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04 Mar 99 - 10:32 PM (#61346) Subject: lyrics and music to Ballad of Sam Hall? From: Ben Gray debben@planttel.net I've looked all over for a song entitled Ballad of Sam Hall, but to no avail. Can you help me out? please respond to my e-mail address. Ben Gray |
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04 Mar 99 - 10:42 PM (#61348) Subject: RE: lyrics and music to Ballad of Sam Hall? From: Barry Finn Search the database entering Sam Hall into the search box. You might also want to search the fourm entering the same Sam Hall. There has been a few threads on Sam, his relations, offspring & genetic history. Happy Hunting, Barry |
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04 Mar 99 - 11:48 PM (#61355) Subject: RE: lyrics and music to Ballad of Sam Hall? From: ddw in windsor Hi Ben, One of my favorite versions of this song is by Josh White, I believe from his 25th Anniversary album, but I only have it on an old reel-to-reel and didn't take detailed notes back in those days. I just spent about half an hour going through all the CDs listed on his Web site, but didn't see it listed on any of them. It's worth the search if you're into that kind of thing. Josh makes it a little more vitriolic that the version in the DT by making each last line "god damn your eyes" and adding a truly evil laugh after telling the parson to kiss my ruddy bum. Good hunting. ddw |
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04 Mar 99 - 11:51 PM (#61356) Subject: RE: lyrics and music to Ballad of Sam Hall? From: Bruce O. According to J. W. Ebsworth in 'Roxburghe Ballads', VIII, p. 856, it was a singer named Ross who sang "Sam Hall" at the Cider-Cellars, Maiden Lane, London, in 1849. Ebsworth had given a very little of the ballad at p. 669, but had there misidentified the singer. "Sam Hall" is a profane reworking of "Jack the Chimney Sweep", on a broadside in the Madden collection, a J. Pitts issue (1802-40). This commences "My name is Jack All chimney sweep, chimney sweep". This issue has no tune direction. There is little doubt that the song originally appeared on a broadside ballad of 1700-01, and that the tune "Coming Down" cited on the "Captain Kidd" broadside took its title from the "Jack Hall" ballad. See the version of "Jack Hall" in the recently reprinted Sharp's 'One Hundred English Folksongs', #81, where the song ends "O but never a word I said coming down, coming down, O but never a word I said coming down." I have given elsewhere recently the evidence that the 18th century tune known as "Captain Kidd" was the "Put in All/ Ye Jacobites by Name" tune. However, it appears that the "Jack Hall" and "Captain Kidd" ballads are 5 to 6 years earlier than the song "Put in All", so we don't know what the tune direction was on the "Jack Hall" ballad. It may have been "Sound a Charge", but that's just hopeful thinking to allow use to come up with the lost 17th century tune for several broadside ballads and a religous song in the same stanza form.
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05 Mar 99 - 12:06 AM (#61365) Subject: RE: lyrics and music to Ballad of Sam Hall? From: Bruce O. I should have added that there is a good text, tune and notes in Ed Cray's 'The Erotic Muse', 2nd ed., 1992. |
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05 Mar 99 - 08:22 AM (#61405) Subject: RE: lyrics and music to Ballad of Sam Hall? From: SlowAlan Oh me name is Sammy Hall, Sammy Hall, Sammy Hall repeat Oh me name is Sammy hall, and Ive only got one ball But its better than none at all damn your eyes, blast your souls, bugger youse all big and small, rotten sods fuck yez! The rest lies in my memory somewhere if you want..I think it gets dirtier! More scatalogical than the version on DT.Learnt from Jock McTavish, New Edinburgh Folk Club 1975. Also - to the tune of Irish Washerwoman Ye'll no get a loan of me kettle again, me kettle again, me kettle again, the last time you had it you bugger ye broke it, you'll no get a loan of me kettle again No reason, just came to mind SlowAlan |
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05 Mar 99 - 03:29 PM (#61486) Subject: RE: lyrics and music to Ballad of Sam Hall? From: Don Meixner My favorite version of Sam Hall is done by Paddy Reilly. I have also heard a varient called Tallow Candles as done by Jaqui and bridie, ( "member them?) Very nice version. Don Meixner |
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19 Jan 05 - 02:58 PM (#1382473) Subject: RE: lyrics and music to Ballad of Sam Hall? From: GUEST,Nick SlowAlan could you remember the words and mail them to me? My e-mail is bothysix@yahoo.com Thanks if you can do it. |
