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16 Mar 12 - 11:37 AM (#3323677) Subject: Lyr Req: Beauitful song sung by Chieftains From: lefthanded guitar The other night the Chieftains , along with The Low Anthem, a young folk/rock group, performed a beautiful song, that gave me goosebumps, on the Letterman show (who still has the best music venue on tv I've EVER heard anywheres) It sounds traditional, but I don't know it: First verse (not exact words) go Schoolday's over C'mon then John Time to be getting your pit boots on On with your sark and oilskin trousers Time to be on your way Time to be learning the pitman's job Earning the pit man's pay. Very haunting song- I would like to learn it to sing at a Irish song themed jam I'm going to- does anyone know title and chords? Thanks. |
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16 Mar 12 - 11:43 AM (#3323688) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Beauitful song sung by Chieftains From: GUEST Schooldays Over Schooldays over, come on then John Time to be getting your pit boots on On with your sack and your moleskin trousers Time you were on your way Time you were learning the 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 to be handling a pick and shovel You start at the pits today Time to be learning the collier's job And earning a collier's pay. Come on then Dai, it's nearly light Time you were off to the anthracite The morning mist is on the valley It's time you were on your way Time you were learning the miner's job And earning a miner's pay |
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16 Mar 12 - 11:45 AM (#3323691) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Beauitful song sung by Chieftains From: GUEST,Peter Laban Sorry, that was me. Not an Irish song, one of Ewan McColl's. |
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16 Mar 12 - 11:56 AM (#3323697) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Beauitful song sung by Chieftains From: Owen Woodson It's from the BBC radio ballad, The Big Hewer. |
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16 Mar 12 - 12:41 PM (#3323724) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Beauitful song sung by Chieftains From: lefthanded guitar Thanks, Peter (and Owen). Ewan MacColl must be one of the greatest underrated songwriters. Now the question is: Ewan, born in England to Scottish parents? Can I still sing that song at an Irish music jam? ;) |
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16 Mar 12 - 01:46 PM (#3323752) Subject: RE: Schooldays Over - sung by Chieftains From: GUEST,kenny I first heard it sung by the London / Irish group "The Peelers", so if it was good enough for them.............why not? And McColl's origins certainly never stopped any number of Irish singers singing "Dirty Old Town". |
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16 Mar 12 - 01:52 PM (#3323755) Subject: RE: Schooldays Over - sung by Chieftains From: GUEST,Peter Laban Ah no, ofcourse not, Luke Kelly, Damien Dempsey, Mary Black, they all sing (or sang) Schooldays over. I was just saying it's not intrinsically an Irish song. not too many songs about miners here (maybe a few around Arigna but it's not a big subject in Ireland). |
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16 Mar 12 - 01:56 PM (#3323757) Subject: RE: Schooldays Over - sung by Chieftains From: Owen Woodson "Now the question is: Ewan, born in England to Scottish parents? Can I still sing that song at an Irish music jam? ;)" Why not? I wish I had a fiver for every song that MacColl either wrote or popularised which ended up being thought of as "of Irish origin". |
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16 Mar 12 - 02:30 PM (#3323777) Subject: RE: Schooldays Over - sung by Chieftains From: MGM·Lion No reason to think of this one as in any way Irish, though. The three stanzas are set respectively in the Tyneside, Notts/Derby, and S Wales coalfields, where the boy is told respectively to prepare himself , in local dialect nomenclature, for life as a 'pitman', a 'collier', and a 'miner'. A wonderfully succinct summary of regional similarities and differences. A most accomplished piece of verse, in fact; and with a wonderful tune. So I think it could surely be sung, and appreciated, anywhere, just for its intrinsic quality. ~Michael~ |
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16 Mar 12 - 03:37 PM (#3323811) Subject: RE: Schooldays Over - sung by Chieftains From: Dave Hanson From the Radio Ballad ' The Big Hewer ' properly called ' Schooldays End ' Dave H |
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17 Mar 12 - 06:14 AM (#3324022) Subject: RE: Schooldays Over - sung by Chieftains From: Mark Dowding I note that Peter has corrected "oilskin trousers" to "moleskin trousers" which is fine but is the word "sark"(meaning shirt)as posted by Lefthanded guitar correct rather than "sack"? A lovely song - I sing it along with "The Little Piecer" and "First day at t' Mill" as one song with some guitar twiddle between each song. A nice trio about children starting work in an industrial environment. Not done it for a while so I must revive it in my repertoire. Cheers Mark |
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17 Mar 12 - 03:53 PM (#3324256) Subject: RE: Schooldays Over - sung by Chieftains From: Anglo "Why did the chicken cross the road?"' "To record with the Chieftains." |
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17 Mar 12 - 05:36 PM (#3324302) Subject: RE: Schooldays Over - sung by Chieftains From: Gibb Sahib MtheGM-- Great post! |
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17 Mar 12 - 06:50 PM (#3324329) Subject: RE: Schooldays Over - sung by Chieftains From: Ross Campbell What MtheGM said. When I was at school we used to be informed that Ireland had few natural resources - no coal, no iron, just peat in the middle and barren mountains on the outside. Only when I started listening to Radio Eireann in the seventies (even the regular music programmes would carry the occasional folk or traditional song) did I begin to hear about active coal mines, silver mines, gold mines and more. These were still pretty peripheral to the economy, and never on the scale that created whole communities serving the mines as occurred in the UK and elsewhere, but they did exist. As Michael suggests, there was time enough in the life of the mining industry in the various regions of Britain for distinct language and customs to develop around similar trades and activities. It's a great song, sing it by all means, but don't sell yourself or your audience short by telling them it's Irish. Ross |
