Gerald Nodin Bargee Song (1937)

[Ray T]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLD81E417788B041BE&v=WdOS61HJ_BU

 

May be of interest to some ???

 

Truly awful of its time, IMHO of course.

 

Edited May 23, 2015 by Ray T

[Bugsworth Tippler]

Should anyone fancy singing this song the lyrics can be found on the 'Songs of the Inland Waterways' website : http://www.waterwaysongs.co.uk/index.html

 

There are also many other songs about the waterways plus some interesting recordings of waterway interest.

[Janet S]

Is that our Eurovision entry for this year?

 

Janet

[steven wilkinson]

it was our entry in the 1937 Eurovision.

[Burgiesburnin]

Is his beard stuck on?

[Barry]

And his eyebrows?

[Derek R.]

He was an actor appearing in several films and had a good baritone voice. Last recorded appearance was in an episode of Dr. Finlay's casebook :

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0633824/

 

http://www.britishpathe.com/video/gerald-nodin-1

[Ray T]

http://www.britishpathe.com/video/gerald-nodin-bargee-song

 

Description

Baritone Gerald Nodin sings Bargee song.

M/S of barges sailing along a canal. M/S of Gerald in the studio setting made to look like a towpath, he is wearing a very false looking beard! Various shots of men turning the wheels to open the lock, the barges sail through. Back to Gerald singing about the life of a bargee.

[c c]

"Only a lonely old man with a barge"?

Why would that be...............

 

We're looking for trad songs for our Hillmorton do on 15thAugust but I don't think we are that desperate yet

[Bugsworth Tippler]

"We're looking for trad songs for our Hillmorton do on 15th August but I don't think we are that desperate yet"

Of course it depends what you mean by a 'traditional song' but your search may be in vain. Most canal related songs have been written since the canals were first 'saved'.

'The Tommy Note' and 'The Greasy Wheel' are possibly the only two 'traditional' canal songs but I would be happy to be corrected, as I inevitably will be!

[Derek R.]

I think you are correct on that one. Most of the so called traditional songs as were sung in pubs were much the same all over; Knees up Mother Brown; Bless'em all, etc. Gerald Nodin must have had that stuff written for him, and likely it would have been based on popular music hall ditties running into early film clips for cinema audiences in between films. Previous generations of boat people might never have heard of such a song.

[Pluto]

There are some contemporary songs/poems on my website, and I have recently been sent another about the promotion of the L&LC which has been set to music. There is also "The Cruise of the Calibar', for which I have two L&LC versions, and there is also one for the Lagan Navigation in Northern Ireland. From the details used, they must have been written when the canals were in operation.

[Bugsworth Tippler]

Some interesting poems on your site Pluto. I'd be interested in hearing the L&LC material which has been set to music.

 

'The Cruise of the Calibar' was apparently written by Johnny Greenwood in the 1870s and it travelled well with, I assume, Music Hall artists changing the locations as appropriate. There are several versions on the Songs of the Inland Waterways site : http://www.waterwaysongs.co.uk/calabar_intro.htm

 

'The Shipwreck on the Lagan Canal' came, I believe, from a broadside : http://www.waterwaysongs.co.uk/lagan_canal.htm This may be the song to which Pluto refers.

[Bugsworth Tippler]

Having looked at Pluto's website I noted the picture on the front page of the boat 'Pluto' along with 'Mendip'.

 

There are three songs about Charlie Atkins on the 'Songs of the Waterways' website : 'Charlie Atkins', 'Chocolate Charlie' and 'Bolinder Boatman'.

[Pluto]

I don't have any music for the L&LC poems, and it is likely that any suitable traditional tune would have been used. Re The Cruise of the Calibar/Calabar, the word I was given are in the first edition of Clogs & Gansey, the L&LC Society newsletter, which can also be downloaded from my website. There is another one which I found in 'A Hundred Years of Sugar Refining', J A Watson, 1975, which is a history of Tate & Lyle's Love Lane refinery. This one was provided by Fritz Spiegel, and is more Liverpool centred than the one I was given, though not by a great deal. The Lagan version was published in 'Once Upon the Lagan', by May Blair, 1981 and 2000, where she collected ten songs/poems about the Lagan, including the one you quote.

 

I worked with Charlie Atkins when he was steering Lapwing for Peter Froud in 1972, the last time he did the job regularly. He recited endless stories of life and death on the cut, though no songs. He did mention the following,which is incomplete as my memory is fading. I have written it down somewhere safe!

 

A knocked-up horse

A ???????

An empty stern

And a knotted line

And doesn't the Shroppie cut she shine.

[Derek R.]

Bob Roberts on his album 'Songs from the Sailing Barges' sings a group of songs exaggerating the experience of voyages under the influence with 'Stormy Weather Boys' (an account of a boozy trip from Surrey Docks to Rotherhithe); 'The Collier Brig'; and 'The Fish & Chip song'. To quote from the album sleeve on the latter: -

 

". . with its tune derived from Darling Nellie Grey, belongs to that class of latter day burlesque sea songs of which 'The Cruise of the Calabar' is best well known."

 

Sam Larner was another who recorded albums, his songs were often based around Yarmouth and the fishing therefrom. At age 14: - "It were Sea or Gaol for us".

[Pluto]

Gezz Overington's songs about Goole and the A&CN are almost traditional as his father worked on the Tom Puddings.

[Derek R.]

Is that our Eurovision entry for this year?

 

Janet

 

It should have been.

Edited May 26, 2015 by Derek R.