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19 Jan 05 - 03:24 PM (#1382504) Subject: RE: lyrics and music to Ballad of Sam Hall? From: Nerd Johnny Cash did a version of this on his Ballads of the True West album. He was very much influenced by Tex Ritter's dramatic approach, and made Sam Hall audibly drunk on the track... |
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19 Jan 05 - 04:56 PM (#1382583) Subject: RE: lyrics and music to Ballad of Sam Hall? From: George Seto - af221@chebucto.ns.ca Sorry, Guest Nick, it looks like SlowAlan hasn't posted since Sept 2002. He may not be visiting here these days. |
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19 Jan 05 - 06:50 PM (#1382679) Subject: RE: lyrics and music to Ballad of Sam Hall? From: Lighter Tex sang the song in the Broadway production of Lynn Riggs's "Green Grow the Lilacs" about 1931. |
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10 Jun 08 - 10:07 PM (#2362859) Subject: RE: Lyr/Tune Req: Ballad of Sam Hall From: T in Oklahoma (Okiemockbird) I would like to have asked Bruce O. about the broadsides he had knowledge of. None of the five Captain Kidd broadsides I have access to is dated, or specifies a tune. Most have no place of printing, either, but one has this note: "Sold at the Bible and Heart in Cornhill, Boston". I think this suggests the later 18th century. This is consistent with the use of the name "Robert Kidd". Contemporary accounts of Captain Kidd's trial and execution all know that his first name was William, not Robert. Presumably some time passed before the ballad began to circulate. All five of the broadsides begin You captains brave and bold hear our cries, hear our cries, You captains brave and bold, hear our cries. You captains brave and bold, though you seem uncontroul'd, Don't for the sake of gold, lose your souls, lose your souls, Don't for the sake of gold, lose your souls. This lays down the full stanza pattern. Subsequent stanzas leave the repeats at the end to be understood from this pattern, and so don't print them explicitly. The earliest melody in this meter I have found is the tune for "A young man and a maid", a.k.a. "Put in all", which was in p. 251 of the 6th volume of Wit and Mirth; or, Pills to Purge Melancholy (1719). (Bruce O. didn't mention a specific date in his post above.) |
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11 Jun 08 - 04:00 AM (#2362975) Subject: Lyr Add: JACK HALL (variant of SAM HALL) From: GUEST,Suffolk Miracle Mainly from the late Gordon Hall - no relation - probably! My name it is Jack Hall, chimney sweep, chimney sweep. My name it is Jack Hall, chimney sweep. My name it is Jack Hall And I robbed both great and small But my neck will pay for all when I die, when I die, My neck will pay for all when I die. I have twenty pound in store, that's no lie, that's no lie. I have twenty pounds in store, that's no lie. I've twenty pounds in store And I'll swing for twenty more The rich must help the poor, so must I, so must I. The rich must help the poor, so must I. They put me into quad, there to lie (etc) And they left me there, by God Tied up to a lump of log till I die (etc) The parson he did come to the cell And he talked of kingdom come He can kiss my bloody bum down in Hell I rode up Newgate Hill in a cart At St. Giles I wrote my will The best of friends must part, so must I To the gallows I did go, that's no lie, that's no lie To the gallows I did go, that's no lie The people there below All said 'Jack, we told you so' Every rogue shall have his day, so did I so did I, Every rogue shall have his day, so did I I saw my false love in the crowd, down below And I shouted out aloud I'd rather see you in your shroud, bloody whore. Up the ladder I did grope, to the top And the hangman pulled the rope And the Devil of a word I spoke coming down. This will be my funeral knell to you all That I'll see you all in Hell And I hope you sizzle well says Jack Hall. |
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11 Jun 08 - 04:45 AM (#2363009) Subject: RE: Lyr/Tune Req: Ballad of Sam Hall From: Malcolm Douglas See also the other discussions and DT files (links above), many more recent and comprehensive than this old thread. To return to 'T in Oklahoma's' post. For what it's worth, the tune is also in Pills, 1714, V, 117; and Dancing Master II, 2nd ed., 1714, 121. Simpson, The British Broadside Ballad and Its Music, 1966, 672-675 ('Sound a Charge') provides further detail and a MS tune of c.1642 in the same metre, which he describes as 'clearly related'. He also refers to the c. 1701 broadside in the Crawford Collection, 'Captain Kid's Farewel to the Seas,' to the tune of 'Coming Down.' Text is in Firth, Naval Songs and Ballads, 1908, 134-137. An OCR transcription can be seen at http://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/navel-songs-ballads/naval-songs-ballads%20-%200334.htm. Simpson adds, 'For an illuminating study of the roots of this ballad and associated texts and tunes, see Bertrand H Bronson, "Samuel Hall's Family Tree," California Folklore, I (1942), 47-64.' This is reprinted in The Ballad as Song, University of California Press, 1969, 18-36. |
