Song & Fiddle: Pound a Week Rise

I don't have a great voice but I do like singing and as I've just got myself a couple of nice condenser microphones I thought I'd try them out with a song.

This is "Pound a Week Rise" - a song about the miners' strike in the 1960s written by Ed Pickford (YouTube user folksinger43). I first heard this on John Doyle and Liz Carroll's album Double Play. This arrangement is similar to their arrangement with a driving guitar and a fiddle solo. However, I play in E minor (instead of F minor) and have put in the reel The Maple Leaf which I believe was written by Darach de Brun.

There's information about Lord Robens on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Robens,_Baron_Robens_of_Woldingham

The guitar is tuned Open-G (DGDGBD) with a capo on the second fret.

Lyrics:

Come all of you colliers that work down the mine
From Scotland to South Wales, from Teesdale to Tyne
I'll sing you a song of a pound a week rise
And the men who were fooled by the Government's lies

And it's down you go, down below, Jack
Where you never see the sky
And you're working in a dungeon
For a pound a week rise

In nineteen sixty, a few years ago
The mineworkers' leaders to Lord Robens did go
Saying, "We work very hard, every day we risk our lives
And we ask you here and now for a pound a week rise"

Then up spoke Lord Robens, and he made this decree
"When the output rises then with you I will agree
To raise up all your wages, to give to you fair pay
For I was once a miner and I worked hard in my day"

So the miners they went home, they worked hard and well
With lungs full of coaldust in the bosom of hell
The output rose by sixteen, eighteen per cent and more
And after a year it had risen above a score

Then the miners they went to get their hard-won prize
To ask Lord Robens for their pound a week rise
Robens wouldn't give a pound, he wouldn't give ten bob
He gave them seven-and-six and said, "Get back to your job"

So come all of you colliers, take heed what I say
And don't believe Lord Robens when he says he'll give fair pay
For he'll tell you to work hard, to make the output rise
You'll get Pie in the Sky instead of a one pound rise

Category:

Music

Tags:

• pound
• week
• rise
• fiddle
• guitar
• john
• doyle
• liz
• carroll
• maple
• leaf
• tree
• darach
• de
• Brun

[LendMeYourHand]

CAPO?? just tune to A=432hz.

[davedupplaw]

@LendMeYourHand huh? A capo tunes up. A432 is a minor down tuning. Tuning to this 'magical' tuning where C is arbitrarily set to a power of 2 then removing the capo would just make it too low for me to sing, so I'm afraid your comment is nonsense.

[LendMeYourHand]

@davedupplaw You take it so personally, then you insult me. Good job. Its not my fault you cant sing a slight pitch lower. I'm sure this information would benefit others. Infact, this pitch has improved my singing. And on that note..... choir teaches you to strengthen your low register to expand your octave range. Just a suggestion from someone who has went 432 & will NEVER look back.

[davedupplaw]

@LendMeYourHand Yeah, I totally admit I need lots of training for a good voice which I don't have. No personal insult was intended but you derided the capo, instead suggesting retuning to A=432Hz makes no sense. For me, A=440Hz is just as much a nonsense as any other particular tuning - there is no 'true' pitch - but it's at least a standard. Retuning and removing the capo would have just made it impossible to sing for me without years of training to expand my range.

[thomasmalachy]

Cheers for the info. I've been playing normal tuning - E minor - G - D but your version sounds a lot more interesting

[davedupplaw]

@thomasmalachy Ah, yeah - good point. I was playing those chords with the capo on , so E5, C6add9 and Bm11add9. You could try in normal tuning just playing E, C, and Bm. Might work - haven't tried though. The chords I sort of worked out by ear from John Doyle's version. Doubt they're exactly what he plays (as he's probably not in Open G) but I thought they sounded ok :) Cheers for the comments. Dave

[misterdaviddude]

And also, great tune choice for the fiddle solo!

[misterdaviddude]

Very nicely done, and great cover of John Doyle & Liz Carroll!! Splendid! :-D

[breedenburgh]

Aint just the mikcro my friend, you played it well..

[LendMeYourHand]

I think you did a great job on this song. I realy think you need confidence to sing & it would be ridiculous to think you dont sound good. I mean, have you heard a Rebecca Black song?? lol. It realy has to do with keeping a classic like this alive & you have undoubtedly carried the spirit into the next generation. I particularly enjoyed the fiddle.

[LendMeYourHand]

@davedupplaw Yes, i agree they both can be viewed as nonsense. I also never said your singing was bad, its more than decent. I just remember having pitch problems in 440. So as far as a natural feel the 432 wins. We can also look at it in a way that it is an unrecordable wavelength that cant be measured. So this is where Geometry wins the arguement & potencially creates some solidity to wave function in the 7.32cm Also having deep relation to a 90 degree angle. This is what the ancients used.

[LendMeYourHand]

There is Nothing nonsense about 432hz. Its tradition & true pitch.