From some of the conversation I had, the ideas of Liverpool songs charting the history of the city was raised. Of specific interest initially was the dock workers songs, but from various academic and archival records I found a number of different songs that chart different points in Liverpool's history that I’d been exploring in other ways.
Someone pointed me in the direction of this very DIY website by folk musician Jerry Jones which documented Liverpool song lyrics. (At the time of writing this, I’m due to meet Jerry next week to speak to him about Liverpool songs, and also go to a regular Liverpool folk music session he’s a regular at).
Abbey Road ‘Going Down To London’
This 70’s song was by a Liverpool band who’s main claim to fame seemed to have been to have come second on ATV’s New Faces in 1974! Musically it’s not to my taste at all, but what’s interesting about it is that it charts the depopulation of Liverpool, as mentioned by numerous people I spoke to. The lyrics directly address the need for young people to leave Liverpool and move to London in search of jobs. The lyrics are decadently tongue in cheek, but speak quite pertinently about the feeling of moving away from home as a young man, with the mix of trepidation and excitement – the hopefulness of the songwriter getting their own flat in Chelsea and getting a decent job as a bouncer in the west end. As the song goes on, this gives way to the realities of trying to find somewhere to live, and most comically the difficulties of Londoners understanding the Liverpool accent.
I’ve found numerous references to a song called ” DOCKLANDS”, written by the poet Jim Barnett, that supposedly tells the story of life on the docks but I’ve not been able to track down a recording of it as of yet.
Sloop John B
This is an interesting story to me. This is a a traditional folk song from the Bahamas (also known as “I Want to Go Home” and “Wreck of the John B”), documenting the sea faring life of sailers (some of whom would have ended up spending time in Liverpool), and the desire to go home. It was most famously covered by the Beach Boys on Pet Sounds, but also ended up having slightly different lyrics written to the same tune in Liverpool as “Wallasey Ferry”. Again, I’ve found numerous references to the lyrics, but no recordings as of yet.
Peter McGovern “In My Liverpool Home”
This one is a pretty famous Liverpool folk song dating from about 1961, and performed by many other Liverpool singers (as in the case of the video above), with a huge number of different iterations of the lyrics. Supposedly there’s a 90 minute BBC recording of numerous different Liverpudlian folk singers all singing their own verses of this song. Again, the melody of this song turns out to predate this song. In this case it was a American Western song called “”The Strawberry Roan”, written by a cowboy called Curley Fletcher in the early 1900’s.
Pete McGovern “World in one city.”
A far more recent song, but written by a mainstay Liverpool folk writer as part of Liverpool’s bid for City Of Culture, an event that has come up in pretty much every conversation I’ve had. Also, although the lyrics were published, it doesn’t seem like this song was ever recorded.
This is a pretty classic Liverpool children’s song. The Lyrics talk about the life of a merchant seaman, and leaving his beloved behind. The earliest reference I can find of it is in a book by Frank Kidson of collected folk songs from 1891. However there are other references to the same song in both Scotland and Ireland which seem to pre-date this. What I can’t figure out is whether the versions sung in Scotland and Ireland would have had the specific reference to Liverpool that’s in the recorded versions, or if that this is an older folk song that had the lyric changed to reference Liverpool later.
This song also ended up being used as the theme music for the TV series Z Cars, and was also used as the music that Everton Football club players came out to at home matches. Oh, and Bob Dylan recorded a version as well.
I can’t find out much information about when this folk song dates from, but it’s interesting for the theme of leaving Liverpool for California. The common theme with so many Liverpool songs is the act of leaving, either setting sale of moving down to London. That sense of leaving connects really directly to so much of it’s history, both considering the current de-poluation of Liverpool, and it’s history as a major port. The reference to Davy Crockett in the song was the name of an actual ship that set sail from Liverpool, and there are versions of this song recorded in collections of folk songs sung in homes for retired seaman in America
Liverpool Ladies
Again, I can’t find a recorded version of this song, or much detail from when it dates but it’s credited as being written by Joe Orford, so I’m assuming it’s probably from the 1960’s. The lyrics are the interesting thing to me here:
“How I love the Marsh Lane girls; mascara’d eyes and peroxide curls.
I love to kiss those greasy lips, just to get the flavour of the curry and chips.
CHORUS: Liverpool Ladies, Liverpool Ladies, Liverpool Ladies, you’re loved the whole world over.
