Dates for your diary

PC King on a 1972 Norton Commando
(Photo: Simon Meeds)

We had a great little session last week at the Dragon Folk Club despite the absence of a few regulars. Before I mention what we sang there is an important news item to cover.

The autumn/winter theme season is here when many of our sessions have optional themes. Remember that where there isn't a theme there is still a session unless otherwise noted, and also that the themes are always optional; as usual at the Dragon Folk Club, anything goes as long as it's acoustic.

2024 Autumn/Winter theme season

18th October - Harvest

1st November - Halloween

8th November - Bonfire Night / Guy Fawkes / Campfire

15th November - Armistice / Remembrance / War / Anti-war

29th November - St Andrew's Day / Scotland / St Andrew

13th December - Christmas theme

20th December - Christmas theme left-overs

27th December - **No session**

Yes, 27th December is one of those very rare Fridays when there is no Dragon Folk Club session. We should be back on 3rd January 2025 - watch this space for the latest.

Back to last week's session, we had a notable number of songs new to the Dragon database, though not necessarily new to the club. They are indicated in this report with an asterisk (*).

Colin, as the regular MC, started the session with Streets of London (Ralph McTell). Simon followed with Cyril Tawney's Sally free and easy, and Denny completed the first rotation with Mountains of Mourne (Percy French).

The first song new to the database came from Colin who sang Shalom chaverim (*) in several languages including English, Hebrew and Arabic. The title means "Peace, friends" and it is a Hebrew round. It is traditional, with unknown origin, possibly going back to the Habonim Labor Zionist Youth movement. The song expresses wishes for peace and well-being for a farewell, but has often been used advocating for peace.

This set off a flurry of anti-war songs, a dangerous ploy with our Remembrance-themed session just around the corner. This sub-theme included:

• Colin - H-bomb's thunder (* John Brunner)
• Denny - Cuddle against the war (* Nancy Nicolson)
• Simon - Jimmy Spoons (Mike Harding)

Colin sang Wayward wind (* Herb Newman, Stanley Lebowsky) which was first recorded by Gogi Grant in 1955.

Colin sang British Bobby (* DaveTurner) or rather Fred Wedlock's version of it which replaced Dave's home of Hyson Green, a neighbourhood in Nottingham, with Redland Green, a park in the Bristol suburb of Redland. Fred met Dave in the mid-70s on the folk circuit. "He stayed with me when he played in Bristol and I'd stay at his flat above a launderette in Hyson Green when I played in Nottingham." Fred added: "He wrote some very funny songs and he was a lovely, friendly, generous, gentle bloke. And a bit of a hippy, really."

Colin also gave us Windmills of your mind (*), first recorded in 1968 by English actor Noel Harrison after Andy Williams passed on it. The tune was written by French composer Michel Legrand. I remembered that it is a French chanson, and indeed the song is Les Moulins de mon cœur in French, the words written by French songwriter Eddy Marnay and first recorded by Marcel Amont, however it seems that the English words were written first which surprised me.

I'm drawn to Colin again for The Bristol slaver (*), written by Steve Knightley from whose songbook Colin often draws. Steve's song material often comes from Cornwall, but on this occasion we have lots of local references, particularly to Clifton.

It was Colin again who gave me interesting grounds for research with Wadham's song. It was written by a man called Wadham in 1756 as a pilot verse, giving directions to possibly functionally illiterate seamen navigating around Newfoundland between Bonavista and Notre Dame Bay. It was placed on record at the Admiralty’s Court in London shortly after it was first composed and was considered the best coasting guide for that part of Newfoundland to which it refers. Some people believe that such verses were recited rather than sung, and others that they were sung to popular tunes. Stan Hugill quotes Wadham's Song to the tune of I'll tell me Ma.

Closing the evening fell to Simon who sang Stan Rogers' Northwest Passage.

Now listen to a selection of songs sung during this session.

(Number of people present - 3 of whom 3 performed)

Farewell to Kris

Kris Kristofferson in 1978

Last week's session of Dragon Folk Club saw a welcome return for slightly more than occasional visitor Rob, and Denny brought us encouraging news of Paul after his very recent operation.

Colin started off the session with a rendition of Me and Bobby McGee, written by Kris Kristofferson and Fred Foster, no doubt in memory of the recently deceased Kristofferson who originally performed this popular song. Rob told us that while in the vicinity of Salinas, CA, which is a location mentioned in the song, he felt compelled to visit. He didn't find much there, but he will always remember a large sign proclaiming it the "Artichoke Capital of the World". According to Wikipedia that title is claimed by Castroville, but given that the two towns are less than ten miles apart, which would be considered as nothing in the USA, we'll let it go.

Simon referred to the county of his birth with John Sykes' The Lincolnshire Song.

