Peter Bellamy and Rudyard Kipling

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Peter Bellamy and Rudyard Kipling

15 Nov 07 - 05:34 AM (#2194220)
Subject: Pete Bellamy and Rudyard Kipling
From: folk_radio_uk

Hi there

Something you may be able to help with, a member of my forum on Folk Radio UK asked about Pete Bellamy's campaign to record and publish lots of Kipling's poetry in song form. This is going back a bit. I don't know anything about it, do any of yu know whether it actually happened?

Thanks

Alex

15 Nov 07 - 05:45 AM (#2194224)
Subject: RE: Pete Bellamy and Rudyard Kipling
From: Les in Chorlton

Yes lots. Off the top of my head Oak, Ash and Thorn and Barrack Room Ballads were excellent

15 Nov 07 - 05:57 AM (#2194227)
Subject: RE: Pete Bellamy and Rudyard Kipling
From: Les in Chorlton

http://www.google.co.uk/products?hl=en&q=Bellamy+sings+Kipling&cr=countryUK%7CcountryGB&um=1&ie=UTF-8

http://www.google.co.uk/products?hl=en&q=Bellamy+sings+Kipling&cr=countryUK%7CcountryGB&um=1&ie=UTF-8

15 Nov 07 - 06:14 AM (#2194236)
Subject: RE: Pete Bellamy and Rudyard Kipling
From: r.padgett

"Widow's Uniform" CD from memory had Peter's arrangements

Ray

15 Nov 07 - 06:51 AM (#2194254)
Subject: RE: Pete Bellamy and Rudyard Kipling
From: folk_radio_uk

That's the one Les, thanks so much. She'll be chuffed with this.

Alex

15 Nov 07 - 08:25 AM (#2194305)
Subject: RE: Pete Bellamy and Rudyard Kipling
From: Jack Blandiver

Mr Bellamy, Mr Kipling and the Tradition

...which is only the one available on CD (!!) - this is a double set on Fellside which includes Peter Bellamy's 'Keep on Kipling' and 'Songs and Rummy Conjurin' Tricks' albums, plus lots of extras. The first disk is a studio album, exclusively Kipling (including My Boy Jack, The Land, A Pilgrims Way & reworkings of some of the earlier songs from Oak Ash & Thorn etc), and the second disk is a superlative live set with a mix of Kipling (Cholera Camp) and traditional Songs.

For the record Bellamy released (I think) six Kipling albums:

Oak, Ash and Thorn
Merlin's Isle of Gramarye
Barrack Room Ballads
Keep on Kipling
Soldiers Three
Mr Kipling Made Exceedingy Good Songs

For further details see: Peter Bellamy - A Celebration

15 Nov 07 - 09:24 AM (#2194343)
Subject: RE: Pete Bellamy and Rudyard Kipling
From: folk_radio_uk

Thanks for those links Sedayne

15 Nov 07 - 09:59 AM (#2194370)
Subject: Lyr Add: BIG STEAMERS (Rudyard Kipling)
From: the button

The version of "Big Steamers" on that live CD is one of his best performances, I reckon. Must be one of my most-played discs in recent months.

Lyrics added by Joe Offer:

BIG STEAMERS
(Rudyard Kipling)

"OH, where are you going to, all you Big Steamers,
With England's own coal, up and down the salt seas? "
"We are going to fetch you your bread and your butter,
Your beef, pork, and mutton, eggs, apples, and cheese."

"And where will you fetch it from, all you Big Steamers,
And where shall I write you when you are away? "
"We fetch it from Melbourne, Quebec, and Vancouver.
Address us at Hobart, Hong-kong, and Bombay."

"But if anything happened to all you Big Steamers,
And suppose you were wrecked up and down the salt sea?"
"Why, you'd have no coffee or bacon for breakfast,
And you'd have no muffins or toast for your tea."

"Then I'll pray for fine weather for all you Big Steamers
For little blue billows and breezes so soft."
"Oh, billows and breezes don't bother Big Steamers:
We're iron below and steel-rigging aloft."

"Then I'll build a new lighthouse for all you Big Steamers,
With plenty wise pilots to pilot you through."
"Oh, the Channel's as bright as a ball-room already,
And pilots are thicker than pilchards at Looe."

