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Sleeve Notes
It was a case of being in the right place at the right time: London in the Swinging Sixties. But instead of being into rock'n'roll, we were into traditional English folk music. The Young Tradition happened by accident. Peter and Royston met when they were both camping on a friend's floor, and started making harmonies together. I ran into them at a folk club (there were two or three a night back then) and just joined in from the audience. Then people started offering us gigs. We travelled all over the UK and did four tours in Canada and the US.
We made up our own harmonies, which owed much to The Copper Family, but also came from our other musical loves. For Royston, it was classical music. For me, it was the Everly Brothers and years of school and church choirs. We were three very definite individuals, but we came firmly together on one thing — we loved the music. We had a great deal of fun, we saw a lot of places, and we made many friends.
Heather Wood, April 1996.
When Peter Bellamy, Royston Wood and Heather Wood formed The Young Tradition in the mid-sixties, they created a unique synthesis of the new energies thrown up by the folk revival and the English tradition of unaccompanied harmony singing. The group's electrifying (but not electrified) performance of a huge repertoire of traditional songs was successfully translated to the interpretations on their three Transatlantic albums released between 1966 and 1968. Sadly, both Peter Bellamy and Royston Wood are no longer with us, but Heather Wood continues to sing in clubs in the USA, where she now lives. And the group's legacy continues to enrich the generation of singers currently emerging, a generation calling itself "Young Tradition".
This CD re-issue brings together all the songs on the first two albums, the eponymous The Young Tradition' (1966) and 'So Cheerfully Round'. (1967).
Laurence Aston
Byker Hill — Peter, Heather, Royston — Collected by John Hasted, this is a boastful collier's song from Tyneside. Mentioned in the song is the tune of Elsie Marley, a well-known Northumbrian dance, and Geordie Charlton, apparently a local character. Geordie has identical mention in a sea shanty as having a pig that did a dance when he hit it with a shovel.
The Bold Fisherman — Peter, Heather, Royston — This song has been widely distributed throughout the country: versions have been collected from Harry Cox and the Copper family. It appears to be a simple story of boy meets girl, with the boy turning out to be a lord in disguise. However, Lucy Broadwood puts forward the theory that the song contains an element of Christian symbolism in its origins: the girl is the sinful soul who meets Christ — the fisher of souls — and recognises him by his "chains of gold", she begs forgiveness for her presumption, which is readily granted and she becomes the bride of Christ.
Betsy The Serving Maid — Peter — A fine ballad, almost certainly of broadside origin, and therefore very widespread, versions differing very little from that used here having been collected in East Anglia, Dorset, Hampshire and as far afield as Massachusetts. The tune used here is derived from that sung by Harry Cox from whom Peter learned the song, but derived is the word as he seems to have altered it a lot, not altogether intentionally. Harry's tune is thought by Lloyd to be a poor relation of that collected in Suffolk by Moeran to The Isle Of Cloy'. Harry claims that Betsy has been sung in his family for at least two hundred years.
Henry The Poacher — Peter and Heather — 'Henry The Poacher', sometimes called 'Van Dieman's Land' is a magnificently detailed deportation ballad, learned from the vast repertoire of Harry Cox of Sutton, Norfolk. It tells its own very moving story better than any other ballad we know. A very convincing story too — you can't doubt such full and precise narrative. MacColl relates the tune used here to The Banks Of The Sweet Dundee'.
Lyke Wake Dirge — Peter, Heather, Royston — The dirge as we sing it is an adaptation of Aubrey's manuscript version of 1686. Descriptions of the song have come from Scotland and from the north of England as far south as Yorkshire, and the idea of the departed soul going on a hazardous journey to Purgatory has its parallels throughout Indo-European lore. Widespread too is the belief that alms given by the living will be given back to the donor at the beginning of the soul's journey, so that a pair of shoes given away during the subject's lifetime will enable his soul to cross prickly Whinny Moor without injury. Whether the dirge was sung, chanted or recited over the corpse is not clear; there is no evidence of an air to the dirge in the tradition. The tune used here was given to us by Hans Fried, who heard it long ago from an old Scots lady, Peggy Richards.
