I've always sung in bands that have attempted to inject some visual and lyrical humour into their set lists. It is by no means original-but it can be a very real risk strategy. It can endear you to an audience forever, or it can get you barred. (Not recently, but it happened to us once, on the Working Mens Clubs Circuit, after singing a song which had a very mild swearword in it!).
The role which humour plays in Folk Music remains (for some) a very contentious subject. Some self-appointed prudes would (incorrectly) argue that it has no place at all. Thereby neatly sidestepping over 1,000 years of English Literature. Mr. Chaucer and Mr.Shakespeare for example, were not averse to employing double entendre, phallic symbolism, and even a bit of industrial language now and then.
Whether humourous lyrics consist of gentle wit, satire, parody, bawdy Rugby Club songs or downright filth, humour and irony is out there, and it is a central core of folk, blues and many other types of popular music. Bo Carter is one of several extraordinary american bluesmen whose songs can still make your eyes water. We used to do a version of his "All Round Man" when we were an electric six piece. It really rocked, but we had to tone down the lyrics considerably from the original. Even then, it was still pretty crude.
The role which humour plays in Folk Music remains (for some) a very contentious subject. Some self-appointed prudes would (incorrectly) argue that it has no place at all. Thereby neatly sidestepping over 1,000 years of English Literature. Mr. Chaucer and Mr.Shakespeare for example, were not averse to employing double entendre, phallic symbolism, and even a bit of industrial language now and then.
Whether humourous lyrics consist of gentle wit, satire, parody, bawdy Rugby Club songs or downright filth, humour and irony is out there, and it is a central core of folk, blues and many other types of popular music. Bo Carter is one of several extraordinary american bluesmen whose songs can still make your eyes water. We used to do a version of his "All Round Man" when we were an electric six piece. It really rocked, but we had to tone down the lyrics considerably from the original. Even then, it was still pretty crude.
And nearer to Folk roots there are traditional songs like "The Bonny Black Hare " which until recently, we included in our Folk set. This song, greatly popularised by a classic Fairport version, with Swarb on vocals, does not have a single rude word in it. But the images conjured up by what is a far from innocuous set of verses can be...well...graphic!! Consider the final vocal riposte:in reply to a young maiden requesting a little more "action" from a passing suitor:
" Me powder is wasted and me bullets are gone/ Me ramrod is limp and I cannot fire on/But I'll be back in the morning and if you are still here/we'll both go together to hunt the bonny black hare."
It's not explicit. But nor is it exactly, well...subtle. Some might even find such clever wordplay amusing. (Shame on them! To The Tower!)
It depends how innocently (or otherwise) each listener interprets such lyrics. There is a whole genre of traditional songs like this, and the creativity of a mostly anonymous set of authors long expired, who managed to pen them and perform them is a testament to human ingenuity.
There is a Classic British Comedy tradition of writers employing innuendo to lead audiences along a particular garden path. Sometimes (but not always) using song and verse to point it up. Max Miller wasn't called The Cheeky Chappie for nothing. Kenneth Horne, Peter Sellers and later Monty Python and the Two Ronnies continued this type of tradition. Even Victoria Wood with her epic "not lightly, not meekly,beat me on the bottom with a Woman's Weekly" was capable of singing quasi-erotic imagery at times!
" Me powder is wasted and me bullets are gone/ Me ramrod is limp and I cannot fire on/But I'll be back in the morning and if you are still here/we'll both go together to hunt the bonny black hare."
It's not explicit. But nor is it exactly, well...subtle. Some might even find such clever wordplay amusing. (Shame on them! To The Tower!)
It depends how innocently (or otherwise) each listener interprets such lyrics. There is a whole genre of traditional songs like this, and the creativity of a mostly anonymous set of authors long expired, who managed to pen them and perform them is a testament to human ingenuity.
There is a Classic British Comedy tradition of writers employing innuendo to lead audiences along a particular garden path. Sometimes (but not always) using song and verse to point it up. Max Miller wasn't called The Cheeky Chappie for nothing. Kenneth Horne, Peter Sellers and later Monty Python and the Two Ronnies continued this type of tradition. Even Victoria Wood with her epic "not lightly, not meekly,beat me on the bottom with a Woman's Weekly" was capable of singing quasi-erotic imagery at times!
In Buzzard's Luck at the moment,we are experiencing a very mixed reaction to a new song-"What a Folking Liberty." It is a song where we pun about the immense depth of imagery influencing British songwriters:
" I started doing folk clubs in the Summer of '62
I played a song and sang along
the best that I could do
the best that I could do
I covered Leonard Cohen and I copied Christy Moore
I plagiarised the Chieftains and even Sandy Shaw."
The title itself is clearly a play on words,employing a phrase made popular by Catherine Tate's foul-mouthed t.v. gran. The chorus continues this, tongue-twisting any audiences brave enough to try it. Sung correctly, it is inherently proper. Mispronounced, it can engender errors of Pheasant-Plucking dimensions.
On the one hand, we've had audiences almost crying with laughter at it and at least two requests from other musicians for copies of the lyrics. Encouraged by that, we've shared it liberally with people we thought might enjoy the bawdy, slightly smutty innuendo. Very occasionally,though, we can tell by an isolated rictus of horror, or a Royston Vasey-style glower, that a few individuals have perhaps been offended. In one instance, someone actually commented aloud on the content of the song when we had finished it.
That is my definition of rude:not some Bamforth postcard style lyricism. That sort of behaviour is something we would never ever do to another performer, regardless of how we felt about them, their music, their singing, or their song choice! Tsk!
So, this song obviously rouses mixed feelings. People want to cover it-and that is flattering. Some other people would like us not to do it at all. " Audience inappropriate" was one very audible tutted aside recently . Well, where exactly would these Folk purists file such artistes as Richard Digance, Max Boyce, Jasper Carrot, Billy Connolly, Cosmotheka (and indeed the entire Music Hall Tradition) ? Would they have had George Formby exiled to St Helena? Because he wrote a few saucy lyrics, too.
And then there is also the occasional ill-feeling generated by a type of humour directed at an audience or a venue themselves. We do another song which gently lampoons Folk Clubs. We call it "At The Septic Monkey" This is because we want to make it 100% clear that it is a composite caricature of a fictional club! The song has a very affectionate swipe at raffles, floor singers, freezing cold venues etc.
I cannot think of a club anywhere we have performed this song, who have not instantly "got" the joke. Indeed, many of them have reacted very positively towards it, and joined in with the fun of a mock "rigged" raffle. Complete with hideous prizes. Most notably Warwick Folk Club, having heard and enjoyed the song, once hauled down their own marvellously decorated Club Banner during an interval, and replaced it with a rapidly scrawled "Septic Monkey" stuck over the word "Warwick. " They then displayed the adapted banner during the second half. 10/10 for taking it all in good fun!!
You see, most folkies don't mind laughing at themselves. Most of us who've been performing for many years, don't mind humour being injected into what does not always have to be dirgeful, mournful subject content. That has its place, too, but those who have got themselves lodged a little too firmly up their own dark passages , perhaps sometimes need to lighten up a little?
