Swift Nick

Oh dear, a correctional history - about Highwaymen!!

(Image by Chris Rawlins)

Ah, we all know who made a record dash between Kent and York on horseback - it was Dick Turpin riding Black Bess. No, actually. It was a gent named John Nevison, from Wortley. I found out like this: A bloke called Jim Macdonald had been working with me on folk/acoustic material. We did local gigs/fundraisers and he joined my happy band of Foxy Music performers who offered talent and tutelage to get music into the community - wellbeing and all that fuss. It worked actually but funding was pulled; I digress.

Jim was always asking me to come and play the folk scene but despite my love of Irish and Iranian/Indian/Greek (etc) folk - I didn’t dig the English scene. And couldn’t do that style to be honest (I teethed on blues after ditching the banjo). Anyway, I attempted writing some original material, and my partner Ali said why not this local highwayman about who truths were left untold. So, I adopted a bit of a hey-nonny psyche/chord and riff structure a la Jethro Tull and, with much research into past crime, came up with these lyrics.

Note I unashamedly rhyme along, with a metre (whatever it isn’t) that cantered along - all deliberate and so contrived I hate it. I played it at folk sessions and some found it too modern (he’s a rock guitarist, you know) but some liked it. I recorded myself (oh gawwwd no!), made a short slide show (oh myyyy gourd) for kids on youtube. It seemed teahers maybe liked it or used it. I got two hate comments from kids forced to watch it in class and fetched it down - after a curt reprimand re them learning something other than being nasty. It is quite out of my normal style. For your agonies I paste the you tube link at the end - if you get that far…

A little explanation. All the phrases in the Bite Peter Cloy verse are robber’s terms. For instance a grunting cheat was an alleged gypsy trick (why they get the blame credit might be down to whoever recorded it). A pig would be partly poisoned, and callers at the keeper’s dwelling would say they knew a cure. For a small fee they’d get it right. Fee paid, they probably gave it a laxative or emetic or simple antedote. They can be found with explanation on line, and I confess not all might be chronologically correct. They just make nice sort of mareseatoates and doeseatoats but littlelambseativy - would you? sort of gibberish…

Here’s a link with some useful information:

https://greatnorthroad.co.uk/john-nevison-highwayman

And here’s the youtube link: (listening back was - different. The pizzicato was done on Dad’s violin - which I eventually sold as I can’t play.