My list of songs written by Geoghegan which have entered the folk tradition now include (songs where I have completed my research have links, Roud number in brackets):
- 10,000 miles away (1778)
- A Drop of Good Beer (1502)
- Down in a coal mine (3502)
- Glossop Road (13158)
- John Barleycorn is a hero bold (2141)
- Johnny we hardly knew ye (3137)
- Merry men of England (13658)
- Old Adam was Father of all (12875)
- Pat works on the railway (208)
- Rock the Cradle John (357 and 7278)
- Roger Ruff (2145)
- The Hallelujah Band (V10010)
- The Lancashire Witches (V8371)
- They all have a mate but me (1140)
I know that I’m not alone in feeling that many of the songs feel very “traditional” and not like songs that come from the Halls. Indeed, there are others who wrote for the Halls, like Harry Clifton, who have many more songs appearing in the Roud index (my searches show 37 for Clifton, 13 for Geoghegan). But many more of Clifton songs have the feel that we might expect of a “Music Hall Song”, like Pretty Polly Perkins of Paddington Green or Isabella with the Gingham Umbrella.
(I maybe being unfair to Harry Clifton, and I’ll have to investigate some of his songs more thoroughly).
My initial posting about Geoghegan now feels a little too suspicious. I think I was perhaps a little hasty in accusing him of doing an “AP Carter” and claiming authorship of traditional songs he didn’t write.
Investigating the songs above, so far, I can find no evidence of them appearing before the 1860/70s when Geoghegan was writing. I can find no evidence in the pages of the Music Hall paper The Era, challenging claims to authorship – and writers and performers seemed very quick to use those pages to challenge misuse or wrong authorship of their songs!
So on balance maybe Geoghegan did write all these songs…
21/02/20
Last Updated on May 31, 2020 by John Baxter | Published: February 21, 2020
