> Folk Music > Records > Home Service: Alright Jack
Home Service: Alright Jack
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Alright Jack Making Waves SPIN 119 (LP, UK, 1986) |
Recorded at Raezor Studios London
Engineer: Roger T. Wake
Produced by Home Service
Executive Producer: Chris Coates
Remastered by Tim Young at the Hit Factory London
Musicians
Jonathan Davie, bass, chorus vocals;
Howard Evans, trumpets, flugelhorn;
Andy Findon, flutes, clarinets, tenor and soprano saxophones;
Michael Gregory, drums, percussion;
Steve King, keyboards, accordion, chorus vocals;
John Tams, vocals, 2nd guitar;
Graeme Taylor, lead electric and acoustic guitar, backing vocals;
Roger Williams, trombone, tuba, euphonium
Tracks
- Alright Jack (5.33)
- Rose of Allendale (Roud 1218) (5.46)
- Radstock Jig (3.08)
- Sorrow / Babylon (Roud 13968) (8.24)
- The Duke of Marlborough Fanfare (1.57)
- A Lincolnshire Posy
a -Dublin Bay (Roud 785) (1.21)
b -Horkstow Grange (Roud 1760) (2.38)
c -Rufford Park Poachers (Roud 1759) (2.23)
d -A Brisk Young Sailor (Roud 264; Laws N42) (1.32)
e -Lord Melbourne (Roud 233) (2.54)
f -The Lost Lady Found (Roud 901; Laws Q31) (2.05) - Look Up Look Up (3.48)
- Scarecrow (6.01)
Tracks 1, 4a, 7-8 John Tams;
Track 2 Charles Jefferys, Sidney Nelson;
Tracks 3, 4b trad. arr. Home Service;
Tracks 5-6 trad. arr. Percy Grainger;
> Folk Music > Records > Home Service: Live 1986
Home Service: Live 1986
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Live 1986 Fledg'ling Records FLED 3015 (CD, UK, July 2011) |
Recorded live by Doug Beveridge at Cambridge Folk Festival, 1986;
Restored and edited from the original cassette tapes by Graeme Taylor at Cannon Hill Studio;
Project curated for Home Service by John Tams, Graeme Taylor and David Suff;
Mastered for CD by Denis Blackham at Skye Mastering;
Package design by David Suff
Note: The CD does not fit in a standard CD rack as the sleeve is nearly 1cm taller than the usual jewel box. I wonder what standards are for …
Musicians
Jonathan Davie, bass, vocals;
Howard Evans, trumpet;
Andy Findon, saxophone, clarinet, flute;
Michael Gregory, drums, percussion;
Steve King, keyboards;
John Tams, lead vocals, guitar;
Graeme Taylor, lead guitar, vocals;
Roger Williams, trombone
Tracks
- Alright Jack (6.05)
- Walk My Way (4.27)
- Battle Pavanne / Peat Bog Soldiers (5.50)
- Galliard / Bramsley (3.43)
- Snow Falls (3.36)
- Dublin Bay (Roud 785) (1.53)
- My Bonny Boy (Roud 293) / Scarecrow (6.01)
- The Brisk Young Sailor (Roud 60; Laws P25) (1.30)
- Rose of Allendale (Roud 1218) (5.42)
- The Lost Lady Found (Roud 901; Laws Q31) (2.10)
- Look Up, Look Up (4.07)
- Sorrow / Babylon (Roud 13968) (8.25)
Tracks 1, 5, 7b, 11, 12a John Tams;
Track 9 Charles Jefferys, Sidney Nelson;
Tracks 3, 4b trad. arr. Home Service;
Tracks 5-6 trad. arr. Percy Grainger;
> Folk Music > Records > Home Service
Sleeve Notes and Texts
Alright Jack
You don't need a man with a brick in his hand
Or a glass in your face so you know where you stand
Lift up your heads from out of the sands
You might see what a state we're in
You don't need the papers to tell you all the news
If you stand by the reds or you're true unto the blues
Lift up your eyes instead of looking down at your shoes
You might see what a state we're in
- Chorus (after each verse):
- And I'm alright Jack - pull up the ladder
Alright Jack - I'm safe on the wall
Alright Jack - and if you climb just a little bit higher
But the higher you climb the further you fall
You don't need a number instead of a name
If you don't like the smoke then don't fan the flame
And if you look in the mirror you might see who is to blame
You might see what a state we're in
You don't need a salesman to prattle and to pose
If you buy one of these you get a free one of those
He could sell you a ring to put right through your nose
You might see what a state we're in
You don't need the queues for assistance and for dole
Taxation, inflation, population control
If you listen to the tills you can hear the bells toll
You might see what a state we're in
Sorrow
There's a cold wind in the city, there's a darkness on the land
It's rust upon the slipways where the great ships used to stand
There's a queue that waits from day's first light till disappointed night
And there's sorrow once again, sorrow once again
There's sorrow once again to greet tomorrow
And I used to trust in providence and plan for better times
But now there's even more of us waiting in the lines
And we could build you anything you chose from ships to patent leather shoes
And there's sorrow once again, sorrow once again
There's sorrow once again to greet tomorrow
And you promised me tomorrows, you led me by the hand
Out of the veil of sorrows into the promised land
And everyone had work to do except maybe the odd million or two
And there's sorrow once again, sorrow once again
There's sorrow once again to greet tomorrow
And there's sorrow once again, sorrow once again
There's sorrow once again to greet tomorrow
And there's rumours by the score they've got vacancies galore
And if you want to find out more Freephone Heaven 284
Seems they want angels who can sing and they'll supply the wings
Though there's references desired, there's no experience required
Though the stipulation read “All applicants must be dead” ...
