England's Motorway, come my little son lyrics and chords
The Dubliners Lyrics And Chords. Written by Ewan McColl With Luke Kelly singing. Try a capo on the 2nd.fret and you will be playing in the key of D. These are the chords I use. I have given the chords for the Luke Kelly version also. This folk song by Ewan McColl is all about an Irishman working on the roads of England and the wife and son at home pining for the father. Luke sang a similar song about working on roads which was The Hot Asphalt Song .Also sang by Blue Highway and Annmarie O’Riordan also recorded Come My Little Son in 2020.
Come[C] my little[F] son and I will tell you what to[C] do,
Undress yourself,get[F] into bed and a[C] tale I'll tell to[Am] you
Its[C] all about your[F] daddy he's a[C] man you seldom [Am]see,
For he's[C] had to roam[F] away from home,away from[C] me and you.
[Chorus]
But remember lad he's still your dad,
Though he's working far away,
In the cold and heath eighty hours a week,
On England's motorway.
[2]
Sure we'd like your daddy home,sure it would be fine,
To have him working nearer home,to see him all the time,
But beggars cant be choosers son,and we have to bear our load,
For we need the money your daddy earns,
A working on the roads.
[3]
When you fall and hurt yourself and get a feeling bad,
It isn't any good to go a-running for your da,
For the only time since you were born,that he had to spend with you,
He was out of a job and he hadn't a bob,he was signing on the brew,
[Chorus]
Undress yourself,get[F] into bed and a[C] tale I'll tell to[Am] you
Its[C] all about your[F] daddy he's a[C] man you seldom [Am]see,
For he's[C] had to roam[F] away from home,away from[C] me and you.
[Chorus]
But remember lad he's still your dad,
Though he's working far away,
In the cold and heath eighty hours a week,
On England's motorway.
[2]
Sure we'd like your daddy home,sure it would be fine,
To have him working nearer home,to see him all the time,
But beggars cant be choosers son,and we have to bear our load,
For we need the money your daddy earns,
A working on the roads.
[3]
When you fall and hurt yourself and get a feeling bad,
It isn't any good to go a-running for your da,
For the only time since you were born,that he had to spend with you,
He was out of a job and he hadn't a bob,he was signing on the brew,
[Chorus]
If you want to play along with Luke Kelly then use the following chords.
[F#]Come my little[C#] son and [F#I will tell you what to do,
Undress your[B]self,get into [F#]bed and a[C] tale I'll tell to[D#m] yo[B]u
Its[F#] all about your[B] daddy [F#]he's a man you seldom [D#m]]se[B]e,
For he's[F#] had to [G#m]roam away from [F#]home,far a[C#]way from[F#] me and you.
[Chorus]
[F#]But remember [B]lad he's still your [F#]dad,
Though he's working far a[D#m]wa[B]y,
In the [F#]cold and [G#m]heath eighty hours a [F#]week,
On [C#]England's [F#]motorway.
[F#]Come my little[C#] son and [F#I will tell you what to do,
Undress your[B]self,get into [F#]bed and a[C] tale I'll tell to[D#m] yo[B]u
Its[F#] all about your[B] daddy [F#]he's a man you seldom [D#m]]se[B]e,
For he's[F#] had to [G#m]roam away from [F#]home,far a[C#]way from[F#] me and you.
[Chorus]
[F#]But remember [B]lad he's still your [F#]dad,
Though he's working far a[D#m]wa[B]y,
In the [F#]cold and [G#m]heath eighty hours a [F#]week,
On [C#]England's [F#]motorway.
Guitar chords for the key of G
Come[G] my little[C] son and I will tell you what to[G] do,
Undress yourself,get[C] into bed and a[G] tale I'll tell to[Em] you
Its[G] all about your[C] daddy he's a[G] man you seldom [Em]see,
For he's[G] had to roam[C] away from home,away from[G] me and you
Come[G] my little[C] son and I will tell you what to[G] do,
Undress yourself,get[C] into bed and a[G] tale I'll tell to[Em] you
Its[G] all about your[C] daddy he's a[G] man you seldom [Em]see,
For he's[G] had to roam[C] away from home,away from[G] me and you
Below is the list of sheet music and tin whistle songs that are in my ebooks. This is the largest collection of tin whistle songs ever put together.[over 800 songs ] Including folk, pop and trad tunes plus German And French songs along with Christmas Carols.
