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26 May 00 - 06:05 AM (#234162) Subject: Banks of the Mossen From: Wolfgang I'd love to see lyrics to this song. Here's what I have found about it in the Ballad-Index:
Banks of the Mossen, TheDESCRIPTION: "As I was a walking down by some shady grove... Young lambs were a-playing on the banks of sweet Mossen... The lark in the morning... brings me joyful tidings of Nancy my dear." The singer asks for pen and ink to write to NancyAUTHOR: unknown EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle) KEYWORDS: love separation animal river FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South)) REFERENCES (2 citations): Copper-SongsAndSouthernBreezes, pp. 242-243, "The Banks of the Mossen" (1 text, 1 tune) Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 81B, "The Lark in the Morn" (2 texts) Roud #1646 RECORDINGS: Jim Swain, "The Banks of Sweet Mossing" (on Voice10) ALTERNATE TITLES: The Banks of the Mossom The Banks of Sweet Mossom NOTES [44 words]: I'd bet a lot that this is one of those Johnny-the-sailor-separated-from-his-love type songs that's been collected about three hundred times -- but from the short text given in Copper (three short verses and a fairly generic chorus), I can't tell which one. - RBW Last updated in version 5.2 File: CoSB242 Go to the Ballad Search form Go to the Ballad Index Instructions The Ballad Index Copyright 2021 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle. Wolfgang |
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26 May 00 - 07:01 AM (#234167) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Banks of the Mossen From: MartinRyan Wolfgang The jcitation is to Bob Coppers "Songs and Southern Breezes" book - which is the only one of his I DON'T have! No doubt someone else has a copy. Regards |
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26 May 00 - 07:46 AM (#234172) Subject: Lyr Add: BANKS OF THE MOSSEN/MOSSOM From: Stewie Here you go:
As I was a-walking down by some shady grove
Chorus: Young lambs they were a-playing all on the banks of sweet Mossen
The song birds on the branches is (sic) now sat down to rest Chorus
Oh give me ink and paper and I may sit down to write Chorus --Stewie. |
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26 May 00 - 08:55 AM (#234193) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Banks of the Mossen From: Wolfgang Stewie and Martin, thanks a lot for these quick responses. Now, I'm just a bit curious where the banks of the Mossen (Mossom) are. Wolfgang |
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26 May 00 - 03:52 PM (#234464) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Banks of the Mossen From: Susanne (skw) Some help? [1992:] This charming, albeit a little confused, song comes from Shirley [Collins]'s native Sussex. Jim Swain of Angmering learnt it from a shepherd near Felpham. (Paul Adams, notes 'Voices') |
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26 May 00 - 08:33 PM (#234572) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Banks of the Mossen From: Stewie Correction: first line of last verse should read: 'Oh give me ink and paper that I may sit down to write' - 'that' not 'and'. My excuse is that my son was hassling to take over the computer while I was typing. Cheers, Stewie. |
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10 Sep 01 - 10:52 PM (#546750) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Banks of the Mossen From: Alice How glad I am to find some of this information on the forum! My father's mother died when he was a baby, and we had little information about her, except that her maiden name was Mossom, she was from England, and she was possibly an indentured servant before she married my grandfather. We had her mother's name, Mary Westall, and finally my brother tracked down the birth certificate in Yorkshire, Jane Mossom born at Normanby. Mossom does not seem to be a very common name, and I was intrigued by this song title when I found it on the folktrax website, part of a collection of English songs. The track is recorded by Shirley Collins, with the same notes that Susanne posted: "THE BANKS OF THE MOSSOM SHIRLEY COLLINS (rec. London 1974) This charming, albeit a little confused, song comes from Shirley's native Sussex. Jim Swain of Angmering learnt it from a shepherd near Felpham. From the late 1950' s Shirley has been in the full flow of the folk song movement and her records are much sought after. Sadly she is no longer singing regularly. " I have not heard the song. Can anyone give us an audio file link? I'll repeat Wolfgang's question about where the Mossom is located. Anyone have an online map they can link to? I am intrigued. Alice |
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15 Jul 02 - 02:03 PM (#748418) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Banks of the Mossen From: GUEST,Carole The Banks of Mossom was collected by Bob Copper from Jim Swain of Felpham who in turn collected it from his father who was a carter. I have had the opportunity of listening to the original field recording made by Bob. The lyrics posted on Mudcat are not quite as collected. This is my all time favoutite song and I make no appologies for singing it ad finitum |
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15 Jul 02 - 02:09 PM (#748422) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Banks of the Mossen From: MMario Carole? Could you post the lyrics as collected? |
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15 Jul 02 - 02:20 PM (#748432) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Banks of the Mossen From: GUEST,Carole As I was a-walking down by some shady grove Down by some shady Nancy, my heart my soul's delight
Young lambs they were a-playing
The song birds in the branches is now sit down to rest
Oh give me ink and paper, I may sit down to write Ref to 'shady Nancy' in first verse. I have spoken to Shirley Collins and she confirms that this is what was collected and the words on her recordings. |
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15 Jul 02 - 03:40 PM (#748466) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Banks of the Mossen From: Malcolm Douglas Though this song seems to have been found once only in tradition, almost every time it has been published in print or on a recording the title has been given differently, which may cause some confusion. Here is (I think) a full list: Banks of the Mossen Roud Folk Song Index number 1201. Harvesters should note that heat in verse 2 above is a typo. Evidently Bob Copper and Shirley Collins have understood the song differently, hence all on through happy spring (Bob) versus that long true happy Spring (Shirley) and, for that matter, Shirley's Mossom. A midi made from the notation in Bob Copper's Songs and Southern Breezes (1973) will go in time to the Mudcat Midi Pages; in the meantime it can be heard via the South Riding Folk Network site |
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16 Jul 02 - 12:25 AM (#748663) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Banks of the Mossen From: Alice Can't get the audio file to work with Real Audio nor Quick Time. |
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16 Jul 02 - 08:33 AM (#748808) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Banks of the Mossen From: GUEST,Carole Third time lucky!!!! Harvesters???? should note that heat was a typo - my apologies - too much of a dinosaur to handle such eleborate machinery. You are correct in assuming that this should have been heart. My apologies also for the layout & lack of abbreviation - I was not aware that the computer would re-hash my imput. Being a newcomer to this site - it makes me wonder how the next generation of the aural/oral tradition will pass on our heritage of song with the possibilities of typos etc - a classic example appears to be the word "curties" in the lyrics posted of The Carter.
