The STORIES BEHIND THE SONGS

THE STORIES BEHIND THE SONGS

OVER IN EAST ANGLIA - the songs

1 The Green, Green Grass in Over ~ Flood meadow grass in Over is rightly famed for producing wonderful, rare-breed cattle Incidentally, in Old English, the name "Over" means By The River/ River Bank.

2 Ranelagh Road* ~ chorus words from someone in 1916 ~
1916 - First World War - so many casualties from The Somme Offensive. In Ipswich, a hospital is set up in a commandeered school. A nurse has an "autograph" notebook - comradeship is shared as companions jot down warm messages in this little book... .....which has survived their writers.... and their words truly sing across The Ages...

3 My Town ~ All of East Anglia is changing so, so fast......
4 Littleport Anthem* words by Elizabeth Sutherland Fleming. Early 1900s, a teacher in Fenland loved the seemingly-featureless, flat, agricultural landscape. Her imagination saw what used to be there. Elizabeth Fleming, once of Barway in the heart of Cambridgeshire's Fenland, wrote poems and short plays. One poem, above all others, caught the local imagination.... HOBSON'S VOICE were asked to write a tune for it.... so here it is........
5 Littleport Lullaby ~ In the still of early morning, a mother sings to her very new baby. She says:"Be proud of being Fen-born, of being a "Fenny".
So many special people have come from here..... James Nightall, who gave his life moving a burning train filled with explosives bound for D-Day; surgeons who saved the lives of young RAF airmen with pioneering surgery; and poor people driven to despair by poverty and hunger.... the first of the 1800s Bread Rioters...

6 The Mountains of Ely ~ When "The World" is all wrong, you can but dream your way out of it.... N.B. this was written BEFORE the Bank and Banker Scandals of 2008...
In the USA, hobos had a song, "Big Rock Candy Mountain". Medieval folk had an imaginary "Land of Cockaigne".... All about overthrowing the systems and society that beats you down....

7 The River Great Ouse ~ Early 1947 -the bitterest of winters - but mid-March, a sudden snow-melt torrent threatened to overwhelm even the strongest flood-defences. At Over, The River Great Ouse beat all the immense efforts of hundreds of men, and burst the flood-bank. After the breach was finally blocked, and the flooded fens dry again, a large, grey stone was placed to commemorate the struggle and courage.

8 Cat Scratchings ~ Miaouwwwwww!

9 Whistling Postie and Postman's Knock* ~ The Singing Postman will always be one of East Anglia's most-beloved characters.
Over's own musical Posties are here in HOBSON'S VOICE. Enjoy their tune.....have a whistle... go on.... you know you want to.......

Postman's Knock ...circa 1860 by L.M Thornton and W.T Wrighton. Popular with Morris Men....and us.

THE STORIES BEHIND THE SONGS

TOWN & GOWN FOLK - the songs

1+ Hobson's Choice ~ 400 years ago, in Cambridge......your choice of Thomas Hobson's horse for rent...."Take it or leave it!"

2 Wandlebury Hill ~ This is a place of legend in The Gog Magog Hills. Owned by the forward-looking charity, Cambridge Past, Present and Future, Wandlebury Coubtry Park exists largely thanks to the vision and hard slog of the former head warden Bill Clark.
Bill talked of many bones of both animals and humans, lying there in the hill. Ramblers spoke to him more than once of a spectral presence near the Roman road.

3 Town & Gown ~ It is often said that, in university cities, there is some rivalry betweem "Them and Us." Challenges and difficulties happen in all relationships. But Love, real or allegorical, conquers all....we trust....

4 Hawaiian Shirts ~ Colour and extraordinary beauty....a phrase not usually associated immediately with research scientist! Yet, in the Cambridge University Botanical Gardens there are things of the greatest loveliness from all across our amazing planet. Tropical Botanic Gardens on a Hawaiian island are constantly in the memory of the scientist in this song. And amidst all this wonder, life-significant science is happening in both places half a world apart.

5 Fenner's "Owzaaat!" ~ Picture the scene... a quiet summer's noontime in Covent Garden, that delightful, cottaged street near Fenner's Cricket Ground. Suddenly, the hollyhocked, relaxing anbience is splintered by an almighty cry of "OWZAAAT!" Such exuberance! Uniquely British! It just had to be distilled into a lively, British-style dance tune!

6+ Bicycle City Light Blues ~ Stand on Castle Hill. Gaze from the ancient summit. Below you lies our city of Hopes and History. So many people gravitate to our jumble of a pretty, little city searching for a Future. Looking at them, you can't see their dreams....

