To Thread - Forum Home

The Mudcat Café TM
https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=99275
65 messages

Songs about the British Motor Industry

22 Feb 07 - 10:34 AM (#1976008)
Subject: Folklore: Songs about the British Motor Industry
From: mumblin len

While reading a book about industrial folksongs recently, I noticed that, although there were lots of songs about coalmining, cotton weaving, and fishing, there did not seem to be any songs about making motor cars. Does anybody out there know any? I figure that, since the motor industry was once one of the biggest employers in this country, there ought to be some - or did car workers not sing?
Any thoughts chaps (and chappesses)?

len


22 Feb 07 - 11:04 AM (#1976038)
Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about the British Motor Industry
From: GUEST

I'm a bit rusty.


22 Feb 07 - 11:16 AM (#1976047)
Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about the British Motor Industry
From: The PA

Me other half worked at Longbridge for 40 years from an apprentice till it closed - now he can tell some tails !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Perhaps you songwriters out there could venture up to the wild and dangerous Midlands and do a bit of researching. We dont bite .... well not much!


22 Feb 07 - 11:18 AM (#1976050)
Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about the British Motor Industry
From: beardedbruce

I'm a Rover" ?


22 Feb 07 - 11:31 AM (#1976064)
Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about the British Motor Industry
From: The PA

Yeh, I was going to say anyone mentions Wild Rover, and we're comin after em !!


22 Feb 07 - 11:49 AM (#1976076)
Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about the British Motor Industry
From: skipy

Don't know about songs, but there are a lot os MORRIS tunes about!
Skipy


22 Feb 07 - 11:50 AM (#1976077)
Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about the British Motor Industry
From: The PA

STOP IT NOW !!!


22 Feb 07 - 11:53 AM (#1976084)
Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about the British Motor Indust
From: Chris Green

What about 'Fiesta' by the Pogues? Or 'Anything You Kangoo, I Kangoo Better?'









I'll get me coat....


22 Feb 07 - 12:15 PM (#1976101)
Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about the British Motor Indust
From: artbrooks

Not about manufacturing cars, per se, but there's always The Bug-Eyed Sprite.

...In a bug-eyed Sprite
There's lot's to do.
But there just ain't enough
Room to screw.

Sorry...I'll leave now.


22 Feb 07 - 12:42 PM (#1976120)
Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about the British Motor Industry
From: GUEST

MGB GT

Tom Bliss does a song about the rolls royce mascot


22 Feb 07 - 01:58 PM (#1976193)
Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about the British Motor Industry
From: The Sandman

what would be interesting would be songs about Henry Fords virulent anti unionism.I know ford was American,but they were making cars for a long time in England .


22 Feb 07 - 02:11 PM (#1976203)
Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about the British Motor Industry
From: Jean(eanjay)

"One piece at a time" Johnny Cash.


22 Feb 07 - 02:13 PM (#1976209)
Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about the British Motor Industry
From: Jean(eanjay)

Does the song have to be (1)a folksong (2) about making a car, or can it just be any old song that mentions cars?


22 Feb 07 - 02:17 PM (#1976210)
Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about the British Motor Industry
From: Richard Bridge

Spencer the Rover - or Doug Hudson's parody Spencer the Peugeot.

I'm sure there's an Irish song called something like "Clancy's motor car".

Cliton Ford had a small hit with a song called "Get out and get under", about a car going wrong.

Then there's "Grey Cortina" (Tom Robinson).


22 Feb 07 - 02:24 PM (#1976217)
Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about the British Motor Industry
From: Wesley S

VINCENT BLACK LIGHTNING

Oh says Red Molly to James "That's a fine motorbike.
A girl could feel special on any such like"
Says James to Red Molly "My hat's off to you
It's a Vincent Black Lightning, 1952.
And I've seen you at the corners and cafes it seems
Red hair and black leather, my favourite colour scheme"
And he pulled her on behind and down to Boxhill they did ride

Oh says James to Red Molly "Here's a ring for your right hand
But I'll tell you in earnest I'm a dangerous man.
For I've fought with the law since I was seventeen,
I robbed many a man to get my Vincent machine.
Now I'm 21 years, I might make 22
And I don't mind dying, but for the love of you.
And if fate should break my stride
Then I'll give you my Vincent to ride"

