April Fools, Mothering Sunday and Lady Day 2019

(Photo: Simon Meeds)

This Friday's session (3 April) will have no theme. Colin, our usual MC, will not be present and his place will be taken by Simon. In recognition of this we will declare open season on Colin's repertoire, so please feel free to look back through our blog reports and pick songs he has sung in the past for you to repeat this week. If you don't fancy that then you are at liberty to sing, play, recite or otherwise perform anything you like as long as its acoustic.

Back to last week, Colin was present and MCed. He started us off obliquely on the Mothering Sunday theme. You may know that as well as your own mother, Mothering Sunday is about the church where you were baptised, your mother church, well Colin went one stage further with The Mother Country, which was written down by Benjamin Franklin though it is not known whether he actually composed it.

Derek continued with mothers, choosing The Cruel Mother (Roud 9, Child 20), a song later reprised by Simon in a version from the singing of Rosie Hood. Mike  enquired about Simon's version, Rosie says "Collected from Mary Bond, Quenington, by Alfred Williams, published in Folk Songs of the Upper Thames, 1923. Williams described this song as a ‘fragment’ and I wrote the first two verses based on other versions of this song. This is a particularly damning version with no hint of empathy towards the mother.".

It was Simon who first introduced the April Fool's theme, which is usually interpreted as including nonsense, superstition, good and bad luck, with a version of Riddles Wisely Expounded (Roud 161, Child 1) by the name of Bow Down To The Bonny Broom.

Geoff's first bit of nonsense was Everybody's Rich But Us (Rod McKuen) and Mike went for a more literal interpretation with Martin Said To His Man (Who's The Fool Now?) (Roud 473).

Derek's next song referred to a tradition from the North East of England known as a hoy-oot where a bide and groom leaving church after the wedding would throw a few coins for children to pick up. His song was Hi, Canny Man, written by Harry Nelson.

Apart from singing our songs it is not unusual for us to discuss a wide variety of subjects, sometimes prompted by a song and sometimes not. One discussion on this occasion was why most countries drive on the right hand side of the road while the UK and some others drive on the left. This article: Why do some countries drive on the left and others on the right? seems authoritative and in summary... Historically it made sense in feudal societies to drive on the left because it meant you sword arm, usually your right, was available to strike oncoming traffic if necessary.

As Geoff suggested it seems that large wagons introduced in France and the United States late in the 18th century had no driver's seat, so it was convenient for the driver to sit on the left hand rear horse, putting his right arm in the right place to lash the team. It was then best for other traffic to pass on the left so he could see how close they were, so he kept to the right.

Along the lines that Simon suggested, before the French Revolution, the aristocracy travelled on the left of the road, forcing the peasantry over to the right, but after the storming of the Bastille and the subsequent events, aristocrats preferred to keep a low profile and joined the peasants on the right. Driving on the right was regulated in Paris in 1794.

During the Napoleonic wars, French conquests changed to driving on the right while British territories kept to the left.

The full article includes a lot more detail and some interesting peculiarities.

After much more singing, the evening came to a close with Geoff giving us The Comical Genius.

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

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