Lyr Add: Bonny White Hare (trad. arr. Scrump)

Subject: Lyr Add: Bonny White Hare (trad. arr. Scrump)
From: Scrump
Date: 23 Jan 07 - 11:21 AM

Here, I just found a better traditional song I wrote myself. I think I'll record it instead:

BONNY WHITE HARE
(trad arr Scrump; lyrics © Scrump)

On the 14th of May, at the end of the day
With me trusty old fiddle to the pub I did stray
In search of the craic with the company there
And hark to the song of the bonny white hare

I heard an old man there a-singing a song
On an old ukulele while folk sang along
Says I to myself, that's a fine melody
One day I will sing it myself, you shall see

And then the old man told a tale so weird
Of an old local legend that had me afeared
About a strange creature that lived in a lair
On the moor, 'twas the home of the bonny white hare

With ten pints of scrumpy inside me that night
I walked 'cross the moor in the pale moonlight
As I passed by the tor in the darkness I stared
And what should I see but the bonny white hare

This sight made me sober, and chilled to the bone
I took to my heels and ran all the way home
I never forgot what I saw that night there
And remembered the song of the bonny white hare

(instrumental break)

Now many years later, a much wiser man
To search for ideas for a song I began
The legend to haunt me and fill me with care
Was the song and the tale of the bonny white hare

I couldn't remember a note of the tune
So I took out me fiddle and started to croon
To forget the original tune was a pity
But I played a few notes and soon wrote a nice ditty

The story to me now was wholly unknown
I'd forgotten the words, so I made up me own
They told of what happened out in the night air
The night I encountered the bonny white hare

Now news of my song reached a man that I know
Who was looking for songs for his radio show
He said that's the song I'll put out on the air
The traditional song of the bonny white hare

I tried to explain that 'twas I wrote the song
And the end of the stick that he had was all wrong.
But he didn't hear me, he just said "Great chords!
We're putting this up for the next folk awards!"

Well what could I do, it was too late to change
My story is ended but it's very strange,
How I got the award for traditional track
But it's there on me shelf and I can't give it back.

© Scrump

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bonny White Hare (trad. arr. Scrump)
From: GUEST
Date: 23 Jan 07 - 11:31 AM

Absolutely brilliant.

Really very good indeed - well done!

and the tune?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bonny White Hare (trad. arr. Scrump)
From: IanC
Date: 23 Jan 07 - 11:41 AM

Bonny Black Hare, I think.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bonny White Hare (trad. arr. Scrump)
From: Andy Jackson
Date: 23 Jan 07 - 11:48 AM

Tee Hee
How very singable

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bonny White Hare (trad. arr. Scrump)
From: Pete_Standing
Date: 23 Jan 07 - 11:58 AM

I'll put me hat on sir, so I can take it off to you!

There are some folks "elsewhere" who would just love to see this!

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bonny White Hare (trad. arr. Scrump)
From: Folkiedave
Date: 23 Jan 07 - 02:44 PM

Why not send it to Smooth Ops and see if they will play it on the Mike Harding Show?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bonny White Hare (trad. arr. Scrump)
From: greg stephens
Date: 23 Jan 07 - 02:48 PM

Get Deth Lakeman to record it, I should, and it'll be a certainty for next year's trad award.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bonny White Hare (trad. arr. Scrump)
From: Tim theTwangler
Date: 23 Jan 07 - 06:42 PM

lol
Thats better!

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bonny White Hare (trad. arr. Scrump)
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 23 Jan 07 - 06:46 PM

Surely the tune is Villikins and his Dinah?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bonny White Hare (trad. arr. Scrump)
From: Folkiedave
Date: 23 Jan 07 - 06:51 PM

Certainly fits Richard - but Bonny Black Hare is better, (I suspect it is a variant).

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bonny White Hare (trad. arr. Scrump)
From: stallion
Date: 24 Jan 07 - 04:05 AM

a real hoot, brilliant!