"Come down, come down, Red Molly" called Sergeant McRae
"For they've taken young James Adie for armed robbery.
Shotgun blast hit his chest, left nothing inside.
Oh come down, Red Molly to his dying bedside"
When she came to the hospital, there wasn't much left
He was running out of road, he was running out of breath
But he smiled to see her cry
He said "I'll give you my Vincent to ride"

Says James "In my opinion, there's nothing in this world
Beats a 52 Vincent and a red headed girl.
Now Nortons and Indians and Greeves won't do,
Ah, they don't have a soul like a Vincent 52"
Oh he reached for her hand and he slipped her the keys
Said "I've got no further use for these.
I see angels on Ariels in leather and chrome,
Swooping down from heaven to carry me home"
And he gave her one last kiss and died
And he gave her his Vincent to ride.

- Richard Thompson
- two letter words, © 1996 Richard Thompson


22 Feb 07 - 02:28 PM (#1976220)
Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about the British Motor Industry
From: bubblyrat

Red Velvet Steering -Wheel Covered Driver ??


22 Feb 07 - 02:30 PM (#1976221)
Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about the British Motor Industry
From: Jean(eanjay)

"Red Cortina" The Saw Doctors.


22 Feb 07 - 02:36 PM (#1976230)
Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about the British Motor Industry
From: Jean(eanjay)

"Greased Lightnin'" John Travolta


22 Feb 07 - 02:38 PM (#1976231)
Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about the British Motor Industry
From: Big Al Whittle

Grey Cortina - Tom Robinson

I seem to remember Malc Stent wrote a song when the Metro came out and it was on the telly - the national news on both channels that night.

Knowing Malc, flushed with that success, I bet he wrote a few more!


22 Feb 07 - 02:44 PM (#1976237)
Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about the British Motor Industry
From: Dave Sutherland

Was "Fisher's Clock" by The Bushbury Mountain Daredevils connected with the West Midland's motor trade?


22 Feb 07 - 03:10 PM (#1976256)
Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about the British Motor Industry
From: Rasener

Take you riding in my car car

Hey PA, I know Longbridge was a big place, but did you ever come across Mike Guise and Ray Bond on your Travels.
Big mates of mine and worked at Longbridge for many years.

Hy home town - Birmingham, not the one in Alabam - Clifford T Ward

Bridget the MIDGET - used to have one of those when I was in Brum.

Isle Of CAPRI


22 Feb 07 - 03:17 PM (#1976264)
Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about the British Motor Indus
From: greg stephens

When Ewan McColl packed in making Radio Ballads, Charles Oarker(the producer of the original series) got Alisdair(sp?) Clayre(sp?) to take over. How many he made I dont know, but he made at least one, about the Morris works at Cowley(Oxford). I presume(hope?) that the BBC still have tapes. Clayre wrote a number of songs for this, including one I remember "The Ballad of Tiny Newman". It recalls a legendary worker in the 30's, who was so strong he could change tyres with his bare hands, a trick with which he delighted visitors to the works.
   Now someone, with any luck, might come up with some words and music from this forgotten bit of BBC history.


22 Feb 07 - 03:24 PM (#1976270)
Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about the British Motor Indust
From: Susan of DT

MacColl's Britain's Motorways
O Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz

There is a keyword of automobile, but it is not on all of them.


22 Feb 07 - 03:26 PM (#1976272)
Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about the British Motor Industry
From: Grab

"Any old iron", given how fast the buggers rusted? Everything from the 1970s onwards was better forgotten. :-(

Some friends of ours wrote a "Wild Rover" parody - have to post it if I can remember it.

Graham.


22 Feb 07 - 03:36 PM (#1976282)
Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about the British Motor Industry
From: Rasener

Have a look at this one

i-cant-find-brummagem


22 Feb 07 - 03:38 PM (#1976285)
Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about the British Motor Industry
From: oldhippie

Jim Haynes from Australia sings "The Old Holden Waltz"; and Oscar Brand did a whole LP "Sports Car Songs For Big Wheels". Richard Thompson sings about his "MGBGT". But, actually about making British cars, I can't think of any at the moment.


22 Feb 07 - 03:40 PM (#1976289)
Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about the British Motor Industry
From: GUEST,Chris

I remember years ago hearing a song written by a guy called Peter Rooke. I think he was from the Midlands. The song named all the makes of British motor bikes.


