BSA Song Book

The song writing tradition continues in at least one university club - SUSS have had 2 musicals, carry on caving and carry on Suss - with carry on crawling still in the works.

I gave a lot of these to a BEC caver who was compiling them a couple years back. I've written more since, including caving Christmas carols, although the author of SpeleoRhapsody has since retired from parodying songs.

PS If anyone is interested in recording a couple of songs, I have a band name ready :D and am able to borrow a recording studio - I just can't arrange or play musical instruments. PM me ;)
 
Considering the responses so far I am pondering the way forwards with this project, there are a number of alternatives;

1. Those with something to offer post them up here and I can copy and paste to the collection.

2. Those with something to offer could PM me and I could send them my e-mail address so they could scan and .pdf them to me so I could transcribe them.

3. I could set up a Dropbox or Google cloud so people could post them there directly, I could then edit them to a standardised format.

4. Those with hard copy versions who are willing to loan them to me for transcription could PM me for my postal address then post them to me so I can scan/transcribe them (and, obviously, return them when I'm done!).

Anyone have any preferred option or alternatives?

P.S. Is there a tune to that childrens ditty Judi? I thought it might be 'I'd rather eat worms', but I can't quite make it scan.

 
For anyone wanting to transcribe scanned docs I can recommend this web site:-

http://www.onlineocr.net/

It gives much better OCR than the software on my laptop, about 99% accuracy as long as you optimise the contrast on your scans and get them nice and clear. It will also accept .png files, (doesn't mention that, but it does, no compression or artifacts with png format.) It doesn't allow you to process more than 15 docs at a time for free per day. But Just wait a day and you can do another 15. Highly recommended. I have OCR'd two of my old club journals from the late 1970s/early 1980s using it and have hardly had to make any corrections. Will save you a lot of work. Mel.
 
Thanks for that Mel, so anyone who wants to scan and OCR, I am working in MS Word at the moment.
 
Photo's and scans are a right pain in the arse to post, so started typing them out instead.


OH! THE CAVERS.

Tune;- ?Clementine?

O?er the green slopes, over boulders,
Weary Grinding all the time;
Carrying headlamps an? heavy ladders,
Dressed as if going down a mine.

Oh! the Cavers, Oh! the Cavers,
Into caves they go to climb.
Down the ladders, into caverns,
On a sport that?s so sublime.

Into Potholes, down the pitches,
Anywhere that man can climb;
Getting wet and tearing breeches,
Dreadful language all the time.

Oh! the Cavers, etc.

On they go, in the darkness,
While out on top, the sun does shine,
Someone sticks and cant go further,
Thinks he?s there till end of time

Oh! the Cavers, etc.

Leader takes a lighted candle,
Burns the blighter up behind;
Horrid yells and awful language,
On he goes in record time.

Oh! the Cavers, etc.

Lady caver, brand new breeches,
Tries to bend to pick up line,
Breeches split, expose her Bottom,
Ain?t it marvellous, ain?t it fine.

Oh! the Cavers, etc.

At the bottom, fine formations,
Lots of water, not so fine.
Someone tells them, Pubs are Open,
Thoughts of Beer, and Gin and Lime.

Oh! the Cavers, etc.

General scramble, out of caverns,
Fast as Hell, you see them climb:
Down the hillside, into Taverns,
There they booze, till Closing Time.

Oh! the Cavers, etc.

 
Some years ago the SWCC produced a song book, to record all of the songs that were frequently sung in the Long Common Room (and in the Ancient Briton, back in the day) while the perpetrators were still around and so that the younger members could learn the words. I still have a hard copy (somewhere) and there are some lying around at the SWCC HQ. I'll be happy to lend one.

The book contains the words to many of the songs already mentioned - Speleopod, Wild Caver, Caving Matilda and so on - or at least the SWCC versions thereof. It wasn't terribly well proof-read at the time so there are some errors in the words as I know them. There are also numerous 'bawdy but non-caving' songs included and I firmly believe that all these should be included in any archive as there is a long tradition of these being sung at caving huts, and in cavers' pubs. If these offend your modern sensibilities then don't read them.
 
One of the 'non-caving bawdy ones' specially for Mark W., and in tribute to Mick Fish (RIP);

The Highland Tinker
(Tune; Ghost Riders in the Sky)

The lady of the manor was dressing for the ball
When she spied a highland tinker pissing up against the wall
With his bloody great kidney wiper
And his balls the size of three
And a yard and a half of foreskin
Hanging down below his knee.

Yippee yi yay, yippee yi ho
Foreskins in the sky.

