- Derek Lamb
-
She Was Poor But She Was Honest
- She Was Poor But She Was Honest Time: 2:52
- Money Rolls In Time: 1:04
- Pickled Onions / Don't Cry Daddy / Winkle Song Time: 1:27
- Roll Tiddly Ole Time: 1:21
- Pretty Polly Perkins Of Paddington Green Time: 2:10
- Botany Bay Time: 1:48
- Hole In The Elephant's Bottom Time: 1:02
- Landlady's Daughter / Slap Dab / Nine Inch Nails / two more Time: 2:21
- Villikins And His Dinah Time: 2:24
- Sweeny Todd The Barber Time: 3:13
- Barsted [sic] King Of England Time: 2:09
- Old Baby Farmer Time: 2:02
- I Don't Want To Play In Your Time: 2:24
- Do It No More Time: 1:31
- End Of My Cigar Time: 1:19
- Little Shirt My Mother Made For Me Time: 1:02
- My Ma's A Millionaire / Wise Men Say / three more Time: 1:08
- Miner's Dream Of Home Time: 0:35
-
FOLKWAYS RECORDS Album No. FW 8707
© 1962 Folkways Records & Service Corp., 43 W. 61st St., NYC, USA
SHE WAS POOR BUT SHE WAS HONEST
Nice, Naughty and Nourishing Songs of the LONDON MUSIC HALL & PUBS
sung by Derek Lamb
with guitar augmented by banjo, violin and voices
THE LONDON MUSIC HALL
Notes by Derek Lamb
The songs on this album are mostly those of London Music Hall comics and singers.
Music Hall has a particularly interesting history. Introduced to London in 1840 by Charles Morton it remained unrivalled as the British working people's entertainment for almost one hundred years.
Morton's Saturday music night at the Canterbury Arms, a tavern in Westminster Bridge Road, became so popular that he built a hall next door which held seven hundred people. And that is how these songs came into being - in halls next to taverns.
Soon afterwards there were Music Halls all over Britain - most of them splendid theatres. Nineteenth century Britain was prosperous, Victorian optimism influenced Music Hall. It was never bitter or complaining - mostly funny or sentimental.
A Saturday night 'at the 'alls' was an occasion for the entire family. Drink was served at the rear of the auditorium and nuts candies and fruit were consumed in great quantities. A chairman who sat to the side of the stage, kept order, introduced the performers and bantered light-heartedly with the audience. The standard of entertainment was always high - the public demanded it. They idolized their stars and voiced loud disapproval of a bad performer.
All the acts, whether they be acrobats, comics, magicians, ventriloquists, dancers or singers, 'were backed by a orchestra which leaned heavily on the brass section for its effect. Comics and singers had their own songs written for them. There were a few free numbers which everybody could sing, but usually they belonged to the individual who sang them.
Music Hall died with the end of World War One. The audiences began to be attracted to the movies, the "flicks" as they were then called. Many theatres turned to revue and burlesque. Giving the stage to slick acts and the smutty comedian.
The stars of Music Hall are gone, but the best of their songs, or versions of them, are still sung in the pubs. Here are a few of them.
D.L.