22 Feb 07 - 03:55 PM (#1976301)
Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about the British Motor Indust
From: Greg B

Leyland, Lady, Leyland?

'The Incapable Morris?'


22 Feb 07 - 04:21 PM (#1976322)
Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about the British Motor Industry
From: Declan

Mini the Moocher?


22 Feb 07 - 04:53 PM (#1976344)
Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about the British Motor Industry
From: melodeonboy

Some years ago, when I was living in the Middle East, I bought a battered ten-year-old Range Rover. I had so much trouble with the bloody thing I ended up writing this (to the tune of Wild Rover):

I've had a Range Rover for many's the year
And I've spent all my money on sprockets and gears
But now I'm returning with rials galore
I never will drive that Range Rover no more

And it's no, nay, never
No nay never no more
Will I drive that Range Rover
No never no more

I went to a garage I used to frequent
And I told the mechanic my camshaft was bent
I aske him to fix it, he answered me "Nay"
Saying "If I were you, I'd just chuck it away".

Chorus

Then out of my pocket I pulled rials bright
And the mechanic's eyes opened wide with delight
Saying "That'll do nicely, I'll see what I can do,
and then it might last you a fortnight or two".

Chorus

I'll go back to the garage, confess what I've done,
I drove to Herne Bay on two wheels just for fun,
And if they repair it as oft times before.
Then I might have to drive that bloody Range Rover once more

Chorus


22 Feb 07 - 06:04 PM (#1976388)
Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about the British Motor Industry
From: Richard Bridge

Paul Carr used to sing Tiny. I don't know if he still does.


22 Feb 07 - 06:54 PM (#1976440)
Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about the British Motor Industry
From: bubblyrat

" I"m a Champion at Keeping "em Rolling " mentions an AEC lorry !!


22 Feb 07 - 07:09 PM (#1976464)
Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about the British Motor Industry
From: GUEST

"Jowett Javelin" Harvey Andrews


22 Feb 07 - 08:40 PM (#1976550)
Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about the British Motor Industry
From: The Fooles Troupe

THE RUSTY FORD CORTINA ~ Mark Gillett (:with apologies, he insists, to Hugh MacDonald!!!)

chorus: For the rain always falls on my rusty Ford Cortina
Bits keep falling off and get left behind
And the muffler's mighty roar         
Always causes a sensation
And I'll drive this hack till the driving's done.


Lyr Req: Songs about Fords


22 Feb 07 - 11:29 PM (#1976683)
Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about the British Motor Industry
From: Leadfingers

And No One mentioned The Ballad of Mini Cooper


23 Feb 07 - 01:30 AM (#1976729)
Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about the British Motor Industry
From: Little Robyn

Arthur Toms used to sing a parody of the Gypsy rover.
I can only remember the last verse:

He is no gypsy my father, she said
But manager of General Motors
And I will stay till my dying day
In my gypsy's whistling Rover.

Robyn


23 Feb 07 - 03:20 AM (#1976752)
Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about the British Motor Industry
From: The PA

Hi Villan, I never worked at Longbridge myself, but the old man did, I ask him if he ever met your mates.
There was a tale that in its heyday in the 70's someone did actually phone the main switchboard and ask 'can I speak to our Fred, he works on the track' - there were 20 thousand plus working there at the time.!!
Just as an aside - Saw George Papavgeris last night at Bromsgrove, he sang a beautiful song about the last nail maker in Bromsgrove, Charlie Troth, got the idea from our local 90 year old historian Bill Kings. Maybe we should get George on to it.


23 Feb 07 - 04:10 AM (#1976780)
Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about the British Motor Industry
From: GUEST, Tom Bliss

I drove a landrover for many a year
But just couldn't get the thing out of first gear
I longed to off-road but I couldn't leave town
Cos it wouldn't go uphill it only went down

So I went to a garage I used to frequent
And told the head salesmen I wanted a Bent(ly)
He found me a banger, all rust and decay
Said customise that and you'll be on your way

I went back to my parents, parked it in the porch
And set to work with my acetaline torch
I added a tailfin, some wings and a jet
And everyone said it's the best Bently yet

I drove it to Paris, to Moscow and Rome
And then I got bored so I drove it back home
Parked it up close on the Landrover's patch
Poured petrol on both and then tossed in a match

I have a much better Landrover now.

