Khaki and Blue Illustration, part of a
1914 WW1 Cotton Souvenir Song Sheet
Khaki and the Blue
I first heard this song sung by Mike Waterson in the late 1960s while I was guesting at the Rugby Traditional Folk Club at the Rugby Hotel, Queens Gardens in the centre of Hull.
The club was run by Mike himself, Ian (Jock) Manuel, Jim Eldon and Martin Clark in a upstairs room, the beer was dispensed from a barrel on the bar at the back of the room and the folk club tended to finish when the barrel had been drunk dry.
The song was collected by the Watersons on one of their 1964/65 song collecting sojourns into the Yorkshire Dales from Mick Taylor, a sheepdog trainer from Hawes in Wensleydale. They included the song on their 1966 Topic LP ‘A Yorkshire Garland’.
