arr. Liverpool Lullaby
for mezzo-soprano & piano

Description

arr. Liverpool Lullaby (2019) – for mezzo-soprano & piano. Text by Stan Kelly. Commissioned by Sandra Parr. Completed April 2017 (Den Haag). First performance 29 September 2019 by Jennifer Johnston & Marina Staneva, Music Room (Liverpool). Recorded by Rubicon Classics on disk A Love Letter To Liverpool. Dedicated to Jennifer Johnston. Duration ca. 6’

Programme Note

Made famous by Cilla Black, Liverpool Lullaby has been through a series of transformations since being lifted from an early 19th-century folk song. The music that forms Robert Nunn’s Sandgate Dandling Song (composed ca. 1830) is the same music that Stan Kelly chose to base Liverpool Lullaby on (some 130 years later). In 1965, Liverpool Lullaby was recorded by Marian McKenzie (The Three City Four) and has since been covered by many musicians including Hughie Jones (The Spinners), Judy Collins, Val Doonican, the Ian Campbell Folk Group and of course, Cilla Black. Bethan’s arrangement uses Nunn’s melody and Kelly’s text, while presenting a new accompaniment that tempts the music into the classical realm. Described as “a haunted miniature music-drama” [Richard Bratby, Gramophone], the new arrangement provides yet another transformation of this poignant song.

Lyrics

Oh you are a mucky kid
Dirty as a dustbin lid
When he hears the things you did
You’ll get a belt from yer dad

Oh, you have your father’s nose
So crimson in the dark it glows
If you’re not asleep when the boozers close
You’ll get a belt from yer dad

You look so scruffy lying there
Strawberry jam tats in your hair
In all the world you haven’t a care
And I have got so many

It’s quite a struggle every day
Livin’ on yer father’s pay
The blighter drinks it all away
And leaves me without any

But though you have no silver spoon
Better days are coming soon
Our Nelly’s working at the Lune
And she gets paid on Friday

Perhaps one day we’ll have a splash
When Little Woods provide the cash
We’ll get a house in Knotty Ash
And buy your dad a brewery

Oh you are a mucky kid
Dirty as a dustbin lid
Now when he hears the things you did
You’ll get a belt from yer dad

Oh you have your father’s face
You’re growing up a real hard case
But there’s no one can take your place
Go fast asleep for your mummy