Valentine's Day 2018

A blindfolded, armed Cupid (1452/66)
by Piero della Francesca

Last week's Dragon Folk Club session was our closest to Valentine's Day, so it was our usual seasonal theme of Love and Lust, a theme which had a very high hit rate. In fact I think that there were only three songs that didn't somehow connect to the theme, but even they were for very good reason.

The first was Derek with what he said was Ewan MacColl's version of Windy Old Weather. This was the completion of his final pair of songs from the previous week's session. I managed to find the lyrics in this document (page 73) but without attribution. I did however manage to find reference to it in relation to a radio programme "Singing the fishing" which was one of the Radio Ballads series (broadcast 16 August 1960, repeated 6 November 1960) which included in its credits Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger.

The other two off-theme songs should really have been admirably on theme. Derek sang The Bold Princess Royal (Roud 528, Laws K29) "On the 14th of February..." and Mike sang a hunting song, Last Valentine's Day (Roud 6475).

Back to the beginning of the evening, MC Colin started us off with Pleasant And Delightful (Roud 660, Laws O30), complete with comedy interjections and actions from Mike and Derek, including a very loud bang on the table from Derek which so startled Mike's dog, Indy, that he jumped up from a lying position in a single, impressive move.

I haven't got time to mention all the songs of love and lust that we went through, so I'll just mentioned a few.

Before singing Dave Paskett's I Couldn't Take My Eyes Off Her, Mike mentioned that Kevin Adams used to sing it and now Tom Mossman does. You will notice that the linked video is indeed Kevin's version as recorded by another friend of the club, Terry Helyar.

Derek sang a rather pleasant song which is perhaps called My Lincolnshire Girl. Simon, who hails from that county, suggested the song wasn't written by a local because "south" wouldn't rhyme with "Louth" (a town in Lincolnshire which people in the region pronounce "lau-uth"). It turned out to have been written by Derek, a man of Suffolk, about his first wife. Thank you for a fine song, Derek!

The finishing off song fell to Simon, who made a faltering start on Wild Mountain Thyme (Roud 541, Francis McPeake) but it was soon picked up by others and proved a rousing end to a fine evening.

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

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