Steeleye Span song/Hyacinth Buckett

I know this may be slightly off topic, BUT I need overseas help for the answer. I was watching “Keeping up apperances” on PBS, our public TV station in the U.S. and the episode had them singing in a C of E gathering. The melody thay sang was one of the early Steeleye Span tunes with Martin Carthy( I have to thing its the Hark! the Village Wait). The song SES sang was Dark Eyed Sailor. What’s the hymn that is the cognate?? There is also a monty python episode where I know its a hymn, but can’t place it either.

Steeleye got me in this music so my heart is with them… but then so did Mississippi John Hurt

You’re going to think me really sad. I dug out the track from an old SS compilation. It sounds very much like John Bunyan’s (No 576 in the Church Hymnary). The first line is “Who would true valour see, let him come hither”. The last line of each verse is a refrain “To be a pilgrim”.

Praise the Lord and pass the amunition. 🙂

I love some of these old hymns a lot of which I got traditionally in my primary and secondary school.
“We plough the fields and scatter”
“Hills of the North awake”
“Lord of all hopefulness”
“For those in peril on the sea”

PP

“To be a pilgrim” is a rip off of the old English folksong “Our captain cried all hands” (which incidentally encourages lesbianism as an alternative to being treated badly by sailors, but I digress).

I’ve heard it suggested that the Church of England set a lot of hymns to known folk tunes because the prospective congregation would know them and be more likely to join in.

Give me the old bawdy verses any time.

I can’t think of any hymn that’s similar to “Dark eyed sailor”, though - it’s nothing like “To be a pilgrim”!

Sounds a bit like the early Steeleye Span version, I thought, but we’ll agree to differ. 🙂

That’s true, bc - if the C of E had left the tunes intact in the process it might have been OK… but it seems to me they were sanitised out of all recognition. (IMHO of course!)

“Monk’s Gate” is the hymn tune title, if “Who would true valour see” is the one I_Fel is looking for. Maddy Prior recorded it with The Carnival Band; I didn’t know she recorded it with Steeleye as well but I must look out for it.

(I used to give a semi-regular workshop on arranging hymn tunes for the instruments you’ve actually got as opposed to the ones you’ve been trained to think you ought to have, and as an opening “ice breaker” for it I took great delight in playing the alternative tune for “All things bright and beautiful”, aka Royal Oak, in its Proper Church Setting, then playing the recording of the Carnival Band’s version of the same tune as “The 29th of May”/“The Jovial Beggars” from Playford’s Dancing Master, just to make people realise that not all of these tunes were handed down on stone tablets from on high! Even the Anglicans usually managed to giggle at the contrast 8>)

Brain Mcneill’s first solo album was called “Monksgate”,and the title track was a lovely version of the old tune.I have to agree with bc_box_player,it doesn’t sound at all like “The Dark Eyed Sailor”.

You’re right enough, Jocklet. In fact, I’ve tracked down the sleeve notes for “Hark the Village wait” and it was actually the version of “The Blacksmith” which was based on the hymn. Apparently, the learned the version of “Dark eyed sailor” from the singing of Al O’Donnell who is a fine Irish singer. I’ll investigate further.


"The Blacksmith
Maddy Prior, lead vocals;
Gay Woods, vocals;
Terry Woods, mandola;
Tim Hart, electric guitar;
Ashley Hutchings, electric bass;
Gerry Conway, drums

Maddy collected this version from a number of texts in the Folk Song Journals. This Southern English song, like the better known Twanky-Dillo, uses the blacksmith as an epitome of virility with the hammer filling the bill as a phallic symbol. A close variant of this tune is used to the John Bunyan hymn, To Be a Pilgrim."

PP -
an unfortunate incident from my youth sprang to mind on reading mention of “We plough the fields and scatter”: I was moving the lawn at my friend Cathy’s house, singing that same hymn at the top of my voice; when I threw my head back to put more gusto into it, I accidentally went over her foot. That was both of us howling! A case of “we plough the feet and scatter five good toes on the ground”! Actually (fortunately) she was only bruised ….

Did you guys know that Steeleye Span does Skartinglas or what they call it Marrow (sp*) Bones. I heard the Span version then I heard Skartinglas and said this is that song Steeleye Span does.

Well all I can say is that PBS has certainly lowered it’sstandards since I lived in the states in the late 70s, if they’re showing that sh**e!

kris-absolutely right on that program. And it is Orange County, CA programming to boot

Unseen122- Marrowbones is a great tune- I try to do a Peter Knight on my fiddle but sadly can’t even come close. More info on Skartinglas if any???

Well what happened was I bought a “celtic compilation CD” it was $10 for two CD come on I could not resist and it had this song on it and that was it I don’t know if it is an Irish/Scottish song it might be British but I don’t think it is and doubt that very highly.

I watch “Keeping Up Appearances”.It’s an amusing satire about the class system and social pretentions in British society.Patricia Routledge is wonderfully cast as Hyacinth Buckett.I realise that the series is probably not up to the exacting standards required by American television,but I like it.

so the SES tune is “the blacksmith” and the hymn is “monks gate”??

The tune is “Monksgate”,the hymn is “To Be A Pilgrim” and the Steeleye Span song is “The Blacksmith”

For the benefit of the inquisitive, the words and music of “The captain called all hands” are to be found at
http://sniff.numachi.com/~rickheit/dtrad/pages/tiCAPNCALL;ttCAPNCALL.html

Trevor

Not to forget the Kippers joke on old hymns - if the harvest was too plentiful crop prices would go down and the farmers would loose money. The best way round this was to go out on the tractor at dead of night and plough your neighbours’ crops into the ground. Of course, if he heard you doing this he’d come after you with his shotgun.
Hence the old hymn “We plough the fields and scatter”.

the abc for the captain called all hands was what i heard

SO, to recapitulate: monksgate’s the tune; the captain cried all hands are words to said tune; To Be A Pilgrim“ and the Steeleye Span song is ”The Blacksmith

correct??

I’ll try to listen to my Monty Python episodes and see what hymn they use; this has got me, as we say in Sunny California-muy interested-o

thanks all for the info and the anecdotes on running over someone with a mower

i"m going to practice Banish Misfortune on my pipes; anyone, anyone???