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Oh Dear Me

Date 1964
Track ID 58041
Part 1

Track Information

Original Track ID

SA1964.147.B14

Original Tape ID

SA1964.147

Summary

In this song, a young woman describes the hard life she leads working in the jute mill, earning only a meagre wage to provide for herself and her child. She remarks on the injustice of society, in which the hardest-working reap the least reward.

Mary Brooksbank jokes that none of those present worked for such a low wage ("ten and nine").

Item Notes

3 verses of 4 lines. Composed by Mary Brooksbank. On tape SA1968.317, Mary Brooksbank explains how she wrote this song by adding words and a tune to a little chant sung in the mills and factories.

See:
'Tocher' 50 (Spring 1995) pp. 44-45
'Singing Island' (E. MacColl & P. Seeger, 1960) p. 44
'Sidlaw Breezes' (M. Brooksbank, 1966, 1982, 1991) p. 59
'Songs and Ballads of Dundee' (N. Gatherer, 1986, 2000) p. 84
'The Scottish Folksinger' (N. Buchan & P. Hall, 1973) pp. 33-34

Recording Location

County - Fife

Item Location

County - Angus

Parish - Dundee

Village/Place - Dundee

Language

Scots

Genre

Song

Collection

SoSS

Classification

R2585

Source Type

Reel to reel

Audio Quality

Good