This is what I've got so far, two verses and a chorus....
(As yet untitled...)
Stately yachts are built here, for gentlemen of leisure,
Fine and sturdy cargo ships, for bullion and for treasure,
And we build sturdy warships, to patrol our blessed Empire,
But the men who own the comp'ny think, we're theirs to own and fire;
The profits are enormous, but the working wage ain't fair,
We can't lay down our tools, they'll bring in men from elsewhere,
We can't go out on strike, they'd sack us in a second,
But we can make a change next week at the ballot box, I reckon;
So vote for Labour, vote for *Mac, for all our livelihoods,
Let's do these Tory blighters down, vote Baldwin out for good,
We fought a war not long ago, for peace and liberty,
But while the working class are starving, we cannot be free.
____________________________________________________
*NOTE - "Mac" refers to Ramsay MacDonald, first Labour Prime Minister of the UK - "Baldwin" refers to his political opponent, Conservative PM Stanley Baldwin.
Well, that's what I've got so far - I've taken the slightly unusual step of posting an unfinished work because (1) I'm not sure where I'm going next with it, and (2) I absolutely do not have a clue what to do with it musically. Here's a little background if anyone would care to offer suggestions.....
My grandad was born in 1898: half my age now would be twenty-six and a half, which would mean this song would be set in 1924. By a wonderful coincidence, my grandad - from his youth - was quite active politically, and was a card-carrying member of the Labour Party in its early years, and 1924 was the year the Labour Party formed the government of the UK for the first time. In 1924, he would have been working at Cammell-Laird shipyards at Birkenhead, across the Mersey from Liverpool; he was very much a card-carrying union member, and he was a shop-steward (Union Representative.)
I do have a couple of tentative ideas as to where to go next; one would be to list some famous ships built at Cammell-Laird's, or possibly just one ship and describe the ship-building process (the back-breaking labour, the danger etc) as briefly as possible, another idea would be to celebrate Labour's election victory (although that first Labour government lasted less than a year!) and the aftermath.
Musically, I don't have much of an idea about what was popular in the 1920's. The music hall would still be popular, but my knowledge of that particular genre is pretty scant; I'm thinking jazz was all the rage back then, though my grandad was more of a brass band lover - he played in a brass band later in life, which was formed by works colleagues elsewhere - but that's another story, so any suggestions whatsoever for music would be welcome.
For now, I think I definitely need to do some more research......I'd really like to finish this one.
:D :D :D
Vic
"Sometimes the beauty of music can help us all find strength to deal with all the curves life can throw us." (D. Hodge.)
Hi VIc
This is a great start and I'm not sure you're going to need more than perhaps a second verse. You might think about using what's currently the second stanza:
The profits are enormous, but the working wage ain't fair,
We can't lay down our tools, they'll bring in men from elsewhere,
We can't go out on strike, they'd sack us in a second,
But we can make a change next week at the ballot box, I reckon;
as a "prechorus," repeating it before each chorus. That way you could even put together three good, short regular verses.
Personally, I think going with a brass band sort of thing, like a Sousa march (the Monty Python theme is from his "The Liberty Bell") would be great. You might also think something along the lines of the Kinks' "She's Bought A Hat Like Princess Marina's." Vaudeville and music hall tunes are always lively and fun. Definitely keep it lively and punchy. If you need a template, try the chords to "No One Knows You When You're Down and Out," also from about the same time period.
Looking forward to seeing and hearing how this develops.
Peace
Hi Vic,
Great start! :D
Kudos to the research you put in....it seems to give it an "authentic" feel which enhances the believability and credibility of the song.
Suggestion:
As far as "where to go".....one suggestion I've read is to tell how you got to that point in the song....so instead of adding a verse 3 add a new verse one....maybe about a young man married with a kid trying to make ends meet and the "pressure in his home life" and self to put food on the table.....then head into landing the job.....or make it a flashback......struggling and working for the past X number of years in the shipyard getting nowhere....then continue with the story ending with the rally call to use the power to vote for change.....as it's the climax and point of the song.....a rally for change.
I agree this one is worth pursuing :wink:
Thanks for sharing.
James
What a great start! I hope you continue on with it, this could be good. You stated a couple of ideas about where you may want to go with it. I 'vote' for the election victory idea rather than the ships. The song thus far seems to be about the job situation really more than what they actually do at that job, and the election would tie more into that maybe. There's another song there, about the ships, so get crackin'! :)
This is the second song I've read (or listened to) so far that comes from this olden days idea. Things were much different back then, but good heavens, I can't believe that even in songs how much comes through that is so true today. In this one, while it may be true that labour laws have come a long way, it is also still true, here anyway, people do whatever to hang onto their jobs and employers sure do take advantage of that.
Thanks all for comments. Been a busy old week and I've only just got around to finishing this off - although I still feel it needs some work. Anyway, I've added another verse, slightly changed what David thought would make a good pre-chorus, and here's what I've got....
Shipyard Blues (That's only a tentative title...not many British people knew about the blues in 1924...)
Stately yachts are built here, for gentlemen of leisure,
Fine and sturdy cargo ships, for bullion and for treasure,
And we build sturdy warships, to patrol our blessed Empire,
But the men who own the comp'ny think, we're theirs to own and fire;
The profits are enormous, but the working wage ain't fair,
We can't lay down our tools, they'll bring in men from elsewhere,
We can't go out on strike, they'd sack us in a second,
But we can make a change next week at the ballot box, I reckon;
So vote for Labour, vote for Mac, for all our livelihoods,
Let's do these Tory blighters down, vote Baldwin out for good,
We fought a war not long ago, for peace and liberty,
But while the working class are starving, we cannot be free.
Those boats we built sail on and on across the seven seas,
They've took their toll in human lives and human misery,
And while those ships sail on and on without a single ripple,
There is no compensation for the widows or the cripples,
The profits all go to the owners and the speculators,
But us workers never see a penny extra for our labours,
We'd like to down tools, go on strike, the moment isn't right,
But mark my words, the workers will arise soon and we'll fight!
So vote for Labour, vote for Mac, for all our livelihoods,
Let's do these Tory blighters down, vote Baldwin out for good,
We fought a war not long ago, for peace and liberty,
But while the working class are starving, we cannot be free.
_________________________________________________________________
I'd like to think my grandad (from whose POV this is written) foresaw the General strike of 1926 (or was it 1927? I'll have to look it up!) with the last line of the second pre-chorus....
I'm thinking this still seems a bit unfinished....and I'm thinking I could either finish it with my original idea of following up a Labour election victory OR setting a putative last verse in the future, say about 1980 (which would make grandad about 92!) with a warning about that Thatcher woman......
:D :D :D
Vic
"Sometimes the beauty of music can help us all find strength to deal with all the curves life can throw us." (D. Hodge.)
Hi Vic
This is looking good. I don't know if you really need a final verse. While I understand your reasoning, it certainly stands well on its own. Bringing it all to the present, or recent past, is fine, but you want to make sure that doing so (a) adds something to the song it was otherwise needing, as opposed to missing, and (b) doesn't detract from what you've set up. You could always do a repeat of the whole first verse - instrumental over the first four lines and then start the singing back in with "the profits are enormous..." if you simply want to stretch it out a bit.
Looking forward to hearing it at some point.
Peace
