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The Tramp's Philosophy

from Up The Cut by Jon Wilks

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THE TRAMP’S PHILOSOPHY [ROUD 10672]

This is a song I discovered while researching ‘Holly Ho’, which I released on my EP, The Trial of Bill Burn Under Martin’s Act. Both songs came from the singing of Joe Mallen and were collected from the Old Cross Guns pub in Cradley Heath in the Black Country, by Phil Drabble. Drabble printed a verse and chorus of the song in his 1952 book, The Black Country.

Oddly enough, when I found no further information during my early research, I emailed Steve Roud to see what he knew, and it turned out he had no knowledge of the Drabble collection. I believe it has since been updated in the Roud Index archive. I eventually heard a couple of source recordings of this song, one of May Bradley (released on MusTrad) and one of Bob Mills (released on Forest Tracks). My interpretation of it falls somewhere between the two.

lyrics

An old tramp was resting
One day down by the lane
When a gang of young sportsmen came by
They passed many jokes on his old tattr'd coat
And the tramp he look up and he sighed

You may laugh, you may chaff
Just because I am down in the world
When you find out to your sorrow
You're up today and down tomorrow
Well you can't put a stop to misfortune
For whatever will be will be
I might have been up in the world like you
And you might have been down like me

"He looks just like a scarecrow"
Said some young fellow there
"Like a bag of old rags left untied"
And the sportsmen they laughed
At the joke of their friend
And the tramp he looked up and replied

Misfortune it came down
Through the top of my hat
And lower and lower I feel
And from this day to that
When the sportsmen they met
They'd recount the old tramp's ordeal

Don't you laugh, don't you chaff
Just because I am down in the world
When you find out to your sorrow
You're up today and down tomorrow
You can't put a stop to misfortune
For whatever will be will be
And I might have been up in the world like you
And you might have been down like me

credits

from Up The Cut, released February 12, 2021
Arranged, performed and recorded by Jon Wilks.

Mixed and mastered by Andi Lee, Kosi Studios.

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Jon Wilks Whitchurch, UK

'The sort of performer folk circles mean when they talk of the living tradition' - Mike Davies, Folking.com

“One of the best of the New Wave of Folk Blokes. As a guitar player and arranger of traditional songs, Jon Wilks already deserves speaking of in the same breath as your Simpsons and your Morays.” – Ian A. Anderson, fRoots Mag
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