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11 Jun 08 - 08:18 AM (#2363100) Subject: RE: Lyr/Tune Req: Ballad of Sam Hall From: GUEST,Suffolk Miracle Someone in a folk club once talked about 'Those outlaw figures about whom a number of songs have built up - like Robin Hood and Sam Hall'. Somewhat perplexed, I asked her what other songs had been written about Sam Hall. 'Well' she snapped back 'Obviously there's Streets of Forbes for a start!' |
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11 Jun 08 - 09:25 AM (#2363159) Subject: RE: Lyr/Tune Req: Ballad of Sam Hall From: T in Oklahoma (Okiemockbird) Since my last post I was able to re-locate where some of Bruce O.'s data had got to. He notes that Put in all appeared in Twenty four new Country Dances for the Year 1704, and also in The Compleat Country Dancing Master, as well as in DM. I haven't yet checked the melodies to see if the one in Pills is the same melody as these dance tunes. The date of 1701 for Captain Kid's Farewel to the Seas may only be approximate. I haven't yet found a facsimile of the broadside. Some of the transcriptions state that it is undated. It seems to be nearly contemporary with Kidd's death, though, since it mainly restates facts that were established at Kidd's trial. And it doesn't name him "Robert." Another scholarly discussion of the ballad is William Hallam Bonner, "The Ballad of Captain Kidd", American Literature 15(4), 362-380, Jan. 1944. Firth's Naval Ballads and Songs is available on Google Books here and here. |
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11 Jun 08 - 11:25 AM (#2363282) Subject: RE: Lyr/Tune Req: Ballad of Sam Hall From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego "Sam (or Samuel) Hall" was a staple for a lot of folk singers back in the 1950's & '60's. I had a lot of fun with it. I would do a repeat of the opening verse as the ending: "Oh, my name it is Sam Hall, Sam Hall. Oh, my name it is Sam Hall, Sam...Ekkk! (unexpectedly grabbing my throat as if being..well...hung (hanged)? |
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11 Jun 08 - 11:45 AM (#2363295) Subject: RE: Lyr/Tune Req: Ballad of Sam Hall From: GUEST The tune of "Ye Jacobites" is also known as "My Love's in Germany" (an old Orkney tune, I believe) |
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11 Jun 08 - 10:58 PM (#2363900) Subject: Lyr Add: SAM HALL From: Joe_F The repeated lines in this song have inspired many variations over the years: ...Yes, my name it is Sam Hall, and I hate you one and all. You're a bunch of muckers all, God damn your eyes! ...Yes, I killed a man, 'tis said, so 'tis said. I shot him in the head, just to fill his mind with lead, And I left him there for dead, God damn his eyes! ...Yes, they put me in a cell, And the jailer treats me well -- I'll be seeing him in hell,... ...Yes, the parson, he did come, he did come, And he looked so bloody glum, as he talked of Kingdom Come -- He can kiss my ruddy bum,... ...Yes, the sheriff he came too, he came too, With his little boys in blue, Lord, they were a bloody crew -- Well, now, he can kiss it too,... ...Now up the rope I go, up I go, And those bastards down below, thinkin' it's a bloody show -- They'll say "Sam, we told you so," God damn their eyes! ...I saw my Nellie in the crowd, all dressed in blue. Says my Nellie, dressed in blue, "Your trifling days are through; Now I know that you'll be true, God damn your eyes!" ...I saw my Nellie in the crowd, in the crowd. She was looking stooped and bowed, So I hollered right out loud, "Say, Nellie, ain't you proud? God damn your eyes!" ...Yes now in heaven I dwell, in heaven I dwell, And the truth it is to tell that it is a bloody sell -- All the whores are down in hell, God damn their eyes! |