(True, I do have a song about Eleanor Thornton, model for the Spirit of Ecstasy, who was on the Persia with her lover Lord Beaulieu when she was torpedoed in the Med in 1016. He survived, she didn't lyrics and mp3)


23 Feb 07 - 04:20 AM (#1976785)
Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about the British Motor Indust
From: Dave Hanson

They called him Tiny Newman because he was so small,
No higher than a lampost, not so broad as he was tall,
His job was fitting motor tyres, he did it with his hands,
And he took some home when his ma made jam, to use for elastic bands.

By Alasdair Clayre as Greg said above.

All I can remember

eric


23 Feb 07 - 05:34 AM (#1976825)
Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about the British Motor Industry
From: Scrump

"Bentley and Craig" by Ralph McTell


23 Feb 07 - 06:33 AM (#1976844)
Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about the British Motor Industry
From: Rasener

Thanks PA

George does a lot of lovely songs. He must have his missus crying all the time listening to them :-)


23 Feb 07 - 07:42 AM (#1976892)
Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about the British Motor Indust
From: Sandra in Sydney

The Charge of the Khaki & Grey from 'Elsie Marley's Mates' by wheeze & Suck Band

9. The Charge of the Khaki & Grey (Ian Macintosh)
Dedicated to the men and women of Morris Motor Works and Pressed Steel Fischer who in my youth poured up and down my street on their bikes twice every working day... Just as our world switched from black and white to technicolour.

Unfortunately neither the words or music are on their site.

The Wheezers are all pommy migrants & some are morris men as well & they make great music.


23 Feb 07 - 08:00 AM (#1976899)
Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about the British Motor Industry
From: GUEST,HughM

Richie Kavanagh does an amusing song about a Morris Minor on his Aon Focal Eile CD. (The reference to a 1940 Commer van isn't strictly correct though: the Commer brand name didn't exist then!)


23 Feb 07 - 07:55 PM (#1977494)
Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about the British Motor Industry
From: Gurney

I have a LP somewhere called 'The Wide Midlands' which features a song called, I think, 'Motor Trade Workers.'

I'm one of the motor trade workers,
we're labelled as loafers and shirkers.
We're crippling the country, the newspapers say
with too low an output and far too much pay
Far too much pay, far too much pay,
with too low an output and far too much pay.

We rise every morning at seven,
and drive to our mechanised heaven,
we drink cans of tea, have a laugh and a crack,
the the half-seven bell rings and off goes the track.....


Our track is a steel overseer,
we pray he'll break down, but no fear!
For his vital organs are swithes and knobs,
and he has us poor working lads sweating great cobs....


There's more, but I'd have to remind myself (old age, you know.)
Does anyone want it?


23 Feb 07 - 08:08 PM (#1977513)
Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about the British Motor Industry
From: mumblin len

Very interesting so far, but not too many songs about motor making - perhaps the factories were so noisy no-one could be heard singing? I still figure there should be more than one or two songs about!

Len


23 Feb 07 - 08:09 PM (#1977515)
Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about the British Motor Indust
From: LukeKellylives (Chris)

England's Motorway (Come me Little Son)


23 Feb 07 - 08:13 PM (#1977519)
Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about the British Motor Industry
From: Girl Friday

Len's other half here. See Tom Bliss has been on. Thanks for that Tom. I got your demo cd this morning- thank you. I'll give it a spin, and see what we can do regards a booking. I need for the club to pick up a bit. Attendances are low at present. Be in touch.

Sue Orpington Friday Folk


26 Feb 07 - 03:57 AM (#1979607)
Subject: ADD: Khaki and Grey (Ian Macintosh)
From: GUEST,The Pump - Wheeze and Suck Band

This is the lyric from 'Khaki and Grey' - my song about the Morris Cowley and Pressed Steel workers - available on the Wheeze and Suck Band album, 'Vincent Street'. Written as an homage to all those people who came to Oxford between the wars and after 1945 to build cars - and to amaze me when I watched them pass as a child, growing up in Cowley.

