-Camus" flat

We'll miss the fog horns on the river
And we'll miss the ole' Pierhead
An' the short cuts through the jiggers
When we're rollin' home to bed

We'll miss the pub round the corner
With the parlour painted red
Just like we miss the Green Goddesses
And the Overhead

From Walton to the Dingle
You'll hear the same old cry
Stop messin' round with Liverpool
At least until we die

We'll miss the Mary Ellens
And me dad'll miss the docks
And me gran'll miss the washhouse
Where she washed me grandad's socks

They've pulled down Paddy's Market
Where me ma once had a stall
And soon their picks and shovels
Will be through our backyard wall

Pronunciation Guide: Kirkby is pronounced "Kir'bee" and Skelmersdale is pronounced "Ske'mersdale".

Joan

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Corby, Speke, Back Buchanan Street?
From: Peter K (Fionn)
Date: 01 Sep 00 - 01:45 PM

Joan, you're brilliant! Thanks for keying all that out - I'd no idea there were so many verses when I asked. Just one thing: "Dison" is correct spelling, is it? Thanks again.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Corby, Speke, Back Buchanan Street?
From: Noreen
Date: 01 Sep 00 - 05:56 PM

People who remember Jacqui and Bridie! My sister was trying to find out something about their songs recently- now I know who to ask. Are they still around? Unlikely I suppose.

Fionn, from which murky depths of your memory did you dredge this, and are you intending to sing it? :0)

BTW, "jigger" (verse 3)= "back alley" = "entry" = "ginnell" (etc.) depending on where you're from!

Noreen

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Corby, Speke, Back Buchanan Street?
From: AndyG
Date: 01 Sep 00 - 07:41 PM

Think I'll do this on Hearme, however yep I remember them (I've even got their songbook.

AndyG

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Corby, Speke, Back Buchanan Street?
From: Joan from Wigan
Date: 02 Sep 00 - 04:08 AM

Fionn: You're welcome! And Dison is the spelling given in the book.
Noreen: Bridie, sadly, died some years ago, but as far as I know, Jacqui is still singing.

Joan

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Corby, Speke, Back Buchanan Street?
From: Noreen
Date: 02 Sep 00 - 05:26 AM

I'd like to hear that, AndyG. Hows about us organising a Jacqie & Bridie HearMe?!

Joan or AndyG:

Any chance of you typing in the contents list from the songbook? I'm sure it would churn up lots of long-forgotten memories!

Thanks

Noreen

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Corby, Speke, Back Buchanan Street?
From: Joan from Wigan
Date: 02 Sep 00 - 03:23 PM

Contents of "Songs for Singing Folk":

Liverpool Roving Jack
Kilgary Mountain
Swedish Driving Song
The Four Marys
I Never Will Marry
Keeping 'Em Rolling
Come Me Little Son
Hop Tu Naa
Hold Back The Dawn
Two Recruiting Sergeants
Beans, Bacon and Gravy
Dirty Old Town
Everybody Loves Saturday Night
Fourpence a Day
Pleasant and Delightful
Cathedral In Our Time
Shoals of Herring
Ulverston Fair
Prickly Bush
Coorie Doon
Back Buchanan Street
Paddy's Market
Time

Joan

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Corby, Speke, Back Buchanan Street?
From: Noreen
Date: 02 Sep 00 - 04:39 PM

Thanks very much, Joan- an interesting mix!

Noreen

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Corby, Speke, Back Buchanan Street?
From: Joan from Wigan
Date: 03 Sep 00 - 06:37 AM

I've just noticed that, in my rush to get the words posted, I've missed that the chorus changes after the second verse to:

Don't want to go to Kirkby
Don't want to go to Speke
Don't want to go from all we know
In Back Buchanan Street

Grovelling apologies for the oversight. Joan.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Corby, Speke, Back Buchanan Street?
From: Peter K (Fionn)
Date: 03 Sep 00 - 05:40 PM

So even that little improvement is not my own invention!

Noreen, you are quite safe. There are many things I can't do, and one is sing. This is not false modesty, it's a fact. I just like to latch on to the songs that tell the stories of our times, and first heard this one on a chum's reel-to-reel tape, way back around the time Leeds won the FA Cup - first time. So 1965-ish. Where it was recorded and who was singing I know not, but it was two women.

Someone told me they'd heard The Two Bridies singing it in Halifax around that time. I myself heard this duo on a radio show not long after that, and listened specifically for Back Buchanan Street. They didn't sing it. All I can remember of what they did sing are "Shoals of Herring" - which I see in Joan's list from the songbook - and one about a Christmas tree with no lights, by Cyril Tawney. My guess is that first there were the two Bridies,then Jacqui replaced one of them.

