The Voice of the People
Encyclopedia
The Voice of the People is an anthology of folk songs sung by Traditional singer
s and musicians of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland.
There are 511 recordings on 20 CDs, compiled by Dr Reg Hall, a historian at Sussex University. The singers were celebrities within their own community but unknown to the world at large until collectors arrived with portable tape recorders in the 1950s and 60s. A few of them recorded enough material for an entire album. Most are known for a couple of songs. A few scraps of biographical notes are given in booklets that accompany the discs. Every one of them led working-class lives. Volumes 9 and 19 are collections of instrumentals. In a few cases the singers used song books or ballad sheets to supplement their repertoire, but in most cases their versions are from oral tradition
. This collection is the UK equivalent of Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music
.
The following is a selection of songs from the whole series
Volume 1: Come Let Us Buy the Licence - Songs of Courtship & Marriage
Volume 2: My Ship Shall Sail the Ocean - Songs of Tempest & Sea Battles, Sailor Lads & Fishermen
Volume 3: O’er His Grave the Grass Grew Green - Tragic Ballads
Volume 4: Farewell, My Own Dear Native Land - Songs of Exile & Emigration.
Volume 5: Come All My Lads That Follow the Plough - The Life of Rural Working Men & Women
Volume 6: Tonight I'll Make You My Bride - Ballads of True & False Lovers
Volume 7: First I'm Going To Sing You a Ditty - Rural Fun & Frolics
Volume 8: A Story I'm Just About To Tell - Local Events & National Issues
Volume 9: Rig-A-Jig-Jig - Dance Music of the South of England
Volume 10: Who's That at my Bedroom Window? - Songs of Love & Amorous Encounters
Volume 11: My Father's the King of the Gypsies - English and Welsh Travellers & Gypsies
Volume 12: We've Received Orders to Sail - Jackie Tar at Sea & on Shore
Volume 13: They Ordered Their Pints of Beer & Bottle of Sherry - The Joys and Curse of Drink
Volume 14: Troubles They Are But Few - Dance Tunes & Ditties
Volume 15: As Me and My Love Sat Courting - Songs of Love, Courtship & Marriage
Volume 16: You Lazy Lot of Boneshakers - Songs & Dance Tunes of Seasonal Events
Volume 17: It Fell on a Day, a Bonny Summer Day - Ballads
Volume 18: To Catch a Fine Buck Was My Delight - Songs of Hunting & Poaching
Volume 19: Ranting & Reeling - Dance Music of the North of England
Volume 20: There is a Man Upon the Farm - Working Men & Women in Song
Traditional singer
A Traditional singer is someone who has learned folk songs in their original context - for example while sailing a ship or working on a farm. Until modern inventions such as the phonograph radio and cinema became common, this was the only way for ordinary people to learn songs.By the time of the...
s and musicians of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland.
There are 511 recordings on 20 CDs, compiled by Dr Reg Hall, a historian at Sussex University. The singers were celebrities within their own community but unknown to the world at large until collectors arrived with portable tape recorders in the 1950s and 60s. A few of them recorded enough material for an entire album. Most are known for a couple of songs. A few scraps of biographical notes are given in booklets that accompany the discs. Every one of them led working-class lives. Volumes 9 and 19 are collections of instrumentals. In a few cases the singers used song books or ballad sheets to supplement their repertoire, but in most cases their versions are from oral tradition
Oral tradition
Oral tradition and oral lore is cultural material and traditions transmitted orally from one generation to another. The messages or testimony are verbally transmitted in speech or song and may take the form, for example, of folktales, sayings, ballads, songs, or chants...
. This collection is the UK equivalent of Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music
Anthology of American Folk Music
The Anthology of American Folk Music is a six-album compilation released in 1952 by Folkways Records , comprising eighty-four American folk, blues and country music recordings that were originally issued from 1927 to 1932.Experimental filmmaker and notable eccentric Harry Smith compiled the music...
.