7+ Migrant ~ Somewhere, in all our pasts, we are migrants. First generation or seventh, you may know family dramas of coming here. This man is not imaginary. He landed in Mill Road, destitute in winter. His lifeline: a letter commending him to the Cambridge Salvation Army. They took him in. Why Cambridge? Who knows?

8 Cantabusker Ex Libris ~ Buskers come in all sounds and sizes. From the doubtful- end of the spectrum, the Cambridgebusker-outside-the-library?/?from-a-fantasy-book is based on a penny whistler from the days when our re-booted Central Library was finally reopened.

9 Let's All Go MayLadying ~ In many villages, girls decorated dolls with flowers on May Day, showing them around the village in return for sweets or a penny. When the 2nd World War started, this custom died out, though in Cambridgeshire, May-Dolling or MayLadying might be found until about 1960. Recently, there has been an interest in reviving it here. In Somerton in The Cotswolds, they still have their original Victorian doll and maintain the tradition.

10 God's Country ~ Just off the M11, at Lord's Bridge, ironically, the search for the origin of The Heavens begins....strangely on an old railway track. The giant dishes of the Mullard Radio astronomy Observatory move on their rails.....one of the most striking sights in our county, where Science and Theology are ancient cradle-fellows in the search for infinite matters.
Time, we have been reminded by one most singular Cambridge person, has a History.
But, meanwhile on Earth....

11+ Amen Alleluia Yesterday ~ A lady was in the concert audience., frozen still. Staring at the floor, totally unmoving. Song after song....nothing.
Then the choir* began: "Yesterday...all y troubles were so far away...."
She raised her head, gulped in air, and sang at the top of her voice. Every note. Every word. And when the song finished, she returned to her lost state.
Music CAN touch the soul in the darkest places.
*Huntingdon Male Voice Choir

12a Cambridge Blue ~ So what colour IS 'Cambridge Blue'? Remember that the Japanese word for 'blue' is 'green' and you are only adding to the conundrum!!
Clearly, this is a pint best debated over a pint or two in he pub they call "The Cambridge Blue". Cue for a lusty pub song....
12b World of Riches ~ This is the jewel in the crown of the HOBSON'S VOICE songs, as it has been handed down through founder John Rees family for at least five generations. Our fiddle player, daughter Erica, is the fifth. Our multi-string instrumentalist, Godfrey Williams, created the second verse, giving it all an extra shiny smile!

13 Boys Will Be Boys ~ Not sure quite how to explain this song in a polite way, but....whenever sung around Cambridgeshire, where we are all very genteel, it causes people to cry....with acknowledging laughter......!!!
To summarise: the the of the ditty is about men's pereniial "Cri De Coeur"... or rather our ....."Cri De Bladder".......

14 Cacophonous Bling ~ An angry song....gently seething. So much Noise re-branded as "Music"...being "piped" at us ...all the time...everywhere... And Politics re-colours itself....Are we fooled?

15+ Singing Is Our Game ~ Goodnight and Farewell! Thank you for reading this...and we hope you have listened our collections of songs and tunes.

TRACK 16.... The HOBSON'S 'SELECTION' bonus item.......
16+ The Fields of Cambridgeshire ~ with COTTENHAM BRASS BAND and LINDA SMITH is singing.
Arranged by OLIVER RUDLAND
The Cottenham Brass Band, with leader Peter Mackley, honour the airmen and ground crews who on Dec 16th 1943 were at Bourn Airfield. When those planes that survived the hazards of the mission returned, fog, low cloud and smoke made landing night impossible. Many died that night all over EASTERN England just trying to get down. This song says, "They left their blood in The Fields of Cambridgeshire."

