Edited by Azizi Powell
This is Part II of a three part series on the Jamaican song "Hill And Gully Rider (also given as "Hill 'N Gully Rider"). This post showcases a sound file of and lyrics for Lord Composer's Mento version of "Hill 'N Gully Ride". Information & comments about that song are also included in this post.
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/12/hill-and-gully-rider-general.html for Part I of this series.
Part I presents general information about Jamaican music, with special emphasis on Mento and Ska music. Part I also includes general comments about Mento music and three examples of folk lyrics for "Hill And Gully Rider".
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-charms-jamaican-ska-hill-and-gully.html for Part III of this series.
Part III showcases a sound file of and lyrics for The Charm's Ska version of "Hill 'N Gully Rider". Selected comments from that YouTube sound file's viewer comment thread are also included in that post.
The content of this post is presented for folkloric, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
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GENERAL COMMENT ABOUT THIS EXAMPLE
From the editors of Mango Spice - 44 Caribbean Songs
"Hill an gully is a call and response work song which used to be sung by workmen constructing new roads. In its topical way it refers to the uneven and hazardous terrain through which the new road had to be cut. folk song which was sung as a work song (a digging song that was sung while building roads)"
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Multiple Mento and Ska versions of "Hill And Gully [Rider"} have been sung and recorded for social dancing. It appears to me that many if not all Mento and Ska versions of "Hill And Gully Rider" are dance instruction songs (songs whose lyrics for the most part or entirely consist of directions for dance moves.) Several comments about dancing are found in YouTube video viewer comment thread of The Charm's 1964 version of "Hill 'N Gully Rider". I believe that those same comments could apply to most if not all other Ska & Mento versions of that song. In contrast, the Dancehall Reggae versions of that song (by King Yellowman and Ini Kamoze, for example) are dance songs, but not dance instruction songs.
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SHOWCASE EXAMPLE: Hill and Gully Ride; Mandeville Road [10 inch] -Lord Composer and his Silver Seas Hotel Orchestra
TheRealDJGIBS, Uploaded on Oct 2, 2011
Digital archive of MRS 78RPM single 31A;
Hill and Gully Ride; Mandeville Road by Lord Composer and His Silver Seas Hotel Orchestra
℗1954 Stanley Motta Ltd.
Style: Jamaican Mento
Composer: Traditional Jamaican Digging Songs
Label: MRS (Motta's Recording Studio)
Matrix No.: SM.117
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Here's a definition of the word "gully" from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/gully
"deep ditch or channel cut in the earth by running water after a prolonged downpour."
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Lord Composer's 1954 recording of "Hill & Gully Ride" is the first recording of that song.
I believe that the first example of folk lyrics for "Hill And Gully Rider" (and perhaps also the other two examples) given in Part I of this series predate/s Lord Composer's version of this song. And it's very clear that the lyrics found in that first example greatly influenced the lyrics for Lord Composer's song.
In that MRS record, Lord Composer's version of the Jamaican folk song "Hill N Gully Ride" is combined with his version of the Jamaican folk "Mandeville Road" (also known as "Emmanuel Road" and "Go Down Manuel Road"). Click this page of my Cocojams cultural website for several versions of the lyrics to that song: http://www.cocojams.com/content/caribbean-folk-songs.
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Here's some information about MRS and this recording from http://www.mentomusic.com/1scans.htm
..."Perhaps motivated by a desire to have recordings of local music to sell in his namesake department stores, Stanley Motta's MRS (Motta's Recording Studio) label released at least 70 tracks in the country and dance band styles by a variety of excellent artists on more than fifty 78 RPM singles , a few 45 . Mostly drawing from these, MRS released a five volume series of 10" LPs, called, "MRS - Authentic Jamaican Calypsos", as well as at least three other LPs and at least one "album" of 78 RPM singles.
MRS is the first mento label and the start of Jamaican's recording industry...
Lord Composer and His Silver Seas Hotel Orchestra:
Gal A Gully; Matilda
Hill & Gully Ride; Mandiville Road
This very popular pair of two-song medleys are early mento classics. Found on either side of a MRS 78 RPM single, they collect four Jamaican folk songs, set to the same music. But Composer's choice of material, strong keening vocal and tight instrumentation featuring virtuoso fife solos make these tracks an inexhaustible source of enjoyment. These tracks appeared on several different 1950s mento compilation albums. But, mysteriously, Composer never recorded anything that sounded like these sides. In fact, no one did, and these tracks stand unique in mento. Incidentally, in lieu of authorship, the label describes these folk songs as "Jamaican digging songs".
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My interpretation of the statement that "But, mysteriously, Composer never recorded anything that sounded like these sides" is that Lord Composer never combined those two pairs of songs together. However, I may be wrong about that interpretation.
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LYRICS FOR "HILL 'N GULLY RIDE"
(Lord Composer, 1954)
Hill an' gully rider
(Hill an' gully)
Hill an' gully rider
(Hill an' gully)
And then you bend down low now
(Hill an' gully)
And then you dance right round now
(Hill an' gully)
And if you broke your neck
you gonna to hell.
(Hill an' gully)
Hill an' gully rider
(Hill an' gully)
Hill an' gully rider
(Hill an' gully)
Hill an' gully rider
(Hill an' gully)
And then you bend down low now
(Hill an' gully)
And then you dance right round now
(Hill an' gully)
And then you bend down low now
(Hill an' gully)
And then you dance right round now
(Hill an' gully)
[instrumental]
Oh, ah hill an' gully rider
(Hill an' gully)
Hill an' gully rider
(Hill an' gully)
And then you bend down low now
(Hill an' gully)
And then you dance right round now
(Hill an' gully)
And then you bend down low now
(Hill an' gully)
And then you right see saw oh
And if you broke your neck
you gonna to hell.
(Hill an' gully)
Hill an' gully rider
(Hill an' gully)
Hill an' gully rider
(Hill an' gully)
And then me say you bend down low now
(Hill an' gully)
And then you dance right round now
(Hill an' gully)
Ah then you bend down low now
(Hill an' gully)
And then you dance right round
(Hill an' gully)
[instrumental]
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The song "Mandeville Road begins at 1:44 of that sound file.
-snip-
Transcription by Azizi Powell from that recording. Italics mean that I'm not certain of those words. Additions and corrections are welcome.
If I'm correct that those words in italics are "And then you right see saw oh", those words may serve as dance instruction to move to your right and dance up and down in imitation of the movement of a see-saw ("See-saws" used to be very widely found playground equipment that has since been removed from playgrounds because they are considered unsafe.)
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This completes Part II of this series.
Thanks to Lord Composer for his musical legacy. Thanks also to the publisher of this sound file on YouTube.
Thank you for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
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