Babylon
From the English Civil War via Swan Arcade of Yorkshire
Hail the day so long expected, hail the day of full release
Zion's walls are now erected and the watchmen publish peace
Throughout Shilo's wide dominions hear the trumpet loudly roar
- Chorus (after each verse):
- Babylon is fallen, is fallen, is fallen
Babylon is fallen to rise no more
All the merchants stand in wonder what is this has come to pass
Murmuring like a distant thunder crying “Oh alas, alas”
Spread the news, ye kings and nobles, priests and people rich and poor
Sound the trumpet on Mount Zion, Christ is come a second time
Ruling with a rod of iron all who now as foes combine
Babel's garments we've rejected and our fellowship is sure
The Duke of Marlborough Fanfare
Percy Grainger was born in Melbourne, Australia in 1882. By the age of twelve he was giving solo recitals on his piano. He studied composition in Frankfurt and became a pupil of Busoni. Completing his studies, he moved to England, and in 1904 met the folk song collector Lucy E. Broadwood, who fired his imagination for the English folk song. He collected many such songs in Lincolnshire between 1904 and 1908, some of these to be used years later in a Suite for Military Band entitled A Lincolnshire Posy. The Duke of Marlborough Fanfare depicts war; the first session war in the past, the second war in the present.
A Lincolnshire Posy
Percy Grainger: “Dedicated to the singers who sang so sweetly to me.”
(See also John Roberts & Tony Barrand's album Heartoutbursts: English Folksongs collected by Percy Grainger which contains most of the songs from Grainger's A Lincolnshire Posy)
Dublin Bay
From the singing of Mr Deane of Hibbaldstowe, Lincolnshire, collected 1905
Horkstow Grange
From the singing of George Gouldthorpe of Goxhill, North Lincolnshire, collected 1905
In Horkstow Grange there lived an old miser
You all do know him as I've heard say
It's him and his man that was named John Bowlin'
They fell out one market day
Pity them who see him suffer
Pity poor old “Steeleye” Span
John Bowlin's deeds they will be remembered
Bowlin's deeds at Horkstow Grange
(See also Horkstow Grange on the Steeleye Span album Horkstow Grange)
Rufford Park Poachers
From the singing of Joseph Taylor of Saxby-All-Saints, Lincolnshire, collected 1906
A buck and doe believe it so a pheasant or a hare
Were set on earth for everyone quite equally to share
So poacher bold as I unfold lift up your gallant heart
Aye and think about those poachers bold that night in Rufford Park
Brisk Young Sailor
From the singing of Mrs Thompson of Barton-on-Humber, Lincolnshire, collected 1906
Lord Melbourne
From the singing of George Wray of Barton-on-Humber, Lincolnshire, collected 1906
The Lost Lady Found
Noted down by Lucy E Broadwood from the singing of her Lincolnshire nurse, Mrs Hill
Look Up Look Up
Look up, look up, the lamb shall lead the way
Look up, look up, the dogs behowl the day
And they shall bite full bellied in their spite
What care have they to take the lamb away
Look up, look up, the hand divides the gloom
Look up, look up, the prophet or the doom
And should he die on whose word can we rely
The truth to see death or eternity
Look up, look up, the shepherd takes his place
Look up, look up, a mother hides her face
And when we die will there be friends to cry
What hope have they to turn their heads away
Scarecrow
I see the barley moving as the mowers find their pace
I see the line advancing with a steady timeless grace
And there's passion in their eyes and there's honour in their face
As they scythe down the castles and the courts
- Chorus (after each verse):
- Blame it on the fathers, blame it on the sons
Blame it on the poppies and the pain
Blame it on the generals, blame it on their guns
Blame it on the scarecrow in the rain
I smell the smoke of stubble when the harvest is brought down
I see the fire a-burning as it purges all around
And the field is turned to ashes and the only living sound
Are the skylarks as they try to reach the sun
I see the barbed wire growing like a bramble on the land
I see a farm turned to a fortress and a future turn to sand
I see a meadow turn to mud and from it grows a hand
Like a scarecrow that is fallen in the rain
> Folk Music > Records > Home Service
Other records with Home Service
Various Artists,
BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2012,
3 CD, Proper PROPERFOLK12, 2012
Various Artists,
Cambridge Folk Festival 2011,
DVD, Delphonic DELPH015, 2012