{"id":20941,"date":"2023-05-29T15:50:30","date_gmt":"2023-05-29T15:50:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/?page_id=20941"},"modified":"2025-09-15T06:36:22","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T06:36:22","slug":"hot-ashfelt-the","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/hot-ashfelt-the\/","title":{"rendered":"Hot Ashfelt, The"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
AKA<\/strong><\/td>The Hot Asphalt, Ash-pelt, Asphalte
Boys who stir the hot asphalt<\/td><\/tr>
First Published<\/td>1878<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Writer\/composer<\/td>Words: Thomas Johnstone; Music: Beers or Dodworth orJohnstone<\/td>Roud<\/strong><\/td>RN2134<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Music Hall Performers<\/strong><\/td>Arthur Young<\/td><\/tr>
Folk performances<\/strong><\/td>Collected from the singing of:<\/strong>
McLaverty, John; N. Ireland : Belfast 1952
Mathieson, Willie; Scotland : Aberdeenshire; 1952
Baxter, Ben; England : Norfolk; 1956
Hutchison, Robin; Scotland; 1960s -80s
Maguire, John; N. Ireland : Co. Fermanagh; 1960s\/70s
Miller, William; Scotland : Stirlingshire; no date
Modern performances<\/strong>
Robin Hall and Jimmie MacGregor; The Wolfe Tones; MacColl; The Dubliners; The Corries; The Pogues<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Broadside version from The word on the street<\/a>\n\nGOOD evening to ye, Glasgow boys, I'm glad to see ye well,\nI'm consaytier myself to night than any tongue can tell,\nFor I'm in a situation - oh, begor! a fancy job,\nN'hye, an' whisper, I've a weekly wage of fifteen bob.\nTis a twelvemonth now come Easter since I left Bundoran town,\nWhere I helped uncle Barney to cut the harvest down;\nOch, but now I wear a garnsey, an' round my waist a belt,\nFor I'm gaffer ov the rain that makes the hot ashfelt.\n\nYou talk about your sogers, your sailors and the rest,\nYour shoemakers an' tailors, but to plase the ladies best\nThe only boys that have a chance their flinty hearts to melt\nAre the boys around the boiler makin' hot ashfelt.<\/em>\n\nThim boys that I've undher me, outside an' in the yard\nHave the narve to turn about an' say I work them rather hard;\n'Och, but when they raise me dandher, an' I give a murther shout,\nYou should see thim lazy shaughrauns how they stir the tar about.\nYou may do a bit ov schulpturin, or paintin' at your aize\nShure any ov them fine arts are as aisy as you plaze;\nBut it takes a power ov head-work, boys, thim lumps ov' tar to melt,\nYou must be born a janius to make the hot ashfelt.\n\nThe other day a bobby comes to me an' says, M'Guir\nWill ye kindly let me light this dudheen at your boiler fire ;\nThin he plants himself before the fire, with coat-tails up so nate,\nSays I my dacent man, ye'd better go an' mind your bate\nThin he turns an' says I'm down on ye, I've got your bloomin' marks,\nAn' I know ye for a lot ov Tipperary barks.\nBoys, I hit straight from the shoulder, an' I gave him such a welt,\nThat knockee him in the boiler full ov hot ashfelt\n\nThey quickly pulled him out again an' threw him in a tub\nAn' wid soap an' wather they began to rub an' schrub ;\nBut the divil a bit of tar came off, it turned as hard as stone,\nAn' at every schrape they gave him you'd hear the bobby groan.\nWid the wather an' the schrubbin', faith, he caught his death ov cold,\nBe for scientific purposes the peeler has been sold.\nIn the Kelvingrove muzayum he is hangin' by a belt,\nAn example of the dire effects ov hot ashfelt.<\/pre>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
A late 19th-century comic Irish song from the Glasgow Music Halls, later collected from traditional singers in England, Scotland and Ireland. In the late 1960s it was a particularly popular song  in the repertoire of Jimmie  McGregor and Robin Hall, who described this song as an old music hall song of the type that we call ‘Glasgow Irish’<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
My diggings have confirmed this – the original song seems to have been  written by Glasgow-based songwriter and barber Thomas Johnstone<\/a>. It was first sung  by Irish comedian, Arthur Young in the late 1870s. (A brief biography of Young appears below). The earliest references to a song called The Hot Ashfelt<\/em> that I can find are in two notices published in The Era<\/em> in February 1878, which strangely give two different composers for the music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Feb. 3, 1878; The Era<\/em><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Feb. 24, 1878; The Era<\/em><\/a> <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Some years later, in 1892 a newspaper article made passing reference to the song being sung “some 20 years ago”<\/em> by Dan Montgomery (21 December 1892, Glasgow Evening Post<\/em>) but I have found no evidence to back this up, so their correspondent may have misremembered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Hot Ashfelt <\/em> seems to have been an extremely popular song in the repertoire of late 19th-century amateur singers in Scotland, Ireland and England. I have found newspaper reports showing that it was regularly being sung by amateurs within six months of the songs being advertised in the Halls (in August 1878) right up to the beginning of the 20th century. If you are interested see Appendix!