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12 Jun 08 - 02:04 AM (#2363958) Subject: RE: Lyr/Tune Req: Ballad of Sam Hall From: Malcolm Douglas Yes; you posted that to one of the other 'Sam Hall' threads (a more recent one than this old thing, as it happens: it's always déja vu time when somebody revives one of these early discussions) back in 2003. Firth, Naval Songs and Ballads (see refs above), is another British text that Google Books witholds from British users, so for those outside the USA these links to facsimiles at the Internet Archive will be more useful: http://www.archive.org/details/navalsongsballad00firtuoft http://www.archive.org/details/navyrecords33navyuoft For some useful (if convoluted) discussion of other songs in the same metre, and their tunes, see Origins: 'My love's in Germanie' Mentra Gwen, neu Cwynfau y Wraig Weddw |
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12 Jun 08 - 12:02 PM (#2364281) Subject: RE: Lyr/Tune Req: Ballad of Sam Hall From: EBarnacle Thanks for the Firth. It is now on my hard drive. |
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01 Oct 08 - 02:42 PM (#2455051) Subject: RE: Lyr/Tune Req: Ballad of Sam Hall From: SINSULL Joann Souza recently sang an Australian version of this called Black Jack. He was a pirate. My name it is Black Jack And I steal; I do steal Anyone have the rest of it? mary |
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01 Oct 08 - 06:16 PM (#2455205) Subject: RE: Lyr/Tune Req: Ballad of Sam Hall From: GUEST,Tom Bliss Kennedy has the verse, (I think that's where I got it) I have candles lily white hanging high I have candles lily white and I robbed them all by night And they'll fill my cell with light till I go - or some such - I don't have the book here. He also says, I think, that this dates from 1701 when the English chimney sweep Jack Hall was hanged at Tyburn. The comic minstrel CW Ross made a new tune in the 1850s and renamed it Sam Hall. I prefer the more sober, angry versions, as the tune I know doesn't really seem right for humorous histrionics! Tom |
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07 Jan 13 - 04:46 PM (#3462824) Subject: Lyr Add: SAM HALL From: GUEST,Paul Wetherby, Lincoln , G.B. The Ballad of Sam Hall My name it is Sam Hall, it is Sam Hall, My name it is Sam Hall, Sam Hall, Oh my name it is Sam Hall and I hate you one and all; You're a crowd of buggers all Damn your eyes! I killed a man they said, so they said, I killed a man they said, so they said, I hit him on the head, with a great big lump of lead. And I left him there for dead Damn his eyes! So they put me in the quod, in the quod, So they put me in the quod, in the quod, So they put me into quod for the killing of that sod, They did,so help me God Damn their eyes! Then the parson he did come, he did come, Then the parson he did come, he did come, Then the parson he did come and he talked of Kingdom Come, He can kiss my bloody bum Damn his eyes! So it's up the steps I go, up I go, So it's up the steps I go, up I go, So up the steps I go, I see you buggers down below All there standing in a row Damn your eyes! And the hangman he comes too, he comes too And the hangman he comes too, he comes too, The hangman he comes too, him and all his bloody crew Now they'll tell me what to do Damn their eyes! I sees Molly in the crowd, in the crowd, I sees Molly in the crowd, in the crowd, I sees Molly in the crowd, and I hollers right out loud, "Molly ain't you bleedin' proud Damn your eyes!" And now I hears the bell, hears the bell, And now I hears the bell, hears the bell, And it is my funeral knell, so I'll see you all in Hell And I hopes you frizzle well Damn your eyes! Popularised by W.G.Ross in the 1840s, it is based on the earlier "Ballad of Jack Hall, Chimney Sweep". Best wishes, Paul Wetherby |
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07 Jan 13 - 10:17 PM (#3462968) Subject: Lyr Add: SAM HALL (ca. 1840s) From: Jim Dixon From Memories of London in the 'Forties by David Masson (London: William Blackwood & Sons, 1908), page 153: ...I will dare to put in print my recollection of the great Ross of the Cider Cellars, in his character of "Sam Hall". The evening is pretty far advanced; and the supping groups at the crowded tables, grey heads and literary celebrities among them, have composed themselves, in a lull following previous songs, for the appearance of the great Ross. He makes his appearance at last, in a kind of raised box or pulpit in one corner of the room;?a strange, gruesome figure, in ragged clothes, with a battered old hat on his head, his face stained and grimed to represent a chimney-sweep's, and a piece of short black pipe in his mouth. Removing his pipe, and looking round with a dull, brutal scowl or glare, he begins, as if half in soliloquy, half in address to an imaginary audience, his slow chaunt of the condemned felon, whose last night in prison has come, and who is to be hanged next morning:? "My