Lyr Add: Schoolday's Over (Ewan MacColl)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Schoolday's Over (Ewan MacColl)
From: Scrump
Date: 28 Feb 07 - 08:56 AM

I've found the info on allmusic.com is riddled with errors, especially for folk artists. I've found some real howlers on it - best not to take anything you read on it as gospel, and cross-check elsewhere.

(I can't think of any examples right now, but if I remember I'll post here).

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Schoolday's Over (Ewan MacColl)
From: GUEST
Date: 28 Feb 07 - 08:52 AM

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Schoolday's Over (Ewan MacColl)
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 11 Aug 06 - 04:12 AM

I doesn't matter what allmusic calls it, Ewan MacColl called it ' Schooldays End ' he should know, he wrote it, check with ' The Essential Ewan MacColl Songbook ' edited Peggy Seeger, Oak Publications.

eric

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Schooldays Over (Ewan MacColl)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 28 Feb 05 - 11:39 PM

According to allmusic, the title is given as SCHOOLDAY'S OVER, COME ON THEN, JOHN on the album "The Big Hewer," 1959.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Schooldays Over (Ewan MacColl)
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 27 Feb 05 - 12:03 AM

MacColl definitely sang "sark" (shirt).

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Schooldays Over (Ewan MacColl)
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 26 Feb 05 - 05:18 AM

Incidently it's ' School Days End '

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Schooldays Over (Ewan MacColl)
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 26 Feb 05 - 05:17 AM

The Essential Ewan MacColl Songbook [ Peggy Seeger ] gives ' sark ;
sack makes no sense.

eric

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Schooldays Over (Ewan MacColl)
From: John Routledge
Date: 25 Feb 05 - 08:55 PM

For historic background - Sark is north of the border for shirt. Shirt in Geordie is often pronounced short. Hence the folk process.

The "Geordie" verse is no 1
The "Scots" verse is 2
The "Welsh" verse is 3

The song is in the best 5% of MacColl's 300+ output and in this context my semantics are pretty unimportant :0)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Schooldays Over (Ewan MacColl)
From: BrujaHa
Date: 25 Feb 05 - 07:41 PM

Hi all -

I also wrote a new verse for this song, to help make the miners' lot poignantly contemporary for young folks:

Come on then, Kim, it's almost dark -
Time you were off to the Wal-Mart.
Time you were pushing the sweatshop clothing,
You start on swing shift today
Time you were learning a retail job,
And earning minimum wage.

(Tina Fields)

Subject: RE: Schooldays over - Paul M
From: IanC
Date: 21 Oct 01 - 01:37 PM

Just listened to the original Radio Ballads version of this again, and noticed that Louis Killen, who sings it on this, is saying "on with your SHIRT".

Since it was originally written for The Radio Ballads, I'd suggest this was the definitive version, and perhaps it should be corrected in DT.

Cheers!
Ian

Subject: RE: Schooldays over - Paul M
From: Ian
Date: 29 Mar 99 - 06:51 AM

Well, it's "sack" as we sing it. It's probably part of the folk process but I'm not sure. Geordies don't use "Sark" (I'm not sure who does since 1066) but McColl's Scottish accent makes "sack" sound a bit like that, so listen for yourself and see. Before they could afford a shirt, colliers did wear sacking to keep them warm. They quite often couldn't afford a shirt either - note, for example, the verse from "Byker Hill"

When first to this pit, I came I had no shirt unto my name Now I've got me 2 or 3 The Walker Pit's done well for me

I personally like what the folk process does to songs anyway and wouldn't want to sing it "correctly"

Cheers! Ian

Subject: RE: Schooldays over - Paul M
From: bigJ
Date: 27 Mar 99 - 05:22 PM

Ian, in the first verse it's 'sark' (shirt), not sack, (or was that just a misprint).

Subject: RE: Schooldays over - Paul M
From:
Date: 25 Mar 99 - 03:45 AM

[1966:] Also from a radio documentary by Ewan MacColl, 'The Big Hewer'. The inevitable end-point of a boy growing up in a mining village was to go down the local pit. Ewan manages to express something here of the accepted, because inevitable, symbol of manhood. (Norman Buchan, notes 'The Fisher Family')
As far as I can make out the words Ian sent are the ones sung by Dick Gaughan. Thanks, Ian! - Susanne

Subject: Lyr Add: SCHOOLDAYS OVER (Ewan MacColl)
From: Ian
Date: 24 Mar 99 - 03:46 AM

Paul - Schooldays Over, Ewan MacColl.

At last I've got round to writing it down. This is the version we sing, though it's probably part of the way into the folk process!

Schooldays over, come on then John
Time you were getting your pitboots on
On with your sack and moleskin trousers
Time you were on your way
Time you were learning a pitman's job
And earning a pitman's pay

Come on then Jim, it's time to go
Time you were working down below
Time you were handling a pick and shovel
You start at the pit today
Time you were learning a collier's job
And earning a collier's pay

Come on then Dai, it's nearly light
Time you were cutting the anthracite
The morning mist is in the valley
It's time you were on your way
Time you were learning a miner's job
And earning a miner's pay

If you don't know Britain, the verses use words from different mining communities around the UK.

In the recession of the early '90s and while pits were being closed everywhere, we sang an extra verse:

Schooldays over, come on then Rob
Time you were getting a steady job
The dole queue's stretching around the corner
Time you were on your way
Time you were learning some kind of job
And earning some sort of pay