A light satirical piece on Morris Dancing, composed as an entry in the Chorus Cup challenge at the 2019 St Albans Folk Festival (25-28 April).
Competition organisers set the Morris Dancing theme at the festival, and the song had to be composed and performed during the festival in accordance with various competition rules.
The song was performed on the Sunday of the festival by "The Merry May Pollsters", who formed for the performance from the members of "Sweet Songs and Soft Guitar" (Kathy and Matt Clark) and "Tripple Effect" (Carrie and Lynden Jacobi, and Len McCarthy).
Their performance won the 2019 Chorus Cup.
The tune to which it was sung was based on Bob Dylan's "Song to Woody", though the tune to the traditional folk song "One Morning in May" also works well.
The reference to "a Fossickers' song" is to a moment during a performance the previous day by The Fossickers in the main venue of the St Albans festival, when the members of the Fossickers suddenly broke from singing and leapt from the stage to Morris dance with their friends.
1
The Devil hates folkies, we all know it well
But there’s devilry hidden that this song will tell
How he sent forth a demon, Morris his name,
To torture all folkies and bring them all pain
CHORUS: (Clap, clap, ....)
2
Morris he pondered, he looked and he saw
“Those folkies are singing and having a ball
The rack and the screw, the lash and the choke
They’re all too soft for these people of folk
The pain they must suffer, it has to be worse
I’ll have to invent the ultimate curse.”
CHORUS: (Clap, clap....)
3
So a maypole he planted in the midst of a green
And about it he wove his diabolical scheme
“I’ll make up a dance that looks like a game
I’ll make folkies prance and give it my name
CHORUS: (Clap, clap...)
4
I’ll make them dress up and wave flags in the air
And they’ll weave a curse to make others stare.
And to make sure I cover all possible hells
I’ll make them bang clap sticks and jingle their bells”
CHORUS: To make sure he covered all possible hells
He made them bang clap sticks and jingle their bells
5
So they pranced and they danced, they kicked and they twirled
Till their evil engulfed the whole Folkie world
Till one day at St Albans the whole thing went wrong
When they tried to take over a Fossickers’ song.
CHORUS: (Clap, clap, bang clapsticks and jingle our bells)
That day at St Albans we saw through the scheme
That day at St Albans when they made it The Theme.
(Clap, clap, bang clapsticks and jingle their bells)
6
So the curse has now eased, but it happens perchance
That Morris left a curse even worse than his dance
The last fiendish curse that May poll has spun
Is the spawn of old Morris: Scotty, his son.
CHORUS: (Clap, clap, bang clapsticks and jingle their bells)
7
So from clapsticks to claptrap that curse has now swung
And for every good Folkie there’s a cause to be won
For the curse of the May poll can be finally undone
If we use the next May poll {on the 18th of May} to scotch Morris’ son
CHORUS:
Let’s use that next May poll to scotch Morrison.
(Clap, clap, bang clapsticks and jingle their bells)