The following is a selection of songs from the whole series
Volume 1: Come Let Us Buy the Licence - Songs of Courtship & Marriage
- The Song of the RiddlesCaptain Wedderburn's Courtship"Captain Wedderburn's Courtship" is an old Scottish ballad dating from 1785 or earlier. It is Child Ballad #46. It is known by a number of titles, including "Lord Roslin's Daughter" and "The Laird of Rosslyn's Daughter".-Synopsis:...
sung by Willie ClancyWillie ClancyWillie Clancy was an Irish uilleann piper.Clancy was born into a musical family at Islandbawn near Miltown Malbay, County Clare. His parents both sang and played concertina, and his father also played the flute... - The Bonnie Lass o' FyvieThe Bonnie Lass o' FyvieThe Bonnie Lass o' Fyvie is a Scottish folk song about a thwarted romance between a soldier and a girl. Like many folk songs, the authorship is unattributed, there is no strict version of the lyrics, and it is often referred to by its opening line There once was a troop o' Irish dragoons...
sung by Jimmy MacBeathJimmy MacBeathJimmy MacBeath was an itinerant worker and singer of Bothy Ballads from the north east of Scotland. He was a source of traditional songs for singers of the mid 20th century Folk Revival in Great Britain.-Life:... - Who Are You, My Pretty Fair Maid?Seventeen Come Sunday"Seventeen Come Sunday" is an English folk song which was used in the first movement of Ralph Vaughan Williams' English Folk Song Suite and a choral version by Percy Grainger . The words were first published between 1838 and 1845 .-Lyrics:...
sung by Joe Heaney
Volume 2: My Ship Shall Sail the Ocean - Songs of Tempest & Sea Battles, Sailor Lads & Fishermen
- The Oak and the AshBell Bottom Trousers"Bell Bottom Trousers" is an old sea shanty about a simple English girl and a sailor, and possibly originated in the British Royal Navy. It is a "bawdy" shanty and is typical of the vulgarity of many sea shantys...
sung by Jumbo Brightwell
Volume 3: O’er His Grave the Grass Grew Green - Tragic Ballads
- The Bonny BoyThe Trees They Grow So High (folk song)"The Trees They Grow So High" is a British folk song. The song is known by many titles, including "Daily Growing", "Young But Daily Growing" and "Bonny Boy is Young ". It first appeared in print in 1792 as "Lady Mary Ann". The subject of the song is an arranged marriage of a young girl by her...
sung by Fred JordanFred Jordan (singer)Fred Jordan was a farm worker from Ludlow, Shropshire, and is noted as one of the great musically untutored traditional English singers. He was first recorded in the 1940s by folk music researcher Alan Lomax and, over subsequent decades endeared himself to the English folk-song revival movement... - Newry TownThe Newry Highwayman"The Newry Highwayman" is a traditional Irish folk song about a criminal's life, deeds, and death. It is also found in England, Scotland, the USA and Canada. The earliest known broadside is from about 1830 . Some versions mention "Mansfield" and this is sometimes taken to be William Murray, first...
sung by Jumbo Brightwell - Lady MargaretSweet William's GhostSweet William's Ghost is a folk song, collected by Francis James Child in 1868 as Child ballad number 77. It exists in many forms but all versions recount a similar story. It was printed in Allan Ramsay's The Tea-Table Miscellany in 1740, and again in Thomas Percy's Reliques of Ancient English...
(Child 77) sung by Paddy TunneyPaddy TunneyPaddy Tunney was an Irish traditional singer, poet, writer, raconteur, lilter and songwriter. He was affectionately known as the Man of Songs.-Early life:... - The Twa BrothersThe Twa Brothers"The Twa Brothers" is Child ballad 49, existing in many variants.-Synopsis:Two brothers are wrestling when a blade that one of them is carrying mortally wounds the other; occasionally, one of them stabs the other intentionally....
(Child 49) sung by Belle StewartBelle StewartBelle Stewart became known as a Scottish traditional singer.The general public knew little about Belle Stewart until 2006, when her daughter, Sheila Stewart, wrote the biography Queen Amang the Heather: the Life of Belle Stewart.Sheila Stewart corrects the frequently cited birthdate 17 July to the...