"Then what can I do for you, all you Big Steamers,
Oh, what can I do for your comfort and good?"
"Send out your big warships to watch your big waters,
That no one may stop us from bringing you food."

For the bread that you eat and the biscuits you nibble,
The sweets that you suck and the joints that you carve,
They are brought to you daily by All Us Big Steamers
And if anyone hinders our coming you'll starve!"

Source: http://www.kipling.org.uk

15 Nov 07 - 04:04 PM (#2194702)
Subject: RE: Pete Bellamy and Rudyard Kipling
From: Desert Dancer

In the U.S., many were recorded by English ex-pats John Roberts & Tony Barrand on "Naulakha Redux". See Golden Hind Music.

~ Becky in Tucson

15 Nov 07 - 09:27 PM (#2194982)
Subject: RE: Pete Bellamy and Rudyard Kipling
From: topical tom

I think this song belongs in this category. I find it a particularly delightful one.http://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/folk-song-lyrics/Present_From_the_Gentlemen.htm

Sorry! I haven't mastered the blue clicky yet!

16 Nov 07 - 04:03 AM (#2195106)
Subject: RE: Pete Bellamy and Rudyard Kipling
From: Jack Blandiver

Here's a clicky for that link:

Present from the Gentlemen

Yes indeed, this is Kipling, though bafflingly uncredited, and mistitled! This is, of course, A Smuggler's Song , from Puck of Pooks Hill and set by Peter Bellamy on his 1972 album Merlin's Isle of Gramarye (availability Status : Hen's Teeth).

16 Nov 07 - 04:32 AM (#2195119)
Subject: RE: Pete Bellamy and Rudyard Kipling
From: Malcolm Douglas

That page was copied directly (though without attribution) from an earlier iteration of the DT; as is a great deal of the material at that site.

The DT file: A Present from the Gentlemen now includes better credits, though the title is still wrong.

16 Nov 07 - 09:00 AM (#2195246)
Subject: RE: Pete Bellamy and Rudyard Kipling
From: Jack Blandiver

Methinks a petition to DT to correct the title is in order; and maybe advise caution on the 'chorus' directions...

10 Feb 11 - 12:03 AM (#3092227)
Subject: ADD: The Beginning of the Armadilloes (Kipling)
From: Joe Offer

Jon Boden calls this song "Rolling Down to Rio," and has it as the song for February 10 in his A Folk Song a Day project. Are these the complete and correct lyrics?

The Mudcat Café ^TM

Tom-

Possibly! At least the inspiration for this lovely poem:

The Beginning of the Armadilloes
By Rudyard Kipling

I've never sailed the Amazon,
I've never reached Brazil;
But the Don and Magdalena,
They can go there when they will!

Yes, weekly from Southampton
Great steamers, white and gold,
Go rolling down to Rio
(Roll down—roll down to Rio!).
And I'd like to roll to Rio
Some day before I'm old!

I've never seen a Jaguar,
Nor yet an Armadill—
He's dilloing in his armour,
And I s'pose I never will,

Unless I go to Rio
These wonders to behold—
Roll down—roll down to Rio—
Roll really down to Rio!
Oh, I'd love to roll to Rio
Some day before I'm old!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Reinhard's transcription is here (click)

10 Feb 11 - 01:54 AM (#3092236)
Subject: RE: Pete Bellamy and Rudyard Kipling
From: doc.tom

I think you'll find the verse goes:

I've never seen a Jaguar,
Nor yet an Armadill—
O dilloing in his armour,
And I s'pose I never will,

Otherwise it loses it's point!

10 Feb 11 - 02:32 AM (#3092241)
Subject: RE: Pete Bellamy and Rudyard Kipling
From: Artful Codger

In Kipling's book, the poem is untitled—it just closes the story "The Beginning of the Armadilloes" (and isn't the only poetry therein). Bellamy titled the song "Roll Down to Rio" on Keep on Kipling; I'm not sure why Boden added the -ing.

10 Feb 11 - 03:40 AM (#3092269)
Subject: RE: Pete Bellamy and Rudyard Kipling
From: InOBU

If I remember correctly, isn't ... oh what's the proper name, Sir Richard's Ballad?... Kipling? ( and all you wags out there saying, "Dunno, I've never kippled..." - beat ya to it... "
Lovely song anyway...

