Valentine's Day 2023

It was a really useful turn-out at last week's Dragon Folk Club session. The official theme was Valentine's Day, Love and Lust. While there was plenty of that in our songs, there were also some interesting groups of songs so that is what this report will focus on.

Colin, taking his usual role of MC, started us off with Liverpool Judies (roud 928).

John B continued with The Rose (Amanda McBroom). This song featured in the film of the same name which was loosely based on the life of Janis Joplin. The film follows a self-destructive rock star in the late 1960s who struggles to cope with the pressures of her career and the demands of her ruthless business manager.

Geoff's first of the evening was The Lakes of Ponchartrain (roud 1836, laws H9). The song is about a man who is given shelter by a Louisiana Creole woman. He falls in love with her and asks her to marry him, but she is already promised to a sailor and declines. It is set on the shores of the major estuarine water-bodies of the Pontchartrain Basin, including lakes Maurepas, Pontchartrain, and Borgne.

Simon's Bonnie Ship the Diamond (roud 2172) tells of whalers leaving the port of Peterhead in Aberdeenshire, Scotland for the whaling grounds near Greenland, later returning to port to be greeted by their sweethearts and wives.

Sue gave us I Will (Paul McCartney). Like numerous other Beatles songs, this was credited to Lennon-McCartney, but we now know that many of them were actually written by one or the other.

Geoff gave us two songs from the singing of Waylon Jennings: Amanda (Bob McDill) and Wrong (Steve Seskin, André Pessis).

John B sang two songs from Bob Dylan: One too many mornings and Marchin' to the city.

We had two songs from the singing of the Carter Family. For the first, John B sang Will the Circle Be Unbroken? (roud 3409) though strictly speaking the linked version is A.P. Carter's reworking of the original Ada R. Habershon and Charles H. Gabriel song into "Can the Circle Be Unbroken (By and By)". The second Carter song was Bob's Bear Creek Blues which was actually written by A. P. Carter.

Colin sang Ruby Tuesday (Keith Richards, Mick Jagger) which was covered by Melanie Safka. This inspired John B to follow on with another Melanie song: What have they done to my song Ma (Melanie Safka, HM Saffer II).

I wondered whether Geoff might follow up with Brand New Key (Melanie Safka), but he didn't; instead singing Cheryl's Goin' Home (Bob Lind), a response to Simon's earlier Elusive Butterfly (Bob Lind), the former being the B-Side of the latter on the 7" original single.

We also had a pair of Joe Brown songs with Sue singing I'll see you in my dreams (Isham Jones, Gus Kahn) and Geoff giving us A Picture of you (John Beveridge, Peter Oakman).

Simon finished off the session with the rousing When all men sing (Keith Scowcroft, Derek Gifford).

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

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

Strange times

Coventry Cathedral's Chapel of Christ in Gethsemane seen through
a crown of thorns made from iron (Photo:Simon Meeds)

There will be no Dragon Folk Club Session this Friday or until further notice because of government advice relating to the CORVID-19 pandemic. We will use all the usual channels to keep people informed when we reopen.

Last Friday's session involved just the core members and there was no theme. Colin kicked things off with Steve Knightley's Galway Farmer, partly because it was the last day of Cheltenham Festival and partly because Mike likes it.

Simon had been carrying Harry Robertson's Wee Dark Engine Room (the words that is, not the room nor the stove) around with him since St David's day since "whales", "coal" and "gold" all provided very tenuous links. He didn't sing it then, so he brought it out now.

Geoff's first song of the evening was the The Lakes Of Ponchartrain (Roud 1836, Laws H9) and Mike gave us Keith Marsden's Bring Us A Barrel.

Derek said he had looked down the listings of Radio 4's Sunday programmes and noted that the theme of the Sunday Worship programme was "The Woman at the Well of Living Water", which he interpreted as "The widow at the well". He hoped therefore to find something of interest, maybe a performance by a traditional singer? He was disappointed to find that the hymns would be "I heard the voice of Jesus say" and "Tell out my soul". He made up for this omission by singing The Well Below The Valley (Roud 2553, Child 21).

Colin pointed out that it was the sixteenth anniversary of the death of Sydney Carter, and therefore sang three songs written by him: My Last Cigarette, Crow On The Cradle, and The Ballad Of George Fox.

Geoff added some brightness to proceedings with UK one hit wonder, Jerry Keller's Here Comes Summer.

Derek was meanwhile going for a body count. He claimed a million from a song which seems to be related to the Whiffenpoof Song and Kipling's Gentlemen Rankers, but is neither of those - similar in some ways to though Gunboat Sailors which is also derived from them.

Anyway, back on the body count, his research suggested adding about 300,000 from The Bonny Bunch Of Roses (Roud 664, Laws J5).

Mike also claimed a large body count, though at the time of singing he wasn't aware of the game, from The Battle Of Sowerby Bridge. He claimed indeed that it was the anniversary of the battle but the song claims it was on the 44th March! The historical event however seems to have occurred on 4th January 1644.

Simon's poor effort added only two bodies (not really a laughing matter) with Bob Geldof's I Don't Like Mondays. Recently retired teacher, Derek pointed out that this song didn't resonate with him in quite the way it had done when it was sung previously.

Mike continued to unwrap the body bags with his own song, Away To The Western Front. He claimed all the deaths at the front in the First World War. It was then suggested that he might add all those who died subsequently in the Spanish Flu pandemic, started as it was among the soldiers - and incidentally had nothing to do with Spain or the Spanish.

Geoff's voice took us for a tour of his boots, much to Mike's delight since his voice is always happiest in the depths, singing Wandr'in' Star (Alan J Lerner, Frederick Loewe). Finally, it was Mike who finished the evening off with Roll Alabama Roll (Roud 4710).

Keep safe in these strange times. Look after yourself and keep singing, even if it's only to yourself.

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

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