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bonny White Hare (trad. arr. Scrump)
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 24 Jan 07 - 04:09 AM

Bloody funny!
I hope they are following all this.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bonny White Hare (trad. arr. Scrump)
From: Scrump
Date: 24 Jan 07 - 04:18 AM

Tune? Give me a chance - I've only just written the words! :-)

Yes, I started out with the idea of a parody of Bonny Black Hare of course, but somehow it took on a life of its own. There are probably many tunes that would fit, but adhering to the true spirit of traditional songs, I intend to compose my own tune as soon as I get time. :-)

Thanks for the kind comments, folks.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bonny White Hare (trad. arr. Scrump)
From: stallion
Date: 24 Jan 07 - 05:26 AM

Why don't you sing it to "Wild Rover" add a chorus and then claim it to be truly traditional! Next years awards are beckoning!

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bonny White Hare (trad. arr. Scrump)
From: stallion
Date: 24 Jan 07 - 05:27 AM

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bonny White Hare (trad. arr. Scrump)
From: stallion
Date: 24 Jan 07 - 05:28 AM

I forgot to add a ps
Then every person in the land will be able to amble into a session and ask if we can sing "The Bonny White Hare"!

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bonny White Hare (trad. arr. Scrump)
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 24 Jan 07 - 05:32 AM

If you get Deth Lakeman to record it, he will have forgotten who wrote it in five minutes and then John Leonard will swear it's traditional, come to think of it I'm sure I heard this song in a pub when I was two days old so it must be traditional.

eric

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bonny White Hare (trad. arr. Scrump)
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 24 Jan 07 - 05:35 AM

We are the Cheeky Girls fits it too!
We could get Lembit Opik to sing it, and claim it as a translation of an ancient Lithuanian fertility song!
Giok

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bonny White Hare (trad. arr. Scrump)
From: Gizmo
Date: 24 Jan 07 - 04:44 PM

Well done Scrump.

I love it.The words cheeky were entering my head too Giok come to think of it.

I'll join you scrump with some scrumpy of me own.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bonny White Hare (trad. arr. Scrump)
From: Scrump
Date: 25 Jan 07 - 03:32 AM

Well, I gave it its first airing last night at our singaround and it seemed to go down OK with those present. Now all I need to do is record it and flog loads of CDs :-)

I see someone has mentioned it on the BBC folk discussion group too, so maybe it will get noticed by those in high places there (but I won't hold my breath!)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bonny White Hare (trad. arr. Scrump)
From: AlexB
Date: 25 Jan 07 - 04:24 AM

Did you use your own tune in the end? I'd love to hear it sung, so please do record it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bonny White Hare (trad. arr. Scrump)
From: Scrump
Date: 25 Jan 07 - 06:23 AM

Mad Person, thanks for asking. I haven't had time yet to write my own tune properly. Last night I sang it to a mish-mash of tunes, based on various other songs with similar structure (Bonny Black Hare being one of them). In other words, I made it up as I went along and I doubt I could do it exactly the same way again.

(Yes, I'd like to record it with our fiddler, who's a Seth Lakeman fan and can do some good impressions of his style. Unfortunately there wasn't time to forewarn her last night, although she was present. The problem is finding the time, and it will be past its sell by date very soon - be good fun though!).

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bonny White Hare (trad. arr. Scrump)
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 25 Jan 07 - 06:41 AM

Seriously though it would work to the tune of Cruisin' Round Yarmouth, perhaps a wee nonsense chorus would add to the authenticity, something like
Rumbletum tumbletum folk family
Rumbletum tumbletum, BB bloody C

Giok

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bonny White Hare (trad. arr. Scrump)
From: Pete_Standing
Date: 25 Jan 07 - 07:53 AM

As part of the "folk process" I have taken a traditional song and adapted it to tell the life of Annie Bonny

I heard her in the channel,
I heard her in the dead of night.
The warning of a white skull
Her guns burnished bright.

Careful you don`t watch her
Give her right of way.
For she will look upon you,
And steal your soul away

For the white skull is calling,
She's sailing in the night.
She'll be out `til the morning light.

Out upon the headland
A shadow came onto me.
Her hair was hanging over,
Her face I could not see.

She ran behind the rocks,
I heard the gulls cry,
The image of a woman
With head she held up high.

For the white skull is calling,
She's sailing in the night.
She'll be out `til the morning
With her guns burnished bright.
The white skull is calling you.

If you go pulling,
Going through the spray,
If you see a fair maid,
Her hair an ash and grey,

Careful you don`t watch her,
Give her right of way,
For she will look upon you,
And steal your soul away

For the white skull is calling,
She's sailing in the night.
She'll be out `til the morning,
With her guns burnished bright.
The white skull is calling you.