Mary lived in Brasenose Road, Hundreds of pounds to the catalogue owed
Couldn’t stop her getting “tick”, The Guinness she drank’d make a docker sick.
CHORUS: Liverpool Ladies, Liverpool Ladies, Liverpool Ladies, you’re loved the whole world over.
Once I courted a Bootle girl, she had my poor heart in a whirl;
fish-net tights and ankle socks, couldn’t keep her out of the Betting Shops
CHORUS: Liverpool Ladies, Liverpool Ladies, Liverpool Ladies, You’re loved the whole world over.
I once knew a girl from Toxteth Town; She was big and round and brown.
She said she’d kiss and wouldn’t tell; But don’t believe a Dingle Belle.
CHORUS: Liverpool Ladies, Liverpool Ladies, Liverpool Ladies, You’re loved the whole world over.
Glenys was of Welsh descent, owed the council lots of rent;
She played “Bingo” every night, a jackpot win would put things right.
CHORUS: Liverpool Ladies, Liverpool Ladies, Liverpool Ladies, You’re loved the whole world over.
Nellie worked for thirty years, in Tetley’s pubs selling wines and beers;
Thirty years in a Lime Street bar; You’d think she’d know what sailors are!
CHORUS: Liverpool Ladies, Liverpool Ladies, Liverpool Ladies, You’re loved the whole world over.
CHORUS: Liverpool Ladies, Liverpool Ladies, Liverpool Ladies, you’re loved the whole world over.”
As derogatory as it is in places, it’s interesting that if references the different communities of Liverpool, the Irish connection to Brasenose Road. With the Guinness reference, the sailors in the Lime Street Bar in town, and the black community in Toxteth.
Stan Kelly – Liverpool Lullaby
The video above is this folk song being sung by the man who wrote it. Again, I’m guessing this one was written during the late 1950’s/ early 1960’s. Stan Kelly, as well as being a Liverpool folk singer and songwriter was a scientist with a postgrad from Cambridge University. This song really nicely captures something of the complications of growing up in a working class industrial neighbourhood in Liverpool – “If you’re not asleep when the boozers close, you’ll get a belt from your Dad”. “Though we have no silver spoon, better days are coming soon”. Cilla Black also recorded it, but there’s also a great version by the folk singer Judy Collins.
Also spelt as “Maggie Mae”, this is a really traditional Liverpool song, and according to the Round index of folk music, dates back to 1757. Other reports exist of it being sung in the mid 1940’s, so I’m going to assume for now that that’s a safer bet. It’s a song about a prostitute robbing a sailor who’s just returned home to Liverpool from sea. This song has had endless different lives through different genres of music over the years, being re-invented as a skiffle song, then being included by the Beatles on the Let It Be album
THE ORANGE AND THE GREEN. Tony Murphy
Another Liverpool song from the 1960’s folk revival, and another one I can’t currently find a recorded version of. This one talks of the sectarian divide in Liverpool. Although it’s a Liverpool song, it’s place is in the Irish community of the city, and has since been recorded by a lot of Irish singers. As someone who’s family originally comes from Ireland, and from both sides of the sectarian divide this song is particularly resonant to me:
“Oh my father was an Ulsterman, proud Protestant was he,
My mother was a Catholic girl; from county Cork was she.
They were married in two churches and live happily enough,
until the day that I was born when things got rather rough.
CHORUS; Oh it is the greatest mix-up that you have ever seen,
my father he was Orange and my mother she was Green.
Baptised by Father Reilly I was rushed away by car,
to become a little Orangeman, my father’s shining star.
I was christened David Anthony, but still, in spite of that,
to my father I was “William” while my mother called me “Pat”
With Ma to church on Sundays, to Mass I’d proudly stroll,
while later on the Orange Lodge would try to save my soul.
Both sides tried to claim me, but I was smart because,
I’d play my flute or I’d play my harp depending where I was.
One day my Ma’s relations came round to visit me,
just as my father’s kinfolk were all sitting down to tea.
We tried to smooth things over but they soon began to fight,
..and me being strictly neutral, I bashed everyone in sight.
My parents never could agree about my type of school.
My learning was all done at home, that’s why I’m such a fool.
They’ve both passed on, God bless ’em, and I’m left caught between
this awful colour problem of the Orange and the Green.”
