Jimmy MacBeath
Jimmy MacBeath | |
---|---|
Born | 1894 |
Died | 1972 Aberdeen, Scotland, United Kingdom |
Known for | Folk singer |
Jimmy MacBeath (1894–1972) was a
Life
Jimmy MacBeath (pronounced the same as
Singing career
Jimmy MacBeath was a "
- Repertoire
A number of the songs he sang has been passed on to singers involved in the early times of the Folk Revival in England and Scotland e.g. "The Keach in the Creel" and "Tramps and Hawkers". Peter Kennedy's collection Folksongs of Britain and Ireland (1975) included 13 of Jimmy MacBeath's songs.
His songs and interviews have examples of beggar's cant, a secret language.
- Gadgie in this keer - manager in this place
- manashee - girl
These words are Romany, and ultimately Hindi. He also sang songs in Doric dialect, such as "Fa Would Be a Fisherman's Wife?". For lovers of the occult, track 11 on CD 2 of "Two Gentlemen of the Road", is of interest. He describes the initiation ceremony of "The Horseman's Word", a kind of Masonic organisation for horsemen wanting to control horses using secret words. They met between midnight and 1 a.m. and asked the initiate as series of questions, including "Was the road crooked or straight?" - "The Road was dark and crooked. I come by the light of the moon". He would be harnessed and dragged through chaff—broken fragments of dry sharp stalks of wheat. The initiate would have to shake hands with a young calf. This might be interpreted as greeting the devil. The initiate wore a tricorne hat, and heard obscure words recited from a book. Alan Lomax's response is "Sounds like witchcraft to me". MacBeath is very sceptical about the whole affair. There is no way of knowing whether this is a centuries-old ceremony, or a scam dreamed up in the 19th century to prevent outsiders from getting work as horsemen.
Discography
- - Wild Rover No More (1967)
- - Bound To Be A Row (1976)
- - Two Gentlemen of the Road (2002) (anthology by Jimmy MacBeath and Davie Stewart)
- - There is a man upon the farm - The Voice of the People vol 20 (1998) (various artists)
References
- The information derives from the album liner notes, but the text has been changed considerably.