PENGUIN SONGS

By 'Bold Willie'  

The Edwardian collectors, such as Sharp, Hammond, and Gardiner had the common aim of “rescuing the ‘peasant’ songs from oblivion” (and especially the tunes). Each collector published their songs in the Journal of the Folk Song Society (which started in 1899). Every song in the Penguin book is a version from that Journal. Although the importance of 19th century broadsides is recognised much more nowadays, it is interesting that these collectors revealed several splendid songs never known ‘from the streets’, including The Banks of Newfoundland, Benjamin Bowmaneer, and George Collins [see also page 46] ... and that’s only up to the letter G! 

I reckon nearly half of the songs found in the Penguin book became ‘gems’ of the second revival. By ‘gems’ I mean the songs that were discovered by these early collectors (in the first revival) and have been popular in our revival. They had never been widely heard of before because they’d never been seen in print ... but were revealed in the voices of these country folk - who were mainly ‘knocking on’, having learnt the songs in their youth, perhaps fifty or sixty years earlier, in the middle of the 19th century. 

Let’s take some songs that became big hits with singers in the sixties, perhaps due to their appearance in the Penguin book. Bruton Town never occurred in print before being collected by Cecil Sharp in 1904; it was also known as The Bramble Briar. In the sixties, many eminent professional revival singers recorded the song … starting with Alex Campbell, then Martin Carthy, followed by Davy Graham, Pentangle, and Maddy Prior. All used the tune collected from one of Sharp’s most prolific singers, Mrs Overd of Langport, a cracker! [Ed: We think Bold Wille means the tune rather than the lady.]

An even more attractive tune was that of A Blacksmith Courted Me, found throughout southern England in Edwardian days. It used the same tune as another song collected in the same period, Our Captain Cried All Hands, which was not in the Penguin book. Along with several other songs, it was collected by Ralph Vaughan Williams, who was so entranced by the tune that he set John Bunyan’s To Be A Pilgrim to the same tune (which everybody has surely heard of, whether they are religious or not!). Although Blacksmith had occurred in just one broadside, no tune was indicated in that broadside, so it looks like this really great tune had spread through the countryside of England without benefit of print. 

Another song popular with revival singers has been The Banks of Green Willow. It was first collected by Sabine Baring Gould in 1888, and again by many others including Sharp (who also got it from Mrs Overd). However, to my mind the best form of this tune was collected by George Butterworth in Sussex in 1907; along with several other collectors, he incorporated the tunes of folk songs into orchestral works. In 1913, he wrote a short orchestral piece of the same name which became quite popular. Revival singers who have recorded the song include Nic Jones, Martin Carthy, and Tony Rose. On a local note, Butterworth was killed at the Somme in 1915, while serving as a Lieutenant in the Durham Light Infantry.

There are plenty more songs which are ‘gems’, including Benjamin Bowmaneer, The Herrin’s Head, George Collins, and Salisbury Plain. All from the ‘deep sooth’ of course - none of them have been found up here in the North East. But then, you had your own songs (which were rather more ‘robust’, dare I say?) The first of the songs listed here is interesting, in that it had hardly been found anywhere before the Penguin. ‘To be clear’, as politicians are apt to say monotonously these days, it was collected twice in England, in Yorkshire and Devon, and twice in the United States. Whatever its antecedents, it was a great song as portrayed in the Penguin book, and so eagerly taken up by the youngsters of the folk revival in the sixties, me included. So, that’s my take on the Penguin songs … for now!

Yours aye, Bold Willie