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The song seems to have maintained its popularity, or perhaps had a revival, in the early 20th century – it was published as sheet music in 1908, described as: a humorous song written and composed by T Johnstone, music arranged by WT Peterson.<\/em> In 1905 it was recorded by JM Ward for Columbia records. In 1917 it was recorded by Charlie Collins and released as a 78 by Zonophone records.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ewan MacColl substantially rewrote the song for the 1959 Radio Ballads program Song of a Road<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
A note on the words: I have provided a broadside version of the lyrics which is likely to be as close as we can get to the words that were originally sung in the Halls of the 1870s. I am currently trying to get hold of the 1908 sheet music, which may allow interesting comparisons. Modern versions of this song vary considerably in their lyrics, not least because many singers sing some or all of the substantially revised Ewan MacColl version. (Quite right too! One of the joys of singing these songs is that you can construct your own version drawing on the many different variants in circulation…)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A  brief biography of Arthur Young<\/strong> (revised ) <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The following biography of Arthur Young<\/strong> (1849- ) is collated from reports in The Era, <\/em>and the family research of his great grandson Stewart Young:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Arthur Young was the stage name of my Great Grandfather, James Allan Young, who although making his name playing the part of an Irishman, was in fact Scottish. He was born on 19 February 1849 in Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis, but his father was a farmer from East Kilbride  and his mother Jane Scott Craig, was from Glasgow. He was only born in Stornoway because his mother was visiting one of her daughters, and soon after his birth, he moved to the Gorbals in Glasgow where he was brought up by his mother, his father having emigrated to Canada .<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Arthur Young was an Irish comic, dancer and violinist active between the late 186os and 1890s. There were other performers using the name “Arthur Young” but based on contemporary descriptions I will assume that the Irish comic is not the Arthur Young who gave theatrical recitations of Shakespeare in the 1850s and 60s, or Master Arthur Young – the young comic singer who started performing in the late 1890s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Arthur Young, the Irish comic, had considerable success and appeared in Halls both in the provinces and in London, though he seems to have been particularly successful in Scotland and Ireland. In the 1870s and 80s he was billed as “the aristocratic Hibernian comic Singer”<\/em> and specialised in comic portrayals of the Irish upper classes.  For a time in the late 1870s he worked as part of a double act with another comic Will Atkins. Here is a review of a solo performance at The Metropolitan <\/em>(London) in 1872:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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The Era<\/em>, 12 May 1872<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Unfortunately he was taken ill in 1887 and lost his eyesight. Collections and benefit concerts were organised in his support, most notably the funds organised by George Ripon and Charles Coburn. He continued to perform as a blind singer and violinist until 1892 when he seems to have suffered a breakdown in his mental health. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Notice published in The Era, 8 Feb 1890<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Amusements in Dublin, 9 Jan 1892<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
His great grandson again:  [Young] continued to perform until the late 1890’s, but spent increasing amounts of time in asylums in Glasgow and Dumfries, until he died on 3 August 1906 at Govan Poorhouse, Merryflatts near Glasgow.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
[end of bio]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Robin Hall and Jimmie McGregor sing The Hot Asphalt<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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