Off the Wall

Hal-an-tow, jolly rumbelow,
We were out long before the day-o
To welcome in the summer time,
To welcome in the May-o,
Summer is a-coming in,
And winter’s gone away.

These words are part of an English May Day song. They’ve been sung for so many centuries that some of the original words have been forgotten; “hal-an-tow” may be “heel and toe,” but “rumbelow” is a term for sung nonsense syllables like “la, la, la,” and apparently replaces some older words. The words have been with me every May 1st for some years, but not because I’m a student of Morris dancing. Rather, I remember the words because they were my introduction to Oysterband, one of my favorite groups of musicians.

Take the scorn and wear the horns,
Was thy crest when you were born,
And your father’s father wore it,
And your father wore it too.

The scene was the Vancouver Folk Festival, the moment the evening concert. Picture a grassy park by the ocean, with thousands of people blissed out and tanned by a day of wandering between six stages in the throbbing sunlight. I was sitting on our blanket in front of the main stage, leaning back and steadily munching cherries and swilling raspberry juice when a group of middle-aged, punk Englishmen started to play a fast song with a strong drumbeat. Abruptly, I realized that the group had rockified a traditional song, something like what Steeleye Span had done with “Thomas the Rhymer” way back in the 1970s, but with a harder-edge. I sat up and laughed in delight at the unexpectedness of it, the sheer chutzpah. And, in that moment, I was hooked. It was one of only two moments in my life when a band entranced me with a single verse. The only other time was my first encounter with Stan Rogers and his band, a few years previous at the same festival.

Robin Hood and Little John,
They’ve both gone to the fair-o,
We shall to the merry greenwood
To hunt the buck and hare-o.

Oysterband played other songs in that set: “Just Another Quiet Night In England,” a song about the post-industrial collapse in England under Margaret Thatcher; “The Early Days of a Better Nation,” based on a phrase from the “Civil Elegies” of Dennis Lee (best known for his “Alligator Pie”poem for children); “The Generals Are Born Again,” a denouncement of Christian fundamentalism, and “Oxford Girl,” in which the voice of the victim in a murder and an imaginary media scandal is allowed to answer her detractors. Each song was infused with a humanistic, left-wing sensibility, and consummate writing and musicianship. And if that wasn’t enough, the band had designed a set that built and built until most of the crowd was up dancing and everyone was applauding wildly.

A day or two later, at the crowded Savoy in Vancouver’s Gastown, they did it again. I was so excited that I had limped down there with a toe swollen by gout because I didn’t want to miss them. I felt the couple of hours well worth the discomfort.

What happened to the Spaniard
Who made so great a boast-o?
He shall eat the feather-goosed quill,
We shall eat the roast-o.

Since then, Oysterband has only grown in my estimation. Band members have come and gone, although the core creative group of John Jones, Allan Prosser, and Ian Telfer has remained constant, and in recent years the group has stabilized with the addition of Chopper and Lee. To date, the band has released at least a dozen albums: There’s the bluesy “Ride,” the hard rock of “The Shouting End of Life,” the acoustic “Deep Dark Ocean” and more – all different, and all treasured parts of our music collection. Then there’s Oysterband’s supergroup sessions, like “Freedom and Rain,” a collaboration with legendary singer June Tabor (which featured on tour, although not in the album, a send up of Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit” with middle-aged Tabor in a leather mini-skirt outvamping Grace Slick) and their recent “Big Session” jams featuring such contemporary masters of English folk like Show of Hands and Liza Carthy. I have my favorites, but Oysterband remains one of a handful of groups whose work I will buy no matter what new direction it takes. I’ve even hunted down rarities like its early albums “Liberty Hall” and “Lie Back and Think of England” or its twenty-fifth anniversary EP.

God bless Aunt Mary Moses
With all her power and might-o,
Send us peace in England,
Send peace by day and night -o.

To others, May 1 might be a day for getting up to dance in the dawn or engage in pagan rituals, or a day to celebrate labour. But, for me, May 1 is also a day when I remember my discovery of Oysterband. So excuse me if I don’t write more – I’m going to play “Hal-an-tow” for the fifth time today, with the volume cranked to 11.

Hal-an-tow, jolly rumbelow,
We were out long before the day-o
To welcome in the summer time,
To welcome in the May-o,
Summer is a-coming in,
And winter’s gone away.