Rob followed with The Keeper: not the traditional roud 1519, but a song written by Steve Knightley.

Denny said on her recent visit to see him in hospital, Paul had managed to sing Peggy Gordon (roud 2280), so she followed his example, asking everyone to join in in the style of a ventriloquist.

Sue was the first to add a new title to the Dragon database, perhaps in this case, but not always new to the club, with I wake up every morning with a smile on my face (* Boxcar Willie). As usual, I will mark new entries to the database with an asterisk (*).

Bob completed the first rotation with Bear Creek Blues (A P Carter).

Colin brought some jollity to the proceedings with Miles Whooton's The fishfinger song (*).

Bob has several strings to his bow, and ballads make up one of them. Drawing on that string he gave us The heir of Linne (* roud 111, child 267).

Sue sang some of her own songs, which are not available on YouTube and therefore not included in the playlist linked below from "a selection". These were: Recycled teenager, A chilly song,  and She was 73.

Denny's song, Wayhill Fair is another that eludes YouTube. It is closely related to Weyhill Fair (roud 1086) and the different spelling isn't significant. They share a tune and have similar structure, but the traditional one is purely about horses at the fair while the one sung apparently by The South Bank Grunters goes more off-piste in its descriptions of the fair.

Colin gives us Cheerily man (*). Apparently Rob was also considering singing it, and they discussed what Stan Hugill apparently described as "probably the most primitive, and one of the oldest of all these heaving and hauling songs of the sea. It was obscene to a degree and most versions have had to be camouflaged". Colin had sung a very much cleaned-up version.

Rob sang his own song, The sailor's return (Rob Winder). Denny commented on its passing similarity to Dorset is beautiful (Bob Gale) sung by The Yetties and The Wurzels. Although Rob accepted that some of his writing may be influenced by existing songs, he didn't seem to be aware of that song. Denny and Simon gave a quick rendition of the chorus to illustrate the point.

Denny sang a song not on YouTube, and that is The pickled herring man (*) by Cathy Wallis. The chorus has the man selling silver (herring) to buy gold (whisky).

Rob's next two songs were Bonnie laddie, hieland laddie (* roud 2330) and Farewell, farewell (* Richard Thompson), both of which were new to the database. Farewell, farewell was written by Thompson after Fairport Convention's van crashed on the way home from a gig in Birmingham killing his girlfriend Jeannie Franklyn and the band's drummer, Martin Lamble.

Uke player Sue sang Making love, ukulele style (Paul Weirick, Charles R Hayes), a song recorded by Dean Martin.

Colin asked Rob to finish off the evening, which he did with Hand me down my walking cane (roud 11733).

Now listen to a selection of songs sung during this session.

(Number of people present - 6 of whom 6 performed)

Novelty without novelty songs (this time)

(photo: Simon Meeds)

It was great to see the return of Stan to last week's Dragon Folk Club session. We haven't seen him for a while and he had been missed. You will note that I have added to the tally of those present two non-singers. These were a couple of ladies who joined us for most of one of Paul's songs and while not entirely engaged with the folk club etiquette, they were very appreciative, so they have been counted.

Colin started off the session with Steve Cropper and Otis Redding's Sittin' on the dock of the bay, which according to the Dragon database may well have only previously been sung at the club by Keith G as Colin recalled.

Stan scored the first new song of the evening for the Dragon database (though not necessarily new to the club), all of which are marked in this report with an asterisk (*). It was I'll remember you (* Kui Lee). Stan recalled Elvis Presley's recording, but it was written by Lee who was an American singer-songwriter. Lee began his career in the mainland United States while performing as a dancer. Upon his return to Hawaii he worked in clubs. At the Honey club, he met Don Ho, who popularized Lee's compositions. Ho's fame made Lee a local success in Hawaii. Multiple artists then covered his song "I'll Remember You".

Paul gave us Adieu sweet lovely Nancy (roud 165) and Denny sang Icy acres (Colin Wilkie). Denny said she had sung this song that very morning while taking her customary dip in the Clevedon Marine Lake which was two degrees (celsius) colder than on her previous visit. Colin challenged her that she might instead have sung Ee by gum (but I'm cold) (John Meeks, Colin Radcliffe, Eddie Crotty) and indeed he went on later to sing it himself.

Simon finished off the first rotation with Graham Moore's Tom Paine's bones.

Stan was definitely hot on new songs for the database, and his next was In dreams (* Roy Orbison). He continued his run of novelty with Strawberry roan (* roud 3239 - Curley Fletcher). For an extra piece of trivia, did you know that current singing star Chappell Roan (real name Kayleigh Rose Amstutz) took her stage name from her grandfather's surname and this, his favourite song?

