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| Photo: Simon Meeds |
Colin himself started us off with Yankee Doodle (* roud 4501). There are plenty of stories about the origin and meaning of this song.
The Macaroni wig ("called it macaroni") was an extreme fashion in the 1770s and became slang for being a fop. Dandies were men who placed particular importance upon physical appearance, refined language, and leisure hobbies. A self-made dandy was a British middle-class man who impersonated an aristocratic lifestyle. They notably wore silk strip cloth and stuck feathers in their hats. In British conversation, the term "Yankee doodle dandy" implied unsophisticated misappropriation of upper-class fashion, as though simply sticking a feather in one's cap would transform the wearer into a noble.
Roger stayed firmly on the appropriate side of the Atlantic with Banks of the Ohio (roud 157, laws F5).
Paul brought to mind the author of Innocent when you dream (Tom Waits) before Denny gave us Row on (roud 2084), the words of which were found in the 1846 logbook of the Nantucket Whaler, "The Three Brothers". It was a transcription of a poem from GPR James' 1844 "Arabella Stuart: A Romance from English History". It has been said that it was written in part in memory of the crew members of the "Essex", sunk by a sperm whale in 1820, but this is thought to be unlikely. The crew of 20 of the Essex were in rowing boats for 95 days. Eight survived.
Simon completed the first rotation with The night they drove old Dixie down (Robbie Robertson).
Roger introduced a number of new songs to the dragon database, the first being It never rains in Southern California (* Albert Hammond, Mike Hazlewood).
It's not a serious aim or competition, but we do maintain a record of the number of songs sung at a Dragon Folk Song session. On the face of it at 41 performances, this evening was doing well, but nothing remarkable. However, Roger put the cat among the pigeons by singing and playing two medleys. The first combined four songs and the second included six. This could be said, arguably, to bring the total for the evening to 49. There is however no need to bring out the umpires to make a special decision, because the current record stands at 50.
Roger's first medley incorporated: Blue moon of Kentucky (* Bill Monroe), Today's teardrops (* Gene Pitney, Aaron Schroeder), Oh boy (Sonny West, Bill Tilghman, Norman Petty), and Hello Mary Lou (* Gene Pitney, Cayet Mangiaracina).
On a roll, Roger's second medley combined Folsom prison blues (Johnny Cash), Freight train (Elizabeth Cotten), Last train to San Fernando (* Sylvester DeVere, Randolph Padmore, Mighty Dictator), Worried man blues (roud 4753), Runaway train (roud 9859), and Six-five special (* Don Lang and His Frantic Five).
Colin finished the session with Keep your lamp trimmed and burning (roud 10433).
Now listen to a selection of songs sung during this session.
(Number of people present - 5 of whom 5 performed)
In the above report songs new to the Dragon database (though no always new to the club) are marked with an asterisk (*).
