Of Greatness Receding
Liner notes & lyrics

Notes on the traditional songs

01 The Banks Of The Dee (Roud 3484)

I stumbled across a recording of Jack Elliott singing this and it blew my face off, so I’m very grateful to Jack’s grandson Bill (one of the two remaining Elliott family members to still perform regularly) for kindly giving me permission to use a snippet of this recording at the end of the track.

While the main character’s story in the Banks of the Dee is quite particular to the wage system of the North East mining establishment, the wider theme of seeing oneself replaced by something younger, cheaper and more agile has never really gone away. It shouldn’t be lost on anyone that the ‘choir’ accompanying this track is essentially a copy of the main vocal pitched around, an ironic setting given the song’s theme.

The lyrics I’ve used are from the Louis Killen version as the dialect feels closer to my own, though it’s very much Jack’s voice in my head as I sing it.

05 Willie O Winsbury (Roud 64)

I was first introduced to this surprising courtship ballad on AnaÏs Mitchell and Jefferson Hamer’s Child Ballads. Stewart Lee then suggested it for his guest spot on Old Tunes Fresh Takes and I went through about 8 versions before landing on this and its sister ‘No More The Lord’ (released on Folk Songs vol ii).

To my mind, this setting is quite straightforward. Jane and the king’s dialogue is set to murky harmony and bubbling synths and when the action kicks in we’re all distorted guitars and fuzz. I’ve chopped off the last verse for a bit less of that fairytale ending.

The distorted melody that comes in when Willie finally speaks is that of ‘The Brisk Lad’/’The Sheepstealer' (Roud 1667). My first impression of Willie in the song is of some sort of aryan demigod so I wanted to introduce the idea that this might be a bit of a rose tinted view. I can’t think that I’d be the first to mix melodies of songs for the sake of a bit of storytelling but I don’t hear it done that often. Anyway, if anyone happens to get a knowing kick out of associating the two songs then it’s done its job.

07 The Unfortunate Lass (Roud 2)

Originally a prompt by Karl Sinfield for his Sing Yonder project, this song quickly burrowed in and is now my favourite to sing unaccompanied.

A story of a young woman dying of syphillis after falling for a deserting soldier, there’s a mournful air to it but I found hints of defiance and rage in the last verse. The piano starts to warp around her in response as she finally cries out ‘I’m a true-hearted girl and I’ve never done wrong’.

Like this one, there are many different songs (e.g. ‘Streets of Laredo’, ‘St James Infirmary’) that can be traced back to 18th century ballad ‘The Unfortunate Rake’, which is a similar story but told from the soldier’s perspective. Taken in the round, I find ‘The Unfortunate Lass’ to be a more realistic portrayal of the power dynamic at play though.

10 Yellow Handkerchief (Roud 954)

Phoebe Smith’s version of this is a wonderful thing. Go look it up now.

I’ve largely stuck to Phoebe’s lyrics but with a bit of a tweak to the fifth verse to tie it to the wider record. As well as a lament for a faded youth, my take is also a warning against tying yourself to transitory powers.

There’s a courseness about the song that I wanted to keep so a lot of the elements are quite roughly recorded, as elements weave their way around the melody in a sort of liminal space.

Lyrics

01 The Banks Of The Dee

Last Saturday night by the banks of the Dee
I met an old man in distress I could see
I sat down beside him and to me he did say
"I can't get employment cause my hair is turned grey"

I am an old miner aged fifty and six
If I could get lots I'd raffle me picks
I'd raffle them, I'd sell em, I'd hoy them away
I can't get employment cause my hair is turned grey

When I was a young lad I was just like the rest
Each day in the pit, I'd do my very best
If I got good cavil, I'd be hewing all day
Now at fifty and six, my hair is turned grey

Last Wednesday night, to the reckoning I went
To the colliery office I went straight forenenst
I got me pay note, I was walking away
When they gave me my notice, cause my hair is turned grey

Now all you young fellas, it's you that's to blame
If you got good prices you'd do just the same
If you got good places, you'd hoy them away
But you're bound to regret it when your hair is turned grey

