For
the last 40 years I have worked as a singer of folk songs and as a storyteller;
sometimes one, sometimes the other, but usually performing a mixture of the
two. (see my first post from June 2015 for thoughts and reactions to that.)
Last month I wrote about the first stories I heard and learned. This one is
about my first songs. Another time I will probably write about my musical
experiences while growing up but I’ll start this in 1965, the year I went to
college.
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| Doing a Dylan impression, 1967 |
Prior
to college I had no interest in ‘folk music’ at all. What I had heard all
seemed rather weak and watery. In a school Christmas Review a trio of boys sang
Blowing in the Wind and in the Prefect’s Room a Bob Dylan LP went round but I
could not get my head round it at all. I was playing in what we called a ‘beat
group’ with a repertoire made up largely of Rolling Stones and Chuck Berry
material, and the occasional detour into Howling Wolf or Ray Charles—definitely
not weak and watery! At college there
was no outlet for that kind of music but there was a folk club. It was all very
much of its time: a lot of Joan Baez; Peter, Paul and Mary; Paul Simon; and
self written songs. Just occasionally someone would sing something English—a
Ewan MacColl song or something from the Spinners, perhaps. What it did for me
was: it started me writing songs.
After
college I continued going to folk clubs performing a typical mix of material—my
own songs, songs by other artists and an increasing number of traditional songs
and I started to pick up the occasional booking.
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| Hitting the Road, 1978 |
By
about 1976 I was beginning to think that I might be able to make it as a
professional performer but I realised that I needed to refine what I was doing,
to forge an identity, and I decided that I was only going to sing traditional
material because that was what I enjoyed the most. I took the plunge and went
on the road full time in the summer of 1978 and haven’t had a ‘proper job’
since. Two of my first bookings as a professional were at festivals in
Eastbourne and Loughborough. What a contrast! Eastbourne was a really old
fashioned, English Folk Dance and Song Society organised event, which
concentrated on dance and only booked a few token singers. It was the kind of
thing where you didn’t dare join in the dancing because you’d get told off for
pointing your toes at the wrong angle! Very serious! Loughborough (I was on the
Fringe) was also an EFDSS event but it was run by my mate and mentor Roy
Harris, one of the most knowledgeable and open minded men around. The core was
the old traditional singers but it included revivalists and new-comers. (It
later morphed into the famous National Folk Festival.)
By
a very lucky coincidence I got a ‘record deal’ that summer as well. (That
sounds much grander than it was!) The firm was VFM who specialised in making
very cheap cassette albums which sold in Boots and Woolworths and outlets like
that. Much of it was very middle of the road. The aim was making money rather
than good music but the two albums I made for them were a really big help. For
years afterwards I’d go to places for the first time and find that people knew
my material because of a 99p tape they’d found in a bargain bin!
And
they’ve stayed in people’s collections. In the last few years I’ve had several
enquiries as to whether they are available on CD—which they’re not, although I
have re-recorded a few of the songs on other albums.
The
first album was called Tales of the Land and Songs of the Sea. It was recorded
on a very basic tape recorder in a room over a music shop in Spalding, Lincs.
with the Tulip Parade going by outside! The running order was: The Unfortunate
Tailor (from which the title was taken); Rambling Sailor; Polly Vaughan; The
Willow Tree /Sir George Gordon (tunes); The Irish Girl; The Queen of the May;
Bonny Green Woods (learned from Roy Harris); The Highwayman Outwitted by the
Farmer’s Beautiful Daughter; Adieu Sweet Lovely Nancy. That was typical of what
I was doing in folk clubs at that time. And 4 or 5 of them have stayed in my
repertoire ever since.
Here
is Polly Vaughan sung a year or two back. The performance is infinitely better
but the arrangement has hardly changed.
I
think Polly Vaughan is a great song and seems old, or at least based on an old
theme but for some reason it isn’t in Prof Child’s famous collection of British
ballads. My abiding memory of it is of a request: “Will you sing that song
about the woman who got shot in a pub?” I couldn’t think what she meant until
she gave me a clue: “I think the pub was called The Swan…” ‘In the room of a
swan’ is a quaint Old English way of saying in mistake for a swan!
The
second album: The Hard Times of Old England was much better technically. VFM
went to town and booked me into a proper studio in London - St Johns Wood I think. The engineers really
knew what they were doing and, although we again only had a very short time to
do the recording, the results were much better and even allowed for some
over-dubbing!
Hard
Times of Old England; Turpin Hero; Shepherd’s Song; Ship in Distress; Home
Dearest Home; Princess Royal (morris tune); I Loved A Lass; Jim Jones at Botany
Bay; The Plaitman of B...shire’ John Barleycorn.
Looking
through those two lists you will probably realise that most of the songs come
from one of two collections: either The Penguin Book of English Folk Songs or
the EFDSS book Marrowbones. Those two books were amongst the very few easily
accessible sources of material for those of us who did not live within easy
reach of Cecil Sharp House and the Vaughan Williams Library. Over the decades I
must have sung at least 50% of the songs in them and a lot are still there in
my repertoire.
The
version of John Barleycorn caught on. I set it to the hymn tune ‘We plough the
fields and scatter…’ which was appropriate and fitted like a glove. I don’t
know where I got the idea from... It might have been mine but I seem to
remember that I either heard a group somewhere do it or I heard a report of
someone else doing it. However, it went down as my arrangement and a lot of
people learned it and credited me as the source, which was great.
Here
it is from the original recording. Remember it’s me in 1979 not now! I sing and
play much better now and don’t have the same strange accent!
How
does that fit with your memories of the time? Does it ring bells? Did you buy
one of those albums? Let me know if you did... when and where.
If
you'd like to know more have a look at my web site
http://www.petecastle.co.uk
My
You Tube channel contains a lot of videos of both songs and stories.
Have
a look at the previous postings below and if you have any comments please post
them. I'd welcome your (constructive) comments and would be very pleased if you
did sign up to 'follow' me!
