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01 Apr 00 - 08:56 PM (#205396) Subject: The Newcombe Gauger From: GUEST,Geoff Grainger This song has driven me mad since hearing a Ewan McColl version not so long back. I would love to sing it myself but on the principle of only singing that which I understand, this song has been barred to me for some three months. My questions: a) What is a gauger? (profession?, district Scotland, Northumbria?) b) What is the garb of a gauger? (and while we're at it, what's wrong with being a sailor?) c) Where is "the town of the gaugers?" A recent trip to Yorkshire and untold excursions to reference libraries have brought no relief. Please, please somebody, put me out of my misery, Yours eternally grateful, Geoff |
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01 Apr 00 - 09:10 PM (#205408) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Newcombe Gauger From: Susan of DT A gauger is a tax collector. Presumably wore a uniform. Sailors generally were regarded as poor marriage prospects (by parents, at least). The line, I think, is "come to oor town as a gauger" If you enter "gauger" (without the quotes) in the blue search box at the top of the page, you'll find the lyrics. Fine song! |
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06 Feb 07 - 05:34 PM (#1959610) Subject: The new-come (was From: Richard Mellish I own up to having a pirated copy of a McColl recording (copied MANY years ago from a copy already pirated by someone else before it reached me). I've had most of it in my head ever since, and recently thought I might learn it completely. I came here to see what I could find, and found the version in the system here under the title "The Newcombe Gauger". The McColl recording from which that version was taken down must be substantially different from the one that I have, which I have notated below. While I'm about commenting: McColl pronounces the title as if it were "gouger", i.e. someone who gouges, rather than someone who gauges. I've always been suspicious about that, and I've just now checked in the OED, which confirms the pronunciation that one would expect. And I'm sure it's not "Newcombe" gauger but "new-come", i.e. newly arrived. Richard ^^^ There was a sailor brisk and neat A bonnie lassie he did entreat A bonnie lassie he did entreat For to wed wi' him, a sailor. "Oh", says the bonnie lassie,"but that won't do For my mother she'd be in an awful stew My mother she'd be in an awful stew If I went and married a sailor." "Then what contrivance can we make, Or what contrivance can we take? What contrivance can we make? For to beguile your mammy?" "Oh you'll cast off your trousers blue And you'll on wi' the garb o' the gauger true You'll on wi' the garb o' the gauger true And you'll come tae oor town a gauger." And when you come into our town Blythe and merry come you in Saying "Have you any malt or gin? For here am I, the gauger". He's cast off his claes of blue And he's on wi' the garb o' the gauger true He's on wi' the garb o' the gauger true And he's come to the town as a gauger. And when he came into their town Blythe and merry went he in Saying "Have you any malt or gin? For here am I, the gauger". "Oh", says the lassie, "come awa' Maybe we have a cask or twa. Maybe we have a cask or twa. Gin ye be the new-come gauger." Yes (?) he's searched but and he's searched ben He's searched out and he's searched in But ne'er a drop o' the gin could he find [The rhyme would be better with this line changed to "... could he find o' the gin"] For he hadnae the wiles of a gauger. "Come awa', lassie, and let me see Where that cask o' gin may be If I don't get the gin, lassie, I'll get thee For the guiling o' the gauger." "Oh", says the old wife, "and that's well done For she's always ready with anyone She's always ready with anyone And most with the new-come gauger." But long ere before a month was done The gauger and the lass were one; He's married her and off she's gone; She's away wi' the roving sailor! |
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06 Feb 07 - 05:53 PM (#1959629) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Newcombe Gauger From: Greg B Is the recording to which you refer 'Haul on the Bowline' with Ewan MacColl, A L Lloyd, and Alf Edwards? MacColl was particular about pronunciation...is 'gouger' perhaps the Scottish pronunciation? The rest of the song seems to be in Scots dialect. Perhaps you need to haul your OED a bit further north :-) On the recording I have, MacColl is at his best, as is Alf Edwards' concertina. Both powerful, strident, and pumping away at this wonderful song. |
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07 Feb 07 - 12:37 AM (#1959917) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Newcombe Gauger From: Malcolm Douglas It's a Scottish song (as if that needed confirming); there's a text in Ord, Bothy Songs and Ballads and seven, some with tunes, in the Greig-Duncan collection (vol 5, which I don't have). MacColl used a lot of material from Greig-Duncan, frequently grafted onto fragments he had learned from his father. Here, the hero seems to have been demoted; he is usually an admiral or at least a captain. Number 2343 in the Roud Folk Song Index. |