I followed my Duke, ere I was a lover
to take from England, both feif and fee...

All the best
Lor

10 Feb 11 - 04:00 AM (#3092277)
Subject: RE: Pete Bellamy and Rudyard Kipling
From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray

Sir Richard's Song indeed. Look out for a cracking version from Trembling Bells on the new Oak Ash & Thorn CD (reviewed in current fRoots I believe). Crow Sister sings this beautifully too.

*

Out of another age, Rolling Down to Rio as sung by Peter Dawson:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kp4g-qt0TgU

*

For the bread that you eat and the biscuits you nibble,
The sweets that you suck and the joints that you carve

Legend has it that PB routinely rendered this as joints that you roll...

10 Feb 11 - 08:41 AM (#3092409)
Subject: RE: Pete Bellamy and Rudyard Kipling
From: Charley Noble

Doc Tom-

Quite correct on that verse, correlated with what I have in my literary reference. I'm not sure where I found that other version on the internet.

"Roll really down to Rio!" is a line almost impossible to sing. We generally substitute "Roll down—roll down to Rio!" from the above verse.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

22 Apr 24 - 05:24 PM (#4201428)
Subject: ADD: Pilgrim's Way (Rudyard Kipling)
From: Joe Offer

Thread #16140 Message #148840
Posted By: Jeri
13-Dec-99 - 02:02 PM
Thread Name: Apologies . .
Subject: ADD: A Pilgrim's Way (Kipling)

There is a song Cockersdale sing. (Magnificently) The words are by Rudyard Kipling, tune by Peter Bellamy. I got the words from Poet's Corner

A Pilgrim's Way

I DO not look for holy saints to guide me on my way,
Or male and female devilkins to lead my feet astray.
If these are added, I rejoice---if not, I shall not mind,
So long as I have leave and choice to meet my fellow-kind.
For as we come and as we go (and deadly-soon go we!)
The people, Lord, Thy people, are good enough for me!

Thus I will honour pious men whose virtue shines so bright
(Though none are more amazed than I when I by chance do right),
And I will pity foolish men for woe their sins have bred
(Though ninety-nine per cent. of mine I brought on my own head).
And, Amorite or Eremite, or General Averagee,
The people, Lord, Thy people, are good enough for me!

And when they bore me overmuch, I will not shake mine ears,
Recalling many thousand such whom I have bored to tears.
And when they labour to impress, I will not doubt nor scoff;
Since I myself have done no less and---sometimes pulled it off.
Yea, as we are and we are not, and we pretend to be,
The people, Lord, Thy people, are good enough for me!

And when they work me random wrong, as oftentimes hath been,
I will not cherish hate too long (my hands are none too clean).
And when they do me random good I will not feign surprise.
No more than those whom I have cheered with wayside charities.
But, as we give and as we take---whate'er our takings be---
The people, Lord, Thy people, are good enough for me!

But when I meet with frantic folk who sinfully declare
There is no pardon for their sin, the same I will not spare
Till I have proved that Heaven and Hell which in our hearts we have
Show nothing irredeemable on either side of the grave.
For as we live and as we die---if utter Death there be---
The people, Lord, Thy people, are good enough for me!

Deliver me from every pride---the Middle, High, and Low---
That bars me from a brother's side, whatever pride he show.
And purge me from all heresies of thought and speech and pen
That bid me judge him otherwise than I am judged. Amen!
That I may sing of Crowd or King or road-borne company,
That I may labour in my day, vocation and degree,
To prove the same in deed and name, and hold unshakenly
(Where'er I go, whate'er I know, whoe'er my neighbor be)
This single faith in Life and Death and to Eternity:
``The people, Lord, Thy people, are good enough for me!''
Rudyard Kipling

26 Apr 24 - 12:13 PM (#4201652)
Subject: RE: Peter Bellamy and Rudyard Kipling
From: GUEST,sortaottery

My latest earworm is Bellamy's setting of Gethsemane. I'm working in a strongly and stupidly hierarchical organisation, and a couple of lines make me smile:

The officer sat on the chair,
The men lay on the grass,
And all the time we halted there
I prayed my cup might pass.

I can always comfort myself that whatever blödsinn does happen (which will be bureaucratic, office political, and of a nature involving no bloodsports at all), it will count as nothing in comparison to Picardy 1915.