Khaki and Grey
(Ian Macintosh)

How well I remember to this very day,
Lord Nuffield's army in khaki and grey,
they came to our city fresh back from the war
to build the famed Bull-Nosed Morris, that prince among cars

In rank and in file they swept through our streets,
in their old army raincoats they looked so complete,
With a flask of hot tea and an old 'tommy's' bag
through the cold iron gates for one more daily drag

ch
Come away, come away, come away at the end of the day
we'll away at the end of the day,
we'll roll with tide and ten thousand will ride
at the charge of the khaki and grey,

From all over England and all over wales
from the coal mining valley's and cities and dales,
they hammered they welded they hauled the black tyres
and the pressed steel was gleaming beneath gleaming spires

In war and in peacetime they worked night and day
and they always defended conditions and pay
ten thousand would lift up their hands and they'd shout
"to hell with lord Nuffield it's everyone out!"

ch

but where have the likes of those working men gone?
No more Oxford station rings to the Welsh song.
Brought down by tyhe Tories whome we all oppose,
the factory's a greenfield the iron gate's closed.

But mother I feel something shaking my feet,
the khaki and grey as they roll down our street.
Like the waves on the sea as they crash on the shore
they'll pass and they'll fade and go riding no more.

ch

In winter when oxford is sleeping at night
ten thousand grey spirits will have one more ride.
The old air raid siren gives one last refrain,
and the khaki and grey will go riding again.

ch
Come away, come away, come away at the end of the day
we'll away at the end of the day,
we'll roll with tide and ten thousand will ride
at the charge of the khaki and grey...COME AWAY.


    Please let me know correct songwriter name information. Lacking that, I put in the band name for now. Thanks.
    -Joe Offer-

Here's a note of clarification from Sandra in Sydney:
    Hi, The songwriter of Khaki and Grey is Ian Macintosh, a.k.a. 'The Pump', lead squeezebox in the Wheeze and Suck Band. The album is in fact 'Elsie Marley's Mates', not as erroniously suggested in my last contact, 'Vincent Street'.


26 Feb 07 - 03:53 PM (#1980131)
Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about the British Motor Indust
From: NormanD

Perhaps the best song about car making is "Hard Workin' Man" by Captain Beefheart and Ry Cooder, written by Jack Nitzsche for the film "Blue Collar". It features, as the rhythmic pulse of the song, the thump of pressing machines. The film is set around a car factory. Unfortunately, it's a US film (and song) so probably no good for your collection.

I have an old 45 (somewhere) put out by the Ford shop Stewards Committee (Dagenham) as a fund raiser for one of their big strikes in the 1970s. I'll dig it out and report back.

Norman


13 Jul 07 - 06:09 PM (#2101984)
Subject: ADD: Motor Trade Workers (Don Perrygrove)
From: GUEST,Malcolm Speake

Below are the words for Motor Trade Workers, this was a song written by Don Perrygrove who was a toolmaker at the Austin Car Factory at Longbridge in Birmingham (now no more). I think Don went to Wales and became a university lecturer, and good luck to him I say. You can tell from the words he was pretty pissed off with all the criticism car workers used to get at that time. If you're interested Varner Road was a notorious place for prostitution, these days all the girls operate from so called massage parlors. I think Banner Theatre have sung this number as part of one of their productions.


Motor Trade Workers
(Don Perrygrove)

Oh we are those motor trade workers
We're labelled as loafers and shirkers
We're crippling the country the newspapers say
With too low an output and far too much pay
Far too much pay far too much pay
With too low an output and far too much pay

Each morning we rise around seven
And drive to our mechanised heaven
We drink cans of tea have a laugh and a crack
Then the half-seven bell rings and off goes the track
Off goes the track off goes the track
Then the half-seven bell rings and off goes the track

Our track is a steel overseer
We pray he'll break down but no fear
For his vital organs are switches and knobs
And he has us poor working lads sweating great cobs
Sweating great cobs sweating great cobs
And he has us poor working lads sweating great cobs

We're pressing and turning and milling
We're finishing and trimming and drilling
We paint and wet flat and we rivet and bore
While the foreman walks round like a Varner Road whore
Varner Road whore Varner Road whore
While the foreman walks round like a Varner Road whore

The big banker who's running our nation
Claims we are the cause of stagflation
He sits at his desk on his fat pin stripped arse
While we do the donkeywork he counts the brass
He counts the brass he counts the brass
While we do the donkeywork he counts the brass

