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Firelock Stile

[ Roud 1780 ; Ballad Index K173 ; trad.]

Norfolk singer Harry Cox sang the bawdy Firelock Stile in a recording by Ewan MacColl in 1955. This was included on his 2 CD Topic Records anthology, The Bonny Labouring Boy. Steve Roud commented in the liner notes:

Most earlier collectors would have refused to note such an outspoken bawdy song as this, even if the singers were willing to expose them to such moral danger. As far as we know, therefore, this song is unique to Harry Cox, and we cannot rely on other versions to help us date it. As in a number of other sexual encounter songs, the chap rues the event when he contracts a dose of vereral disease. Twenty bright guineas seems a little extortionate, or perhaps this is simply a ballad-writer's commonplace.

Peter Bellamy learned Firelock Stile from the singing of Harry Cox and sang it in 1975 on his eponymous LP Peter Bellamy. He commented in the album's sleeve notes:

This somewhat less-than-subtle piece of good natured bawdry comes from the repertoire of the great Norfolk traditional singer Harry Cox. It should not be assumed that it is representative of his material as a whole!

Lyrics

Peter Bellamy sings Firelock Stile

Well, come all young men and listen awhile,
I'll tell you what happened at Firelock Stile,
When a stump of a nail caught her clothes
And she fell down and she did expose
Her old rump-a-tump tooral looral arity
Rump-a-tump tooral looral day.

Now a gay young buck he was standing close by
And the sight of her quim, well, so dazzled his eye
Said she, “Young man, I feel amazed
To see a young gentleman stand and gaze
At my rump-a-tump tooral looral arity,
Rump-a-tump tooral looral day.”

But she said, “Young man, if you mean what you say
And twenty bright guineas in gold was to pay,
And twenty bright guineas in gold you did pay,
Well then, young man, you can fiddle away
On my Rump-a-tump tooral looral arity
Rump-a-tump tooral looral day.”

Well, very quick he gave consent
And into the woods together they went.
While he pre-formed and she pre-tuned
The boy and the beauty kept time to the tune
On her rump-a-tump tooral looral arity
Rump-a-tump tooral looral day.

But six weeks being over, as I have heard tell,
She gave him a fire to keep him from cold,
To keep him from cold, by night and by day,
He cursed the young woman what saw him to play
On her rump-a-tump tooral looral arity
Rump-a-tump tooral looral day.