With or without bangs

Enola Gay on display at the National Air and Space Museum,
Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center
(Photo: Simon Meeds)

Another great evening at the Dragon Folk Club. Having got through the recent part of the festival season unscathed our numbers were indeed swelled. We even had another possible "catch" for the future among the ladies who walked through our room given that their principle toilet is still out of action - I am sure manager Mike is on the case, but these things take time.

Since the session fell on VJ-Day and the previous week's session should have marked the 80th anniversary of the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Colin announced an impromptu, naturally optional, war and anti-war theme, which he kicked off with The sun is burning (Ian Campbell).

Stuart and Carrie gave us two songs in duet: I'll tell me Ma (roud 2649) and Bonnie light horseman (roud 1185).

Simon returned to the anti-war theme with There but for fortune (Phil Ochs) and Rob sang his topical update of Jordan Is A Hard Road To Travel (roud 12153 - Dan Emmett) which he calls The other side of Jordan (Rob Winder).

Denny gave us The shores of old Blighty (Graeme Miles). Her friend and recent dragon recruit, Helen, contributed The rose (Amanda McBroom).

Bob brought along Call me the breeze (J J Cale) while Sue finished the first rotation with Lead Belly's Cotton fields (* roud 11662) - hands up who thought it was a Beach Boys original.

In researching this report I found that Lead Belly travelled with Blind Lemon Jefferson before his (Huddie's) first spell in prison. He was influenced by Jefferson's departures from the blues style which was being established, leading no doubt to his own near-rock'n'roll style of folk before the term was even invented.

I mention this because later in the session Bob sang Jefferson's See that my grave is kept clean (roud 7382). Bob hinted that Jefferson's later years were a mystery. It seems that's not quite true, but that is some uncertainty around his death. According to Wikipedia: "Jefferson died in Chicago at 10:00 a.m. on December 19, 1929, of what his death certificate said was 'probably acute myocarditis'. For many years, rumors circulated that a jealous lover had poisoned his coffee, but a more likely explanation is that he died of a heart attack after becoming disoriented during a snowstorm. Some have said that he died of a heart attack after being attacked by a dog in the middle of the night. In his 1983 book Tolbert's Texas, Frank X. Tolbert claims that he was killed while being robbed of a large royalty payment by a guide escorting him to Chicago Union Station to catch a train home to Texas. Paramount Records paid for the return of his body to Texas by train, accompanied by the pianist William Ezell.

"Jefferson was buried at Wortham Negro Cemetery (later Wortham Black Cemetery) in Wortham, Freestone County, Texas. His grave was unmarked until 1967, when a Texas historical marker was erected in the general area of his plot; however, the precise location of the grave is still unknown. By 1996, the cemetery and marker were in poor condition, and a new granite headstone was erected in 1997. The inscription reads: 'Lord, it's one kind favor I'll ask of you, see that my grave is kept clean.' In 2007, the cemetery's name was changed to Blind Lemon Memorial Cemetery, and his grave-site is kept clean by a cemetery committee in Wortham."

Bob said that See that my grave is kept clean was his second most miserable song. We didn't find out what this blues-man's most miserable song was called, but Colin gave him a good run for his money with a theme-appropriate song which gave me a bit of a run-around. No doubt the song is quite well known, but my search for the words came up with the song's origins as a poem written by Turkish poet Nâzım Hikmet and called Kız Çocuğu (The girl child). In English translation the poem is called Hiroshima child. Joan Baez sings it in the original Turkish here, but Colin sang it as I come and stand at every door (*).

With all that story I will quickly run through the other songs which are new to the Dragon database:

• Stuart - Katie Cruel (* roud 1645), a version of The lightbob's lassie.
• Carrie - Drafted (* Andrew Latimer, Susan Hoover)
• Stuart - Running from home (* Bert Jansch)
• Rob - The gallant frigate Amphitrite (* roud 301)
• Rob - The maid and the palmer (* roud 2335, child 21)
• Helen - Have you ever seen the rain? (* John Fogerty)

Stuart and Carrie finished the session with a pair of songs: The hills of Shiloh (Shel Silverstein, Jim Friedman) and Fresh as a sweet Sunday morning (Bert Jansch).

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

(Number of people present - 9 of whom 9 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 (#).

Something fishy

Fishing smacks in Boston,
Lincolnshire - 1980s
(Photo: Simon Meeds)

We didn't get through quite so many songs last week but that was because there was more chat and that certainly wasn't a problem.

Colin, as MC, started off proceedings with Cam Ye Here Tae Dance (Bob Ferguson), which is unsurprisingly a parody of Cam Ye O'er Frae France (Roud 5814).

Simon followed that with Phil Ochs' There But For Fortune before Derek started a theme of fishing, inspired by a pre-session discussion of freshwater fishing. He began by singing Cod Banging (Roud 1747).

Mike continued the piscatorial theme with Mike Waterson's Three Day Millionaire. Only Derek continued the theme further with Jolly Herring (Roud 128)

An unusual contribution came from Colin in the form of The Court Of King Caractacus, made famous by Rolf Harris. Apparently Colin had obtained the words from The Mucat Café but it seemed to me that Rolf's "... the boys who put the powder on noses on the faces of the ladies..." scanned more easily than Mudcat's "...the boys who powdered the noses on the faces of the ladies...". Anyway, it turns out that the song is older and The King Of Karactacus was first recorded by a music hall duo called Rich and Rich.

Presidential Inauguration

The Mayor of Trumpton

A sadly low turn-out again for last week's session but at least we were five in the first half of the evening and there was some interesting back and forth of ad hoc themes. There was no official theme but this Wednesday is Burns' Night, so this Friday's theme (27 January) is all things Scottish or Burns - your presence is required.

The most popular mini-theme last week was the inauguration of President Trump. Some songs were thought appropriate and others were simply modified to fit. Colin was MC.

Steve C started the evening off with Old Shep (Red Foley). It was the song Elvis Presley sang at his first public performance, aged 10 on 3 October 1945 at the Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show.

Waulking back to happiness

Engraving of Scotswomen singing
while waulking cloth, c. 1770

Unfortunately the main gents toilet was out of order this week, so as happens on such occasions we had quite a lot of traffic through the function room, though most people were respectfully quiet. Of special note were three young lads who Maggie S asked to be quiet; not only were they quiet but Maggie was very impressed that they thanked her for letting them come through.

Not so happy was the traverse of one well oiled individual, who managed to knock over Alan K's guitar. No serious damage appears to have been done and he was profusely apologetic; not only that, but he stayed to hear the first song, and enjoyed it. Will we see him again when he's a little less relaxed?