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| Photo: Simon Meeds |
The fact that the ladies' toilet wasn't working again was a mixed blessing. On the one hand there was a constant trickle of women walking though our room - all respectful, which was nice - but on the other we got to enjoy a song from our pub-local friend Allie, and we met another young lady who was very complimentary about our singing and who it seems may drop in on us again for a proper visit, perhaps even bringing along her mother who is a morris dancer. We were able to send both of our valued visitors away with our branded beer-mats to remind them to come back.
Colin, MC as usual, started us off with Smith of Bristol, which is included in Dominic Behan's "Ireland sings: An anthology of modern and ancient Irish songs and ballads" (Dominic Behan)
One source claims that the origins of 'Smith of Bristol' can be traced back to the 17th century in Bristol, England. It was a popular sea shanty often sung by sailors and workers in the ports of Bristol. The song was originally known as 'Spanish Ladies' and was believed to be a traditional English folk song. However, in the 19th century, it was given the name 'Smith of Bristol' by the famous British song collector, William Chappell. The song gained popularity during the 19th and 20th centuries as it was sung by sailors on their long voyages. It was also a favorite among naval officers, and it is said that it was sung by the crew of the HMS Beagle during Charles Darwin's voyage.
Simon's first song of the evening was Dolly Parton's Love is like a butterfly.
Given the small number of people present I will keep this fairly brief.
Colin's second song, was the first of two sung on the evening that is new to the Dragon database: The Chastity Belt (*). It was included in a musical revue called "Wait a Minim!" (1962-68) with original songs by Jeremy Taylor and listed as "Opening Knight". On the album of the show it is credited to Andrew Tracey, Paul Tracey, Jeremy Taylor. They may have written it or, it seems, may have obtained it as a joint effort between the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, the tune coming from Oxford.
On one of Allie's visits to the reserve ladies toilet she gave us her party piece of Here come the navvies (Ian Campbell). We already knew that Allie plays the saxophone (soprano I think), but we learnt that she also keeps bees.
The second new entry to the Dragon database came from Colin, and is a version of The mermaid (roud 124, child 289) sometimes called 'Twas in the broad Atlantic (* James Thomson, David Mallet) or Married to a mermaid.
In 1740, Thomson collaborated with Mallet on the masque Alfred which was first performed at Cliveden, the country home of Frederick, Prince of Wales. Thomson's words for "Rule, Britannia!", written as part of that masque and set to music by Thomas Arne, became one of the best-known British patriotic songs – quite distinct from the masque which is now virtually forgotten. The Prince gave him a pension of £100 per annum. In 1751 Mallet re-used the text of "Rule, Britannia!", omitting three of the original six stanzas and adding three new ones by Lord Bolingbroke, to form the repeated chorus of the comic song "Married to a Mermaid". This became extremely popular when Mallet produced his masque "Britannia" at Drury Lane Theatre in 1755.
We finished the session with a traditional closing song, led by Simon, Wild mountain thyme (Francis McPeake).
Now listen to a selection of songs sung during this session.
(Number of people present - 3 of whom 3 performed)
In the above report songs new to the Dragon database (though no always new to the club) are marked with an asterisk (*) and any songs not included in the "a selection" playlist are marked with a hash (#).
