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| "Pop" by Simon Meeds (c1995) |
Colin, back in harness as MC, started the evening off with The Day We Went To Rothesay O' (Roud 2142). Simon had brought several appropriate songs with him but he only managed to sing one before they were sung by others and that was Peggy Seeger's Come Fill Up Your Glasses.
Derek of course was well supplied with themed songs, starting his contribution with An Orkney New Year's Carol (Roud 4584), and Mike completed round one with Dave Goulder's The January Man.
Colin's next seasonal song was Si Kahn's New Year's Eve.
I hinted at the top of this report that all was not straightforward with the theme this week. In discussion before we started the evening's musical proceedings, Derek mentioned an issue he had recently with Amazon. Apparently he had ordered and received a digital distribution of a song but the payment had not gone through because of an expired payment card. The upshot was that he had the song but was now persona non grata with Amazon, having failed to pay. He was willing to pay but only after protracted negotiations with Amazon customer support was a way found by which he could pay for the product. This story led to other stories being told of delivery issues with Amazon, some even resulting in happy outcomes. This in turn led to a sub-theme of songs which either mentioned "Amazon" or could be mangled so to do.
The first contributor was Derek, who sang John Newton's Amazing Grace (Roud 5430) mangled as "Amazon Grace". Mike also get's a mention here because when Derek ran out of words after one or two verses, it was he who led us in communal singing of two or three more. Derek asked whether Mike had a Methodist upbringing, and that led to another tale.
When Mike was a small boy, a member of his family had Scarlet Fever, which was still a killer. His family was therefore quarantined, not allowed out of the house, and having groceries delivered to the garden gate, for some time. He missed school and of course the family was unable to attend church. By the time the curfew was lifted it was almost Christmas and the first church event the family attended was a Christmas party at which one of the ladies of the parish was heard by Mike's grandmother to say to the vicar that these people hadn't been to church for ages and then they turn up only when there is food available. What's more, she noticed that the vicar did not put the lady right, and so she decided the whole family would transfer its allegiance to the Methodist Chapel which was the only other place of worship in the village.
Mike continued the seasonal theme with Richard Thompson's We Sing Hellelujah and Colin gave us The End Of Another Year (Bob Zentz).
Meanwhile Derek had slipped a note to Simon suggesting that he sing a slightly modified version of Mark Knopfler's Sailing To Philadelphia where the chorus would refer to the "Amazon Dixon Line". Simon said he would have sung Michelle Shocked's Ballad Of Patch Eye And Meg, which legitimately mentions the Amazon, but he didn't have the words and chords to hand, so he complied with Derek's request.
Back to the main business of the evening, Derek sang The Miner's Dream Of Home (Will Godwin, Leo Dryden - Roud 1749).
Mike sang Down The Road (Bill Staines), adding a verse about Amazon deliveries. He went on to explain that he was once involved as a group of singers, including Mike himself and Johnny Collins (see the linked recording) were passing the song around, each singing a verse. Mike got a bit bored with this and started inventing verses, some of which have stuck in the version he sings, though the Amazon one was not of course one of those but was made up on the spot just now.
Here is a list of further songs sung which fitted either the New Year (or thereabouts) or Amazon theme:
- Colin - Carol For New Year's Day
- Derek - Kind Country Lovers (Roud 3483) - for Twelfth Night
- Mike - Rolling Down To Rio (Rudyard Kipling, Edward German) - "I've never seen the Amazon..."
- Colin - The Saint Stephen's Day Murders (Paddy Moloney, Elvis Costello)
- Colin - Cornish Wassail (Roud 209)
- Colin - The Shamrock And The Thistle (Hamish Henderson) - based on a collected fragment of a song collected on an Irish ferry
Lest I appear hoist by my own petard in listing Colin's contribution as Cornish Wassail having challenged the labelling of The Gower Wassail only a couple of weeks ago, it appears there are two distinct songs labelled as Cornish Wassails, the other being this.
The last song of the night was provided by Derek. I have been unable to find it. Derek says it was written by Ian Campbell and I believe I detected that is was sung to the tune of The Spinning Wheel (John Francis Waller) but it was about someone prematurely celebrating what initially appeared to be a big win on the football pools.
Please come and join us this Friday. There is no pressure of a theme and indeed if you just want to sit and listen while sipping a drink and maybe contribute to the general chat, that would be fine by us.
Now listen to a selection of songs sung during this session.
(Number of people present - 4, of whom 4 performed)
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