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| Australian National University Newspaper Woroni 23 Jul 1964 p. 4 |
Dr. Waters's main point was that folk songs, being an oral form of literature, have the same sort
of value as written literature in cultural and social history. Folk songs cannot only give a picture of contemporary life, but they can also give insight into all thought, feelings and behaviour of the people who sing them.
Historically-speaking, folksongs are important not for their aesthetic qualities, but for what they have to tell of the ordinary life of the singers themselves.
History has no use for formal definitions of "folk-songs." Its main concern is the song itself—who sang it? When did they sing? Why did they, sing it ? How long was it sung for? What changes; did it undergo?
Answers to the questions are often very, difficult, although illuminating at the same time, The example Dr. Waters chose to illustrate, his talk was from a collection of industrial songs of England. The song, "The Poor Cotton Weavers' dates from about 1815, i.e., the period of all post-Napoleonic Wars depression, and was sung in the cotton manufacturing areas of Lancashire. Fifty years later the song was still circulating in broadsheet form and even today variations are still sung in Lancashire..
The theme of the song is the life of the cotton weavers working under the pre-factory age system of "putting out." The song describes a weaver's clothes, food, attitudes to religion and the Anglican Church and the effect of industrial changes upon his earnings.
No amount of prose can capture the intimate expression of working class life contained in the song. One very interesting point illustrated by the song is the absence of Marxian revolutionary feelings in all cotton weavers' even though they are fully aware they are being exploited by the capitalists ?
"For to think au mun work-to keep
him an' his seco,
All the days o' me life, an' when
to die in their debto.
But au'll give over this trade
and work wi' a spade- .
Or go' an' break stone on the road."
When interviewed later, the President of the new society, Mr, Scott Bennett, said the Historical Society had two main aims. The first was to publish a regular historical journal of high quality to which undergraduate students will be encouraged to submit their best work. The inaugural issue is planned for publication in third term. The Society is holding seminars at which students and others will be invited to present, and discuss papers.
"Undergraduates will benefit considerably from having to defend their work before critical audiences," Mr. Bennett said. Two such seminars have already been held and it is hoped to have a third one this term. .
—M.B.G.
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A.L.Loyd on Industrial Folk Song (The Meaning of Folk Music)
From Folk Music in School Robert Leach and Roy Palmer (1978) pp. 27.–28.
When Aa was young an' in me prime,
Wey aye, Aa could hew,
Wey, Aa was hewin' aa1 the time.
Now me hewin' days are through, through,
Now me hewin' days are through.
At the face the dust did flee,
Ee aye, Aa could hew,
But now that dust is killin' me,
Now me hewin' days are through, through,
Now me hewin' days are through.
Aa've lain doon flat an' shovelled coals,
Ee aye, Aa could hew;
Me eyes did smart in the dust-filled holes.
Now me hewin' days are through, through,
Now me hewin' days are through.
Aa've worked wi' marras,' an' they were men,
Ee aye, Aa could hew,
Aye, they were men an' sons o' men.
Now me hewin' days are through, through,
Now me hewin' days are through.
It's doon that pit ne mair
Aa'll see, he aye, Aa could hew,
But Aa'll carry it round inside o' me,
Now me hewin' days are through, through,
Now me hewin' days are through.
marras – mates
Finally we come to a kind of composition that represents a drastic expansion of the conventional frame of folk song. Indeed, some would say it falls right out of that frame, but it is nonetheless a community song originating from below, destined for a tightly knit audience, and based on a traditional pattern, particularly where the verse.form is concerned.
First, the model from which the poem derives: it is a children's street song of derisive character, particularly common in the back alleys and tenement courtyards of Glasgow:
I married me a wife, amen, amen,
I married me a wife, amen.
I married me a wife, she's the plague o' my life,
Ah, the world must be comin' tae an end, amen.
I sent her for butter, amen, amen,
I sent her for butter, amen. Ah, the world must be comin' tae an end, amen.
And so on through a litany of domestic disasters, to the catastrophic Judgement Day. Using that lyric form (and nowadays no creations are more deeply folkloric than the self-made street and playground songs of city children) the 'bard of the Clydeside working class', Matt McGinn, made a song whose natural concert hall is the smoke-filled room of a workers' meeting.
With fire an' with sword, a-men,
With fire an' with sword, here come the men of war,
Ah. the world must be corn-in' tae an end.
With fire an' with sword, amen, amen,
With fire an' with sword, amen,
With fire an' with sword, here come the men of war,
Ah, the world must be comin' tae an end.
Wi' their bayonets an' their bombs, amen, amen,
Their bayonets an' their bombs, amen,
Wi' their bayonets an' their bombs they'll be tearin' down our homes.
Ah, the world must be comin' tae an end.
There's blood upon their hands, amen, amen,
There's blood upon their hands, amen.
There's blood upon their hands in this an' other lands,
Ah, the world must be comin' tae an end.
They massacred the young, amen, amen,
They massacred the young, amen.
They massacred the young tae make them hold their tongue.
Ah, the world must be comin' tae an end.
Oh, will they have their way, amen, amen?
Will they have their way, amen?
Will they have their way, or will the young folk say
That the world will not be comin' tae an end?
The song, 'With fire and with sword', is here given as transcribed from the singing during a mass meeting of shipyard workers in Glasgow in March 1971. Vietnam and Kent State were in the mind then, but the song reflects an ever-present care, particularly with men whose yards find it easier to get war contracts than peaceful ones.
Not folk song? As the folk change, their songs change: it's a truism.
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