Beggars and tinkers

Not a beggar (Photo: Simon Meeds)

While last week's session had no official theme we fairly quickly got into a groove of beggars, tinkers, hawkers and down-and-outs. There will be no theme again this week, but be prepared for Burns' Night the following Friday (24 January).

Colin started us off straight into the theme with When This Old Hat Was New (Roud 1693) although of course he didn't yet realise it would be a theme.

Mike told us that it was forty years since he first met his wife, our good friend Maggie. He met her at a ceilidh where she turned up overdressed for the occasion. His first song was Dave Paskett's I Couldn't Take My Eyes Off Her, which Kevin Adams (see linked video) sang at their wedding and with pretty accurately told the story of their first meeting except the reference to a pizza house, which didn't come into it.

Simon was amazed to come up with a shanty which Mike didn't know, albeit a parody space shanty by Les Barker. The song in question was Ben Kenobi, which Simon had first heard earlier in the week. Mike asked to have the words to sing to the Bristol Shantymen, and Simon obliged.

Derek decided to celebrate the England cricket team's victory in Cape Town by reciting Francis Thompson's poem, At Lords.

Mike was the first to take up the theme of beggars with Let Your Back And Sides Go Bare (Roud V7039) which he knows as "belly boys" from the words of the chorus.

Now I have to admit that Derek's attempt to confuse us with two similar beggar man songs has succeeded even though he explained the situation. It is clear, having confirmed it with "The English and Scottish popular ballads" by Francis James Child, that the two songs in question Roud 118, Child 279 and Roud 119, Child 280 are different. They both tell of a beggar who seduces a farmer's daughter. Child calls the former The Jolly Beggar or The Gaberlunyie-Man (Gerberlunzie is a Scottish term for a licensed beggar), and the latter he calls The Beggar-Laddie.

Both versions are said to be about (and sometimes, bizarrely by) James the Fifth of Scotland who apparently would dress as a beggar in order to observe his subjects. The outcomes of the two are however different since in 280 the king and the girl a married but in 279 they are not.

The problem comes in working out which of Derek's songs was which. The second of his songs in this pair, which started "A beggar beggar come over the lea" closely matches a popular version in terms of YouTube videos at least, which is variously labelled "The Gaberlunzie Man" or "The Jolly Beggar Man", and is therefore presumably Child 279, and Child 280 is most easily identified as Beggar Laddie, most famously sung by Ewan MacColl. The problem is that I heard (perhaps mistakenly) Derek identify his first song as The Gaberlunzie Man.

Colin gave us Tom Paxton's Ramblin' Boy and Mike followed that with The Roving Journeyman (Glasgow version - Roud 360). And so it went on. While not all songs were on this theme, many were to a greater or lesser extent.

The final song of the evening came from Derek and was Leave Her Johnny (Roud 354).

Now listen to a selection of songs sung during this session.

(Number of people present - 4, of whom 4 performed)