Susannes
Folksong-Notizen
[1970:] A traditional song, from the singing of
Harry Cox, agricultural labourer from Catfield,
Norfolk. (Notes 'The World of Ewan MacColl and
Peggy Seeger') [1972:] [This is] one of the
most lilting and attractive transportation
ballads yet collected. Keighley Goodchild [...]
mention it as having been very popular in the
1880s and it's easy to see why. (Edwards,
Overlander 6)
[1979:] One of many transportation songs.
Australia quickly found a new population with the
English courts' vicious sentences which ripped
families and communities apart in all parts of
the empire, usually for crimes as trivial as
poaching or the theft of a bread. Tasmanian
whalers are known to have had a version of this
song, The Hat With the Velvet Band, which served
them as a working, drinking and fighting song.
(Loesberg II, 65)
[1982:] Van Dieman's Land (Tasmania) was first
colonised by the British in 1803. In 1807 the
first convicts, transported from Britain,
arrived, and thousands more were to follow -
fifteen thousand in four years alone - until 1853
when the transportation system was abolished.
Many of the prisoners were from the English
shires, convicted of such rural offences as
poaching and sheep stealing, and the effect on
them of being dumped on an island where the
aborigines were hostile and the planters treated
their workers like cattle can be imagined.
(Pollard, Folksong 36)
[1991:] Als Entdecker Tasmaniens gilt der
40.000 Jahre später als die Aborigines
eingetroffene holländische Seefahrer Abel
Tasman, der die Insel 1642 erreichte. England
nutzte von 1788-1868 die Insel, um dort
Sträflinge unterzubringen. Insgesamt sollen
180.000 'convicts' nach Australien und Tasmanien
verschleppt worden sein, von denen sehr viele im
Land blieben. (Theo Dorant, taz, 31. August)
[1994:] Tommy Makem said in a recollection of
Luke [Kelly]: 'I'd just like to remember Luke
throwing back his head and letting a song roar
out, any of his songs. He just let them fly.
These were songs that maybe had fallen into
disuse before The Dubliners found them, but after
The Dubliners recorded them they became so
commonplace that people disregarded them - songs
like The Black Velvet Band.' (Geraghty, Luke
Kelly 96)
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[1998:] 'Mr Haughey was at that party [thrown
by John Magnier, proprietor of Coolmore stud], as
well as Andrew Lloyd Webber [...] and the Irish
international rugby team. There was a competition
to see who could drink the most Black Velvet
[Guinness and champagne].' As some guests drank
themselves into oblivion, the popular group The
Dubliners sang 'Black Velvet Band'. (Cal
McCrystal & David Connett, Observer, 3 May)
[1998:] Anthony van Diemen (note the spelling)
was the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies
when the Dutch navigator Abel Tasman discovered
Tasmania in 1642. He named it Van Diemen's Land
after the Governor-General, but it was known
unofficially as Tasmania from at least 1823, and
officially from 1856. (Alan of Australia,
www.mudcat.org, 27 Jul)
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http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=19899 Oldest version? http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=18490
http://ukdb.web.aol.com/hutchinson/encyclopedia/72/M0012972.htm Van Diemen's Land
http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=51692 Black Velvet Band - Again
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