R the F
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Post by R the F on May 8, 2016 14:36:17 GMT
Particularly proud of starting 3 lines with "So...". That's youngsters for you.
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ocarolan
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Post by ocarolan on May 8, 2016 14:39:54 GMT
...yes, excellent, as is "wanton willy...."
K
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R the F
Luthier / Guitar Maker
Posts: 1,135
My main instrument is: bandsaw
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Post by R the F on May 8, 2016 14:44:00 GMT
Thank you, Keith. Unfortunately, I doubt I'll be winning any prizes for musical content!
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Post by vikingblues on May 8, 2016 14:55:08 GMT
Yet another different take and some original ideas - a very valid interpretation. Well done Rob! Mark
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leoroberts
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Post by leoroberts on May 9, 2016 7:03:31 GMT
Champion stuff, R the F. Loved the new lyrics - worked perfectly
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R the F
Luthier / Guitar Maker
Posts: 1,135
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Post by R the F on May 9, 2016 7:33:22 GMT
"Tweaked" rather than "new"; and tweaking is a lot easier than re-writing - so well done to you for being bold enough to get things started here. Like Riverman (above) I won't comment on individuals; I know I could so easily sway the judges(!) Just amazed by the variety and quality (and that includes the ones that haven't been posted yet).
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Post by Mike Floorstand on May 9, 2016 18:45:07 GMT
Top job R the F, the "revenge porn" interpretation re-inspires one's faith in the Folk Process!
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R the F
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Post by R the F on May 10, 2016 9:08:54 GMT
Blackwaterside (Anne Briggs version)
One morning fair to take the air Down by Blackwater side. 'Twas in gazing all, all around me 'Twas the Irish lad I spied.
All through the first part of the night Well, we lay in sport and play, Then this young man he arose and he gathered his clothes, He said, “Fare thee well today.”
Well, that's not the promise that you gave to me When first you lay on my bed, You could make me believe with your lying tongue That the sun rose in the west.
Then go home, go home, to your father's garden, You go home and weep your fill. And you think of your own misfortune That you brought with your wanton will.
For there's not a girl in this whole wide world As easily led as I, Sure it's fishes they'll fly and the seas run dry, 'Tis then you'll marry I.
I didn’t know this traditional song when the competition opened and even had to transcribe the melody and repeat it again and again before I could remember it; I still get it wrong when I come to it afresh because it doesn’t quite do what you expect it to do. And I suspect the same goes for the words.
Hearing it for the first time, without any preconceptions, faint shocks come at several points in the narrative which, I feel, provide the initial hook which pulls the listener in to loving its quaint oddity. They are just little things but they niggle: Out of nothing, the girl and boy are suddenly in bed together (and, since she shows no surprise, we leap in with our helpful assumptions about the relaxed morality of the time); surely (almost) everyone in Ireland would have been “Irish” (we leap in with helpful assumptions about how quaint it is to include the Irishness unnecessarily); Her vitriolic accusations seem to come out of nowhere (more helpful assumptions about what awful lies he must have told her during the night, poor girl) ; her “father’s garden” - Sorry, did I hear that right? And her final threat: “I will never marry you!” … Sorry, wasn’t that what the fuss was about that he didn’t want to marry her?
The trouble is that we gloss over these fissures in the sense of the piece and graft on a rather simplistic 20th (21st?) century interpretation: Anne Briggs herself says, “…in the midst of the swinging 60s, [this song] was a sad reminder of a harsher and unequal sexual morality that still lingers on.” And another interpreter calls it “Another song of unrequited love.”
Well, what does it actually say?
It all started with a morning walk down to the docks. Now in my experience poverty-stricken Irish lasses do not have time for morning constitutionals so either my assumption about her poverty and vulnerability is wrong or she has some clear motive for this walk – or maybe both. She was not approached by “the Irish lad”. Indeed, it was she who was “gazing all around” clearly on the look-out for this lad. Notice that she calls him “the” Irish lad; in other words, it’s not just any random Irish lad – “an” Irish lad - but the one she’s been watching out for, hence the use of the definite article. And what’s the relevance of “Irish” here? Does it perhaps distinguish him from a whole succession of lads of other nationalities – possibly sailors – that she has previously preyed upon in a similar fashion? It is no coincidence that she is “down by Blackwater Side”: i.e. where the ships come in.
