Lyr/Chords Req: Here Come the Navvies (I Campbell)

Subject: Here Come The Navvies
From: Graham
Date: 05 Sep 99 - 05:27 PM

Can anybody please help with the lyrics for "Here Come The Navvies", the Ewan MacColl song about building canals in England?

Subject: words for: The navies: Please
From: GUEST,Ceridwen
Date: 05 Jan 02 - 06:21 PM

I am a navigationer and I come from Connty Cork, and I had to leave my native home to find a job of work,

CH;-Here come the navies out to earn thier pay, they work with barrow, plough and spade to clear the cut away

Thankyou,x

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: words for: The navies: Please
From: Willa
Date: 06 Jan 02 - 04:33 PM

refresh before it drops off the page

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: words for: The navies: Please
From: Sorcha
Date: 06 Jan 02 - 04:36 PM

I looked. Didn't find anything. Sorry.

Subject: Lyr Add: HERE COME THE NAVVIES
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 06 Jan 02 - 04:40 PM

I found this in Singing Together BBC Schools Radio, 1972.

HERE COME THE NAVVIES

I am a navigational and I come from County Cork,
I had to leave my native home to find a job of work.
The crops where bad in Ireland and the tax too much to pay
And so here I am in England digging up the waterway.

Chorus
Here come the navvies, out to earn thier pay
We work with barrow, plough and spade to clear the cut away,
And when we put the puddle in with sweat we wet with clay,
And we scar the face of England for to make the waterway.

Once I was a ploughman and I did a decent job,
I'd work from dawn 'til darkness just to earn me couple 'o bob
But when the praties died on us I couldn't pay me way,
And so here I am in England ploughing up the waterway.

The lads who build the moterway they are a motely crew
And when we've sweated all day long we like a drink or two
The local folk don't take to us, but still I'm proud to say,
In years to come our monument will be the waterway.

Jon

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: words for: The navies: Please
From: folkmonster
Date: 06 Jan 02 - 05:47 PM

I believe these are words by Ian Campbell to 'down in the coal mine' from A L Lloyd's book 'Come all ye bold miners'.

I sure I had it on an LP somewhere ...

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: words for: The navies: Please
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 06 Jan 02 - 06:01 PM

Thank you, Jon! I had the words all typed out ...:-). This is what I have on 'Ian Campbell and the Ian Campbell Folk Group' (1969):
Tune: Roving Journeyman
[1973:] Ian Campbell wrote Here Come the Navvies in 1962, for a BBC Radio Ballad programme called 'A Cry from the Cut'. The programme was a documentary about canal life, and the song tells of the men who built those canals. These men - the navigational construction workers - were the first of a new class of men, the casual labourer. The first navvies were a mixed bunch; many were unemployed and unskilled men from the growing industrial towns, crofters driven from the Scottish Highlands during the clearances, deserters from the Army and Navy, and, the subject of the song, the Irish small farmer whose crops had failed. The navvies brought a new colour to the English countryside as they dug the once so important network of inland waterways. (Forces Folk 10/73)

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: words for: The navies: Please
From: GUEST,Ceridwen
Date: 09 Jan 02 - 08:43 AM

To all who replied to my request for words,Thankyou!!!. It's the first time that I've used this site and I just cannot believe the responce.Thankyou all once again.Ceridwen.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Here Come The Navvies
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 04 Dec 11 - 12:37 AM

I think it may have been Ian Campbell, not Ewan MacColl, who wrote HERE COME THE NAVVIES.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Here Come the Navvies
From: Ian Hendrie
Date: 04 Dec 11 - 07:48 AM

The song was written by Ian Campbell. More details can be found at http://www.waterwaysongs.co.uk/here_come.htm.

Many other canal related songs are also present (words, music, chords, additional info) on the Songs of the Inland Waterways site which I run as a hobby project. Contributions of songs and/or information is also welcome.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Here Come the Navvies (I Campbell)
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Dec 11 - 11:51 AM

Without a doubt it was Ian Campbell who both wrote and recorded it for the BBC - I remember him singing this at the Jug of Punch in Birmingham when I worked for the BBC in Broad Street. It must have been early to mid-60s and before I left to work in Africa in 1967, for I have been singing it myself ever since. In fact, I am about to record it in my own film and recording studio (www.lanreathstudio.co.uk) and welcome anyone visiting Cornwall who plays and sings to make contact. Tony

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Here Come the Navvies (I Campbell)
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Jul 17 - 03:20 PM

I can remember singing this song at school,just stumbled on this thread as I could only remember the chorus.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Here Come the Navvies (I Campbell)
From: GUEST,threelegsoman
Date: 12 Jul 17 - 03:20 AM

As with another song from the repertoire of the Ian Campbell Folk Group, the tune for this song is "The Red Haired Boy".
My own version of it can be seen on YouTube:

Here Come The Navvies (Including lyrics and chords)

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Here Come the Navvies (I Campbell)
From: GUEST,threelegsoman
Date: 12 Jul 17 - 03:22 AM

The other song I meant to name was "Down In The Coal Mine"

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Here Come the Navvies (I Campbell)
From: GUEST,Jeff Parton
Date: 14 Aug 17 - 07:53 AM

Does anyone have the lyrics to another song about navvies told from a woman's point of view. She "marries" one navvy and when he is killed she moves on from one navvy to another. I don't know the title but when I google "navvies" I get every song but that one. I'd be very grateful if anyone can supply this as my wife wants to sing it!

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Here Come the Navvies (I Campbell)
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Aug 17 - 04:54 AM

I think the song you're after is "Alice White", written by Alan Bell. Marie Little sings it beautifully.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Here Come the Navvies (I Campbell)
From: Gozz
Date: 15 Aug 17 - 06:56 AM

Jeff,
There is also a song within Mick Ryans, Navvy's Wife "folk opera" project which is on a similar theme I believe.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Here Come the Navvies (I Campbell)
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 15 Aug 17 - 10:51 AM

Some of MacColl's best songs were those he made about Navvies - specifically those for the film, The Irishmen (unreleased in Britain and shown only once in Ireland as an obituary tribute to the film-maker, Phillip Donnellan)
Because of the programme not being shown, the songs didn't get the circulaation they deserved - I think Tunnel Tigers was the only one to have made an impact
Others include, 'Farewell to Ireland' (re-written from the tradition, 'Rambler from Clare', 'The Nipper's Song', 'New Rocks of Bawn', 'Indeed I Would', 'Van Diemans Land 1965', 'Dublin Jack-of-All-Trades', 'The Devil and Ganger McGlinn' and 'The Rambling Irishman'
Like many of MacColl's best songs, several of these are based on recordings of navvies used for the film
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Here Come the Navvies (I Campbell)
From: GUEST,Jeff Parton
Date: 15 Aug 17 - 11:18 AM

I've found 'Alice White'. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.