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Can you do "Hares on the mountain" by Shirley Collins and Davy Graham? Cheers!!

Suggested Song

(do you want the history of your favorite folk song? dm me or submit an ask, and I'll do a full rundown like here)

"Hares on the Mountain" Shirley Collins and Davy Graham, 1964

"Hares on the Mountain" is a traditional English and Irish folk song that was first mentioned in print in 1837 in "Rory O'More A National Lovestory" (vol. 1 p.234) as "blackbirds and thrishes"

It's almost certain that the song has existed prior, and it could be incredibly old.

the first time it was collected in song was by George Petrie in "The Complete Collection of Irish Music" (1902)

as "All the young maidens were blackbirds and Trushes" like the other book.

i remade this melody so you can hear what it could have sounded like

It was then later collected by Cecil sharp in 1903 and Publish 1904 in "Folk Songs of Somerset" as having two distinct versions

i remade these into melodies as well

version 1

version 2

here

Around the same time, Cecil Sharp would also collect the song, "O Sally My Dear" but wouldn't publish it because of the sexual nature of this song and its relatives, "Pretty Polly" "Nancy and Johnny" and "The Knife in the Window"

This specific family of songs could also be the descendants of an even older folk song that has almost disappeared. except for verses in its descendants. : "The Twa Magicians," which is all over Europe in various forms.

For "Hares on the mountain" The earliest recording I could find of Hares on the Mountain was in 1942 in Somerset, but i don't have access to it. i just know it exists.

The earliest recording I could find that is available publicly is by Horton Barker from just a couple of months later (in the USA), "To My Right", which is the same song as the original "Hares on the Mountain"

Shirley Collins' Version is particularly interesting for combining the lyrics of both "Hares on the mountain" and "Sally My Dear" and making it into a cohesive story. I also love how it seems that Sally is singing "Hares on the Mountain" *to* the young man.

Even though this song is old and has hundreds of versions with dozens of different names, this version is my favorite. It seems that in many versions, the lyrics are meant to be humorous or scandalous, but in Shirley Collins's version, they take on a different tone. They're sad, spooky, and tragic. I like the way that she renders the conversation between the two characters, and her voice is simply angelic. I'm glad that the traditional started to get more attention thanks to her version.

I actually didn't know anything about this song (or that it existed at all) when starting this project as my knowledge is focused on American folk, but as soon as I heard it I knew it was now one of my favorite songs ever. Also! as of last year, Shirley Collins has released another version of the song. Nothing can beat the '60s version, but this one is pretty nice too.

I’ve been listening to Willie Taylor by Martin Simpson but can’t find much information about the ballad’s origin, do you know anything?

Suggested Song (do you want the history of your favorite folk song? dm me or submit an ask and I'll do a full rundown)

"Willie Taylor" Martin Simpson, 2016 Upon hearing this song, it stuck out to me for a few reasons. the active character of the song is a crossdresser, this song and its relatives are about a woman crossdressing as a man to find her husband, and in some versions, she doesn't even care that her husband remarries and attends their wedding positively. and often she marries the ship Captain and they live happily together. In my opinion, this puts it in or adjacent to the category of transgender history. Very fascinating for a folk song .

"Willie Taylor" is a rendition of the traditional English Folk song "William Taylor", (which is the oldest song I have covered on this blog) was first published in a chapbook in London in 1712 (I couldn't find a digitized copy) and would continue to be published up through the 1800s. The first publication I could find and show you is from 1792 in the chapbook "Four New Songs". in this, it is titled "Billy Taylor"

The Earliest sheet music I could find is from 1895, Collected by Frank Kidson

and here's its melody

This song also seems to be related to another song about a crossdressing sailor woman called "The Rambling Female Sailor" collected here in the 1860s by Frank Kidson, but they are classified as different songs.

The oldest recording is from 1908, which can be found here the earliest recording I could find that is available is from 1938, performed by George Vinton Graham

here's another version from 1967 by Hedy West

While in most modern (1860s onward) versions, the song is comedic, originally it was completely serious and genuine. this folk song from the early 1700s if not older, presented a crossdresser as a sort of folk hero, a figure that people would sing about with veneration. That's amazing to me. I think it would be fun to reimagine the song as either: the woman cross-dresses as a man and runs away with her husband's woman after killing him as a butchfemme relationship, or the woman could be reinterpreted as a transgender man who runs away and falls in love with the ship captain. idk I just think these would be cute fun new renditions.

Do you have any thoughts on "Luang Prabang" by Dave van Ronk? It's such a catchy song, but I always want to know more about the wooden medals the song references.

thanks for the work!