name it is Sam Hall, Chimney-sweep, Chimney-sweep: My name it is Sam Hall, Chimney-sweep. My name it is Sam Hall; I've robbed both great and small; And now I pays for all: Damn your eyes!" Some three or four stanzas follow, in which the poor semi-bestial, illiterate, and religionless wretch, in the same slow chaunt, as if to a psalm-tune, anticipates the incidents of the coming morning;? the arrival of the sheriffs, the arrival of the hangman, the drive to Tyburn; each stanza, however heart-broken, ending with the one ghastly apostrophe which is the sole figure of speech that life-long custom has provided for his soul's relief. Thus:? "And the parson he will come, He will come, He will come: And the parson he will come, He will come. And the parson he will come, And he'll look so blasted glum; And he'll talk of Kingdom Come: Damn his eyes!" The last stanza of all will be addition enough:? "And now I goes upstairs, To the drop, To the drop: And now I goes upstairs, To the drop; And now I goes upstairs, There's a hend to all my cares: So you'll tip me all your prayers: Damn your eyes!" A black bit of London recollection this, certainly; but, strong as it is, it has seemed worth preserving. Whether the song of Sam Hall is in print anywhere, or who wrote it, I know not; but I daresay I could recover the whole from my memory, such was the impression it made that evening I heard the great Ross sing it.1 He was, I afterwards learnt, an Aberdeen man, who had begun his career of tavern-singer in more lowly haunts, and had at length, by strange chance, flashed out in this one part for a season before the gathered night-herds of London. What became of him, poor fellow, I never heard. 1 Since these Memories have appeared in 'Blackwood's Magazine', the following information has been kindly sent me by Mr Stephen Ponder: "Sam Hall is not yet extinct. It is still popular in Australia and the United States of America, and I have heard it sung by a Dutchman in Sumatra a very few years ago. But Ross, or whoever was the author, simply adapted the very much older ballad of 'Captain Kidd':? 'My name was Captain Kidd When I sailed, when I sailed, My name was Captain Kidd When I sailed. My name was Captain Kidd, And God's laws I did forbid, And most wickedly I did, When I sailed.' ... I remember a 'variant' of' Sam Hall' being made to suit the Kelly gang in Victoria thirty years ago."?F. M. |
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27 Apr 16 - 10:47 AM (#3787447) Subject: RE: Lyr/Tune Req: Ballad of Sam Hall From: GUEST,David Paul Roland sings a very good version of this on his 2008 album 'Nevermore'. Hughie Jones (ex of The Spinners) sings Captain Kidd on his 'Maritime Miscellany' CD. ...and then there's Billy Bragg's 'Ye Thatcherites by Name'... Not the same tunes but quite similar and, of course, based around the old 'Jacobites by Name'. |
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19 Jan 17 - 02:54 AM (#3833496) Subject: Lyr Add: MY NAME 'TIS BEN HALL From: GUEST Well, the way I knew it which is the way my uncle played it on guitar back in the 80's so I can only remember a bit. He always played it as WELL MY NAME 'TIS BEN HALL. I see that most know it as Sam Hall, but this is what I remember:
Well, my name 'tis Ben Hall, 'tis Ben Hall.
Well, there is a tale to tell, tale to tell.
Well, they say I'm gunna swing, gunna swing. -BMC |
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13 Feb 18 - 12:11 PM (#3905449) Subject: Lyr Add: SAM HALL (Harvard, 1866) From: Jim Dixon This is now the oldest version I can find in print. (But note that the version I posted above, although printed later, was reported as having been sung much earlier.) I suspect it has been bowdlerized. From Selected Songs Sung at Harvard College: From 1862 to 1866 (Cambridge [Mass.]: John Wison and Son, 1866), page 58: SAM HALL. My name it is Sam Hall, Chimney-sweep, chimney-sweep My name it is Sam Hall, Chimney-sweep. My name it is Sam Hall, And I robs both great and small; But now I pays for all, Chimney-sweep. Then the parson he will come, Chimney-sweep, chimney-sweep; Then the parson he will come, Chimney-sweep. Then the parson he will come, With looks so bloody glum, And talk o' what's to come, Chimney-sweep. Then the sheriff he'll come too, Chimney-sweep, chimney sweep; Then the sheriff he'll come too, Chimney-sweep. Then the sheriff he'll come too, With all his bloody crew, Their bloody work to do, Chimney-sweep. Then up the drop we'll go, Chimney-sweep, chimney-sweep; Then up the drop we'll go, Chimney-sweep. Then up the drop we'll go, While the people all below 'Ill say, "Sam Hall, I told you so," Chimney-sweep. |