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17 Mar 12 - 07:24 PM (#3324345) Subject: RE: Schooldays Over - sung by Chieftains From: Little Robyn Ray and Archie Fisher used to sing it too. Lovely. Robyn |
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01 Apr 15 - 03:05 PM (#3698921) Subject: RE: Schooldays Over - sung by Chieftains From: GUEST,Rab Raeburn Living in what used to be a mining town in Central Scotland I learned this song by listening to Dick Gaughan's version Rab R |
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01 Apr 15 - 03:53 PM (#3698935) Subject: RE: Schooldays Over - sung by Chieftains From: Steve Shaw Luke for me. |
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02 Apr 15 - 02:51 PM (#3699107) Subject: RE: Schooldays Over - sung by Chieftains From: GUEST,Jim Younger The tune Tom Madden used to sing with the Peelers wasn't exactly MacColl's tune - fewer notes, less heroic maybe, but more wistful to my ear. |
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02 Apr 15 - 07:54 PM (#3699171) Subject: RE: Schooldays Over - sung by Chieftains From: GUEST,Guest jr If I recall correctly the title is Schooldays End. |
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03 Apr 15 - 02:36 AM (#3699216) Subject: RE: Schooldays Over - sung by Chieftains From: Dave Hanson Guest jr. I refer you to my earlier post. Dave H |
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03 Apr 15 - 03:53 AM (#3699231) Subject: RE: Schooldays Over - sung by Chieftains From: MGM·Lion Luke Kelly, Mary Black & the Chieftains, and other artistes who have recorded the song, use title "Schooldays Over". Many others call it "Schooldays End". Both titles seem to be viable, and perfectly identifiable. "Schoolday's Over, Come on Then, John..." is the title that appears in online list of "Ewan MacColl Lyrics" by "Lyrics.com" (but this seems imperfect -- what is the precise use of the apostrophe here?). It would seem, in sum, that there is no consensus as to which of these two alternatives constitutes the definitive title; but little or no difficulty or confusion will surely be caused by the use of either. ≈M≈ |
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03 Apr 15 - 04:26 AM (#3699236) Subject: RE: Schooldays Over - sung by Chieftains From: Jim Carroll The 'Essential Ewan MacColl Songbook'(edited by Peggy) gives the title as 'Schooldays End' - 'Schooldays Over' in the index directs "see 'Schooldays End'"; the earlier, 'Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger Songbook' also uses 'Schooldays End'. Surely the most powerful singing of the song was that of Louis Killen, Ian Campbell and (I think) Bob Davenport on the Radio Ballad, 'The Big Hewer' where it was interspersed between each verse with miners talking about their first day down the pit - that, for me, underlines the genius of this, and many of MacColl's songs. Jim Carroll |
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03 Apr 15 - 04:29 AM (#3699237) Subject: RE: Schooldays Over - sung by Chieftains From: GUEST,jim bainbridge Re Ireland having no natural (mineral) resources- as someone else said, the Arigna area of North Roscommon /Leitrim had a thriving small-scale coal industry- drift mines rather than deep mines. Thereis still a tourist attraction in Arigna called the Mining Experience' and one of Irish music's greatest ever flute players, John McKenna worked at the Arigna mines before heading off to fame in New York. also. what about... 'And in Kilkenny it is reported There's marble stones there as black as ink' (from 'Carrickfergus'- a very old song)- any local knowledge? |
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03 Apr 15 - 10:19 AM (#3699328) Subject: RE: Schooldays Over - sung by Chieftains From: Richard Mellish A while back MGM·Lion (in his previous existence as MtheGM) said > The three stanzas are set respectively in the Tyneside, Notts/Derby, and S Wales coalfields, where the boy is told respectively to prepare himself , in local dialect nomenclature, for life as a 'pitman', a 'collier', and a 'miner'. I have assumed the middle one to be Scotland. But whichever it is, McColl's choice of the respective terms (as well as Dai going specifically for the anthracite) are icing on the cake of his songwriting BUT not always respected by later singers. |
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03 Apr 15 - 11:56 AM (#3699347) Subject: RE: Schooldays Over - sung by Chieftains From: Jim Carroll Am I issing something here? I hadn't heard 'The Chieftains!!' version of Scooldays Over, so I Googled it. What I got was a quite nice choral piece followed by a fairly dire Gene-Autrey- soundalike rendition of what I know to be a good powerful song - the pseudo Mid-Atlantic accent really didn't help. Is this what passes for good nowadays? It seems like the older I get, the more the Emperor's new clothes look like bare flesh. Jim Carroll |
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03 Apr 15 - 03:50 PM (#3699407) Subject: RE: Schooldays Over - sung by Chieftains From: BrendanB The choir with which I sing, a men's choir in Northumberland, sing a version of this song arranged by Sandra Kerr, who was very close to Ewan McColl. It is a powerful depiction of what many lads from pit villages could look forward to. It really doesn't need any decoration or prettification. |
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03 Apr 15 - 04:01 PM (#3699410) Subject: RE: Schooldays Over - sung by Chieftains From: MGM·Lion There seem to be more than one online Chieftains version. The one with the young American-sounding man in the beanie hat I take to be the one Jim disliked so much, and it is middling dire indeed. But the one with Mary Black didn't strike me as too terrible. ≈M≈ |
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04 Apr 15 - 01:59 AM (#3699506) Subject: RE: Schooldays Over - sung by Chieftains From: Musket When I started in folk clubs and worked down the pit I never used to sing mining songs. I left that to social workers and cost accountants. However, with this song I made an exception. (OK. I also sang The Recruited Collier.) As I had been listening to my older brother's MacColl records whilst still at school, I started at the pit thinking I knew a few terms and words to describe things. But most of the words weren't ones we used down our pit nor indeed the training centre at Orgreave. Hewer, paddy train, collier... Had to get them out of my head! |