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Timothy Winters
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Timothy Winters
Timothy Winters
[words Charles Causley (1917-2003)]
Leon Rosselson set Charles Causley's poem Timothy Winters to music and sang it in 1967 on The Three City Four's second album, Smoke and Dust (Where the Heart Should Have Been). He commented:
However efficient the system, there must, of course, be some wastage. Timothy Winters is a small part of that wastage. Teachers will probably recognise in him any number of secondary modern kids who never really had a chance. Charley Causley is a well-known poet and himself a teacher.
Danny Spooner sang Timothy Winters on his 2007 album Years of Spooner. He noted:
This story of a Blitz baby is the work of English poet Charles Causley and appears in a collection entitled Union Street. Edith Sitwell said of these poems that they are “among the natural growths of our soil, like our sweet and exquisite folk songs, and our strange ballads.” The tune was put to it by Mike Ball who spent a number of years in Australia during the later 70s and set a number of Causley's poems. Having grown up in London during the Second World War, I have a real affinity with this song and I sang it for Charles when he spent a brief residency at Melbourne University in the 1980s.
Roy Bailey sang Timothy Winters on his 2009 CD Below the Radar. He reminisced:
In 1964 I was in invited to join the Three City Four, a folk group that focused on contemporary songs. We recorded one album during my time with them entitled Smoke and Dust (Where the Heart Should Have Been) (1967). On that album Leon Rosselson sang Timothy Winters, a poem by Charles Causley for which he had written a tune. I have long admired both the poem and the tune, hence its presence on this CD.
Jim Causley sang Timothy Winters in 2013 on his CD of poems of his relative Charles Causley, set to his own music, Cyprus Well.
Lyrics
Leon Rosselson sings Timothy Winters | Danny Spooner sings Timothy Winters |
---|---|
Timothy Winters comes to school |
Timothy Winters goes to school |
His belly is white, his neck is dark, |
And his belly is white, and his neck is dark, |
When teacher speaks he won't hear a word |
When the teacher talks he won't hear a word |
Timothy Winters has bloody feet | |
Old Man Winters likes his beer |
And Old Man Winters likes his beer |
The Welfare Worker lies awake |
And the Welfare Worker lies awake |
At Morning Prayers the Headmaster helves |
At at Morning Prayers the Masters calls |
So come one angel, come on ten: |
So come one angel, come on ten: |