Old English/ other country songs from 1960's at school

[womanofdulwich]

I was at Roots and Shoots apple day yesterday and I heard the Lincolnshire poacher song.This is one of many songs we were taught at school and I realise my children don't know this or many other- Johnny Todd etc. Does anyone know are these songs taught in any schools still? is there a danger they might die out? Does anyone rememeber at primary school in the 60's when the teacher wheeled in some contraption with music on where the man ( Geoffrey Wheeler?) used to introduce the song and we had the books to sing along with?

Anyone remember this??

There was a wee cooper who came from Fife

Kookarurra , Once a Jolly Swagman( I know its not Old English)

Greensleeves, Henry VII, Scarborough Fair..

[KidKruger]

I think it's only available via folk clubs, Cecil Sharp House-type institutes or internet searching now.

It's a shame cos it's our history.

Sue will know more I think.

It may even be regarded by some boroughs as discriminatory to focus on English songs due to mixed ethnicity demographic in the classroom, just as many schools in America had to rename Christmas period.

[womanofdulwich]

There were calypso songs too on the school thing- I remember bits of lyrics about rice and aki and yams- and the one about being in Quebec Stowing Timbers on the deck which I think was a Canadian song?

[KidKruger]

I'm a big English (and American) folk fan.

I'm trying to set up a pure English folk night (part of a cultural exchange with Indians) in West End early NY, I'll let you know if it materialises.

[steveo]

English folk on Robert Elms right now

[womanofdulwich]

LOVIN IT.

And Steve Forbert later.

[steveo]

Sam Lee. He's good. I love a drone

[womanofdulwich]

Ohh hes got a touch of the Steve Forbert to him ( 30 years ago anyway) , thanks Steve.

[Marmora Man]

The Skye Boat Song loomed large in my school days - tho' Billy Connolly demolished it comprehensively later.

[womanofdulwich]

http://www.folkinfo.org/songs/displaysong.php?songid=615

I loved this one too.

http://www.folkinfo.org/songs/displaysong.php?songid=669

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

I was humming "Zena, Zena, can't you hear the music playing in the market square" yesterday.

That was one of the one's we learnt. Others I remember are:

Here come the navvies (very PC)

Cooper of Fife

There was a piper old and hoary lived in the town of Balingorey

Fire in the galley, fire down below

Riding on a donkey (the Quebec one)

Farewell and adieu to you fair Spanish Ladies

We're bound for the Rio Grande

[steveo]

Nursery rhymes as well. I don't think my kids know many sadly.

That's probably my fault but do they still recite them in nursery?

Or is it just Justin Bieber?

[womanofdulwich]

Is there anywhere we can have a karaoke of these locally? Rio Grande- great song.

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

Pick a bale of cotton

Jamaica Farewell

Pollywollydoodle all the day

Oh Susannah don't you cry for me

Streets of Laredo

There was one in Hebrew which escapes me at the moment.

Just remembered: Shalom chaverim.

[grecian girl]

The English Folk Dance and Song Society are amazing - their workshops are lead by really cool new young British Folk musicians.

They have a paper and sound library and archive....:

020 7485 2206 | [email protected]

The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library (VWML) is England?s national folk music and dance archive, a one stop shop for anybody interested in the folk arts - 'the most important concentration of material on traditional song, dance and music in the country' (A Dictionary of English Folklore)

The library contains books, pamphlets, periodicals, press cuttings, broadsides, paintings, photographs, slides, artefacts, records, reel-to-reel tapes, phonograph cylinders, videos, cine films, compact discs, and audio cassettes - and more!

I used to love singing Heart of Oak..Sweet Polly Oliver..

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

Mairi's Wedding

Captain Stratton's Fancy (says the old, bold mate of Henry Morgan).

The Smugglers' Song (watch the wall my darling, while the gentlemen go by)

And that little ditty about a prostitute: A Rovin' (in Amsterdam there lived a maid...)

[Sue]

womanofdulwich Wrote:

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> Is there anywhere we can have a karaoke of these

> locally? Rio Grande- great song.

xxxxxxx

If you want to sing songs like this, why not come to our free Singarounds? People sing all sorts of songs, and some of them are old English folk songs.

The next one is on Sunday Upstairs At The Mag, 7.30pm.

Friendly crowd and you don't have to sing if you don't want to! But people do sing along with the songs they know. Or just come and join in the choruses.

More info at

http://www.thegooseisout.com/aboutus.html#evec

If there is a demand for folkie stuff for kids who aren't learning it at school (no idea whether they do or don't) Nyge and I will happily consider running something. PM me or contact me via the Goose website :)

[Alec John Moore]

I remember Mairi's Wedding and Cielito Lindo from primary school - world music in a 1960's Scottish classrom no less.

[steveo]

Dinah Dinah show us your leg ...oh...no... that isn't one

[Sue]

steveo Wrote:

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> Dinah Dinah show us your leg ...oh...no... that

> isn't one

xxxxxx

We have been known to have rugby songs sung at the Singaround - who started them off shall be nameless (it wasn't me, but sadly I did join in .....) :):):)

And Dinah Dinah was one of them .....

[uncleglen]

D'ye ken John Peel, British Grenadiers, Hearts of Oak, I met her in the garden where the praties grow,

[uncleglen]

It was Singing Together on the radio on Thursday mornings?

[Dee Woffaz]

We used to do a "Music & Movement" hour, this involved crawling round the old parquet floor in the gym to random sounds & bits of music. There was also a programme on the radio (probably the wireless in those days) that told a story we had work books to accompany this with the words to songs in it. I still remember some of these now!

[womanofdulwich]

Uncle Glen,I think you are correct about the name Singing Together, but Thursday morning? how can you remember that?

http://www.lightstraw.co.uk/faded/notes/singing1.html

Oh happy days.

I remember music and movement- we did it in the gym/ dining hall, it was not much fun if you had is straight after lunch - mashed potato on the floor etc etc

[uncleglen]

I was at secondary school in 1964 so the summer term 1963 would have applied to me since I was in the final year of juniors.(It just 'felt' like it was on Thursdays- I could be wrong of course.) Yes and music and movement in the smelly dining/assembly/gym hall.