Suggested Song

"Luang Prabang" Dave Van Ronk, 1985 "Luang Prabang" was written by Dave Van Ronk sometime before or around 1971, the oldest release I could find is from April 1973, where Patrick Sky and Dave Van Ronk both perform it live on the radio (timestamp 33:05) However, the song was first recorded in 1971 by Patrick Sky, Van Ronk's friend, for his Satirical album "Songs That Made America Famous". Still, it wasn't released until later in 1973 because they had trouble finding a record company due to the edgy and over-the-top nature of the songs featured, to put it lightly. It wouldn't be until later in 1985 when Dave Van Ronk would release a version himself.

"Luang Prabang" is based on a Traditional English tune, "Byker Hill" first published in 1812 in "Rhymes of Northern Bards", and collected around 1810. It was first recorded in 1958-9 by Sandy Paton. Byker Hill and Walker Shore, the places featured in the song, were coal mines and quarries near Newcastle, making this song a coal miners song.

Here's a modern rendition of the song for example. "Luang Prabang" is specifically an anti-Vietnam-war song. Luang Prabang is a real city in Laos. the U.S.A. also dropped 2 million tons of bombs on Laos through the 1960s and 1970s, "the bombs fell like rain." The Song details, sardonically, the physical toll on the American soldiers. The Wooden medal reference is another joke like this. It's basically saying the medal is worthless, not even a bronze medal. The joke is there to contrast the other repeated lyrics like "Now I'm a fucking hero". The only things the character singing got from the song are physical mutilation, the death of everyone else around him, and a wooden medal. It's grim and funny like most songs protesting the war in Vietnam.

Shirley Collins

Hi! Can I ask you about the history of the Wagoner's Lad? I'm a fan of Peter & Gordon their song Pretty Mary, but only today, while listening to some Peggy Seeger, I realised that it's a different pov adaptation of that ballad!

Suggested Songs

"Pretty Mary" Peter & Gordon, 1964

Like you said, "Pretty Mary" is a gender-bent version of the Traditional song "The Wagoner's Lad", which was first documented in 1907 by Cecil Sharp. Here's the fun part- if you are familiar with folk song collector Cecil Sharp and American folk songs, you might expect that it was first collected somewhere in the UK or perhaps Ireland if it was spicy. However, the song was first collected in Appalachia! Despite focusing on English folk songs, Cecil Sharp also collected and recorded folk songs in the Appalachia.

It was first published in "English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians" in 1917. and was first recorded in 1926 by Kelly Harrell as "My horses ain't Hungry".

Another Interesting part of this song is that many of its verses have ended up in the song "On Top of Old Smokey", another song collected by Cecil Sharp in Appalachia in 1916.

This makes it hard to tell the two songs apart, as they've become tangled up with each other. Both songs even contain the same Roud folk song number: 414. "On Top of Old Smokey" was first recorded in 1925 by George Reneau. Old Smokey probably refers to the Great Smoky Mountain range that exists between Tenessee and North Carolina.

This Song, throughout its history, has been adapted and recorded over and over again, here's just a few examples.

Pretty Nancy by Jean Ritchie 1970s (?) The Wagoner's Lad by the Kossoy Sisters 1956 My Horses Ain't Hungry by Mike Seeger 1977 On Top of Old Smokey by Gene Autry 1952 Fare You Well Polly by Pete Seeger, 1954 Rye Whiskey by Woody Guthrie 1940 Goodbye Old Paint by Colter Wall 2021

and there are many many many more.

Thanks for the recommendation! I hope this was helpful

Song of the Day

(do you want the history of your favorite folk song? submit an ask or dm me and I'll do a full rundown)

"Dirty old Town" Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, 1956 this song was originally written by Ewan MacColl in 1949, for his play "Landscape with Chimneys". The song is based off of his childhood city, Salford, Lancashire, England, where he grew up.

In an interview with the BBC, Peggy Seeger said

"it remains a perfect song" "It's a beautiful melody, just four economical verses, and it has been covered by hundreds of singers each in their own way"

she continues with regards to the covers,

"I don’t like what The Dubliners did to it, I don’t like what The Pogues did to it – I think they have lost the loneliness," "I think they have lost the confusion of a young person walking through it." "To me, Ewan was reliving his 20s and his late teens so I think it is harder to change."

she adds,

"It speaks to everybody from a dirty old broken down industrial city," "But Salford was in Ewan MacColl’s bones." "He took me to his dirty old town within a week of our three-decade partnership."

This relates to one of my favorite things about the song, it's equally relatable for everyone in a burnt-out industrial city. hell, I really relate to the song and my hometown is a railroad town in Wyoming. I grew up listening to this song because my mom loved it and her hometown is a rustbelt city that was crumbling factorial ruins when she was growing up.

Even though Peggy Seeger doesn't like the covers, I still want to mention the version by The Pogues as it's one of my favorites. I do agree with her that both of the translations lost some of the charm that the original had.

The original captured the spirit of traditional Irish and English folk music, so much so that I assumed it was a traditional ballad. little new compositions of folk music succeed in doing this, which makes the song impressive.

Shirley Collins

English folk singer who was a significant contributor to the English Folk Revival of the 1960s and 1970s