I am an old miner aged fifty and six
If I could get lots I'd raffle me picks
I'd raffle them, I'd sell em, I'd hoy them away
I can't get employment cause my hair is turned grey

02 Middle Manager's Lament

I found myself in a bloodless coup
These people never had a clue, and that's my cue to call
this whole thing to ground
To heed the herd and meet the friends at their feeling
Admit at last that I had found my ceiling
In a city of ruin and doubt
In a seizure dream, a stream of consciousness and cloud

I lost myself to a parlour game
Of lovers and jewellers and mobs and miners in solitary stares
waiting for a chance to fall
To call the cards and crave the sweetness of meaning
Begin again and brave the crudest of healings
In a chorus of rhythm and trade
In a fever state, we'll steer it from our godless rage

I sold my strength to a minor king
A fraud of vision, of crass decision
A blight among the stars, hoping for an easy end
The final fall, a sign of greatness receding
The porous heart, the brute the brain and the breeding
In a kingdom of pity and plague
In a scarlet haze, the sovereign finds his resting rate

03 The Midas Putsch

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain
The heart of a man in the shell of a god
Frail hands leave a trail of gold
or rubble depending on your vantage

Our present preachers were dyed in the wool
Wide-eyed and idle and wildly dull
Such a staggering flaw from a maddening bore
I won't ask you again

My fingers peel
The skin reveals
A knowing dust
A well-worn velvet rust

We left our comforts in the hands of a king
Bordered and brazen and calloused within
Bought for a price, in thrall to the dice
A diamond chancer

Our present preachers were dyed in the wool
Wide-eyed and idle and wildly dull
Such a staggering flaw from a maddening bore
I won't ask you again

Not a fraud per sé
Just a boy out of his depth
All things to all men
But nothing at all to me

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain
The heart of a man in the shell of a god
Frail hands leave a trail of gold
or rubble depending on your vantage

The man the myth
The ledger will show
He was not afraid of heights
But the fall forgave him none

05 Willie O' Winsbury

The king has been a prisoner
And a prisoner long in Spain
Willie of the Winsbury
Has lain long with his daughter Jane

"What ails you, what ails you, my daughter Jane?
Why you look so pale an wan?
Oh have you had any ill sickness
Or yet been sleeping with a man?"

"I have not had any ill sickness
Nor yet been sleeping with a man
It is for you my father dear
For biding so long in Spain"

"Cast off, cast off your robe and gown
Stand naked upon the stone
That I may know you by your shape
If you be maiden or none"

She's casted off her robe and gown
Stood naked upon the stone
Her apron was wide and her waist was round
Her face was pale and wan

"Was it with a lord or a gentleman
Or a man of wealth and fame?
Or was it with one of my serving men
While I was so long in Spain?"

"No it wasn't with a lord or a gentleman?
Or a man of wealth and fame
It was with Willie of Winsbury
I could bide no longer alone"

And the king has called his serving men
By one, by two and by three
Willie should have been the first of them
But the last of them was he

And when he came before the kind
All dressed up in red silk
His hair was like the strands of gold
His skin was white as milk

"No wonder, no wonder" the king he said
"That my daughter's love you did win
If I were a woman, as I am a man
My bedfellow you would have been"

"Oh will you marry my daughter Jane
By the faith of your right hand
I'll make you the lord of my serving men
I'll make you the heir to my land"

"Oh yes, I'll marry your daughter Jane
By the faith of my right hand
But I'll not be the lord of any man
No I'll not be the heir to your land, my brave king
I'll not be the heir to your land"

06 To Be Taller

I slept on the sofa last night
Couching my language in a chorus of myth
Missing the riff by a couple of beats
Beating the harms by the means of misnomer
Among ornament silhouettes, I made my choice

To be taller

What a tiring ride
On a rising tide
I was trying hard
To keep the peace

07 The Unfortunate Lass

As I was out walking on fine summer's morning
As I was out walking one midsummer's day
I met a young female all dressed in white linen
All dressed in white linen and cold as the clay

