January Folksong: I've Been Everywhere - Aussie Version

So how many of these places have you been to??

Folksong: Will Ye Go, Lassie, Go?

This is one of my favourite Scottish folksongs I remember growing up with. I always knew it as Will Ye Go, Lassie, Go but it's also called Wild Mountain Thyme and Blooming Heather.
I like the first video because it has a lovely folky feel and uses the double bass, violin & cellos as an accompaniment but the singer is a pom! I thought I should add a Scottish version which happens to be more upbeat and not such a folky feel, but I still like it.




Oh the summertime is coming
And the trees are sweetly blooming
And the wild mountain thyme
Grows around the blooming heather
Will ye go, Lassie go?

And we'll all go together
To pluck wild mountain thyme
All around the blooming heather
Will ye go, Lassie go?

I will build my love a bower
Near yon' pure crystal fountain
And on it I will build
All the flowers of the mountain
Will ye go, Lassie go?

And we'll all go together
To pluck wild mountain thyme
All around the blooming heather
Will ye go, Lassie go?

If my true love she were gone
I would surely find another
To pluck wild mountain thyme
Grows around the blooming heather
Will ye go, Lassie go?

And we'll all go together
To pluck wild mountain thyme
All around the blooming heather
Will ye go, Lassie go?

Folksong - The British Grenadiers

The song comes in at around 2:20 minutes after the marching music. I've put the words they've used in this video in italics below.



Some talk of Alexander,
And some of Hercules
Of Hector and Lysander,
And such great names as these.
But of all the world's great heroes,
There's none that can compare
With a tow, row, row, row, row, row,
To the British Grenadier.

Those heroes of antiquity
Ne'er saw a cannon ball
Or knew the force of powder
To slay their foes withall.
|But our brave boys do know it,
And banish all their fears,
Sing tow, row, row, row, row, row,
For the British Grenadier.
Whene'er we are commanded
To storm the palisades
Our leaders march with fusees,
And we with hand grenades.
We throw them from the glacis,
About the enemies' ears.
Sing tow, row, row, row, row, row,
The British Grenadiers.

And when the siege is over,
We to the town repair
The townsmen cry, "Hurra, boys,
Here comes a Grenadier!"
Here come the Grenadiers, my boys,
Who know no doubts or fears!
Then sing tow, row, row, row, row, row,
The British Grenadiers.

Then let us fill a bumper,
And drink a health to those
Who carry caps and pouches,
And wear the louped clothes.
May they and their commanders
Live happy all their years
With a tow, row, row, row, row, row,
For the British Grenadiers.

Folksong: I Wish I was in Dixie Land (Dixie's Land)

The words and some information on the song can be found at here and also at Poems and Songs of the American Civil War.







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Folk Song - Battle of New Orleans - 1814

Battle of New Orleans - 1814

Folksong: Sink the Bismarck, WW2

Folksong - Bound for South Australia

Bound for South Australia




You can get the words and music from this site: http://folkstream.com/012.html

Australian Folksong - Moreton Bay

Also known as 'The Convicts' Lament on the Death of Captain Logan,' this ballad is about the Moreton Bay Penal Colony - which was set up in Queensland in the early 1800's in what is now the Brisbane area - and in particular the notorious Captain Logan.
Apparently Ned Kelly quoted some lines of this ballad  in his Jerilderie Letter in 1879.



The Logan City Library in Queensland has this information on Captain Logan:

Captain Patrick Logan 1791-1830

The Journal of Captain Patrick Logan

Moreton Bay

One Sunday morning as I went walking
By Brisbane waters I chanced to stray
I heard a convict his fate bewailing
As on the sunny river bank I lay
I am a native from Erin's island
But banished now from my native shore
They stole me from my aged parents
And from the maiden I do adore

I've been a prisoner at Port Macquarie
At Norfolk Island and Emu Plains
At Castle Hill and at cursed Toongabbie
At all these settlements I've been in chains
But of all places of condemnation
And penal stations in New South Wales
To Moreton Bay I have found no equal
Excessive tyranny each day prevails

For three long years I was beastly treated
And heavy irons on my legs I wore
My back from flogging was lacerated
And oft times painted with my crimson gore
And many a man from downright starvation
Lies mouldering now underneath the clay
And Captain Logan he had us mangled
All at the triangles of Moreton Bay

Like the Egyptians and ancient Hebrews
We were oppressed under Logan's yoke
Till a native black lying there in ambush
Did deal this tyrant his mortal stroke
My fellow prisoners be exhilarated
That all such monsters such a death may find
And when from bondage we are liberated
Our former sufferings will fade from mind

Sheet music and some  more information here. 

