Categories: 31-songs-in-may
Tags: music, morris dancing, may
Date: 01 May 2003 18:37:00
Well, good morning, and a happy Mayday to you.
Earlier in the year I had some crazy idea about combining 2 slightly random ideas to make a sort of possibly interesting one throughout this month. Here was the idea:
Nick Hornby wrote a book called 31 songs, which interestingly costs you just over £1 more to buy second hand from Amazon than new. In it he describes the 31 songs that mean most to him personally or something... Anyway, the idea was to combine this with the late great Radio1 competition 31 Days In May and provide you, my readership with an daily insight into my psyche throughout May via a song that means a lot to me.
Unfortunately I have given this no thought since the original idea in February, but am too stubborn not to give it up as a lost cause. So, this is not going to be the 31 songs that mean the most to me, it is most likely to be the first song off the top of my head on any particular morning, Nevertheless today is the official launch of...
31 songs in May!
May 1st - Bonny Green Garters.
Well, what else on May morning? I chose this particular morris tune over all the rest, as I didn't want to bend the rules too much on the first day by choosing something without words. Here are the lyrics in question which elevate this traditional morris farewell to the status of song, rather than tune:
Here's to the ladies, we love 'em so well
Though some are regular tartars
Here's to their stockings and here's to their shoes
And here's to their bonny green garters.
Of course, being performed by morris dancers makes it also not just a tune and a song, but also a dance. Anyone needing a few pointers as to how to acheive a fully authentic rendition of this act, in honour of the dawn of May should look no further than here. There we are then.
Finally, some pictures of morris dancers dancing in the dawn this time last year, that last one may even be Bonny Green, kinda hard to tell...