All of the sheet music tabs have been made as easy to play as was possible.
The price of the ebooks is €7.50
All of the sheet music tabs have been made as easy to play as was possible.
The price of the ebooks is €7.50
The Dubliners Sheet Music / Tin Whistle Notes Ebook
Luke Kelly singer of England's Motorway - Come My Little Son
Two of the most prolific artists that Ken Goldstein recorded for his Riverside folk series were the traditional singers Ewan MacColl, from Scotland, and A.L. Lloyd, from England. In America they were known as rough-voiced artists who knew more songs than anyone could even remember, singers from the kind of background where it wasn't necessary to play an instrument. Their voices were instrument enough for many of their recordings, though they usually included traditional instruments like concertina and spoons, along with guitars and banjos, and vocal choruses for some of their noisier songs. Although neither of them had the popularity of the new folk singers like Bob Gibson or the Kingston Trio, they were widely influential among serious folk revivalists, and their songs had a strong effect on musicians like Dave Van Ronk and Eric Von Schmidt.
Although a casual look at what Ewan MacColl and A.L. Lloyd recorded suggests that they were interested in traditional songs mainly for the song's history and background, with MacColl and Lloyd Ken Goldstein was not only arranging for new recordings by artists who made a lot of albums, he was also documenting the work of two of the most important artists who used folk song for political ends. MacColl was a strongly motivated political activist, and Lloyd was involved in forming and supporting several workers' song movements. The involvement of the political left with the folk song revival is a complicated issue, without simple formulations, but perhaps as a way to understand some of the ideas behind it the simplest explanation is that for artists like MacColl and Lloyd "folk song" was an expression of what ordinary people thought and felt and believed, and a way to free working people from the exploitation of their political and economic systems was to encourage them to believe in their own songs, their own expression, and their own culture.
A.L. Lloyd—usually known as Bert—was a few years older than MacColl. He was born in London in 1908, but after the early death of his parents he traveled to Australia and stayed for several years working odd jobs and listening to Australia's traditional ballads and the songs of its workers. He returned to England in 1935, in the middle of the worldwide industrial depression, and went to sea, working as a sailor on freighters in the Atlantic. His career as a journalist and a radio producer began in 1938, with a program on the life of the men he was sailing with. In the 1940s he was in South America and the Middle East as a journalist, and in the 1950s he recorded folk music in Rumania, Bulgaria, and Albania, an area that the Cold War had closed to most travelers from the western countries. Lloyd was a major figure in the first years of the folk song revival in England.
Along with his many recordings he produced a long series of radio programs, singing many of the songs himself, and he also wrote and compiled several books, among them The Penguin Book of English Folk Song, in 1959, which he edited with composer Ralph Vaughn Williams. His major book, Folk Song in England, appeared in 1967. He was often in the United States in the 1960s, appearing at the Newport Folk Festival, and participating in university conferences. His political beliefs, a personal form of humanistic socialism, were enough to keep several rightist groups agitated, but he was not barred from the United States. Often he traveled in the United States with Ewan MacColl, and they recorded many albums together, trading songs from their own traditions. Lloyd died in London in 1982. MacColl was younger, and his career, for many years, had only a tenuous connection to the folk music movement. He was born in Scotland, but grew up in Lancashire, and he shifted between his two cultures. Scottish and English, with little difficulty.
His father was an iron molder, who knew many songs and stories, and his mother was a gifted traditional singer. MacColl worked a variety of jobs during the Depression, and began a career as an actor and writer with a strong leftist commitment. In 1945, with English actress Joan Littlewood, he formed the Theater Workshop in London, and in addition to acting he was the workshop's resident dramatist and art director. He wrote eight plays for the company, several of which were translated into other European languages and widely performed. In 1950 the American folklorist Alan Lomax, who was producing a series of programs for the BBC, convinced him that he could continue to work as an activist through folk song. In 1956 MacColl met Peggy Seeger, Pete Seeger's half sister, who had been brought to England by Lomax for a radio acting role, and after singing together for three years in the group the Ramblers they were married, and Peggy continued to play an important role in his music. In 1957 he was asked by the BBC to produce a series of new programs and for the series he created a form of sound documentary which he called "radio ballads." The programs combined sound montage, sound effects, traditional songs, and new songs in the folk style. The series was so successful that several of the programs were released in England by Topic Records.
