Lyr Req/Add: The Rosemary (Pete Dodds)

Subject: The Rosemary
From: GUEST,Folkmonster
Date: 31 Aug 02 - 04:41 AM

I am looking for the lyrics of "The Rosemary" as sung by Jon Raven on 'Songs of a Changing World' (LP long gone alas).

Search on "the aged old bollinder started to run" drew a blank, as did "brummagem" ...

FM

Subject: Lyr Add: THE ROSEMARY (Pete Dodds)
From: masato sakurai
Date: 31 Aug 02 - 05:00 AM

From: HERE (The Rosemary) (with score).

THE ROSEMARY
(Pete Dodds)

'Twas way up in Brummagem so I do hear say,
A boat by the name of the Rosemary lay.
She was clothed up and painted in traditional style,
But she hadn't carried for a very long while.

CHORUS
Fol-de-rol, fol-de-ri-do, sing fol-de-rol-day,
It's the song they're all singing down Brummagem way.

Along came a boatman, the old boat to see,
Says he 'Here's a craft that is useful to me.
I'll load her with coal and for London I'll steer',
Said the boatman to the owner, 'If I take her from here'.

The owner said 'Yes' and the boatman 'Okay'
And into the cabin he went straightaway.
He lit up the stove, cleaned cobwebs and mould,
And polished the beam 'til it shone like fine gold.

He sang as he laboured far into the night,
Got up in the morning before it was light.
He put the rusty blowlamp on the cylinder head,
'Tis a fine day for boating', the old boatman said.

He primed up the engine, a prayer in his heart,
And kicked on the flywheel to see if she'd start;
With a bang like the sound of a ten-pounder gun
The aged old Bolinder started to run.

He cast off the fore-end and at the counter he stood,
As the Rosemary shook herself free of the mud.
With tears in his eyes says the boatman 'We may
Get right down to Coventry 'fore the end of the day.'

On dark stormy nights round the fall of the year,
If the beat of a Bolinder distant you hear,
It not Clayton's Sour, Youmea or the Tay;
It's the ghost of the boatman and the old Rosemary.

Notes

Brummagem: a slang term for Birmingham. 'Brum' and 'Birningame' are also used at times.
to London I'll steer: he would have done so along the Grand Union Canal.
Bolinder: the Swedish Bolinder engine was a single-cylinder diesel, with an characteristic 'tunk-tunk-tunk' exhaust note. The cylinder was primed with oil, a boss on the cylinder then being heated to vaporise the oil. The flywheel was spun, and the engine would then (hopefully) start. Bolinders were widespread on the English canal system.
Clayton's Stour, Youmea or the Tay: Two companies based in Birmingham used the name Clayton on their boats. The larger was Fellows, Morton and Clayton, whose offices were on the same site as the Birmingham Canal Company at the end of Paradise Street. Their boats were known as Joshers, after Joshua Fellows. The company referred to in this song is that of Thomas Clayton (Oldbury) Ltd., many of whose boats were named after rivers; Tay appears at the top of this page. Thomas Clayton specialised in the carriage of gas tar in tanker boats, ceasing canal carrying in 1966; a road haulage busines continues under the same name. Umea (Youmea) was converted into a houseboat and may well still be around.

~Masato

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Rosemary
From: GUEST,Folkmonster
Date: 31 Aug 02 - 05:26 AM

Hey, now that's what a call a Mudcat response! Less than 20 mins

Big thanks!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Rosemary
From: masato sakurai
Date: 31 Aug 02 - 05:32 AM

"The Rosemary" is on THE BOLD NAVIGATORS: THE STORY OF ENGLAND'S CANALS IN SONG by Jon Raven, John Kirkpatrick, Sue Harris, Gary & Vera Aspey, Brian Peters, Ian Woods. It has been reissued by Fellside (FTSR4). Info is HERE (Scroll down to the bottom of the page). Incidentally, Jon Raven wrote The Urban and Industrial Songs of the Black Country and Birmingham (Broadside, 1977), where this song is not contained.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Rosemary
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 31 Aug 02 - 05:24 PM

Thanks a million, masato! I have The Bold Navigators CD reissue, but there was no songsheet with it and I still haven't worked out most of the lyrics, so this is very welcome.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Rosemary
From: Gurney
Date: 01 Sep 02 - 12:52 AM

An aside: Most english midlanders say Brummegem or Brum for Birmingham, except in Derbyshire where they used to say Birningham. As a young man I tried to find out why. In the Doomsday Book compiled for William the Conk there was then, in that area, a village of Brymwitchham (spelling from memory), which was reason enough for me to stop looking. Wassail.

Subject: Lyr Add: THE ROSEMARY (add. verses by Dave Bryant)
From: Dave Bryant
Date: 03 Sep 02 - 11:29 AM

I always thought that the transition from "It's a fine day for boating" to "On dark stormy nights" was rather abrupt, so many years ago I added a couple of verses to explain what happened in between. You can find them recorded on "They're coming back to the water" (Folksound FCD 47) by Jeff Dennison and Benny Graham.

