Swansea and further west

Swansea Docks and railway bridge (c1850)

We were a little thin on the ground again last Friday but with Colin back from his travels and Geoff back at the song-face, we carried on regardless.

Colin returned to his MC's chair and started the evening off with Mary Ann (Roud 4438). Derek suggested that Colin's song was somehow related to Swansea Town (Roud 165). Hold that thought while I delve a little deeper.

Mary Ann seems to be descended from Fare Thee Well / Turtle Dove / Ten Thousand Miles (Roud 422) and MainlyNorfolk suggests that it is Canadian although Roud's references include USA, Canada and Gloucestershire, UK.

Swansea Town gives me more difficulty. We probably all know which song Derek means. The chorus starts "Old Swansea town once more, fine girl". It was easy to find it mentioned here, giving us a Roud number of 165. But Roud lumps is in with Adieu Sweet Lovely Nancy which bears little resemblance to it. The only mention MainlyNorfolk makes of Swansea on its page about Roud 165 is a quote fro a 2013 Dollymopps album saying that they spliced it with Swansea Town, but that is a different song, Roud 1416.

Back to Roud, there are three references to Swansea Town under #165, and all originate from the same performer, William Randall of Hursley, Hants. I'm not sure where this gets us, so I will stop digging for now.

Anyway, the suggested connection of Colin's song with Swansea caused Derek to follow up with Sweet Swansea (Roud 1612).

Simon could be said to have had a tenuous link with Nancy Whisky (Roud 883) and on his next return, Derek continued the alcoholic anthropomorphism with Hollands Gin.

Meanwhile Geoff introduced Paul Simon with Homeward Bound, a songwriter later visited by Colin with El Condor Pasa (Daniel Alomía Robles, Paul Simon, Jorge Milchberg). Derek also skirted around his work with a different version of Roud 12, Child 2 - Strawberry Lane.

We had a debate about the origins of the well known Sloop John B (Roud 15634) when Colin sang Nassau Bound from the singing of Tom Lewis. I don't know about the origin's of Tom's version but it is apparently from the Bahamas and was first published by Richard Le Gallienne in 1916 under the title The John B Sails (here's a link to the original article behind a paywall).

Maybe Colin was looking to follow himself up when he sang the calypso parody (can you have a parody of calypso, which is usually a sort of self-parody?), Gossip Calypso (Trevor Peacock).

Derek remarked that while we had heard a couple of versions of Widecombe Fair (Roud 137) recently, there had been no sign of Dick Wilson. He therefore put that right with this version of the song (or very similar).

Some of Geoff's contributions were decidedly cowboy this week, starting off with The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (Burt Bacharach, Hal David). This led to a discussion of that film and more generally western fiction.We learnt that while Derek and Simon aren't enamoured of the genre, Geoff and Colin certainly are, and that Colin particularly devoured cowboy novels when he was younger.

Derek's response was to recite one verse of American Names by Stephen Vincent Benét:

I shall not rest quiet in Montparnasse.
I shall not lie easy at Winchelsea.
You may bury my body in Sussex grass,
You may bury my tongue at Champmédy.
I shall not be there. I shall rise and pass.
Bury my heart at Wounded Knee.

This was the source for the title of Dee Brown's 1970 book, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West.

More discussion followed Simon's singing of Big Rock Candy Mountain (Roud 6696), which certainly dates back further than Burl Ives' singing. Harry McClintock who was the first to record it, in 1928, claimed to have written the song but some believe that at least aspects of it have existed for far longer. I haven't pursued this any further.

The penultimate song of the evening came from Colin's singing and the pen of former Dragon regular, Richard Gillion. The song, a parody of Roud 146, was Tied Up With A Black Velvet Band. And so, it fell to Derek to finish us off, just like the little pig, going wee, wee, wee all the way home with The Wee Wee Song (Roud 10447).

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

(Number of people present - 4, of whom 4 performed)