THE STORIES BEHIND THE SONGS

FEN FOLK - the songs

1    Skating Blades ~ bitter weather, an old steam train, a little bit of old fen skating....lucky sixpences for out-of-work farm men in very hard times...
2    Over Over ~ our classic community piece.....tells of a birthday surprise.....enough to sweep you off your feet!!
3    The Ship of The Fens ~ the story of the storm which destroyed one of Ely Cathedral's towers, and how it came to be re-built as the unique, octagonal 'lantern' we still see today 700 years later...it is also my unique take on the all-inspiring words in Genesis..."Let There Be Light!".....
4+  Fen Tiger ~ when the rich and powerful began draining these dark waters, some fought with tooth and claw to save their ancient waterland home. In the mist, one of today's gravel-quarrymen hears a voice rise from the earth....
5    Grey Feather ~ an Over dweller, as both man and boy, remembers how he and his brother played down the fenfields...there were German prisoners there at the end of the 2nd World War...the song reflects on the fact that there were other foreign prisoners from another, long-past war who were brought here...
6 Flash Swan ~ as sung by a Fenland HERON!!!!   (Did you know that the Old English word for the Grey Heron is....well..it's something to do with the bird's habit of defecating in large quantity as it takes off into flight...so we also entitle this item "The Song of Curmudgeon The Shitepoke.")
7    Tunes for Molly Dances ~ a flavour of trad.tunes used by mud-booted, wild-stomping, gaudily-garbed local folk dancers, The Molly
8+   Oliver Cromwell ~ "Chief of Men" for all time? Or The Devil in ugly flesh?.....a Fenman who felt imperfect
9+ The Fields of Cambridgeshire ~16th December 1943 - These brave young men "left their blood in The Fields of Cambridgeshire"
10+ The George Cross Men of Soham Fen ~ Benjamin Gimbert and James Nightall...railwaymen of wartime....1944....2nd day of June it was...in the night...
11    Muffin, Cupcake, Fairycake, Beefcake ~ we have been invaded by the Outsize American Muffin and CupCakes.....just like East Anglia was invaded before by the Outsize American G.I. BeefCake (OVERPAID, OVER-SEXED AND OVER HERE!) in the 1940's.... good-old British IS BEST....like the Fairy Cake!!!!
12+  Over Hill ~ THE WINDMILL and THE MODERN RADIO TOWER! Tall landmarks...but high above fly airmen in their isolated craft....   and other airmen passed this way in the 1940's. Some returned. Some lie in the churchyard nearby....
13+ The Mountains of Ely ~ here you founder onto Imagination's Paradise..like a Big, Rock Candy Mountain for today's hobo, the commuter..
14+ Alice Crutchfield ~ be 'er the most bootiful gal in Eastern England, now then, boy? Anyway, she's trad.rearranged....
15    The Painter's Song - The Flowers of Eternity   ~ Despair ye not, Oh Spirit! Fly and Behold!
16    The Churchwarden's Tale ~ Hidden in the earth, where once there was marsh and swamp, lie prehistoric, semi-fossilised giant trees, known locally as "bog oaks".
Deep in the mind of a local, long-lived churchwarden are memories and thoughts, which, like the old bog oaks, rise to the surface, and tell of things that should not be forgotten.
17    The Admiral Vernon Hornpipe ~ new, jaunty tune for an old national hero. His daring victory at PortoBello in the West Indies made him a super hero. Landmarks and places were renamed after him...including 200+ pubs. We've still got one here in Fenland....
18   Fen Bones ~ Fen Folk, malarial, arthritic and rheumaticcy from living in this landscape, had the reputation of being curmudgeonly, coarse, quick-tempered, ready to argue with ANYONE!         How times have changed....
19+ Live And Let Live ~ the ambience of Cambridge, this world-famous, Fen-edge city is summed up in this great pub's name....
20+  Bicycle City Light Blues ~ All who come here have hopes and dreams! These famed symbols paint this city's quiet anthem....
21+   Hobson's Choice   ~ Thomas Hobson, legend in his own lifetime :1544-1631: and a legend ever since. Rented out horses from his Cambridge stables. What steed he offered, be it old nag or superstar, your choice was: "Take it or leave it!"
22    Fen Runners Away! ~ "Fen Runners" were the long-bladed, Fen racing skates.
                   ~instrumental version of "Skating Blades", our starting song...an instrumental to play us out......

TRACK 23....The HOBSON'S 'SELECTION' bonus item.......

23 My Johnny Was A Shoemaker ~ trad. arr. Once 80% of Britsh life was related to Naval needs....the nation's very survival depended on this... so even Fen Folk far from the sea were affected...this could be girl from anywhere.....

THE STORIES BEHIND THE SONGS

BICYCLE CITY LIGHT BLUES - the songs

(As some songs on this cd are also on other cds above (marked + above), only info about the remaining items is given here.....)
The Mill Road Winter Fair ~ Now a phenomenal, major-scale event on the first Saturday every December, The MRWF nearly perished before it began. This is the story of wonderment told by the inspirational, creative person of energy behind it all, the late Suzy Oakes. And from this seemingly small action, so much encouragement to others to do other Acts of Community continues still.

Ogres Ground ~ On the corner by St Barnabas Church, this was another, this was another, very real Mill Road moment....a woman fighting back against .......

The Cambridge Boater ~ From another moment, this time on Silver Street Bridge. Punting touts were out eyeing-up the passing trade.....

The Flag of Fenland ~ The colours, shapes and feel of Fenland.

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