Well she wrote to him a letter, and in it she did write
That she?d rather be f*cked by the tinker than his lordship any night
With his bloody great kidney wiper
And his balls the size of three
And a yard and a half of foreskin
Hanging down below his knee.

Yippee?etc.

The tinker read the message and his eyes lit up with glee
He made off to the manor with a stand of four foot three
With his bloody great kidney wiper
And his balls the size of three
And a yard and a half of foreskin
Hanging down below his knee.

Yippee?etc.

He mounted on his charger and on it he did ride
His pr*ck slung over his shoulder, his balls hung either side
With his ---etc

He rode up to the manor, he rode up to the hall
The butler said ?god save us, he?s come to f*ck us all?
With his ---etc

He f*cked them in the kitchen he f*cked them in the hall
The way he f*cked the butler was the funniest way of all
With his ---etc

They say the tinkers gone now, they say he went to hell
He?s gone to f*ck the devil and we know he?ll do it well
With his ---etc




 
Fish used to alternate each chorus with,

Yippee Yi Oh, What a dick (What a dick being Spoken)
Yippee Yi Yay, inches think (Inches thick being spoken)
Foreskins in the sky

I was lucky enough to meet Dwayne Eddy (the king of twang and writer of Ghost Riders in the Sky) in Fagan's in Sheffield a couple of years ago. He recorded his last album at Yellow Arch Studios in Sheffield, the same studio I spoke of earlier.

Mark
 
I believe Nick Cornwell Smith, at one time member of WSG and no doubt other club(s), probably on Mendip, wrote "They Words, They Words, They 'Orrible Words", probably back in the early 1980s?

I've no doubt there's a few copies around..

Cheers,
Graham.
 
Should have googled before I posted -


They Words, They Words, They 'Orrible Words: Anthology of Caving SongsPaperback? 1 May 1993

by Nicholas Brian Cornwell-Smith(Editor)

Chiz...
 
Got it;

They Words;

When singing crude songs, we commit social wrongs,
By indulging in bawdy hilarity,
So lets make every ditty, polite, pure and pretty,
By avoiding they words of vulgarity,
We can make all our caving songs stately and gracious,
Instead of coarse, vulgar, obscene and salacious,
And we'll sing ourselves hoarse, while avoiding of course,
They words, they 'orrible words.

When we sing of the ladies, we'll never afront,
The tenderest maiden by being too blunt,
For suitable words we will steadfastly hunt,
And avoid using vulgar expressions like....

CHORUS:

Words, they words, they 'orrible words, they words, they 'orrible words.

Our rude Saxon forebears, in rude Saxon halls,
Wrote rude Saxon words on their rude Saxon walls,
But we are disgusted, the prospect appals,
And we think of these things as a right load of....

CHORUS:

Words, they words, they 'orrible words, they words, they 'orrible words.

Our delicate natures would take a right knock,
As round the piano we daintily flock,
If some vulgar fellow proceeded to shock,
Us with songs about showing the jury his....

CHORUS:

Words, they words, they 'orrible words, they words, they 'orrible words.

For songs such as that really shake us to bits,
We'll never let crudity sully our wits,
The coarsest amongst us quite freely admits,
That songs that are crude really get on our....

CHORUS:

Words, they words, they 'orrible words, they words, they 'orrible words.

So let us remember our old Sunday School,
And make polite words our inviolate rule,
A man looks a stupid and ignorant fool,
Singing long bawdy ballads the length of his....

CHORUS:

Words, they words, they 'orrible words, they words, they 'orrible words.

And if it should come, as it may do, to pass,
That sing-songs become a ridiculous farce,
Then let every caving lad raise up his glass,
And bring back our old songs like A stands for....

CHORUS:

Words, they words, they 'orrible words, they words, they 'orrible words.

 
Quite a few I recognise there, but it's missing "The Bastard King of England".... :tease:
 
Some biblo detail:-

Collected Caving Songs. Volume 1. The Songs of Mendip. Roger Biddle. Grampian Speleological Group Occassional Publication Number 3 April 1976. 35 pp. Illustrations by SNAB. 30 songs - all Mendip.

Alfie's Manucript Collection of Mendip Caver's Songs. "Alfie" [S.J.Collins] 1984.
37 songs - all with musical score - all Mendip.

Penwyllt Songbook. Gary Jones. No date. 86pp. 175 songs - many non caving.

They Words, They Words They 'orrible Words. An Anthology of Caving Songs. Nick Cornwell-Smith. 1993. ISBN 0-9518131-0-2. 248 songs - all caving - all regions.
By far the best collection - it also includes a bibliography.
 
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