You can her her calling every night

You can her her calling every night
You can her her calling every night

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bonny White Hare (trad. arr. Scrump)
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 25 Jan 07 - 07:59 AM

Bright Eyes

Is it a kind of a dream
Floating out on the tide
Following the river of death downstream
Oh is it a dream

There's a fog along the horizon
A strange glow in the sky
And nobody seems to know where it goes
And what does it mean
Ohoh is it a dream

Bright eyes, burning like fire
Bright eyes, how can you close and fail
How can the light that burned so brightly
Suddenly burn so pale
Bright eyes

Is it a kind of a shadow
Reaching into the night
Wandering over the hills unseen
Or is it a dream

There's a high wind in the trees
A cold sound in the air
And nobody ever knows when you go
And where do you start
Oh into the dark

Bright eyes, burning like fire
Bright eyes, how can you close and fail
How can the light that burned so brightly
Suddenly burn so pale
Bright eyes

Bright eyes, burning like fire
Bright eyes, how can you close and fail
How can the light that burned so brightly
Suddenly burn so pale
Bright eyes.

Could we perhaps sing this in the background of Scrumps Trad Song, and call it something like Black and White Hare Canticle?

Giok

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bonny White Hare (trad. arr. Scrump)
From: Lizzie Cornish
Date: 25 Jan 07 - 10:17 AM

Tell me something....I'm intrigued!

IF Dick Gaughan had recording The White Hare...or Martin Carthy...would there be the same sense of outrage amongst The Moaning Minnies I wonder????

Far be it from me to suggest that this is being stretched beyond the endurance of a Saint....merely because it happens to involve Seth Lakeman....

Oh no no no no no no no no......Yes!


Lizzie

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bonny White Hare (trad. arr. Scrump)
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 25 Jan 07 - 10:38 AM

One would have thought that both the gentlemen mentioned had better taste Lizzie.
G.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bonny White Hare (trad. arr. Scrump)
From: Lizzie Cornish
Date: 25 Jan 07 - 10:49 AM

Better taste than what????????????????????

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bonny White Hare (trad. arr. Scrump)
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 25 Jan 07 - 10:51 AM

Than whom.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bonny White Hare (trad. arr. Scrump)
From: GUEST
Date: 25 Jan 07 - 11:01 AM

Lizzie, if either Gaughan or Carthy had written new song and it had been selected for consideration in the "traditional song" category then I'm sure there would have been just as much of a fuss. It's calling an apple an orange that people get outraged about, not about SL.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bonny White Hare (trad. arr. Scrump)
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 25 Jan 07 - 11:02 AM

Martin Carthy did record The White Hare on But Two Came By in 1968. Long before some silly little boy decided to write a pop song using the same title and some tune he may or may not have heard in a pub, which somehow prompted an idiotic, outsourced production company to bring the BBC Folk Awards into disrepute by trying to pass it off as trad. It'll all end in tears. Hopefully.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bonny White Hare (trad. arr. Scrump)
From: Lizzie Cornish
Date: 25 Jan 07 - 11:04 AM

>>>One would have thought that both the gentlemen mentioned had better taste Lizzie.<<<

Actually, Smarty Pants...you inferred, incorrectly, by your grammar, that both Martin and Dick had better taste me. Yikes Smiley!!!!!

See what can happen when one leaves one's comma out! ;0)

Shall we try that again then MacKenzie?

>>>One would have thought that both the gentlemen mentioned had better taste, Lizzie ;0)

Better taste than WHAT MacKenzie?

;0)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bonny White Hare (trad. arr. Scrump)
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 25 Jan 07 - 11:09 AM

Is it true you're riding a new BMW motor bike Lizzie?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bonny White Hare (trad. arr. Scrump)
From: Lizzie Cornish
Date: 25 Jan 07 - 11:11 AM

>>>>Long before some silly little boy decided to write a pop song using the same title and some tune he may or may not have heard in a pub, which somehow prompted an idiotic, outsourced production company to bring the BBC Folk Awards into disrepute by trying to pass it off as trad. It'll all end in tears. Hopefully. <<<<


By 'some silly little boy' are you meaning Seth Lakeman, man in his late 20's? Son of Geoff....Cornishman from Penzance land of The White Hare....Drinker in Dartmoor pubs where music is still played by many older people, who like to pass things down to the next generation?