Our trade fluctuate with the season
That's mainly the cause and the reason
We organise now and go in with both feet
For tomorrow we may well be walking the street
Walking the street walking the street
For tomorrow we may well be walking the street

Investors and financial backers
Are greedily counting the ackers
That they have procured by a working mans sweat
Then the bastards begrudge us the wages we get
Wages we get wages we get
Then the bastards begrudge us the wages we get

So a word to you wealthy fat Tories
Who dream up those newspaper stories
If it's true what they say and we're all in the stew
Then we're the red peppers the dumplings are you
Dumplings are you dumplings are you
Then we're the red peppers the dumplings are you


16 Jul 07 - 09:05 AM (#2104113)
Subject: ADD: The Ballad of Tiny Newman (Alasdair Clayre)
From: GUEST,Young Buchan

The rest of the Tiny Newman song mentioned by Eric the Red:

THE BALLAD OF TINY NEWMAN
(Alasdair Clayre)

They called him Tiny Newman because he was so small,
No higher than a lampost, not so broad as he was tall,
His job was fitting motor tyres, he did it with his hands,
And he took some home when his ma made jam, to use for elastic bands.

CHORUS:
Where are you Tiny Newman, come rain and hail and snow?
Where are you Tiny Newman when the morning hooters blow?
Turn left at number Fifteen Gate and that's where Tiny stands.
He's got motor tyres all round him and he's fitting them with his hands.


One day there was a powercut – the fuel supply was low.
The engines started running down and the line was creeping slow.
Tiny turned it all by hand and the line went thundering past
Till a copper came and ran him in for driving them all too fast.

One day they brought in a machine to do our Tiny's job.
They said, 'Just pull the lever and press that little knob."
When he pulled the lever the whole machine keeled over on the floor;
When he pressed the knob he clocked himself off in the Pressed Steel works next door.

Scientists from all the world are gathering in crowds
To see why flying saucers keep appearing from the clouds.
They tell you they're phenomena only science understands –
But they're Tiny Newman's rejects going hurtling from his hands.

I never shall forget the day that Tiny Newman died –
The tyres on the Hearse all went and burst from the weight there was in side.
But the off-back door swung open and a voice came from behind
"I'll change these four but no bloody more till we get to the other side."

My scout when I was at Oxford had worked at Morris and swore the bloke was for real!

Clayre wrote another song called The Old Man's Song based on quotes he had from a Morris worker.

    First verse added from Erik's post above, chorus from Buchan's post below. Hope I did it right. -Joe Offer-


16 Jul 07 - 09:14 AM (#2104118)
Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about the British Motor Industry
From: GUEST,Young Buchan

Missed the chorus:
Where are you Tiny Newman, come rain and hail and snow?
Where are you Tiny Newman when the morning hooters blow?
Turn left at number Fifteen Gate and that's where Tiny stands.
He's got motor tyres all round him and he's fitting them with his hands.


16 Jul 07 - 09:22 AM (#2104123)
Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about the British Motor Industry
From: greg stephens

I do wonder if the BBC still have the tapes of the Clayre Radio Ballad(s). Anybody know if there were more than one? The legendary Wymond Symes sang on the Cowley Ballad, but I'm not sure if he sang the Tiny Newman song.
Young Buchan: how do you know those words? You dont have an original recording do you?


16 Jul 07 - 10:34 AM (#2104182)
Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about the British Motor Industry
From: GUEST,Young Buchan

To Greg Stephens: I learnt it from 'A Cold Wind Blows' on which Clayre himself sang it. I had the recording until the last time I moved at which point I suspect it went into the Great Vinyl Press in the sky.

To everyone: I have been trying to remember The Old Man's Song; all I can manage (I never liked it very much) is the last verse:
The young men now they dress so fine;
They don't know how we fought for this line.
They're getting too young to know my face;
And their work comes to me at the Devil's pace.
And I reckon I've served my time.


16 Jul 07 - 11:39 AM (#2104242)
Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about the British Motor Indust
From: Susan of DT

Tiny Newman is in the DT as The Tyre Fitter


31 Aug 07 - 08:02 AM (#2137571)
Subject: ADD: Old Man's Song (Alasdair Clayre)
From: GUEST,Young Buchan

OK. Finally found the words of The Old Man's Song:


The Old Man's Song

(Alasdair Clayre)

When I was young and married my wife
You couldn't get a job to save your life;
With my wife and son at either hand
For two long years I travelled the land:
And I reckon I've served my time.

