18 Jan 10 - 10:31 AM (#2814929) Subject: Chord Req: Mad Tom of Bedlam From: GUEST,DonMeixner Hi All, I'd like to know who uses what chords with this song. This is not so much a request for chords as a wonder as to how many ways is this song played. I have never been happy with the chords I have found. They always seemed like they were missing in the melody. Probably I have the melody a little off bubble. But this week I found some that work for me and my melody. However, being the average folk type with a 70% hearing loss and reattached fingers I'm sure others have had the same issue with this and other songs. Thanks Don |
18 Jan 10 - 02:50 PM (#2815122) Subject: RE: Chord Req: Mad Tom of Bedlam From: Jack Blandiver Well, there's two tunes - the original from Pills to Purge Melancholy quite possibly by Purcell, & the more common tune, quite possibly by Nic Jones. Here's the original sung by Catharine Bott: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5saIajZ-jg |
18 Jan 10 - 04:16 PM (#2815213) Subject: RE: Chord Req: Mad Tom of Bedlam From: growler Try playing it in Am, C, G E. it works |
18 Jan 10 - 04:23 PM (#2815222) Subject: RE: Chord Req: Mad Tom of Bedlam From: DonMeixner Thanks Growler, that is the direction I took only I have added an "F" and made the "E" an "E7". Typical square edged Folk Thinking I suppose but it suits my sense of the melody. Thyank you Suibhne, I have never heard of Catherine Bott and I can hear I am missing a talent. Don |
19 Jan 10 - 03:24 PM (#2816164) Subject: RE: Chord Req: Mad Tom of Bedlam From: Jack Blandiver A talent she surely is - and my favourite ever Dido besides: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ar9xgnGYhXQ |
19 Jan 10 - 05:08 PM (#2816247) Subject: RE: Chord Req: Mad Tom of Bedlam From: Phil Cooper I've just used Em and D and not felt any chords were missing. |
20 Jan 10 - 02:52 AM (#2816529) Subject: RE: Chord Req: Mad Tom of Bedlam From: LesB I've always used Dm C in dropped D tuning. Cheers Les |
20 Jan 10 - 03:15 AM (#2816532) Subject: Lyr Add: MAD MAUDLIN (from D'Urfey) From: Joe Offer I don't see the lyrics posted - I found them at http://www.shipbrook.com/jeff/ballads/maudlin.html Mad MAUDLIN, To find out TOM of BEDLAM. (Pills to purge Melancholy, iv. 192)
The original words of this ballad were published in Wit and Drollery (1656), indicated as being "to the tune of Tom of Bedlam". This version, an altered form, appeared in D'Urfey's Pills to purge Melancholy (1701). |
20 Jan 10 - 03:57 AM (#2816538) Subject: RE: Chord Req: Mad Tom of Bedlam From: Jack Blandiver Top version here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Og-D0J2a1g Shame she didn't use the proper tune. I urge you guys to seek it out & use it - as I did HERE (track #10). |
20 Jan 10 - 05:58 AM (#2816592) Subject: RE: Chord Req: Mad Tom of Bedlam From: John MacKenzie My favourite version, sung by my friend Siobhan Miller, here |
20 Jan 10 - 06:06 AM (#2816600) Subject: RE: Chord Req: Mad Tom of Bedlam From: HipflaskAndy The 'modern' tune that most folk seem to use - as listed incorrectly (originally) as 'Trad' on Steeleye Span's 'Please to See The King) is actually 'mostly the work of the Halliard's Dave Moran with some small input from Nic' - to quote Julia Jones (from when I enquired, wanting the correct credit - my CD version had also been erroneously credited, having taken the Steeleye LP as gospel - doh!) Two chords can see you through it all, no bother. I use Dm and C But there's all manner you can chuck in if you like! Cheers - Duncan McF |
20 Jan 10 - 06:29 AM (#2816613) Subject: RE: Chord Req: Mad Tom of Bedlam From: GUEST,JohnMc The first section repeats Bm D A then Bm A Bm before chorus Ch Bm A G A replacing A with F"m second time and ending Bm F"m Bm All to be found in THE HALLIARD broadside songs MOLLIE MUSIC CD accom |
20 Jan 10 - 10:39 AM (#2816694) Subject: RE: Chord Req: Mad Tom of Bedlam From: Jack Blandiver Happily the song exists in The Digital Tradition HERE in its more proper form - words, tune & all. Cracking stuff with a wholesome provenance to boot... |