Another version of Moreton Bay

October Folk Song

If I Had a Hammer

If I had a hammer,
I’d hammer in the morning
I’d hammer in the evening,
All over this land

I’d hammer out danger,
I’d hammer out a warning,
I’d hammer out love between my brothers and my sisters,
All over this land.

If I had a bell,
I’d ring it in the morning,
I’d ring it in the evening,
All over this land

I’d ring out danger,
I’d ring out a warning
I’d ring out love between my brothers and my sisters,
All over this land.

If I had a song,
I’d sing it in the morning,
I’d sing it in the evening,
All over this land

I’d sing out danger,
I’d sing out a warning
I’d sing out love between my brothers and my sisters,
All over this land.

Well I got a hammer,
And I got a bell,
And I got a song to sing, all over this land.

It’s the hammer of justice,
It’s the bell of freedom,
It’s the song about love between my brothers and my sisters,
All over this land.

It’s the hammer of justice,
It’s the bell of freedom,
It’s the song about love between my brothers and my sisters,
All over this land. 

Words and music by Lee Hays and Pete Seeger

Folksongs

We listen to our current folksong about once each day generally. My youngest son requested Drunken Sailor and he pumps it out on the piano with his little sister keeping time on the drums, sort of.

The chords are very simple if you have a piano or guitar - see here /text/lyrics/drunken_sailor_crd.txt and the song is so simple you'll probably only need to listen to it for a short time.

By the way, the reference to the 'Captain's daughter' in one of the verses is refering to the cat o' nine tails. If you want to skip that part it comes in at 1 min 25 seconds which is just over half way through the song so you'll still get a few verses which will be well and truly enough to get a feel for this rollicking version.

Have a look at http://www.oedilf.com/db/Lim.php?Word=cat-o-nine-tails

Ambleside Folksongs

We've been concentrating on Australian folksongs recently, and will continue to do so, but I decided to also include three Year 8 suggestions from Ambleside Online (AO) for my two older boys who are studying Renaissance & Reformation history using the AO curriculum.

Barbara Allen:



The Death of Queen Jane - lovely scenes on the video:



This information was included with the video on youtube:

'The Death of Queen Jane' discusses the death of Jane Seymour, wife to Henry VIII, (but never actually crowned as Queen) who gave birth to Edward VI of England on October 12th, 1537. Jane Seymour died twelve days later. Edward died aged 15. It is possible that Seymour was the only one of his wives whom Henry seriously loved and his delight at being given a male heir was destroyed by the death of Jane. The mysterious verse concerning building a castle seems to have no part of the rest of the narrative; nonetheless, it does appear in at least one other version of the song. The video was filmed at Dun Guaire Castle,Kinvara, Co. Galway, Ireland. The castle is open for visitors.

Sylvia Crawford: musical arrangement, keyboards, fiddles, wire-strung mediaeval harp, finger cymbals
Fred Johnston: vocals, guitar, bowed psaltery.

Three Mariners



This is the website for The One-Man Renaissance Band. He has other songs from the same time period that you may find useful.

And last, but certainly not least, a version of Click Go the Shears, the Aussie folksong suggested at AO for June 2012.



I must have had a fetish for the ukele - if you check over in my music post you'll see this instrument used in a classical music piece.

Folk Songs

Our current (Australian) folk song is "With my Swag all on my Shoulder."
The words & music can be found here http://folkstream.com/100.html

We've been listening to a version on the CD "Bushrangers, Bolters and Other Wild Colonials"  by Warren Fahey which we found at the library (an ABC production). It has a good folky acoustic sound but here's the Seeker's version which I remember hearing years ago:

Folksongs

Scottish Folksongs - Bonnie Dundee. If you'd like to read about him Rosemary Sutcliff's book, Bonnie Dundee, paints a more positive picture than the Douglas Bond Crown & Covenant series.
The poem by Sir Walter Scott can be found here:

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/bonny-dundee/



Irish Folksongs - if you've grown up in Ireland or Scotland you'd get this song. Here's a link to Orange & Green by G.A. Henty, a book which will give you some background to the Catholic/Protestant issue that even I can remember from my childhood in Scotland.


http://www.gutenberg.org/files/18356/18356-h/18356-h.htm