The Banks Of Claudy — Peter, Heather, Royston — 'The Banks Of Claudy', along with 'John Riley', is probably the most widespread of the 'broken token ballads': the theme of the returned sailor whom the faithful girlfriend fails to recognise, being one of the top three tales in folklore all over the English-speaking world. This version is as true to type as any, except that the actual token is not mentioned. Like 'The Innocent Hare' we adapted this for three voices from the singing of the Copper family of Rottingdean.
The Innocent Hare — Peter, Heather, Royston — A typical English hunting song, charming despite its bloodthirstiness. We learned it from the singing of Bob and Ron Copper, and it is probably closer to the "Copper sound" than anything else in our repertoire. Royston's bass line is not, however, the same as that used by the Coppers, and Heather's harmony is a definite addition to the Copper pattern. After hearing our arrangement described, Ron Copper said to us: "I've been telling Bob for years we should have a young lady sing with us!"
Dives And Lazarus — Royston — Collected by both Sharp and Vaughan-Williams this is a simple but eloquent version of the story of rich old Dives who slighted the beggar Lazarus and got his deserts for doing so. The song must have appealed to the countryfolk, who would have appreciated the idea of Lazarus, downtrodden on Earth, finding a place in Heaven, where he sits on an angel's knee. Since Royston started singing this song, it has undergone some subtle changes musically. The tune is related to the Irish air of the 'Star Of The County Down'.
Derry Down Fair — Royston and Heather; Peter, on chorus — In the more common variants of 'Young Rambleaway', the song ends with the girl going home to her parents, sadder, wiser and pregnant. This Dorset version ends instead with a boastful half warning, half invitation from Rambleaway himself: "My hat, cap and feathers, my dear, you shall wear, and a bunch of blue ribbons to tie up your hair". And that is the limit of what any girl can expect of him. The words were collected by Hammond from Robert Barrett, of Puddletown, in 1905. The tune is not Mr. Barrett's, however, it came to us in its present form by mistake, but we liked it and kept it.
The Truth Sent From Above — Heather — This is a traditional carol, collected in 1909 by Vaughan Williams from Mr. W. Jenkins, of King's Pyon, Herefordshire. The tune is in the Dorian mode, and has affinities with several others, including 'Searching For Lambs'. In 1823 it appeared in Hone's list of carols. Heather learned it at school.
Pretty Nancy Of Yarmouth — Peter, Heather, Royston — This version was collected in Middlesbrough, Yorkshire. There are many songs with this title; some have parallel texts, others dwell on the hardships of a sailor's life at sea, giving no account of the girl's marriage to another, which is the subject of this variant.
Daddy Fox — Peter, Heather, Royston — I almost learned 'Daddy Fox' in the approved traditional manner, not at my mother's knee, but at the knee of my Great-Aunt Henrietta, who used to sing it to me when was very small. The only problem is that the version which I remember her singing was an American one. Perhaps she learned if from a Burl Ives record on Housewives' Choice. The version we sing here comes from Dartmoor, and comes to us indirectly and somewhat changed from the singing of Cyril Tawney. — Note by Peter.
The Season Round — Peter, Heather, Royston — Perhaps because the first eighteen years of my life were spent on a farm, the simple agricultural almanac that is The Season Round' is particularly dear to me. Of course the song dates from older times, when the pace, even on the farm, was slower and more peaceful. The last verse — a protest song if ever I heard one — was probably added by Jim or Ron Copper, the fathers of Bob and Ron Copper from whom we learned the song. Perhaps still more verses should be added in the same vein — the menace of the tractor to the old ways seems trifling now, compared to the advent of the artificial sprays, the fertilisers and insecticides. It is sad to think that perhaps it will not be long before the whole song is as much a piece of quaint but obsolete history as 'The Jolly Waggoner'. — Note by Peter.
The Bold Dragoon — Heather — 'The Bold Dragoon' was collected by Bob Copper from Enos White of Axford, Hants. It has connections with Earl Brand (Child 7) but this version is far nearer to popular taste than the morbid saga which the longer ballad relates, in which the Earl, after killing off his father and seven men (brothers in some versions) dies, and is followed rapidly to the grave by his beloved. Standard ballad ending about red roses and briars. Enos White started work on the farm when he was seven; he drove a two-horse plough at the age of eight, For most of his life he was a carter. When this song was collected in 1955 he was working as a gardener. — Note by Heather.
