A rare recording of The Gaol Song (or The Treadmill Song) performed by Luke Kelly & The Dubliners. Note on The Gaol Song from The Penguin Book of English Folk Songs edited by Ralph Vaughan and AL Lloyd English tradition includes many crime songs but relatively few dealing with life in prison. The broadside ballads of Bellevue, Wakefield, and Kirkdale gaols, published by Bebbington of Manchester and Harkness of Preston, all derive from the same 'original', issued several times in London by the Catnach Press and it's successors as The County Gaol. A different ballad, called Durham Gaol, said to be the work of the pitman-balladeer Thomas Armstrong, was current on Tyneside till recently (see AL Lloyd: Come All Ye Bold Miners). Each of these bears some relation to our Gaol Song, of which two versions, with separate melodies, were collected by HED Hammond in Beaminster, Dorset in June 1906. The Gaol Song Lyrics "Step in young man, I know your face It's nothing in your favour A little time I'll give to you Six months unto hard labour" To my hip fol the day, hip fol the day To my hip fol the day, for the digee oh At six o'clock our turnkey comes in With a bunch of keys all in his hand "Come, come, my lads, step up and grind Tread the wheel till breakfast time" At eight o'clock our skilly comes in Sometimes thick and sometimes thin But devil a word we must not say It's bread and water all next day At half past eight the bell doth ring Into the chapel we must swing Down on our ...
No comments:
Post a Comment