Season 548 - Second City Songs

Gravelly Hill Interchange in Birmingham, more popularly known as Spaghetti Junction, is a famous maze and knot of roads, which Ken Dodd described as the eighth wonder of the world, because you get on and wonder how to get off! here's a homemade song about it for the season...


Nice one, Lynda. I got stuck in a traffic Jam on Spaghetti Junction once. There'd been an accident on the M42 at evening rush time. I eventually found an alternative route home but grrrrrr!
 
The father of the two Campbell Lads from UB40 was well known in the folk scene in the 1960s. Ian Campbell was born in Aberdeen (good choice!) and moved to Brum when he was in his teens. The Ian Campbell folk group was well respected in the 1960s. Among the songs they recorded was this superb song by Sydney Carter.
 
Good evening, or morning/afternoon depending whereabouts on this planet you be. Such wonderful contributions already. All have been added to the playlist. Please let me know if your song isn’t in there, but I think, at this early stage, I’m on it like a Shakespeare sonnet. Keep em coming, I’d forgotten what a joy it is to host a Season 👍
 
When I saw the title was "Second City", I thought of Chicago which is often called the Second City of the US.
 
Dirty Old Town - Ewan MacColl (recorded by Ian Campbell Folk Group)

The Ian Campbell Folk Group
formed in 1956 in Birmingham, England, as The Clarion Skiffle Group. They kept the name for only two years before changing to The Ian Campbell Folk Group. During the Great Folk Scare of the sixties, they became well known in North America and performed contemporary music by writers such as Bob Dylan as well as British folk tunes. My introduction to their performance was the Ewan MacColl song Dirty Old Town.
The town in the song is Salford, Lancashire, England, where MacColl was born.

 
When I saw the title was "Second City", I thought of Chicago which is often called the Second City of the US.
I thought of the Second City Comedy Club based in Chicago, Toronto and Hollywood.
The Toronto Second City was the starting place for Dan Aykroyd, John Candy, Martin Short, Mike Myers, Gilda Radner and other Canuck comedians.
 
Who loves Birmingham, baby?
Telly Savalas. That's who!

...and with cultural highlights such as the over 40's disco dancing, who can blame him?


wonderful!
The bird's eye view of those tentage at the markets look exactly like John Walker's abstract paintings!
Walker is from Birmingham- something I just found out.
 
The last time I was in Birmingham was July 21, 1969. I had been living and working in Wem, Shropshire, with some new friends, Brian and Ruth. Brian's parents, who lived in Birmingham, had a TV and invited us to come and watch the moon landing. It was my first time watching anything on a colour TV. . .probably not a great choice of programming for colour, but very memorable.
The next morning Ruth drove me to the outskirts of town and I stuck out my thumb and left Birmingham.
It seemed to me that everyone I met in Birmingham, of both sexes, called me "Luv".

Down In The Valley

Here's a song I first heard my brother Bob play when he was taking guitar lessons in the fifties. I've seen it under many titles, including Birmingham Jail and with various verses, but here's a basic version as Burl Ives, Pete Seeger or Bob Yates might have played it.


I had enjoyed your video on YouTube but it is even lovelier and more personal here, when you mention these little intros ...The moon-landing on colour TV made me laugh.
 
Sorry for the fans in the background…it is sooooo hot here.
Anyway, let’s start unpacking everything that has gone through my head the last day, starting with Christine Anne McVie.
I love this song.
 
OK- Now this one is HUGE, and was already here. I was shocked to see it here but it appears for the same reason it is so wonderful. If I was asked (and I am not often asked…but every once in a while) what single artist one should listen to as an introduction to early Jamaican popular music (Jamaican R&B, Ska, and Rocksteady), it would be Kenrick “Lord Creator” Patrick. His songs are all cracking- Evening News, Don’t Stay Out Late, Come Down ‘68…all incredible.
This year he has been honored with the Order of Distinction on August 6th (the sixtieth anniversary of Jamaican Independence) for his contribution to the development of Jamaican music, in particular his song “Independent Jamaica”, and he is from Trinidad- a Calypsonian.
As Reggae took hold, his career tapered off a bit, but there is not a Skinhead worth his boots that has not heard “Come Down ‘68”…man the guy could sing! Voice like butter. Really some of my favorite songs…but I digress.
In 1970, he released his strongest tune based on one he had recorded years earlier (King and Queen- Babylon), Kingston Town, and pretty much disappeared. He did one recording for Lee Scratch Perry in 76, a filthy number about a penis…but that is it. Turns out he had suffered a few strokes and was living back in Trinidad. I have heard that he was homeless when UB40 covered the song, but I cannot verify that. I do know that the cover and generous contributions to the man from UB40 from royalties changed his financial status greatly and he moved back to Jamaica, and even did a few old timer tours.
I have never had the chance to see him perform…
But you can likely imagine how badly I wanted to play this one ;)
Ok- Kingston Town-
 
Ok- one more and I will go away for the night. My FAVORITE Jamaican group of all time (and the first JA record I ever bought) is The Pioneers. Sydney Crooks, George Agard (Desmond Dekker’s brother) and Jackie Robinson. They are without a doubt one of the finest harmonies I have ever heard and I love them…
But this ain’t one of their songs.
Sydney Crooks and his brother Derrick had a side hustle called The Slickers. While this group is probably even less known outside of Jamaica than the Pioneers, they did have that one song that was covered by UB40, Steve Earle, Taj Mahal, Sublime, Peter Rowan…yeah, everybody plays this. It is also featured in “The Harder They Come” which I made my mother in law watch. She said it was s**.
Oh well. I will just watch it by myself.
Here is a fast and dirty song about Rude Boys- Johnny Too Bad
 
Morning lovely Seasonistas, I awoke to a fine early crop of gems. Jim took us to Salford, via Brum of course, and Rob posted his wonderful funky take on the same song. Southern John gave us a great original which brought a big smile to my face, and we had 3 bangers Straight Outta Cloverdale. Kept them coming, who knows I might find time to post one myself at some point, but for now I am enjoying your contributions soooo much. Thank you all.
 
I have gone down the same route as CharleyB - The Move, and the musical genius of Roy Wood. Although to be fair, he didn't want this one releasing as a single, and the rest of the band weren't keen on it either. Maybe they wanted more lyrics instead of "bi-dum bi-dum bi-dum" at the end of the lines.

 
What's the difference between a buffalo and a bison?

You can't wash your hands in a buffalo.
(This only works in a Brummie accent - & the less we say about kipper ties...)
 
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Today the school year starts in Los Angeles Unified School District. The first week of school can be rather all consuming, and I have little chance to do much of anything uke related this week except this. Sorry for the one hiccup near the end, but I had to get this recorded before my morning commute.

 
Hello, John and thanks for hosting ... YES, hosting is FUN!!! I am a bit late (for me) this week, as we had a thunderstorm on Saturday night, which resulted in a power cut all of Sunday. Anyway, looking at the Wikipedia list of groups from Birmingham in the UK - and there are a lot of them! - I came upon "The Ivy League." I have always liked this song, but for some inexplicable reason I decided to turn it into a sort of dirge here, by electing to fingerpick ... well it IS a sad song, I just made it more so!

 
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