They've come to take me away

Ambulance (thanks to anyjazz65)

An interesting session last week had a variety of mini-themes and outliers. Before settling down to a report I must inform you that our St George's Day session has been postponed, so this week's session (20 April) will have no theme and it is next week (27 April), when you are invited to bring all your material relating to England, St George, dragons and anything else that may seem relevant.

Back to last week, there was no official theme but Colin, while efficiently filling his role as MC, took upon himself a theme of songs written by our old friend, Richard Gillion, most of which took superstitions as their subject, it being Friday 13th.

The first of Richard G's songs he sang was Full Of Superstitions. I was challenged to find the source for holding your breath when you see an ambulance until you see a dog. Mike was familiar with touching your collar in such a circumstance. It turns out that the two are combined in a rhyme.

Ambulances are a relatively modern invention, but superstitions about them go back at least as far as 1908. The sight of an ambulance made people fear that they might shortly be in one themselves. You could help the person inside the ambulance by holding your breath and pinching your nose until you saw a black or brown dog. (Over time, the dog gradually was replaced by any four-legged animal.)

You could also avoid the necessity of having a ride in an ambulance by saying a rhyme:

Touch your toes, touch your nose,
Never go in one of those,
Hold your collar, do not swallow
Until you see a dog.

Colin followed up with more superstitious offerings from Richard's pen: Superstition's Game and Over My Shoulder.

Another of Richard's songs from Colin, The Last Thing On Your Mind, seemed to combine with Simon's Memories Of East Texas (Michelle Shocked) as a tribute to Geoff, a former driving instructor, who was present.

Geoff himself pulled several songs from the repertoire of veteran country singer, Kenny Rogers: Coward Of The County (Roger Bowling, Billy Edd Wheeler), Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town (Mel Tillis), The Gambler (Don Schlitz) and Lucille (Roger Bowling, Hal Bynum).

Mike sang the Sailor's Alphabet (Roud 21100), noting that people often incorrectly label it as a sea shanty. It isn't a shanty for two reasons: 1) it says "U is for uniform, mostly worn aft" - shanties were only ever sung by merchant seamen who didn't wear a uniform but in fact this song isn't even from the Royal Navy but from a school teaching pupils the craft of sailing and 2) a shanty, being a work song, must have a steady rhythm, which this song does not.

Simon finished the session with a traditional end of session song: Wild Mountain Thyme (Roud 541, Robert Tannahill, Francis McPeake).

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

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