MacColl recorded dozens of albums for several record companies, singing traditional material or his own songs. The version of the traditional song "Scarborough Fair" he sings here was turned into the hit song by Paul Simon later in the 1960s. MacColl's music became even more sharply political during the Vietnam years, but he had become less controversial by the 1970s, and in 1973 his song "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" won a Grammy award as Song of the Year. He died in 1989. In his documentation of the music of the Anglo-American mother countries, England, Scotland, and Ireland, Ken Goldstein drew on many sources. His own special area of interest was the ballad and he found some of most beautiful examples in the singing of women like Margaret Barry and Jeannie Robertson. Barry was Irish and Robertson was Scottish, but they were both from the "traveling folk," which is the country term for itinerant tinkers. For centuries their people had led a vagabond life which was regarded uneasily by the settled communities they brushed against in their wanderings. Barry could be a loud and noisy performer, especially when she'd had too much to drink, but she could also sing a plaintive, unaccompanied ballad like "The Flower of Sweet Strabane" with so much sensitivity and emotion that she could bring her audiences to tears.
Although she was less well known in the United States, Jeannie Robertson's role in the English folk music revival was so important that in 1968 she was presented with an MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) award for her "lasting gifts to folk song.- She learned most of her songs from her mother and grandmother, and in her own years of traveling she learned songs from other Scottish tinker folk. She was deeply immersed in folk song all her life, married to a famous folk fiddler, sister to three singing brothers, a next-door neighbor to another of Scotland's finest fiddlers, and mother to a singer who has gone on to a career of her own, Lizzie Higgins. Ken Goldstein arranged for another of her albums to be released on the Prestige label, and he titled it The World's Greatest Folk Singer. Although she is accompanied by a guitarist on two of the selections here, "The Broken Token" and "The Butcher Boy," her way of singing still reflects the freer melodies of the older ballad tradition. She died in 1975 at the age of 67. To balance his documentation of the English and Scottish traditions Ken presented Irish material by the singer Patrick Galvin. Galvin was less traditional than the other artists in Riverside's folk series, but he had a wide repertoire of Irish songs, and he sang with the sentiment and wit that has always characterized traditional Irish music. Songs often were traded back and forth between the three countries and they were suited for almost any kind of performance, including accompaniments with instruments like the banjo. The Riverside albums also included energetic music by two traditional Irish ceili (pronounced kay-leel bands, the small accordion-led dance groups that are popular everywhere in Ireland. Although the songs of the Anglo-American mother cultures that Ken produced for Riverside were only a part of the music he documented for several labels, the freedom which Bill Grauer and Orrin Keepnews gave him to produce any artists that interested him led to one of his richest gatherings of traditional folk material.
—Samuel Charters
Although a casual look at what Ewan MacColl and A.L. Lloyd recorded suggests that they were interested in traditional songs mainly for the song's history and background, with MacColl and Lloyd Ken Goldstein was not only arranging for new recordings by artists who made a lot of albums, he was also documenting the work of two of the most important artists who used folk song for political ends. MacColl was a strongly motivated political activist, and Lloyd was involved in forming and supporting several workers' song movements. The involvement of the political left with the folk song revival is a complicated issue, without simple formulations, but perhaps as a way to understand some of the ideas behind it the simplest explanation is that for artists like MacColl and Lloyd "folk song" was an expression of what ordinary people thought and felt and believed, and a way to free working people from the exploitation of their political and economic systems was to encourage them to believe in their own songs, their own expression, and their own culture.
A.L. Lloyd—usually known as Bert—was a few years older than MacColl. He was born in London in 1908, but after the early death of his parents he traveled to Australia and stayed for several years working odd jobs and listening to Australia's traditional ballads and the songs of its workers. He returned to England in 1935, in the middle of the worldwide industrial depression, and went to sea, working as a sailor on freighters in the Atlantic. His career as a journalist and a radio producer began in 1938, with a program on the life of the men he was sailing with. In the 1940s he was in South America and the Middle East as a journalist, and in the 1950s he recorded folk music in Rumania, Bulgaria, and Albania, an area that the Cold War had closed to most travelers from the western countries. Lloyd was a major figure in the first years of the folk song revival in England.