He was seen up at Curdworth by the short tunnel's mouth.
Then he he motored down to Fazely and there he turned south.
He spoke to the keeper at Atherstone top,
But he never arrived at the Hawkbury Stop.

Some say there's deep holes in the Coventry's bed,
Some say that he turned up the Ashby instead.
There's stories and theories, but for all folks do say,
Neither boat nor boatman have been seen since that day.


The two verses fit in before the last one. NB for any canal purists - I do know that the junction of the Coventry and North Oxford canals is normally known as Hawksbury Junction OR Sutton Stop, but combining the names gave me something that fitted!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Rosemary
From: Dave Bryant
Date: 09 Sep 02 - 07:14 AM

refresh

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Rosemary
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 09 Sep 02 - 06:58 PM

Thanks, Dave! I've always thought that part of the story seemed to be missing, and these verses fit very well.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Rosemary
From: GUEST,Folkmonster
Date: 04 Mar 05 - 12:14 PM

Follow up

- someone mentioned to me that the tune to 'the rosemary' is incredibly similar to 'old pendle' - it is! the tune is by the late Brian Osborne of the Blackpool Taverners.

From what I can remember of the rosemary the tune *is* similar but as it is 20 years since I heard it ... If it is the same, I wonder who wrote the tune first?

Does anyone have the music for the rosemary? I know 'old pendle'.

FM

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Rosemary
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 04 Mar 05 - 05:43 PM

I suppose the tune must be older than Old Pendle. I've got a song by Colin Wilkie to the same tune, and when I asked him he had never even heard of 'Old Pendle'.

Subject: RE: Req/ADD: The Rosemary (Pete Dodds)
From: bubblyrat
Date: 21 Jan 07 - 09:18 PM

The Bolinder engine is usually referred to as either a Hot -Bulb engine, or a Semi-Diesel.Compression was VERY low,& they could be started by rotating the flywheel by foot,or sometimes,hand. Bolinder was probably the most famous make, but engines of the type were made by Kromhaut, Petter, & National,among others .English narrowboats usually had a single-cylinder model of about 12 horsepower, and indeed some are still used in enthusiasts' boats to this day.However, some quite large 2-cylinder models of up to 50 HP were made---one of these was fitted in a ferry that operated on Lake Titticaca,for example !! The Hot-Bulb engine would run on just about any oil that would burn. It was essential to pre-heat the cast-iron "bulb" that sat on top of the cylinder-head. This involved the use of one or,usually,more paraffin blow-lamps, and could take up to half an hour !! When the "bulb" was glowing red-hot, the boatman would pull out the spring-loaded pin in the massive flywheel, and literally kick-start the engine.Quite often ,the engine started backwards, which it was designed to do,in which case the boatman got a nasty wound or,often,a broken leg.The captain of a Baltic Trader,from Scandinavia,had an arm ripped out by one !!But once the engine was running,it would only stop when the fuel was turned off,and many English narrowboat crews left them running for days on end !! Oddly enough,they are quite "Green",as they will run on rape-seed oil or cleaned-up cooking-oil---The boat-engine of the future,perhaps ?????

Subject: RE: Lyr Req/Add: The Rosemary (Pete Dodds)
From: GUEST,guest -headey
Date: 04 Jun 14 - 05:34 PM

Presume this is the Colin Wilkie tune, I didn't find the original in my
quick google www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCsQfSwf9Us
The 1976 BBC "Canal Children" used the same melody www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oXlC24prOA but 'credited to/arr by' accordionist Jack Emblow. His version sounds more melancholic to me.

The line "polished the beam" -should be "polished the brass"
www.waterwaysongs.co.uk/rosemary.htm
Probably badly copied from handwriting...
'r' became 'e'
'ss' became 'm'

Thanks DB, those two verses make the song complete for me.
Still can't bring myself to sing "Fol-de-rol, fol-de-ri-do" though.:)

And here is a Bolinder under an echoey bridge
www.youtube.com/watch?v=GO-LJVYqsto

Subject: RE: Lyr Req/Add: The Rosemary (Pete Dodds)
From: Leadfingers
Date: 04 Jun 14 - 10:30 PM

That's a shame - The Link doesn't work !

---

I think I have all the links fixed now, Terry. -Joe-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req/Add: The Rosemary (Pete Dodds)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 04 Jun 14 - 11:46 PM

There's a recording of "The Rosemary" available on Spotify (coupled with Bolinder sound effects), but you may have to search under the album title, The Bold Navigators.

And then you'll get distracted by all the other songs on the album, and you'll get nothing else done today.

What a great song! What a great album!

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req/Add: The Rosemary (Pete Dodds)
From: FreddyHeadey
Date: 26 Apr 15 - 03:16 PM

There is a very similar tune from a couple of Russians here
КендерМор/_/Новая
Any Russian Mudcatters to comment? ...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req/Add: The Rosemary (Pete Dodds)
From: FreddyHeadey
Date: 18 Apr 17 - 08:22 PM

Starting the Bolinder of the NB Spey
https://youtu.be/H39drBmwxL8
but describing all that in a song...