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16 Oct 14 - 12:49 PM (#3669673) Subject: Origins: Ballad of the Five Continents - Bob Pegg From: GUEST,JeffK627 There's a song on the Transatlantic Folk Collection called "The Ballad of the Five Continents" sung by Bob and Carole Pegg. The lyrics are reminiscent of Dylan Thomas's style ("In blue Bristol city at tall-tide I wandered...") and it quotes Charles Causley's poem "Envoi" at the end. Does anyone know the history of this song? There's no information that I can find online, not even on Bob Pegg's website. |
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23 Jan 24 - 02:46 PM (#4196013) Subject: RE: Origins: Ballad of the Five Continents - Bob Pegg From: GUEST That's a very great song. I've been searching for years but alas! Nothing. "on the high harbour lie six shifty daughters their bodies are streets their eyes they are wids Here is the key to their burly bedchamber I have unlocked it I cried. |
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23 Jan 24 - 03:28 PM (#4196014) Subject: RE: Origins: Ballad of the Five Continents - Bob Pegg From: Joe Offer Can somebody post the lyrics? It's on the Transatlantic Folk Box Set [2004] |
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23 Jan 24 - 03:34 PM (#4196016) Subject: RE: Origins: Ballad of the Five Continents - Bob Pegg From: cnd The song was originally included on Transatlantic TRA 126 - Second Wave (1965). It is credited to Causley/Pegg, the former of course being the poet Jeff mentioned above and the latter being Bob and/or Carole Pegg. Discogs also has an "Atterly" attribution slipped in there, but I'm not sure where it's from -- the disc credits and liner notes don't attribute it to him. The album's liner notes (link) say that the song is the poem by Causley set to music by the Peggs. You can read the poem here, in Poems Of The Mid-Century by John Holloway. You can hear the song here. The lyrics match exactly those of the poem, including the verses of Envoi. |
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23 Jan 24 - 03:45 PM (#4196018) Subject: RE: Origins: Ballad of the Five Continents - Bob Pegg From: cnd BALLAD OF THE FIVE CONTINENTS (Words: Charles Causley, music: Bob & Carole Pegg) In blue Bristol city at tall-tide I wandered Down where the sea-masts their signals were shining, I heard a proud seaman on the poop-deck reclining Shout to the stars that about the ship blundered On the high harbour lie six shifty daughters Their bodies are straight, their eyes are wide Here is the key of their burly bedchamber I have unlocked it, I replied. As I went down Water Street beneath the blond sun The trees of cold Christmas screaming with starlings, Sweet screamed the birds as my delicate darlings Scanned at my hand the black-buttered gun Think of the collar my bonny, my beauty Think of the hangman with hands so red Pray, pray that he does his duty I am that hangman, I said. As I walked in Wine Street the silk snow was falling And night in her Asian hair hung her comb, Soft sang the yellow-faced seaman of home The gong and the coconut-fiddle recalling In the vermilion forest the dancer Adorns with gold thorns his holy head Will you not seize his hands, his fingers? I am the dance, I said. In Bread Street in summer we saw the boys hauling The Yankee-white wheat on the bowl of the bay, Between us the sword of the sun where we lay Bloody with poppies, the warm sky our shawling Sly sing the sirens on the coast of Calfornia The oyster-fingered, the easy-eyed, Trial their tune in the gin-wicked palaces The song is mine, I cried. Down by the dockside the green ships groaning Ten-roped writhe on the ragged sea. Blessed are they with the laurel tree Now in the prow stands a saint for the stoning Sound the salt bell on the mound of the ocean Fish for prayer in the pool of the dead When the storm strikes, speak the word on the waters I am that word, I said. Envoi I am the Prince I am the lowly I am the damned I am the holy. My hands are ten knives, I am the dove Whose wings are murder. My name is love. |
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23 Jan 24 - 03:52 PM (#4196019) Subject: RE: Origins: Ballad of the Five Continents - Bob Pegg From: cnd Apologies, the credit Discogs includes (possibly spuriously) is that of Scottish songwriter Alex Atterson, not "Atterley" |
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25 Jan 24 - 03:18 PM (#4196179) Subject: RE: Origins: Ballad of the Five Continents - Bob Pegg From: GUEST Bob and Carol sang it when they were at Leeds Uni in 1964. I heard them perform it when they were main guests at City of Leeds College where I was a student. They also ran the Yorkshire Folk centre club at the Yorkshire Grey Headingley. Maddy Prior sang a floor spot and offered me a ciggie. She was later booked as a solo singer A very Trad club but I recall Colin Wilke and Shirley Hart , Ewan McColl, and Tom Paxton appearing. I was on a soft drink then as I had lectures the folowing morning and was always being locked out of the hall of residence and honing my climbing skills late at night. They also sang Kilgarry Mountain but the Baron of Brackley seemed to crop up on a regular basis A flask back of 60 years¬! breezy |
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27 Jan 24 - 02:19 PM (#4196246) Subject: RE: Origins: Ballad of the Five Continents - Bob Pegg From: GUEST,Bob Pegg Hello folks. Hope I can make a helpful contribution. I came across Charles Causley’s wonderful verses when still at school - Penguin Modern Poets vol. 3, half a crown in 1962. The Ballad of the Five Continents was crying out to be set to music (I also put a tune, not so effectively, to Mother Get Up, Unbar the Door) When Nat Joseph, of Transatlantic Records, offered us three tracks on the Second Wave sampler we contacted CC’s publisher to ask if it would be OK to include the Ballad, and got a ticking off for not having sought permission to set it to music. But CC himself gave us a cheerful thumbs up. Discogs would indeed be referring to the late Alex Atterson, who set several of CC’s poems - including the mighty A Ballad for Katherine of Aragon. Of which there’s a lovely version on YouTube by Martin Simpson, though inexplicably it credits neither Causley nor Atterson. Well remembered - breezy - your memory’s better than mine (though the club we had in Leeds from 1964 onwards was at the Royal Sovereign on Kirkstall Road - long since reduced to rubble). Tom Paxton charged us £30, a fortune back then, but the club was so packed we thought we would just about break even. Until he told us he’d travelled first class rail, and we had to have a whip round to make up the total of fee plus expenses. Good wishes Bob Pegg |