Volume 4: Farewell, My Own Dear Native Land - Songs of Exile & Emigration.
Volume 5: Come All My Lads That Follow the Plough - The Life of Rural Working Men & Women
Volume 6: Tonight I'll Make You My Bride - Ballads of True & False Lovers
- The ForesterThe Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter"The Knight and the Shepherd’s Daughter" is an English ballad, collected by Francis James Child as Child Ballad 110.-Synopsis:A knight persuades a shepherd's daughter to give him her virginity. She chases after him to court, on foot while he is on horseback, and demands marriage. He attempts to...
(Child 110) sung by Lizzie HigginsLizzie HigginsLizzie Higgins was an Aberdeenshire ballad singer.Born Elizabeth Ann Higgins in Guest Row, Aberdeen, she was the daughter of settled Travellers the piper Donty Higgins and the singer Jeannie Robertson. In 1941, after her school was twice bombed, Lizzie moved with her mother to the rural town of...
Volume 7: First I'm Going To Sing You a Ditty - Rural Fun & Frolics
- Three Sons of RoguesThree Jolly Rogues- Synopsis :A miller, a weaver and a tailor lived in King Arthur's time . They were thrown out because they could not sing. All three were thieves...
sung by Pop Maynard, 1956.
Volume 8: A Story I'm Just About To Tell - Local Events & National Issues
- The Wind That Shakes the BarleyThe Wind That Shakes the Barley"The Wind That Shakes the Barley" is an Irish ballad written by Robert Dwyer Joyce , a Limerick-born poet and professor of English literature. The song is written from the perspective of a doomed young Wexford rebel who is about to sacrifice his relationship with his loved one and plunge into the...
sung by Sarah MakemSarah MakemSarah Makem a native of Keady, County Armagh, Northern Ireland, was a traditional Irish singer.She was the wife of fiddler Peter Makem, mother of musicians Tommy Makem and Jack Makem, and grandmother of musicians Shane Makem, Conor Makem and Rory Makem... - The Bonny Bunch of RosesThe Bonny Bunch of Roses"The Bonny Bunch of Roses" , also called "Bonaparte's Retreat", is an English folk song.The earliest known version of the tune is in William Christie's "Tradition Ballad Airs" , but there is another tune, of Irish origin. There is an obvious difficulty in identifying the narrator's voice...
sung by Cyril Poacher
Volume 9: Rig-A-Jig-Jig - Dance Music of the South of England
Volume 10: Who's That at my Bedroom Window? - Songs of Love & Amorous Encounters
- Seventeen Come SundaySeventeen Come Sunday"Seventeen Come Sunday" is an English folk song which was used in the first movement of Ralph Vaughan Williams' English Folk Song Suite and a choral version by Percy Grainger . The words were first published between 1838 and 1845 .-Lyrics:...
sung by Bob Hart
Volume 11: My Father's the King of the Gypsies - English and Welsh Travellers & Gypsies
- The Young OfficerLady Isabel and the Elf Knight"Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight" is the English common name representative of a very large class of European ballads. The subject matter is frequently associated with the genre of the Halewyn legends circulating in Europe...
(Child 4) sung by Mary Ann Haynes
Volume 12: We've Received Orders to Sail - Jackie Tar at Sea & on Shore
- The Lofty Tall ShipHenry MartinHenry Martin is an American cartoonist. He received the National Cartoonist Society Gag Cartoon Award for 1978 for his work. He is the father of popular children's author Ann M. Martin.-External links:*...
sung by Sam Larner, 1958 or ‘59.