Simon, who was not present the week before, suggested that he might have honoured the visitors from Pennsylvania with Mark Knopfler's Sailing to Philadelphia.

Colin broke Stan's run with his first contribution to the database: The Sandgate dandling song (* roud B24532 - Robert Nunn) on which the better-known Liverpool lullaby (Stan Kelly) was based - and so it crossed from the North East of England to the North West.

Paul sang Cicely Fox Smith's poem, Homeward to Sarah Morgan's tune and Denny seemingly challenged Colin, keeper of the official club record, with the title of the excellent (in my view) Rap her to bank (roud 1786).

Colin sang forth in Spanish for Guantanamera (* Joseíto Fernández, José Martí) and was followed by Stan with Scott Walker's hit song, Lights of Cincinatti (Tony Macaulay, Geoff Stephens).

Colin brought us the self-referencing Alan Price with his Jarrow Song (*). Of course the rappers of recent decades think nothing of mentioning themselves in a song, but this practice goes back further than Price and at least to Bo Diddley, possibly much further. Any suggestions of earlier examples are welcome. I'm sure there must be plenty from Music Hall and Vaudeville, and probably from the blues.

Stan came back in with Gonna get along without ya now (* Milton Kellem). I considered linking the first known recorded version by Roy Hogsed in 1951. Hogsed was born in a city which goes by the delightful name of "Flippin, Arkansas". The problem with linking this version was that it is barely recognisable as the same song as that sung in the version Stan referred to by Trini Lopez. Oh, go on, here is that first known recorded version.

We had a neat little, unintentional connected pair with Stan's I'll get over you (* Richard Leigh) from the singing of Crystal Gayle, followed by Paul's rendition of Fathom the bowl (roud 880) "There’s a clear crystal fountain near England shall roll".

Stan's and everyone's last "new" song of the evening was Sam Cooke's You send me (*). He went on to give us a precursor to the death three days later of Kris Kristofferson with Kris' song, I'd rather be sorry.

The last song of the evening came from Paul and was Farewell shanty. We don't expect to see Paul for a while since he's off to get some maintenance done, but it's not farewell, rather we hope he will be back and in fine voice in the not too distant future.

In the meantime we are back at the same time and place every Friday, so we really look forward to seeing you and ideally hearing you there.

Now listen to a selection of songs sung during this session.

(Number of people present - 7 of whom 5 performed)

A dollop of ketchup

(AI image by Stable Diffusion)

This Dragon Folk Club report is a bit different to the usual. It's what Iain Tyrrell calls a "ketchup", his jokey way of introducing a catch-up on his YouTube channel. The reason for this ketchup is that I was away for a couple of weeks recently and didn't write reports. I'm not going to go back and write full-scale reports for the missing weeks, but I did want to credit a few things, mainly an occasional visit and all the songs that were sung and new to the Dragon database - though as usual, not necessarily new to the club.

6th September 2024

It was good to see that occasional visitor Malcolm swelled the ranks. These are the songs from the evening that were new to the database, not in the order sung:

• Denny - Half past eleven square (Cicely Fox Smith)
• Malcolm - Ev'ry time we say goodbye (Cole Porter)
• Malcolm - Minstrel of dawn (Gordon Lightfoot)
• Malcolm - Slate grey (Malcolm Perrett)
• Sue and Bob - God put a smile upon your face (Christopher Anthony John Martin, Guy Rupert Berryman, Jonathan Mark Buckland, William Champion)
• Sue - Killing me softly with his song (Charles Fox, Normal Gimbel, Lori Lieberman)
• Sue - Puttin' on the style (Dawes-Hughes)

Now listen to a selection of songs sung during this session.

(Number of people present - 6 of whom 6 performed)

13th September 2024

MC Colin was on his own for this one - it happens occasionally. As is his wont on these occasions, he drifted well off the folky piste at times, but then we often do that at the Dragon. These are the songs he sang that were new to the database:

• From a distance (Julie Gold)
• Tim Evans (roud V32851 - Ewan McColl)
• Suicide is painless (Mike Altman, Johnny Mandel)
• Hava nagila
• It must be love (Labi Siffre)
• Pictures of Lily (Pete Townshend)
• Sunny afternoon (Ray Davies)
• Hymn for nations (Josephine Daskam Bacon, Ludwig van Beethoven)
• If I had a hammer (the hammer song) (Pete Seeger, Lee Hays)
• Breme (the long way home) (Steve Knightley)
• Which side are you on? (roud 15159 - Florence Reece)
• Three acres and a cow (roud 24484)
• Heave away my Johnny (roud 616)
• When this old hat was new (roud 1693)

Now listen to a selection of songs sung during this session.

(Number of people present - 1 of whom 1 performed)