Sam Hall

Sat Oct 31 22:38:20 UTC 2009

Those of you who are folkies may be familiar with John Roberts and Tony Barrand, who are still performing today.  In the seventies they put together an English Music Hall show (along with a number of friends) which consisted of late nineteenth century Music Hall songs (Champagne Charlie, Watcha Ria, Hold Your Hand Out, Naughty Boy, Sweeney Todd (not the Sondheim version) etc.)  One of the songs was indeed Sam Hall, and the mighty curse was 'Damn their eyes' (and the last verse was 'Damn your eyes!').
There are a couple of unofficial recordings of the show, one of which I own and have recently digitized.

Geoff

Geoffrey S. Nathan
Faculty Liaison, C&IT
and Associate Professor, Linguistics Program
+1 (313) 577-1259 (C&IT)
+1 (313) 577-8621 (English/Linguistics)

----- "Wilson Gray" <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:

> From: "Wilson Gray" <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Sent: Saturday, October 31, 2009 6:27:17 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
> Subject: Re: Sam Hall
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Sam Hall
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> FWIW, some sixty years ago, I read a science-fiction story entitled,
> "Sam Hall," in the old pulp mag, Astounding Science-Fiiction, in
> which
> it was the cover story, IIRC. Some verses of a "folksong," The Ballad
> of Sam Hall, "inspired by the life of the title character," were
> included:
>
> Oh, my name it is Sam Hall
> And I hate you one and all
>
> It's taken till now for me to discover that the author didn't simply
> make up the story out of whole cloth. However, again, IIRC, the "Sam
> Hall" of the ASF story was a union organizer or one whose story was
> used as inspiration by people who were union organizers, the story
> being loosely based on the (science-fictionalized) history of the
> IWW.
>
> I have no idea why this
> hardly-at-all-interesting-to-me-at-the-time-or-even-now story has
> remained lodged in the back of my thinking cap for over half a
> century. But, "there it is," as we used to say, during the Viet-Nam
> Era.
>
> I'm absolutely (yeah, right) certain that I correctly recall the mag,
> the title of the story, the couplet, and, perhaps, even the cover
> artist: Van Dongen(??). The rest is only slightly better than a WAG.
>
> -Wilson
>
> On Sat, Oct 31, 2009 at 7:42 AM, Robin Hamilton
> <robin.hamilton2 at btinternet.com> wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Robin Hamilton <robin.hamilton2 at BTINTERNET.COM>
> > Subject:      Sam Hall
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > For some time it has been accepted that the singer W.G.Ross was
> responsible
> > for the transition of Jack Hall into the more familiar Sam Hall,
> when he
> > sang a song about the Sam Hall in London in the 1840s.
> V.A.C.Gatrell in
> > _The Hanging Tree_ (1994), p. 142, further notes a link with the
> song
> > intitled "Sam Hall, chimney sweep" found in the Madden Collection,
> II.687.
> >
> > The final three (of five) stanzas which Gatrell prints from the
> Madden
> > version are identical to the final three (of six) stanzas of two
> copies of
> > the ballad with that title found in the Bodleian Collection --
> Harding B
> > 15(274b) and Harding B 20(27).
> >
> > That this was the very ballad as Ross sang it in the Cider Cellars
> in London
> > in the nineteenth century can be shown from a description to be
> found in
> > _Punch_, Vol. 16 (Jan-June 1874), p. 114, in "Mr. Pips his Diary"
> (printed
> > above a drawing of Ross singing the ballad in "A Cydere Cellare"
> [sic])
> > which parallels stanza by stanza the text found in the Bodleian
> broadsheet:
> >
> > "
> > But the thing that did most take me was to see and hear one Ross
> sing the
> > song of SAM HALL the chimney-sweep, going to be hanged: for he had
> begrimed
> > his muzzle to look unshaven, and in rusty black clothes, with a
> battered old
> > Hat on his crown  and a short Pipe in his mouth, did sit upon the
> platform,
> > leaning over the back of a chair: so making believe that he was on
> his way
> > to Tyburn.  And then he did sing to a dismal Psalm-tune, how that
> his name
> > was SAM HALL, and that he had been a great Thief, and was now about
> to pay
> > for all with his life [1];  and thereupon he swore an Oath  [CHORUS
> line],
> > which did make me somewhat shiver, though divers laughed at it.
> Then, in so
> > many verses, how his Master had badly taught him and now he must
> hang for it
> > [2];  how he should ride up Holborn Hill in a Cart [3], and the
> Sheriffs
> > ["sheriff" in the Bodleian text] would come and preach to him [4],
> and after
> > them would come the Hangman [5]; and at the end of each verse he did
> repeat
> > his Oath [CHORUS line].  Last of all, how that he should go up to
> the
> > Gallows; and desired the Prayers of his Audience [6], and ended by
> cursing
> > them all round [CHORUS line].
> >
> > "
> >
> > I've inserted numbers in square brackets indicating the particular
> stanza of
> > Harding b15 (276b) to which the comment corresponds -- all and only
> the six
> > stanzas appear in this description in _Punch_, which is remarkably
> specific
> > and entirely consistent with the broadside text.
> >
> >
> http://books.google.com/books?id=WShXAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA114&dq=punch+%22sam+hall%22&ei=piTrSs6nK4PUM5SciPEL#v=onepage&q=punch%20%22sam%20hall%22&f=false
> >
> > Taking the link between Ross and "Sam Hall, chimney sweep" as a
> given allows
> > certain observations to be made.  Whoever was responsible for the
> actual
> > composition of this version of the ballad, whether Ross or
> A.N.Other, was
> > familiar with both contemporary London Flash speech and the history
> of
> > Tyburn.  The version introduces Flash terms not present before.
> Newly
> > introduced terms which suggest an intrusion of Flash would be
> "flam", "bam",
> > and "tip", more probably "sheriff" as used in the ballad, and
> certainly the
> > term "gallows" used as an intensifying adverb.
> >
> > Moreover, the ballad has Hall take the correct (for 1707) route from
> Newgate
> > to Tyburn, pausing at St. Giles for a final drink.  Some versions,
> > (re)written presumably after 1783 when hangings shifted from Tyburn
> to
> > outside Newgate itself, rather absurdly have Hall going up a
> non-existent
> > Tyburn Hill rather than the geographically correct Holborn Hill.
> >
> > Robin Hamilton
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
>
> --
> -Wilson
> ���
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"��a strange complaint
> to
> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> �Mark Twain
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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