Volume 13: They Ordered Their Pints of Beer & Bottle of Sherry - The Joys and Curse of Drink
- Coming Home Late (Child 274) sung by George Spicer
Volume 14: Troubles They Are But Few - Dance Tunes & Ditties
- The Barley GrainJohn Barleycorn"John Barleycorn" is an English folksong. The character of John Barleycorn in the song is a personification of the important cereal crop barley and of the alcoholic beverages made from it, beer and whisky...
sung by Austin Flanagan
Volume 15: As Me and My Love Sat Courting - Songs of Love, Courtship & Marriage
- Coochie Coochie Coo Go WayThe Keach i the Creel-Synopsis:A young woman tells a man that her parents keep her too close for them to meet. The man has his brother make a ladder and a reel; the ladder takes him to the chimney, and by the reel, he is lowered into her bedroom. Her mother guesses there is a man in her bed and sends the father. She...
sung by Jamsie McCarthy
Volume 16: You Lazy Lot of Boneshakers - Songs & Dance Tunes of Seasonal Events
- Gower WassailGower WassailThe Gower Wassail is a wassail song from Gower in Wales, UK. It is printed in A.L. Lloyd's book Folk Song in England , having been heard from Phil Tanner...
sung by Phil Tanner, 1936
Volume 17: It Fell on a Day, a Bonny Summer Day - Ballads
- In Worcester CityPretty Polly (ballad)"Pretty Polly", "The Gosport Tragedy" or "The Cruel Ship's Carpenter" is a traditional English-language folk song found in the British Isles, Canada, and the Appalachian region of North America, among other places....
sung by Harry CoxHarry CoxHarry Fred Cox , was a Norfolk farmworker and one of the most important singers of traditional English music of the twentieth century, on account of his large repertoire and fine singing style....
, 1958. - Lady Mary AnnThe Trees They Grow So High (folk song)"The Trees They Grow So High" is a British folk song. The song is known by many titles, including "Daily Growing", "Young But Daily Growing" and "Bonny Boy is Young ". It first appeared in print in 1792 as "Lady Mary Ann". The subject of the song is an arranged marriage of a young girl by her...
sung by Lizzie HigginsLizzie HigginsLizzie Higgins was an Aberdeenshire ballad singer.Born Elizabeth Ann Higgins in Guest Row, Aberdeen, she was the daughter of settled Travellers the piper Donty Higgins and the singer Jeannie Robertson. In 1941, after her school was twice bombed, Lizzie moved with her mother to the rural town of... - The Gypsy LaddieThe Gypsy Laddie"The Gypsy Laddie" , also known as "Black Jack Davy" and "The Raggle Taggle Gypsies" among many other titles, is a Border ballad , possibly written about 1720 on the Scottish side of the border...
(Child 200) sung by Jeannie RobertsonJeannie RobertsonJeannie Robertson was a Scottish folk singer.-Hamish Henderson and Alan Lomax:It is not known where Jeannie Robertson was born but she did live at 90, Hilton Street in Aberdeen, where a plaque now commemorates her. Like many of the Scottish Travellers from Aberdeen, Glasgow and Ayrshire, she went...
, 1953. - Bonny Barbara Allan (Child 84) sung by Sarah MakemSarah MakemSarah Makem a native of Keady, County Armagh, Northern Ireland, was a traditional Irish singer.She was the wife of fiddler Peter Makem, mother of musicians Tommy Makem and Jack Makem, and grandmother of musicians Shane Makem, Conor Makem and Rory Makem...
, 1967.
Volume 18: To Catch a Fine Buck Was My Delight - Songs of Hunting & Poaching
- The Hungry FoxThe Fox (folk song)The Fox is a traditional folk song. It is also the subject of at least two picture books, The Fox Went Out on a Chilly Night: an old song, illustrated by Peter Spier and Fox Went out on a Chilly Night, by Wendy Watson...
sung by Harry Burgess, 1956.
Volume 19: Ranting & Reeling - Dance Music of the North of England
Volume 20: There is a Man Upon the Farm - Working Men & Women in Song
- The OvergateSeventeen Come Sunday"Seventeen Come Sunday" is an English folk song which was used in the first movement of Ralph Vaughan Williams' English Folk Song Suite and a choral version by Percy Grainger . The words were first published between 1838 and 1845 .-Lyrics:...
sung by Belle StewartBelle StewartBelle Stewart became known as a Scottish traditional singer.The general public knew little about Belle Stewart until 2006, when her daughter, Sheila Stewart, wrote the biography Queen Amang the Heather: the Life of Belle Stewart.Sheila Stewart corrects the frequently cited birthdate 17 July to the...