And tell me Countess...isn't our lovely Jim Causley even younger than Seth Lakeman? As is the lovely Jackie Oates too....

I do hope you're not a Narrow-Minded, Bitter Ol' Traddie being patronizing to younger people! Tish, tish!

However...I'm right with you on ********* Smooth Ops...not over The White Hare, but for many other things..

They couldn't organise a whatsit in a thingyummyjig in my opinion! Heck...they don't even respond to emails! AND their Customer Care Manager has had been holding two fingers up to his er...customers for years and years on their site...until just a few weeks ago.

Arrogant or what?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bonny White Hare (trad. arr. Scrump)
From: Lizzie Cornish
Date: 25 Jan 07 - 11:19 AM

>>>Is it true you're riding a new BMW motor bike Lizzie?<<<

Would someone please tell that idiotic, holier than thou, goodytwoshoes twit of a woma, from The Ministry Of Wrecks And We OWN EVERYTHING' that she is in the land of The Wreckers down here!

Doesn't she know that Wrecker's Blood runs through our veins...and it matters not if it's a BMW bike, a box of oranges or 75 years of 'newborn' nappies...A WRECK IS A WRECK and it's cargo belongs to the people of The West Country!!!!!!!!!!

AND....WHY have the dictators who run this country got The Coastguards patrolling Branscombe Beach...telling those naughty people that they'll all be transported if they dare to take anything home with them????? I mean.....we only have about 6 coastguards left in the country don't we...and now..NOW they're all on Branscombe Beach!!!

Someone get Seth to write a song about it....

Rumour has it that two Wandering Minstrels were to be seen up on Salcombe Hill that night...with their lanterns swaying and their voices ringing out over the waiting town.......

"Give us a wreck O Lord...."

And...if you go on to eBay...the UK one...and put Branscombe in the 'search' ....you'd be surprised what you can find! ;0) Although eBay keeps removing the items....

Right..I'm just off for a spin around the town MacKenzie...care to hop on the back?

;0)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bonny White Hare (trad. arr. Scrump)
From: Scrump
Date: 25 Jan 07 - 11:19 AM

I'd just like to make it clear that I like Seth Lakeman, and although this parody might poke fun at the song, he is by no means the target.

To me, the only issue is that a song which by no stretch of the imagination (unless your name happens to be John Leonard, who seems to be able to stretch his further than anyone else I know) can Seth's song (which even he says he wrote himself) be called a traditional song.

If a song written by Dick Gaughan or Martin Carthy or anyone else had been nominated for "best traditional track" I would have been just as keen to make the same point.

As I say, I happen to like Seth, having seen him and his excellent band several times live. He's a nice young lad and has real talent, and is a good entertainer to boot. I know there are some people here who don't agree, and they're free to dislike him and his songs, just as we all are free to choose who and what we listen to.

The issue is nothing to do with any bias against the artist (Seth in this case), just upholding the principle that a song written recently by a known author cannot be called 'traditional' - as John Leonard's own definition of the term last week confirmed.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bonny White Hare (trad. arr. Scrump)
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 25 Jan 07 - 11:22 AM

Had Giok said (which he didn't) that DG and MC had better taste than lizziecornish, that would not only have been patently true but an implication. The inference, wrongly drawn though apposite, came from lizziecornish herself. In other words (for the benefit of the thick), whoever makes the statement implies, those hearing it may infer. This simple concept is clearly, however, beyond those unable to distinguish the newly-composed from the traditional. Aaaaaahhhhhh.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bonny White Hare (trad. arr. Scrump)
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 25 Jan 07 - 11:31 AM

Dear BMW Rider

The actual point is that Lakeperson Junior (of Harrow, NW London) penned a ditty with the same title, The White Hare as one Mr Carthy (Trad/Arr) recorded in 1968. I have the utmost confidence that neither Jim Causley nor Jackie Oates (fine Exeter residents) would do anything so silly, or allow Smoothops to degrade their work.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bonny White Hare (trad. arr. Scrump)
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 25 Jan 07 - 12:42 PM

"Doesn't she know that Wrecker's Blood runs through our veins..."

what - in Pinner?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bonny White Hare (trad. arr. Scrump)
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 25 Jan 07 - 12:50 PM

"it matters not if it's a BMW bike, a box of oranges or 75 years of 'newborn' nappies"

and what about the personal possessions of someone who's recently moved abroad, who has the misfortune to watch a bunch of crazed, materialistic scavengers going through their belongings on the telly?