I asked about Back Buchanan Street because I thought it deserved to be in the DT. I've always assumed that if lyrics get into these posts, they get from there into the DT by osmosis, but maybe I should check this with Joe Offer.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Corby, Speke, Back Buchanan Street?
From: Joan from Wigan
Date: 04 Sep 00 - 02:38 AM

According to the biographical details in the book: "Jacqueline McDonald and Bridie O'Donnell began singing together five years ago, and shortly afterwards gave up teaching to sing in America and Canada..." The book is dated 1969, so they were together from 1964. Although I live in Wigan now, I'm a Scouser born and bred, and well remember their folk club and the folk scene in Liverpool in the second half of the Sixties. I've never heard of either of them singing with anyone else before teaming up together. I'd be interested to know if anyone else has earlier knowledge.

Joan

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Corby, Speke, Back Buchanan Street?
From: Peter K (Fionn)
Date: 04 Sep 00 - 06:16 PM

Thanks again, Joan. So the Two Bridies, at least, are a product of my imagination. This is very disturbing! I knew I was prone to dementia but didn't realise it had set in so early.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Back Buchanan Street (H & G Dison)
From: GUEST,C3
Date: 24 Nov 09 - 03:58 PM

Here is this song on You Tube with lyrics in the more info section:-


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1pvJIgVfic


C3

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Back Buchanan Street (H & G Dison)
From: Young Buchan
Date: 24 Nov 09 - 07:46 PM

A couple of years ago I switched on the car radio and they were playing J&B singing Don't want to go to Kirkby, To Skelmersdale or Speke,Don't want to go from all I know in Back Buchanan Street.
Why? Because one of those aforementioned estates (possibly Firbeck in Skelmersdale, but I'm open to correction by a qualified scouser) was about to be demolished, and its inhabitants were objecting to being moved to a new estate!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Back Buchanan Street (H & G Dison)
From: GUEST,Tom
Date: 19 Oct 10 - 01:01 PM

Jacqui McDonald celebrates 50 years of the coach house folk club and final night at the Liverpool Phil on Sunday 23rd January 2011. Tickets on sale now through the phil website

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Back Buchanan Street (H & G Dison)
From: Noreen
Date: 23 Oct 11 - 06:53 PM

YouTube clips of the 'final night', with reminiscences by various associated folkies- Tom Paxton, Peggy Seeger...Jacqui & Bridie's Folk Club

Start of the concert at the Phil: Kilgarry Mountain

Finale: Leaving of Liverpool

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Back Buchanan Street (H & G Dison)
From: Jim I
Date: 24 Oct 11 - 11:59 AM

Try here for a version and some history

http://aliverpoolfolksongaweek.blogspot.com/2011_05_01_archive.html

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Back Buchanan Street (H & G Dison)
From: GUEST,blogward
Date: 24 Oct 11 - 01:17 PM

Excellent. However, it kind of puts 'Octopus's Garden in perspective, doesn't it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Back Buchanan Street (H & G Dison)
From: GUEST,John Haines
Date: 18 Nov 11 - 03:22 PM

Does anyone have the lyrics for Hold back the Dawn by Jacqui and Bridie? I have heard the various videos on Youtube but I just can't work out the first verse, it sounds like 'when the swallow will shine no more,' but do swallows shine, even poetically?

Cheers

JH

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Back Buchanan Street (H & G Dison)
From: GUEST,David Cusack
Date: 19 Jul 20 - 12:17 PM

A slight correction to the lyrics; “a feller from the corpy, straight out of planning school,
Has told us that we’ve got to move right out of Liverpool”. Sorry, about that.
Gregsons well has been knocked down now, lost forever, were Jackie and Bridie started off I believe. Bloody Joe Andersons students now inhabit the area.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Back Buchanan Street (H & G Dison)
From: GUEST,ken murphy
Date: 14 Apr 23 - 03:57 PM

"BACK BUCHANAN STREET"


A feller from the Corpy, just out of plannng school,
Has told us that we've got to move right out of Liverpool.
They're moving us to Kirkby to Skelmersdale and Speke,
But we want to stay where we used to play in Back Buchanan Street,

CHORUS; Don't want to go to Kirkby,don't want to go to Speke,
Don't want to go from all I know in Back Buchanan Street.

(I'll miss the) pub around the corner, with the parlour painted red,
Likewise the green goddesses, likewise the Overhead.
And lots of other little things, like putting out the cat,
Cause there's no back door on the 14th floor of a corpy Tower-block flat.

I'll miss the Mary Ellens, Me Dad'll miss the docks.
Me Gran'll miss the wash-house where she washed me grandad's socks
They've pulled down Paddy's Market, where me Ma once had a stall,
And soon their picks & shovels will be through our backyard wall.

From Bootle to the Dingle, you can hear the same old cry,
"Stop mucking round with Liverpool, at least until I die".

Subject: RE: Lyr ADD Back Buchanan Street (H & G Dison)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 14 Apr 23 - 04:02 PM

What's your source, Ken? It's quite different from the version posted above (click) by Joan from Wigan.

Here's a performance by the Liverpool Ukulele Orchestra: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHjvg061Tio