Oh mother, dear mother, come sit down beside me
Come sit down beside me and hear my sad case
For I've loved a soldier who's lately deserted
And he's gone and left me in shame and disgrace

Oh daughter, dear daughter, why didn't you tell me?
Why didn't you tell me of it all in time?
I could have bought salt, iron, pills of white margary
You're a true-hearted girl, cut down in your prime

Oh doctor, dear doctor, come fill up your bottles
Come fill up your bottles and make them quite dry
For my bones they are aching and my heart it is breaking
In shame and disgrace I'm afraid I must die

Have six jolly soldiers to carry my coffin
Have six jolly sailors to sing me a song
Have six bonnie lasses carry bunches of roses
So that you can smell me as we roll along

So play your fife lowly and play the drum slowly
Sing out the dead march as we go along
Take me to the graveyard and throw the sods on me
I'm a true-hearted girl and I've never done wrong

08 The Afternoon Ghost

Morning delivers the songs that shiver the dawn
Cemetery, the boys are buried in scores
We took our whole selves out of pawn
We left our homes

For the afternoon ghost is replaced by the phantom of evening
The spectre of speculation, somehow deceiving you now
And I missed the joke and I
miss the folk I should be seeing right now
After all...

Heavenly spaces, the friends in high places come down
Foreign feeling, patiently bleeding the sound
Won't you take it from the top?
Take it from the ceiling tile
Cause I'm coming back for you

And I can only speak to you in semafore
Leading lines and the lights, clear the forest floor
There's no guiding light, in my line of sight
There's no signs of life
But after all...

09 Friend How I Have Tried

Silence was his only friend
Until the winds took him far from shore
Into a place where winter stayed way past its bedtime
With wooden floors and canvas doors, they welcomed him with hearts as open
As the sail he stored inside the hold
Free to weep and his to keep
A chemical erosion of his charm
A lowing cry and lazy eye
Leaving but the lowest to disarm him

Jekyll, run and hide
I cannot decide for you
I cannot sit idly by as
Demon drink consumes you

Four months went by, the elders held
A meeting to discuss the man's behaviour
A friend to all until the call
Of gin and juice came sailing past the seal of his lips
With trembling hands and swollen glands
The sailor bringing forth the case to keep him
His plea was heard without a word
Retiring to decide if they should throw him overboard

Friend how I have tried
To bottle up this thing inside
To wear my shame as if its pride but
This goes deeper than me

He took his bag down to the dock
Pushing out his sloop into the ocean
The seas here high and storm a-gale
The sailor vowing now to settle down with his ship
Along the shore the people raced
To catch the man before the water stole him
Among the mist and icy hiss, their voices quiet as a gentle breeze

Brother crawl ashore
There's no need to fight it anymore
Voice of calm or voice of war
The door is always open

10 Yellow Handkerchief

Once I had a colour as red as the rose
Now my colour has faded like the lily that grows
Now my colour has faded like the lily do grow
And if it weren't for flash company I should never be so poor

So you take this yellow handkerchief in the memory of me
And you tie it round your neck my love in flash company
Flash company been the ruin of me and the ruin of me quite
If it weren't for flash company I should never be so poor

Now it's singing and dancing sure that's my delight
Flash company been the ruin of me and the ruin of me quite
Flash company been the ruin of me and a great many more
If it weren't for flash company I should never be so poor

Now it's all you little flash lords take warning by me
And you never put your trust my loves in the top of the tree
For the green leaves will wither and the roots have decayed
And the promise of the dawning will soon fade away

Recording credits

Music composed, performed, recorded & mixed in Leeds by Tim Woodson

Lyrics by Tim Woodson (except tracks 1, 5, 7 & 10 which are trad. arr Hevelwood)

Additional composition, synth programming & cello on Pastorale Spectre by Joshua Kirch

Sample of Jack Elliott in ‘The Banks of the Dee’ used with permission of the Elliott family and the Reg Hall Archive

Mastered by Tim Hay at Autumn Giant Audio

Artwork by Silka Guy

Of Greatness RecedingLiner notes & lyrics