Watercress-O — Peter, Heather, Royston — Roger Watson wrote Watercross-O. Roger is a friend of ours; we could almost claim to have discovered him. Early in our friendship he gave me this song. He has written much since " then and many good singers have relayed his material around the clubs, but still I think that this is one of his best three songs. It is anecdotal, being taken from his grandmother's memory at a time in her childhood when, as a miner's daughter, she experienced the privation brought on by the meagreness of strike pay. Most of Roger’s songs are taken from real life; his feeling for both stories and melodies is surer than most writers of today; his only worry with songs of the quality of Watercress-O is that the singers should do them justice. — Note by Royston.
The Old Miser — Peter — 'The Old Miser' is a ballad which has not to my knowledge been previously collected from Harry Cox, although other versions of this particular song are not uncommon and the story line is encountered time and time again under various titles and employing only slightly different details. The present text has a more bloodthirsty ending than most, with multiple deaths equalled only by 'The Banks Of The Sweet Dundee' and 'The Boston Strangler'. I learned the song from hearing Harry sing it at The Windmill, Sutton, in Norfolk on the 21st September last year. (I do not have the total-recall memory attributed to traditional singers, not even the ability to know so short a ballad on only one hearing. There were several tape recorders present.) — Note by Peter
The Foxhunt — Peter, Heather, Royston — 'The Foxhunt' represents some kind of new direction for the style of the group. We may well go this way for a while, exploring the rhythmic niceties of the songs we learn. This song was begging for staggered rhythms and natty takeovers, so in a tentative way we complied with the requirements, but I have the feeling that even now we have only partly finished the job. We learned 'The Foxhunt' from Peter's brother-in-law; it was originally sung by Mr. Stephen Pole, a Norfolk singer, who gave it to Dr. Vaughan Williams — Note by Royston.
Knight William — Peter, Heather, Royston — This is our first attempt to apply group singing techniques to one of the 'big songs', and to do so we have had to employ various combinations of voices from verse to verse. Since learning this and working it out we have come across even longer versions of the same story, but this fifteen-verse account did not seem to us in need of further expansion. — Note by Peter.
The Single Man's Warning — Peter and Heather — When prowling round Cecil Sharp House I discovered that they have all the Sharp Manuscripts on microfilm. It's a tiring process — his writing is somewhat illegible and the cracks on the film become confused with the lines on which the music is writ — but it can be rewarding. 'The Single Man's Warning' is from this source. It was collected in 1903 from Tom Sprachlan of Hambridge, Somerset. I think Tom must have had matrimonial problems; several of his songs are on this theme. This was a song I thought to use as a solo, but it was not to be. One of the trials of being in a group, I suppose. — Note by Heather.
The Pretty Ploughboy — Royston — I learned 'The Pretty Ploughboy' from an archive recording of that superb old stylist, Harry Cox. This kind of ballad is a challenge to a singer; it dares you to experiment, to decorate, but gives you plenty of scope to accept its challenge. In this sort of ballad you are a narrator and singer; and to tell the story convincingly is as important as to be able to sing. For a busy suburban revivalist singer, material such as this, from singers of Harry Cox's quality, is a vital part of learning one's trade. — Note by Royston.
The Hungry Child — Peter, Heather, Royston — We have a friend called Judith Piepe. She once came into collision with a Folk Drag, who knew All About The English Tradition and could tell a traditional song any day. So Judith wrote him a couple, which he averred were rural gems from the seventeen hundreds. When she told him the truth he went away and hasn't been heard from since. Splendid. So, we thought, was one of the songs. Judith calls it 'The Procrastination Song': we prefer to call it 'The Hungry Child'. — Note by Heather.
The Whitsuntide Carol — Peter, Heather, Royston — 'The Whitsuntide Carol' which we sing was collected from Thomas Coningsby of Whaddon in Cambridgeshire. He tells how the men of the village used to go into the woods on Whit Sunday morning, cut oak branches and lay them on the doorsteps of all the houses. Then they would go round in a group singing this carol. It seems strange that the high moral tone of the early verses should be linked with what is obviously a pagan custom. — Note by Heather.