Origins: Down Below

Subject: Help: origins "Down Below"
From: Splott Man
Date: 13 Dec 06 - 07:39 AM

This one is niggling us at work.

One of my colleagues keeps singing one line... "Down Below" and we can't think where it's from.

It's the refrain of a song in the same structure as Sam Hall, Aikendrum and Captain Kidd, or even Les Barker's Van Gogh.

One suggestion is that it's from a stage show.

Any ideas anyone?

Subject: RE: Origins: Down Below
From: Scrump
Date: 13 Dec 06 - 07:45 AM

Did Les Barker write "Van Gogh" - is this the same one Vin Garbutt used to sing? I thought it was one of Vin's.

Subject: RE: Origins: Down Below
From: GUEST,meself
Date: 13 Dec 06 - 08:16 AM

"There's a Fire Down Below"? It's a shanty; I only know the title, but without question there are plenty of 'Catters who would be familiar with it.

Subject: RE: Origins: Down Below
From: GUEST,redhorse at work
Date: 13 Dec 06 - 08:17 AM

I assume you mean the song about working down the sewers of London. Don't know who wrote it: I think it might have been Sidney Carter. Ian Wallace recorded it

nick

Subject: Lyr Add: DOWN BELOW (Sydney Carter)
From: jacqui.c
Date: 13 Dec 06 - 08:21 AM

There are two songs with that title that I know of.

One is the Stanley Holloway version - written by Sidney Carter.

DOWN BELOW^^
(Sydney Carter)

When you're working in the dark... Down below,
Underneath St James's park ... Down below,
When you're working in the dark, oh it isn't half a lark,
When you're working in the dark... Down below,

It isn't hard to tell... Down Below,
If it's Bow or Clerkenwell... Down below
For Bow and Clerkenwell have a different sort of smell,
And we know them very well... Down below,

Over Covent garden way,... Down Below,
In the merry month of May,... Down below,
The fragrance of the flowers gives us many happy hours,
And we sing a roundelay,... Down below,

The objects that we find... Down below,
Help to entertain the mind,... Down Below
There are watches that won't wind, wrapped up in bacon rind,
And that isn't all you find,... Down below,

When you're under floral street,... Down Below,
With the water round your feet,... Down below
Mid the cabbages and beet you may find a marguerite,
And the thought is very sweet, ... Down Below

Hatton Garden is a spot,...Down Below,
That we like to go a lot,... Down below,
Since a bloke in Leather lane, dropped a diamond down a drain,
We've been waiting... But in vain,... Down below,

When to billingsgate we come,... Down below,
When to billingsgate we come,... Down below,
When to billingsgate we come, You can tell it by the hum,
And we wish we hadn't come,... Down below,

There is something in a sewer,... Down below
That has a strange allure,...Down below,
The magic of the drain is a thing you can't explain,
But it's calling us again,... Down below.

The other is one that Bat Goddess sings - part of the lyric is

It's the only place I find I can get some peace of mind, I'm glad I'm working down below.

Subject: RE: Origins: Down Below
From: GUEST,Observer
Date: 13 Dec 06 - 08:39 AM

Sidney Carter certainly did write a song named Dahn Below. Can't remember the whole song but some of it is

Oh it is'nt hard to tell
Dahn below
If it's Bow or Clerkenwell
Dahn below
Oh it is'nt hard to tell
for it's a very different smell.....(lyrics missing)
Dahn below

Or something like that!?

If this is the song you were after I'm sure if you were to contact Mike Sparks(www.mikesparks.co.uk) he would help you with the lyrics. (Mike apparently has contact with the family and copyright holders)

Ob

Subject: RE: Origins: Down Below
From: GUEST,Observer
Date: 13 Dec 06 - 08:41 AM

Look at that cross posting but Jacqui c did much better than me.
well done Jacqui

Ob

Subject: RE: Origins: Down Below
From: clueless don
Date: 13 Dec 06 - 08:43 AM

There is also "The Pound-a-Week Rise" (I think that's the title), with a chorus that goes something like

And it's down below,
down you go,
where you never see the skies,
and you're working in a dungeon
for a pound-a-week rise!

I know Dick Gaughan recorded it, probably many others.

Don

Subject: RE: Origins: Down Below
From: Susan of DT
Date: 13 Dec 06 - 08:45 AM

If you search for down below in the Digital Tradition, you get a long list of songs, including two versions of the chantey Fire Down Below, but not the sewer song, which surprised me.

Subject: RE: Origins: Down Below
From: gnomad
Date: 13 Dec 06 - 09:52 AM

I think I picked the sewer song up from the DT, but I believe that the executors of Sydney Carter's estate required all his lyrics to be removed.

Or did I just dream that?

Subject: RE: Origins: Down Below
From: Schantieman
Date: 13 Dec 06 - 11:19 AM

I've heard that too.

S

Subject: RE: Origins: Down Below
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 13 Dec 06 - 01:16 PM

There's another "Down Below" sewer song as well. I got it from Evan Leonard.

Chorus:
"Down below, oh down below,
Oh it's dark but it's home to me you know.
It's the only place I find,
I can get some peace of mind.
I'm glad I'm working down below."

Linn

Subject: RE: Origins: Down Below
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Dec 06 - 03:05 PM

Down Below - song of the sewermen composed by Michael Flanders and Donald Swann
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Origins: Down Below
From: Splott Man
Date: 14 Dec 06 - 04:00 AM

Thanks everyone. It's the Sydney Carter one.

Your input has led me to other places where I've found plenty of info. Performed variously by Stanley Holloway, Flanders & Swann, Ian Wallace and Rolf Harris among others.

I love this place.

Splott man

Subject: RE: Origins: Down Below
From: GUEST,Joe
Date: 30 May 10 - 04:23 AM

Yes the song Down Below was written by Sydney Carter and published in "The Songs of Sydney Carter: In the present tense Book 2" 1969, Galliard Limited

Ian Wallace recorded it and I have an EP of this song, together with The Gay Gondolier, The Income Tax Collector, & Transport of Delight

Subject: RE: Origins: Down Below
From: GUEST
Date: 06 Aug 10 - 05:04 AM

I remember this song which was a reasonable regular in a programme called "Children's Favourities". Every Saturday morning the Light Programme as it was called, which became Radio 2 in September 1967, would play this song if it had been requested by children.

The programme only consisted of the same set of songs which even for a young child became a rather boring programme because every week the programme would end with either 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow' or with 'Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture' - these two were alternated each week. Other boring music included 'The Sabre Dance' and 'I am a Troll".

Remember the character who run the show, an early form of child's DJ called "Uncle Mac"?

However, the song 'Down Below' never became boring and one could open the song up time and time again by making up ones own lyrics.

The true magic of childhood.

Subject: RE: Origins: Down Below
From: Joe Offer
Date: 22 May 20 - 05:06 PM

I found a recording by Ian Wallace: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHbGjA_RXaY

And another: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAcKCTXdduQ

Subject: RE: Origins: Down Below
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 23 May 20 - 04:12 AM

Got the original sheet music if it's of use. If I remember correctly its title is 'Dahn Below' so searching under 'down' wouldn't be much use if that's the case.

Subject: RE: Origins: Down Below
From: GUEST,Jerry
Date: 23 May 20 - 05:34 AM

The Sidney Carter one is also included in the EFDSS songbook titled ‘Festival Folk’ (published in the 1970s), and his ‘Down Below’ is copyrighted to Chappell and Co Ltd 1958.