Get Seth to write a song about it indeed...

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bonny White Hare (trad. arr. Scrump)
From: Pete_Standing
Date: 25 Jan 07 - 01:31 PM

Both Dick and Martin have recorded some turkeys. The issue is not the quality or who did it, the issue is the validity of of a song for an award. There are plenty of people who like Seth's work who are not happy about his song being included in the category.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bonny White Hare (trad. arr. Scrump)
From: Folkiedave
Date: 25 Jan 07 - 03:16 PM

Me for example.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bonny White Hare (trad. arr. Scrump)
From: Kevin Sheils
Date: 25 Jan 07 - 07:22 PM

Yes, if Lizzie actually read and understood what was being discussed we might all have a more pleasant experience here on the web (including Lizzie) but sadly I doubt that will actually happen.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bonny White Hare (trad. arr. Scrump)
From: Sorcha
Date: 25 Jan 07 - 11:19 PM

BTW, Lizzie, how's Sam?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bonny White Hare (trad. arr. Scrump)
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Jan 07 - 04:33 AM

Get Seth to wrote a song about the scavengers on Branscombe beach eh !
I expect that would be a traditional song then Lizzie ?

eric

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bonny White Hare (trad. arr. Scrump)
From: Folkiedave
Date: 26 Jan 07 - 04:38 AM

Why not? It deals with a traditional subject.

As I came down from Middlesborough
To get a BMWoroguh
To steal and rob and take things that are not mine
And litter a National Heritage Coast
Near to where a famous folk festival is held

I think I will give up songwriting and leave it to Seth. He's good at it.......

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bonny White Hare (trad. arr. Scrump)
From: GUEST,old git
Date: 26 Jan 07 - 05:38 AM

nice to see lizzie has lost none of her tact ,diplomacy and unbiased assessment of the topic under discussion

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bonny White Hare (trad. arr. Scrump)
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 26 Jan 07 - 06:44 AM

She's left the building...since she realised how many containers of cosmetics have washed up, she's too busy combing the beach for sparkly face glitter and Age Renew foundation.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bonny White Hare (trad. arr. Scrump)
From: GUEST,squeezeboxhp
Date: 27 Jan 07 - 01:07 PM

the parody was brilliant and does fit the wild rover tune heaven forbid. but villikins and his dinha is good too

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bonny White Hare (trad. arr. Scrump)
From: Folkiedave
Date: 27 Jan 07 - 01:37 PM

Why Ruth, that is very harsh.

Fair, but harsh......

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bonny White Hare (trad. arr. Scrump)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 27 Jan 07 - 02:43 PM

Enjoyed "Bonny White Hare."
More digression
Salvage has been a traditional coastal occupation since time immemorable ial? (sp?); songs need to be composed about this latest wreck.

These were commercial containers, no used personal nappies (diapers) involved.

Shots of the barrels of wine being corraled made me want to book a flight and join in the fun.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bonny White Hare (trad. arr. Scrump)
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 28 Jan 07 - 07:24 AM

Q, there have been a few news reports of people who were emigrating, whose whole lives were in a couple of those containers. And they watched in horror on TV as their personal possessions were plundered. It would be like watching someone rob your house.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bonny White Hare (trad. arr. Scrump)
From: Folkiedave
Date: 28 Jan 07 - 06:18 PM

Can we just get it clear - these were not locals doing a bit of beach combing. The locals were having their gardens trampled over by people from all over GB who came to steal. Two blokes from Middlesbrough came to steal motor bikes.

Hardly traditional. But even if it was then is shouldn't have been allowed. Bull-baiting and dog-fighting are traditional. Doesn't mean to say we should be in favour of them nowadays.

That last word was there to indicate I am not condemning those who did it long ago when social circumstances were different.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Bonny White Hare (trad. arr. Scrump)
From: Scrump
Date: 30 Jan 07 - 06:56 AM

Well, I've written a tune for it now. Not sure how I can write it down as I don't know ABC notation. As befits a traditional song like this one, the tune's similar to a lot of other tunes, but I hope not quite the same as any of them. (But knowing my luck, there will be some b*gg*r who recognises it as a tune I hadn't heard, and say I copied it from a "real" traditional tune.)