20 Jan 10 - 07:47 PM (#2817170) Subject: RE: Chord Req: Mad Tom of Bedlam From: Richard Bridge That Midi file is not playing right for me but sounds as if it might be a harmony to the usual tune. Jacqui and Royston used to play that but I never got it quite right. Maybe I should give it a go. |
20 Jan 10 - 11:07 PM (#2817285) Subject: RE: Chord Req: Mad Tom of Bedlam From: GUEST,DonMeixner My thanks to everyone. Don |
21 Jan 10 - 05:13 AM (#2817376) Subject: RE: Chord Req: Mad Tom of Bedlam From: Jack Blandiver That Midi file is not playing right for me but sounds as if it might be a harmony to the usual tune. Do persevere, Richard - if not, you can hear Catharine Bott singing it on YouTube (linked above somewhere). Not a harmony to the usual tune, which it pre-dates by some 300 years at least! |
22 Jan 10 - 04:13 AM (#2818267) Subject: Lyr Add: BEDLAM CATS (Cynthia McQuillin) From: Nigel Parsons Copied from This Site Bedlam Cats Cynthia McQuillin Parody of traditional "Bedlam Boys" Saw my tom a groomin' all on a' winters ev'nin' So much hair had he swallowed there And soon he was a' heavin' Refrain: Still I sing bonny cats. Bonny mad cats Bedlam cats are Bonny For they leap in the air and they haven't a care And they sleep upon your tummy I went downstairs to my kitchen For to get them food one morning But I nearly tripped and I sprained my hip As around me they were swarmin' Refrain With a host of furious tabbies Where of I am commander With shots and pills to cure their ills To the vet's office I wander Refrain Now I must lock my closet Whenever I would travel For they kneed their toes upon my cloths All my sweaters they unravel Refrain At night like hosts of cattle All across my room stampeding With a thund'rous tread that would wake the dead In their battles all unheeding Refrain Cheers Nigel |
22 Jan 10 - 11:15 AM (#2818569) Subject: RE: Chord Req: Mad Tom of Bedlam From: Nigel Parsons HipflakAndy said: Two chords can see you through it all, no bother. I use Dm and C But there's all manner you can chuck in if you like! Should this be: "Two chords can see you easily, D minor, C, no bother. But if your play goes oft astray, You may use any other...." Cheers |
08 Jan 17 - 07:33 PM (#3831271) Subject: RE: Chord Req: Mad Tom of Bedlam From: Nigel Parsons Six years past, I may not have made it clear that I was aiming for the same rhyme scheme and scansion. |
09 Jan 17 - 05:43 AM (#3831348) Subject: RE: Chord Req: Mad Tom of Bedlam From: GUEST,henryp Dave Moran wrote; "Nic [Jones] and I and mandolin/guitar player Nigel Patterson made up the Halliard. We were looking to develop some new music and we took the advice of song-writer Leslie Shepard. We decided to add tunes to Broadsides that we discovered, uncovered or collected – we checked out the Harkness Collection at Preston and the collections in Manchester etc. We also used Ashton's Street Ballads and Victorian Street Ballads (Henderson) and on a couple of occasions we dipped into Thomas D'Urfey's Pills to Purge Melancholy; that is where we found Mad Maudlin (Tom of Bedlam or the Boys of Bedlam). Nic and I wrote all the tunes together, usually sitting in the front of the Mini and singing and working out tunes as we drove – as the mandolin was the smallest instrument and Nigel was in the back, he always played the tunes. 'Jones and Moran' wrote a heap of songs like this including Lancashire Lads, Going for a Soldier Jenny, Miles Weatherhill, Calico Printer's Clerk etc. We wrote the tunes to fit the words and sometimes added or altered words, as in The Workhouse Boy. So Nic and I wrote the tune to D'Urfeys words of Mad Maudlin – audiences were confused and stunned – it was very surreal... We did a booking in the Midlands and an unaccompanied foursome called the Farriers loved the song and asked if they could sing it unaccompanied. We said, Sure – they were very good, a bit like the Young Tradition. I believe that is how it got into the mainstream." |