The songs that Mum tended to reference were from her pre-war youth here in South Yorkshire and also from World War II itself. How many times did I hear her launch into "The White Cliffs of Dover" in the kitchen? It's a song that we had played over the crematorium sound system at her funeral in 2007. She would have approved of that.
In her prime, she had a strong and tuneful voice. When you have a voice like hers, it is as if you are in possession of a special musical instrument that might crack or wither if you forgot to practise playing it every few days.
This week I found myself singing one of Mum's favourite songs. I had not thought about it in years. It was a music hall song and a little mischievous. It first saw the light of day in 1913, eight years before Mum was even born. I believe it speaks of more innocent times. It is unlikely that Kendrick Lamar or Stormzy would or could ever record a similar song in this current decade.
It's "Hold Your Hand Out You Naughty Boy!"by the Manchester songwriter Charles William Murphy. This is the first verse with the chorus, followed by a rendition I found on YouTube...
Those tunes helped people to keep up the morale.
ReplyDeleteI bet that some Canadian lads took those songs home with them... if they survived.
DeleteThat's a cute song which I have never heard of before.
ReplyDeleteGlad you like it Elsie.
DeleteMusic can do so much for us, and I imagine that most of us associate certain songs with specific people, places or events in their lives. Some work like a time machine, taking you back to a certain time in your life. I have several that for me are Scarborough, summer 2006, a holiday with Steve that I will always treasure particularly.
ReplyDeleteAre you going to Scarborough Fair?
DeleteI have the original vinyl recording of Joan Littlewood's production of
ReplyDeleteOh, What A Lovely War ! It opened at the Theatre Workshop in London 1963.
Naughty Boy is one of the songs in this legendary First World War drama.
Known as the mother of modern theatre, Ms Littlewood also produced
A Taste of Honey written by 18-year-old Shelagh Delaney from Salford.
Len Deighton, who died in March aged 97, purchased the film rights to
Lovely War using his own money.
After a dispute with director Richard Attenborough he removed his name from
the film's credits.
Deighton writes about casting the film in an afterword to his novel Close-Up,
now a Penguin Modern Classic.
Younger readers can watch the final scene of Oh, What A Lovely War (1969)
on YouTube.
1960 : A TASTE OF SALFORD WITH SHELAGH DELANEY/ Monitor/ BBC Archive.
DeleteYouTube.
Delaney wrote Charlie Bubbles ( Finney ) and Dance With A Stranger,
on the last woman hanged in England, Ruth Ellis ( Miranda Richardson ).
Tastes of Honey by Selina Todd is the only biography of Ms Delaney.
Available in paperback.
Such a tragedy that Shelagh Delaney died at the tender age of 72. Morrissey of The Smiths said, "I've never made any secret of the fact that at least 50 per cent of my reason for writing can be blamed on Shelagh Delaney".
DeleteFrom there to Jumpin' Jack Flash in two generations. One generation? Rather mind bending.
ReplyDeleteYes - the song my mother sang seems so very tame now.
DeleteI wake up every single morning singing a song in my head and many times it's not one I've heard in a while but there it is, singing in my head all day long.
ReplyDeleteDo you ever find yourself singing this Bob? It is the theme song for an old British animated series for kids...
DeleteBob the Builder!
Can we fix it?
Bob the Builder!
Yes, we can!
[Verse 1]
Scoop, Muck, and Dizzy, and Roley too
Lofty and Wendy join the crew
Bob and the gang have so much fun
Working together, they get the job done
[Chorus]
Bob the Builder!
Can we fix it?
Bob the Builder!
Yes, we can!
Well going through my head at the moment is Que Sera Sera - what will be will be, apparently it started in our language. But in the 50s we sang 'It will be coming round the mountain when it comes,' I think as children it had plenty of go in the song. I would dedicate it as an earworm ;)
ReplyDeleteWhatever will be will be - especially if our fellow citizens vote for the Reform charlatans!
DeleteA young man talking about not liking girls, - looking for a husband.
ReplyDeleteI think the song refers to his cunning tactics.
DeleteThat is not a song I've ever heard before. More innocent indeed, but I think I prefer meatier fare like Dylan or the Beatles. (I'll pass on Stormzy, though.)
ReplyDeleteYou want to hear songs about meat?
DeleteSo nothing from Bosh!
DeleteThe good old days when adults hit children. It beggars belief that people thought it was fine for teachers cane children!
ReplyDeleteIf you had been in my class, I might have been tempted to cane you for backchat Traveller... and for selling wooden clothes pegs!
DeleteI know that song, I think from the Music Hall "revival" in the 70s. I didn't know the later verses.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what the verse for the "soldiers' chorus" (not sung in the version you link to) was? Maybe unprintable.
There's something to me quite fascinating about the persistence of fragments of popular culture over generations. As a child I learnt some from my parents which they had obviously learnt from their parents. Quite a few were from WWI, which was a formative experience - more from my mother's father than my father's. The latter apparently never spoke of his wartime experiences to his family whereas I get the feeling that travelling to the war was the former's big adventure and he remained a leading figure in his country town's ex-serviceman's organisation.
Examples include parody words to the Soldiers' choruse from Gounod's Faust, "Passengers shall please refrain from passing water while the train is standing" (Dvorak's Humoresque; maybe not from military circles) and "Be kind to your web footed friends." There was also "Don't be ridiculous, Nicholas" though I expect that too was not specifically WWI.
I find
Dunno what I found. Obv I pressed publish too early but let it be,
DeleteThere was a programme on TV when I was a kid that celebrated the old music hall traditions. As I've gotten older I find myself seeking out old folk songs that tell stories of life back in the day. Music is something yhat has always brought people together.
ReplyDelete