Then there’s the leap from events in the first to the second verse. Are you not surprised to hear that, by the end of the first verse she has merely “spied” him but one line later she is already rolling around in bed with him - and there is no indication that he has instigated any of this? Indeed, the implication is that this is a pretty normal course of events for her, a logical process: find a sailor and bed him.
Now I think we all - men and women - know that things get said in bed which can be, shall we say, somewhat hyperbolic. They are things that are nice to hear but the understanding is that they might not stand inspection in the full light of day. Having sought out this boy to fulfill her sexual needs, she now makes cynical use of the night’s “sweet nothings” in a merciless attack on his character when all he has done is get up and say goodbye. For all we know he made no promises in the night. For all we know, he has a ship to sail – as well she knows. Is this tirade a reasonable response to his innocuous “Fare thee well today”? For all we know she was the one who made the promises.
Is it really any wonder that his reaction is defensive? And what does it suggest further about the girl? Notice that he doesn’t say, “Go back to your father’s house”; he says, “Go back to your father’s garden”. I don’t know exactly what era we are in here but it does occur to me that a house which had a garden in olden times might have been something of a rarity and might be telling us something about the girl’s social status. The boy obviously has not been to her house but assumes there is a “garden” – a word which doesn’t even scan very well in this line – because the girl is a member of a social class above his own. And this, of course, chimes with the fact that she had time to take a leisurely walk “to take the air” in verse one. He has some justification in pointing out that she knew exactly what she was up to in targeting a poor uneducated lad like him.
And then there’s the mystery of the threat in the final verse: “Sure it’s fishes they’ll fly and the seas run dry, ‘Tis then you’ll marry I.” To begin with it makes no sense at all as a threat since he apparently doesn't want to marry her. Secondly, it would be more logical to say “’Tis then I’ll marry you”, (though you’d obviously have to change the rhyme in line 2). The word order that she uses merely places even more emphasis on his wanting to marry her. The lady doth protest too much, methinks. Could it be that in a moment of passionate abandon she forgot herself and promised to marry him and is now frantically backtracking because of his and her different social stations? The idea that the truth might get out even drives her to write a song about it so that not a shred of doubt may remain.
A better ending might have been: For there's not a girl in this whole wide world As easily led as I, Sure it's pigs they'll fly and the seas run dry, 'Tis then you should believe I.
Thanks for reading, Rob.
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colins
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Post by colins on May 10, 2016 14:29:56 GMT
Well , I didn't expect a PhD thesis!
Colin
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R the F
Luthier / Guitar Maker
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My main instrument is: bandsaw
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Post by R the F on May 10, 2016 15:09:06 GMT
Well , I didn't expect a PhD thesis! If you can be bothered to make a guitar for us, I can be bothered to write a thesis(ette). Also it doesn't really hold water while your guitar probably would (until the fish-glue got soggy).
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Riverman
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Post by Riverman on May 10, 2016 17:03:44 GMT
Blimey R the F, I dread to think what you'd make of my lyrics...
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R the F
Luthier / Guitar Maker
Posts: 1,135
My main instrument is: bandsaw
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Post by R the F on May 10, 2016 17:26:04 GMT
Blimey R the F , I dread to think what you'd make of my lyrics... Why don't we start with this "Riverman" persona...
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Riverman
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Post by Riverman on May 10, 2016 17:39:57 GMT
Blimey R the F , I dread to think what you'd make of my lyrics... Why don't we start with this "Riverman" persona... Why do I suddenly feel like...
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ocarolan
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Post by ocarolan on May 29, 2016 12:21:43 GMT
Dramatic rewrite by scorpiodog - that really works very well Paul - great idea minorise it, and pretty much rewrite the choon too - enjoyed it a lot, and the recording turned out well too! Great stuff. I wanted to put it into two voices an octave apart as well - failed miserably too! Keith
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Post by vikingblues on May 29, 2016 16:13:44 GMT
Excellent job done Paul! I like the end result of your rearrangement and bringing in a minor key. Very well sung, and very well played too - quite possibly all the better for what you referred to as "simple". It's often the case that a one take recording manages to be a good 'un. Mark
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