Christmas 2024 (Part 2)

The bells of St Paul's Cathedral, London
(Photo: Simon Meeds)

Last week's Dragon Folk Club session was our second Christmas-themed evening, though Simon took the suggested opportunity to base his songs rather on Saint Nicholas' varied patronages. It was great to welcome Stuart and Carrie back to the club with their eclectic mix of songs, which they dredged deep to keep it almost entirely on topic.

Remember that this Friday (27th December) is one of those rare times when we won't be meeting to sing. Despite whispers of possible instability in our venue we hope to be back on 3rd January to welcome in 2025 with a song or thirty. The theme will of course encompass New Year, Twelfth Night, Wassail and anything else that seems appropriate. Failing that the theme is as usual optional and anything goes as long as it's acoustic.

Back to last week, there was a slew of songs new to the Dragon database, though as usual not necessarily new to the club, so I will concentrate on those, marked with an asterisk (*).

In Colin's absence, Simon took on the rôle of MC, asking Carrie and Stuart to start of the evening. They sang two songs together: Sweet bells (roud 936) being the version incorporating much of While shepherds watched recalled from childhood by Kate Rusby; and Kate's own song, Home (*).

Simon reprised Tom Paxton's The Marvelous toy (sic), which he also sang the previous week, but this time with chords which he considered more appropriate than those he had found with a spur-of-the-moment Google.

Paul started of a trend for his singing of the evening with The friendly beasts (*). While the English words were written by Robert Davis in the 1920s, the song seems to have originated in 12th-century France, set to the melody of the Latin song "Orientis Partibus".

While Mary's boy child (Jester Hairston), sung later by Stuart and Carrie, was already in the database, Denny's singing of the Boney M combination of Mary's boy child and O my Lord (* Jester Hairston, Frank Farian, Fred Jay, Hela Lorin) is a new entry. As fans and detractors of Boney M know, Frank Farian was not only the writer of most of the group's songs, and the producer who brought them together, but was the singer of most of the male parts with dancer Bobby Farrell lip-synching in the videos.

Carrie reminded us of Raymond Briggs' book The Snowman and the film of the same name by singing its song, Walking in the air (* Howard Blake).

Paul gave us March of the kings (*), a Christmas carol of provençal origin celebrating the Epiphany and the Wise Men. Recognition of the theme spread outside Provence when Georges Bizet used it in his incidental music for Arlésienne. The lyrics are regularly attributed to Joseph-François Domergue (1691–1728). In the 21st century, several American scholars have suggested that the March of the Kings has a medieval origin dating back to the 13th century. It could then be one of the oldest Christmas carols listed with Veni redemptor gentium and one of the first entirely composed in vernacular, and not in Latin.

Denny sang It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas (* Meredith Willson) which Carrie followed with A spaceman came travelling (* Christopher Davison, which is Chris de Burgh's real name) and Stuart performed Blue Christmas (* Billy Hayes, Jay W Johnson).

Carrie sang Serving girl's holiday (*) which is a traditional song, performed by Maddy Prior and Tim Hart, and later by Kate Rusby, but I've drawn a blank on any more information about it.

Paul left his ancient French carol phase and went for Here comes Santa Claus (* Gene Autry, Harriet Melka, Oakley Haldeman) and his next song was Jingle bells (* roud 25804 - James Lord Pierpont).

Denny channelled her inner Ella Fitzgerald by singing Santa Claus got stuck (in my chimney) (William D Hardy, William "Billy" Moore Jr).

Stuart found the words of Calyspo carol (* Michael Perry) hidden among his music. He hadn't thought of the song much less sung it for years. It is often thought to be a traditional folk carol from the West Indies, but in fact the writer is an Englishman who wrote the song while he was a student at Oak Hill Theological College in 1964. Perry became one of the UK's leading contemporary hymn writers, but the Calypso Carol remained his most popular work. Perry originally wrote the song for a college carol concert, and it only became famous by accident. Cliff Richard was hastily assembling a selection for radio, and included the song to replace a missing recording. It gained popularity and was included in the 1969 songbook Youth Praise 2.

Denny sang John Lennon and Yoko Ono's Happy Xmas (war is over) (*) and it was also Denny who finished the session off with Ding dong merrily on high (* roud 46420 - George Ratcliffe Woodward)

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

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