Song Wordbook

Introduction to Songs

This  collection of songs could have easily been called ‘A Life in Song’, seeing as I have separated it into four main sections, or life story chapters:

1. ‘Early Years’ from 1942-1963, growing up in Mexborough, a mining town in South Yorkshire.
2. ‘Leeds Years’ from 1963-1968, big city living.
3. ‘Batley Years’ 1968-1987, life in a Yorkshire Heavy Woollen District mill town.
4. ‘Whitby Years’ 1990 to present, life in the ancient sea port on the North Yorkshire Coast.

I started singing at a very early age at school, Infants and Junior. and the local Methodist Church. I loved singing, and when I discovered that people enjoyed my singing, and it made them happy, it made me happy too.

Luckily, I have always been blessed with a phenomenal memory, and have the ability to audibly pick up a songs tune and lyrics from just a couple or so hearings. Though now in my Eighties, I can still recall most of the songs I’ve sung. I have always loved all genres of music and song, fairground, brass band, music hall, jazz, blues, skiffle, country and western, bluegrass and classical , I seemed to find myself at home in the British Traditional Folk Music Revival of the 1960s and 70s.

My Grandfather, though born in a mining town, was for several years a deep sea trawlerman fishing out of Grimsby. My Father was a coal miner, and a singer too. He mainly sang for pleasure, but when I was young he would often take me with him when he was invited to sing at the annual Broomhill Primitive Methodist Chapel Anniversary, in the village of his birth. It seems to me that sea songs and mining songs are part of my heritage.

Most of the songs in this collection, I’ve carried around in my head for many years, as I was always too busy to afford the time to document them. I only wrote the words down, in response to any request I received asking for them. The national covid 19 lockdown during 2020/21 changed that, and I started writing them down, and editing them into some sort of order.

The versions of the songs given here in this anthology, tend to be transmutations of the originals I memorised. The lyrics here have evolved from the original ones, and are as I now recall them almost sixty years after I first learnt some of them.

True to the Folk tradition I give acknowledgement, where possible, to the source singer along with its history, and the story behind the song.

Please remember songs are for singing, so feel free to adapt or do whatever you will with the contents of these pages.

Mick Haywood,Whitby, November 2024.

Copyright - Creative Commons Licence CC-BY-SA 4.0
(Attribution required and Share Alike, the licence must be the same for any derivative work.)