Col50, a question if I may? I am interested in learning some old English pub tunes and was wondering what a song list would look like? I know Dilly and Dally, Mary Mack and a few others....but if I’m in a pub in the U.K. and someone starts singing....what songs do they truly all know and sing along with?
More than likely they will be general popular karaoke songs but some to definitely learn is Streets of London (Ralph McTell), Scarborough Fair (do the Simon and Garfunkle version), Danny Boy, Part of the Union (Strawbs), When Im Dead and Gone (McGuinness Flint), Pete Seeger’s If I Had A Hammer should also go down well as will a couple of skiffle songs by Lonnie Donegan, My Old Mans a Dustman and Puttin on the Style. But remember the King of the Uke was My George Formby so his Leaning on the Lampost and When Im Cleaning Windows will both go down extremely well.
Old time Pub Tunes are more likely to be what we call Folk songs but these are very much regional in nature and hence a Cornish Folk song will mean nothing to anyone over 100 miles away, its the same thing in Lancashire where I live our songs will not mean much to someone 100 miles away.
The caveat is Scotland, Loch Lomand, Auld Lang Syne, Flower of Scotland etc we all know them.
You could not do better than to listen to Runrig, the greatest band ever, Hears of Olden Glory, Beat The Drum, Proterra, Every River, search their version of Loch Lomand it is world class.
We have a Folk Show on our BBC Radio 2 which you should be able to listen to either live or via the BBC iPlayer app that plays some great music.
Checkout the music of Steeleye Span, Fairport Convention, Gigspanner, Martin Carthy, Kate Rusby.
Finally you have to include Beatles sing along classics like Hey Jude, Ob la d ob la da, with a little help from my friends, yellow submarine.