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16 Jul 02 - 08:36 AM (#748810) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Banks of the Mossen From: Malcolm Douglas It's a standard midi, and your native browser plugin would have no trouble with it. Quicktime works for me, too (I don't generally use it for midis as it can be rather intrusive); it doesn't play automatically, though. Real Player is sulking because I won't let it update itself with more junk that I don't want, so it won't play at present; in fact, I've forbidden it to open anything not in its own native formats because it needs to be kept firmly in its place! Windows Media Player and Winamp play the midi quite happily, as well. It's possible that the problem is at your end. |
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16 Jul 02 - 08:43 AM (#748815) Subject: ADD: Banks of the Mossen From: Malcolm Douglas We've had lengthy discussions here about the meaning of puzzling words in songs that turn out to have been typos all along; you are not alone! At the moment, you have to add .html linebreaks when posting lyrics here; they look like this: <br> More on simple .html can be found in the FAQ thread. I've changed my message title to ADD, so that harvesters for the DT can more easily find this song, which is indeed a rather nice one. |
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18 Jul 02 - 08:17 AM (#750299) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Banks of the Mossen From: Jim Dixon Wolfgang, Alice, et al: According to Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names there is a river named Mosson in Hérault department, Languedoc-Roussillon region of France. (The spellings mossen, mossem, and mossing turned up nothing.) A Google search showed that there is a chateau called Le château de la Mosson on the banks of the Mosson in Montpellier. There is a soccer stadium called La Mosson, named after the river. |
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19 Jul 02 - 05:36 AM (#750940) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Banks of the Mossen From: GUEST,SussexCarole Thank you for putting the lyrics I posted into proper notation. I will double check my info re this song as soon as poss & try to obtain more background. |
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19 Jul 02 - 05:53 AM (#750947) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Banks of the Mossen From: fogie Shirley Collins album- Adieu to old England has this and some other gems in it of this ilk. |
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31 Mar 11 - 05:03 AM (#3125360) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Banks of the Mossen From: GUEST,Robin I first heard this performed by John & Chris Leslie in Northamptonshire folk clubs in the mid 1970s. It's also on their album Ship of Time http://www.kissingspell.co.uk/Album.php?Catalogue_Number=KSCD936 |
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05 Apr 21 - 05:42 PM (#4100914) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Banks of the Mossen From: Joe Offer needs cleanup |
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06 Apr 21 - 10:04 AM (#4100979) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Banks of the Mossen From: Steve Gardham Banks of the Mossen is just a garbled version of 'Beautiful Nancy II' Roud 1646. If I remember rightly it now has the correct number in the Index, not 1201. It is a Vauxhall Pleasure Garden piece like many similar folk songs, and appeared in 'Cupid's Magazine' of late 18th century among other publications of the time. It has the tile 'Beautiful Nancy II' because there is another 'Beautiful Nancy' Roud 18525. |
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06 Apr 21 - 10:21 AM (#4100981) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Banks of the Mossen From: RTim Interesting Steve.....I sing both songs (using a version of Roud 18525) and have never thought of them as being versions of each other....only goes to show that some are cleverer than me... Tim Radford |
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06 Apr 21 - 02:37 PM (#4101024) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Banks of the Mossen From: Steve Gardham Hi Tim I hope I haven't confused things here. The 2 Beautiful Nancys are indeed 2 separate songs. Banks of Mossen is only related to one of them. |
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06 Apr 21 - 06:08 PM (#4101066) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Banks of the Mossen From: RTim My Roud 18525 - Beautiful Nancy - is on my From Spithead Roads CD, and although I tried to get Nick to use it in The Southern Songster...he added another.. I added a couple of my own verses created from other local singers to Mrs. Mundy's song... Beautiful Nancy. Mrs. Munday - Axford 1907 - H983 - plus others. As beautiful Nancy was a walking one day, She met a young sailor upon the highway. Said he, pretty fair maid, where are you a going, Where are you a going, tell me pretty maid? I am searching for Jemmy, young Jemmy my dear, I have not a-seen him for more than nine year, But while he is absent, a maid I will live and die. But little did she think it was Jemmy so nigh. Young Jemmy he stood watching for as long as he could forbear And straightway he made himself be known to his dear. She denied lords and squires for so many a long year, For my long absent Jemmy, my fond sailor dear. I was captured by pirates, I could not get away. My thoughts have been with you love, by night and by day, And now I’ve gained my freedom, and I’m safe at home with thee, No more will I venture all on the salt sea. He flew into her arms and round her neck did twine Saying Beautiful Nancy forever I will be thine Come let us be united and live happy all on the shore The bells they shall ring merrily and I’ll go to sea no more. Tim Radford |