Along with his many recordings he produced a long series of radio programs, singing many of the songs himself, and he also wrote and compiled several books, among them The Penguin Book of English Folk Song, in 1959, which he edited with composer Ralph Vaughn Williams. His major book, Folk Song in England, appeared in 1967. He was often in the United States in the 1960s, appearing at the Newport Folk Festival, and participating in university conferences. His political beliefs, a personal form of humanistic socialism, were enough to keep several rightist groups agitated, but he was not barred from the United States. Often he traveled in the United States with Ewan MacColl, and they recorded many albums together, trading songs from their own traditions. Lloyd died in London in 1982. MacColl was younger, and his career, for many years, had only a tenuous connection to the folk music movement. He was born in Scotland, but grew up in Lancashire, and he shifted between his two cultures. Scottish and English, with little difficulty.
His father was an iron molder, who knew many songs and stories, and his mother was a gifted traditional singer. MacColl worked a variety of jobs during the Depression, and began a career as an actor and writer with a strong leftist commitment. In 1945, with English actress Joan Littlewood, he formed the Theater Workshop in London, and in addition to acting he was the workshop's resident dramatist and art director. He wrote eight plays for the company, several of which were translated into other European languages and widely performed. In 1950 the American folklorist Alan Lomax, who was producing a series of programs for the BBC, convinced him that he could continue to work as an activist through folk song. In 1956 MacColl met Peggy Seeger, Pete Seeger's half sister, who had been brought to England by Lomax for a radio acting role, and after singing together for three years in the group the Ramblers they were married, and Peggy continued to play an important role in his music. In 1957 he was asked by the BBC to produce a series of new programs and for the series he created a form of sound documentary which he called "radio ballads." The programs combined sound montage, sound effects, traditional songs, and new songs in the folk style. The series was so successful that several of the programs were released in England by Topic Records.
MacColl recorded dozens of albums for several record companies, singing traditional material or his own songs. The version of the traditional song "Scarborough Fair" he sings here was turned into the hit song by Paul Simon later in the 1960s. MacColl's music became even more sharply political during the Vietnam years, but he had become less controversial by the 1970s, and in 1973 his song "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" won a Grammy award as Song of the Year. He died in 1989. In his documentation of the music of the Anglo-American mother countries, England, Scotland, and Ireland, Ken Goldstein drew on many sources. His own special area of interest was the ballad and he found some of most beautiful examples in the singing of women like Margaret Barry and Jeannie Robertson. Barry was Irish and Robertson was Scottish, but they were both from the "traveling folk," which is the country term for itinerant tinkers. For centuries their people had led a vagabond life which was regarded uneasily by the settled communities they brushed against in their wanderings. Barry could be a loud and noisy performer, especially when she'd had too much to drink, but she could also sing a plaintive, unaccompanied ballad like "The Flower of Sweet Strabane" with so much sensitivity and emotion that she could bring her audiences to tears.
Although she was less well known in the United States, Jeannie Robertson's role in the English folk music revival was so important that in 1968 she was presented with an MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) award for her "lasting gifts to folk song.- She learned most of her songs from her mother and grandmother, and in her own years of traveling she learned songs from other Scottish tinker folk. She was deeply immersed in folk song all her life, married to a famous folk fiddler, sister to three singing brothers, a next-door neighbor to another of Scotland's finest fiddlers, and mother to a singer who has gone on to a career of her own, Lizzie Higgins. Ken Goldstein arranged for another of her albums to be released on the Prestige label, and he titled it The World's Greatest Folk Singer. Although she is accompanied by a guitarist on two of the selections here, "The Broken Token" and "The Butcher Boy," her way of singing still reflects the freer melodies of the older ballad tradition. She died in 1975 at the age of 67. To balance his documentation of the English and Scottish traditions Ken presented Irish material by the singer Patrick Galvin. Galvin was less traditional than the other artists in Riverside's folk series, but he had a wide repertoire of Irish songs, and he sang with the sentiment and wit that has always characterized traditional Irish music. Songs often were traded back and forth between the three countries and they were suited for almost any kind of performance, including accompaniments with instruments like the banjo. The Riverside albums also included energetic music by two traditional Irish ceili (pronounced kay-leel bands, the small accordion-led dance groups that are popular everywhere in Ireland. Although the songs of the Anglo-American mother cultures that Ken produced for Riverside were only a part of the music he documented for several labels, the freedom which Bill Grauer and Orrin Keepnews gave him to produce any artists that interested him led to one of his richest gatherings of traditional folk material.
—Samuel Charters
