Parodic episodes

Before I start the report on last week's session, can implore you to make an effort, even through the terrible weather, unless of course it is unsafe to do so, to attend this week's session. It is our St David's Day bash, when Welsh themed songs, tunes and other modes of performance are particularly welcome, but anything else will go too. The issue is that we will be without two stalwarts of the club for one week only and particularly with the expected bad weather there is a significant risk that we will turn up short of a quorum and go home without a word being sung or a note played. I know that if two or three of our irregulars, or even newcomers, can find the strength to turn out we can have a great evening, and of course the more the merrier; even audience members are welcome to join us.

Back to last week's session, Colin was MC and he started off the officially unthemed session with Ewan MacColl's Manchester Rambler.

Mike sang The Twenty Fourth Of February (Roud 951) (though totally seasonally singing it as the twenty third - not necessarily customised specifically for the evening because the date in the lyric can vary). The first thing to notice is that the recording I have posted is in Polish but is the closest I could find to the song Mike sings. The second thing is that while it mentions the Princess Royal, it is not the same song as The Bold Princess Royal (Roud 528, Laws K29) which Derek sang the previous week (for "the fourteenth of February"). Roud 951 deals with the Battle of Cádiz, 18-19 December 1669 whereas Roud 528 is about how a mercantile sailing ship rebuffed an attack by a pirate on 21 June 1789. Note that despite their words, neither song is correctly placed in February.

Colin caused me a bit of a challenge in that his theme for the evening seemed to be parody songs, and Derek also followed him along that track. This is a double-edged problem. Firstly, it can be difficult, as with Colin's version of The Cadgwith Anthem (Roud 3314), to tell that it is a parody and then to identify the specific parodic version. Second, many parodies are obscure and therefore difficult to find even as printed lyrics, never mind on YouTube. Here are some I spotted and traced to some extent. Those in the know will realise that the words I found to some of Derek's were in fact cases of him posting the words himself to The Mudcat Café.

• Colin - Greensleeves (The Ice Cream Song)
• Derek - Detroitium, a parody of an American version of Dives And Lazarus (Roud 477, Child 56), which he also sang
• Simon - My Grandfather's Ferret, Derek Jolly's parody of My Grandfather's Clock (Roud 4326, Henry Clay Work)
• Derek - The Bosses From Over The Ocean, a parody of My Bonny Lies Over The Ocean (Roud 1422)
• Geoff - Pattern Shop Blues, a parody of Alan Klein's What A Crazy World (We're living in) - originally performed by Joe Brown. Geoff's song was one he wrote himself during his time as an apprentice working at Newman Industries
• Derek - My Body Has Tuberculosis, another My Bonny... parody
• Colin - The Hippies And The Beatniks (Miles Wooten), a parody of the Raggle Taggle Gypsies (Roud 1, Child 200)
• Derek - The Journey Tae Fyvie (Bill Smith), a parody of The Bonnie Lass O' Fyvie (Roud 545)
• Colin - My Old Man's A Provo (Gerry O'Glacian), a parody of My Old Man's A Dustman (Lonnie Donegan, Peter Buchanan, Beverly Thorn), which in turn was based on a First World War song, My Father Was a Fireman possibly via a prototype Dustman song sung by the troops.

Simon finished off the evening with Poverty Knock (Tom Daniel, Roud 3491).

Here's a selection of songs sung during this session.

(Number of people present - 5, of whom 5 performed)