Byker Hill
Greg Bullough
Can someone detail the origins of "Byker Hill?"
I wouldn't mind a set of e-mail lyrics, either.
Greg
Toby Koosman
(Greg Bullough) writes...
I've read or heard something about the background of this song but can't
lay my hands (or memory) on it. I know it is one that Albert Lloyd sang.
Here are the words I sing (which may contain embarassing corruptions, I
disclaim).
If I had another penny
I would have another jill
I would make the piper play
the Bonny Lass of Byker Hill
chorus:
Byker Hill and Walker Shore
Collier lads forevermore
Byker Hill and Walker Shore
Collier lads forevermore
The pitman and the keelman [sp?] trim
They drink bumble made from gin
Then to dance they do begin
To the tune of Elsie Marlie
[chorus]
When first I went down to the dirt
I had no cowell [sp?] and no pit shirt
Now I've got me two or three
Walker Pit's done well by me
[chorus]
Geordie Charleton had a pig
He hit it with a shovel and it danced a jig
All the way to Walker Shore
to the tune of Elsie Marlie
[chorus]
I think part of the appeal of this song is that it is both exciting and easy
to sing, at least to the tune I know, which has so little range that I have
been known to raise the key deliberately, for effect, two or three times while
singing it.
-Toby
Lindsay F. Marshall
(I can just about see Byker from my office window)
Here's an indication of the song as I know it.
koo...@utkvx1.utk.edu (Toby Koosman) writes:
>If I had another penny
>I would have another jill
gill = 0.125 of a pint
>I would make the piper play
have fiddler
>the Bonny Lass of Byker Hill
>chorus:
>Byker Hill and Walker Shore
>Collier lads forevermore
>Byker Hill and Walker Shore
>Collier lads forevermore
>The pitman and the keelman [sp?] trim
= man who rowed a keel, a small boat for carrying coal.
>They drink bumble made from gin
>Then to dance they do begin
>To the tune of Elsie Marlie
Marley = a well known jig and song. EM was the
wife of an innkeeper at the Barley Mow
inn, Pictreee near Chester-le-Street.
She was a popular local figure.
She fell into a water filled coal mine
and drowned August 5, 1768
>[chorus]
>When first I went down to the dirt
When I first came to the dirt
>I had no cowell [sp?] and no pit shirt
coat (though cowell sounds authentic)
>Now I've got me two or three
getten
>Walker Pit's done well by me
Them Walker Pits done well by me (or Thise if you want the RP version)
>[chorus]
>Geordie Charleton had a pig
Thompson (though Charleton is just as likely)
>He hit it with a shovel and it danced a jig
>All the way to Walker Shore
Duncan's Rigg (which rhymes!!!!)
>to the tune of Elsie Marlie
>[chorus]
The poor coal cutter gets a shilling,
The deputy gets half a crown
The hour man gets five and sixpence
Just for riding up and down
[chorus]
There is reputedly one more verse, which someone has promised me, but
which I haven't got yet. The song is in Lloyd's Come all ye bold miners.
>I think part of the appeal of this song is that it is both exciting and easy
>to sing, at least to the tune I know, which has so little range that I have
>been known to raise the key deliberately, for effect, two or three times while
>singing it.
Well, if its the same tune I find it quite hard (remmebering that I
cant sing of course). The tune used is (I think) an old hymn. I have
heard other tunes used as well though.
Lindsay
--
MAIL : Lindsay....@newcastle.ac.uk
POST : Computing Laboratory, The University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK NE1 7RU
VOICE: +44-91-222-8267
FAX : +44-91-222-8572
Henry Ford
There is a wonderful slow tune which alters the whole meaning of
the song. If anyone wants it, I'll write it out and mail it.
Henry Ford.
Greg Bullough
>
>(I can just about see Byker from my office window)
>
>Here's an indication of the song as I know it.
>
>koo...@utkvx1.utk.edu (Toby Koosman) writes:
>>If I had another penny
>>I would have another jill
> gill = 0.125 of a pint
...-pot ,half-a-gill, quarter-gill, nipperkin, and the brown bowl!
er, sorry, I got caught up in the moment. Must of been that
"@newcastle" bit.
Greg
Daniel Rosenblum
writes, about the song "Byker Hill":
> I've read or heard something about the background of this song but can't
> lay my hands (or memory) on it. I know it is one that Albert Lloyd sang.
> [stuff deleted]
> I think part of the appeal of this song is that it is both exciting and easy
> to sing, at least to the tune I know, which has so little range that I have
> been known to raise the key deliberately, for effect, two or three times while
> singing it.
In <1991Oct16....@newcastle.ac.uk>,
Lindsay....@newcastle.ac.uk (Lindsay F. Marshall), following up on
the previously mentioned message, writes:
> Well, if its the same tune I find it quite hard (remmebering that I
> cant sing of course). The tune used is (I think) an old hymn. I have
> heard other tunes used as well though.
Huh? The recording that I have of A. L. Lloyd singing this certainly
doesn't fit either of these descriptions. First of all, his tune is a
fast one with a rhythm that I would expect to find in Balkan folk dance
music: 2/8 + 2/8 + 2/8 + 3/8 (it's the same rhythm that Dave Brubeck
uses in the first 27 beats of the "Blue Rondo a la Turk", or however he
spells Turk, theme, until he switches to ordinary 9/8 for the last 9
beats). This hardly sounds like any hymn tune that I could imagine.
Second, I seem to recall that the syllable "Shore" is on a note that's
enough higher than the rest that it makes the range more than the "so
little" one that is mentioned in the first quoted message above.
--
Daniel M. Rosenblum, Assistant Professor, Quantitative Studies Area,
Graduate School of Management, Rutgers University (Newark Campus)
ROSE...@DRACO.RUTGERS.EDU ROSE...@ZODIAC.BITnet
d...@andromeda.rutgers.edu ...!rutgers!andromeda.rutgers.edu!dmr