My shoes were out. My coat was torn.
And then we had our daughter born.
But I found this job and I earned our bread,
Clothes for our back, a roof for our heads:
And I reckon I've served my time.

They were cut-throat years - you were fighting your mate
With another man waiting for your job at the gate.
If the foreman didn't like your face that day
You got no work,you got no pay:
And I reckon I've served my time.

Then we joined the Union and learned to strike.
It was six hard weeks but we won that fight.
Work to our hands and a worthwhile wage _
We were waking up a golden age:
And I reckon I've served my time.

But the young men now they dress so fine;
They don't know how we fought for this line.
They're getting too young to know my face;
And their work comes to me at the Devil's pace.
And I reckon I've served my time.


    Songwriter name added according to informatation posted above. I hope I understood it correctly.
    -Joe Offer-


31 Aug 07 - 08:25 AM (#2137581)
Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about the British Motor Industry
From: Mark H.

The Mini Waltz
Isle of Capri
The Joe VX4/90 Theme
Viva Espana
The Estate I'm In
Bits and Pieces
Shaking All Over
Anything by Van Morrison or Tom Plaxton, or on the Victor label
Derek & the Dominoes: Leyland
Commer Chameleon


31 Aug 07 - 08:50 AM (#2137596)
Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about the British Motor Indust
From: stallion

"Suicide" Bill Newton's "Knackered shock absorber waltz"


19 Sep 07 - 05:50 AM (#2152487)
Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about the British Motor Industry
From: GUEST,Guest

Hi there, this is a message for Greg Stephens :

I saw your above post (dated 16 July 07) about the Cowley Ballad etc.
What really caght my eye was the


19 Sep 07 - 05:58 AM (#2152490)
Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about the British Motor Industry
From: GUEST,Guest: Alan Symes

Message for Greg Stephens:

Hi Greg,
I saw your above post dated 16 July 2007 about the Cowley Ballad etc. What really caught my eye was that you mentioned the name Wymond Symes. Wymond was my father who sadly passed away in 1987. He was a great ballad singer and I would love to hear from you if you have any information on when and where you heard him sing.

Regards from Alan Symes.


20 Sep 07 - 09:22 PM (#2153948)
Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs about the British Motor Industry
From: GUEST

Hi, The songwriter of Khaki and Grey is Ian Macintosh, a.k.a. 'The Pump', lead squeezebox in the Wheeze and Suck Band. The album is in fact 'Elsie Marley's Mates', not as erroniously suggested in my last contact, 'Vincent Street'.


04 Apr 14 - 07:23 AM (#3615239)
Subject: RE: Songs about the British Motor Industry
From: GUEST

Hi Gurney,

while attending Fircroft college in Selly Oak in 1972 I met a guy who allegedly wrote "The Motor Trade Worksrs" - he went under the pseudonym of "Dom Perrygrove". Lyrics exactly as your posting.

Geordie Len


04 Apr 14 - 05:13 PM (#3615398)
Subject: RE: Songs about the British Motor Industry
From: GUEST,Rog Peek

Stephen Roche, a regular attender of sessions and rambling houses around the Sliabh Luachra area sings a very amusing song he wrote about his first car which was a Ford Anglia Deluxe. Afraid I don't have the lyrics.

Rog


04 Apr 14 - 07:02 PM (#3615441)
Subject: RE: Songs about the British Motor Industry
From: Big Al Whittle

Andrew Dwyer wrote a song about making segregated buses for the south African market back in the 1970's.

Andy was a working class brummy kid in an era when being a folksinger meant wearing a granddad shirt and singing about what a bastard it was to die in the Crimean war. abit like now really.

and so winning the melody maker solo folk/rock award for a couple of years running never got him a decent festival spot or any gigs.

when will the folk music world be ready for real folks?


15 Feb 16 - 01:08 PM (#3772921)
Subject: RE: Songs about the British Motor Industry
From: GUEST,Louise Fellows

I have the recording, the record and a book of the song written about my father's Uncle who was Tiny Newman!
I was very excited to find out about it! I am now searching for any more information about him (photographs etc)
Louise Fellows