Ralph McTell Trivia

1. The song "Oxbow Lakes" could be the about the relationship of an incompatible couple. Maybe it is, but the two described here are not humans but creatures of water. In the song, what is explained about Oxbow Lakes?

From Quiz Ralph McTell and the Hill of Beans

Answer: How they are made

The two parties in this song are the channels of a river, one which meanders and one which heads directly for the sea. As an example of this the first couplet of the song is: "Well you say we should go round things that interrupt our flow. But when I see a short cut it is there, I want to go". Treating it as two people with different approaches to life is used to explain in each verse that "That's how oxbow lakes are made".

From Quiz 'Streets Of London' : Story Of A Song

Answer: Spiral Staircase

McTell included 'Streets' on his second album, which was released in 1969, even though he wrote it at the turn of 1965/66. He purposely did not put it on his first album, 'Eight Frames A Second' thinking it was too mournful.

From Quiz Ralph McTell and the Hill of Beans

Answer: Train

The Brighton Belle, a famous train which ran between London and unsurprisingly, Brighton. In the song the singer recalls travelling on the footplate of the Brighton Belle, sadly this has to be poetic license as the service was electric when it was renamed from the Southern Belle to the Brighton Belle in 1934. So where as the journey could have been made in the cab at the front of the driving car, it wasn't the on the footplate of a steam train. (Electrification came early for the route between London and Brighton.) From the opening of the song we know this is set post World War 2 as it talks about his father driving a truck across North Africa and being taken prisoner at Tobruk. So the song is set in the era of the electrified railway. 'Granddad' is the way it is spelt in the lyrics, so I am sticking with this spelling.

From Quiz 'Streets Of London' : Story Of A Song

Answer: Number 2

The single was released in 1974 and its success took everyone, including McTell, by surprise. At one point it sold at 90,000 copies a day. [Source: BBC]

From Quiz Ralph McTell and the Hill of Beans

Answer: Alsatian

The lyrics claim that "In the middle of the platform. On East Croydon station. Standing in a glass case. Was an ancient stuffed Alsatian". Whether this was true or not I don't know, it is entirely possible though. Certainly, there is no such creature there nowadays as I can confirm from commuting.

From Quiz 'Streets Of London' : Story Of A Song

Answer: Paris

In an interview with the BBC, McTell said he worked out the tune while staying in a hotel in Paris - he paid five Francs a night for a hotel in which the wallpaper was tacked to the walls it was so damp. McTell lived for lengthy periods in Paris at the height of the student unrest. In a spoken introduction on a later album he recalled the Paris of that time as "a city of love, laughter and riot policemen".

From Quiz Ralph McTell and the Hill of Beans

Answer: Ernest Hemingway

In Gertrude Stein's book, "The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas" she is less than flattering about Ernest Hemingway, whether she uses the phrase that is in the lyrics I cannot be certain. All these people where around in Paris at the time and were in the same circle of artists and writers. All are implied in the song but only partially named. Ernest Hemingway is only identified by his surname and the painters listed are presumed to be the persons referenced based on their first names which are mentioned in the lyrics. "Gertrude and Alice" is also the title of a 1991 biography of the two ladies. Back to the song, although they had many interesting times in Paris, the refrain summarises them as; "They played their part, in promoting new art. By buying a painting or two."

From Quiz 'Streets Of London' : Story Of A Song

Answer: A closed down market

McTell said in a BBC interview that he initially intended to write about the destitute people he saw in Paris, but on returning home to London, decided that would not be quite right and based the characters on people that he saw in London.

From Quiz Ralph McTell and the Hill of Beans

Answer: A drink

Gammel Dansk, which translates as "Old Danish", is a drink, alcoholic bitters, apparently very popular in Denmark. Originally brewed in Denmark the production moved to Norway in the second decade of the twenty first century. However, you don't need to know that, as the answer is in the song; "The barmaid poured his beer. Without a second glance. And set it on the counter. With a shot of Gammel Dansk."

From Quiz Ralph McTell and the Hill of Beans

Answer: Sweden

This isn't explicitedly stated in the lyrics, but it does say "Since he'd missed the boat to Malmo he'd try Gothenburg instead." Both of these are cities in Sweden so it can be deduced without difficulty as the destination. Combining this with the drinking of "Gammel Dansk" one can also view it as likely that the setting of the song is a port in Denmark.

From Quiz Ralph McTell and the Hill of Beans

Answer: The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan

Scholars of Dylan will know that the cover picture of "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan" was taken at the junction of West 4th Street and Jones in New York and that it was released in 1963. This excludes me, I was not aware of these details until I started researching the details in this song. Some of the lyrics from the first two verses that describe this album cover are: Verse one, "There's a couple walking down the road West 4th Street and Jones. Shoulders hunched against the cold. They walk through melting snow". Then from verse two, "His hands deep in his pockets his head was slightly bowed. All the studied nonchalance that the weather would allow. Her arms wrapped around him like a shawl." Looking at the album cover those lines are a very good description. None of the other Dylan albums listed show more than Bob Dylan on the cover. The references to Bob Dylan extend to the last verse where the song refers to "Bob and Suzy" and then "Dylan and Rottollo". I believe that the correct spelling of Bob Dylan's girlfriend's name at the time is Suze Rotolo, but the lyrics in the CD booklet uses the spellings Susy and Rottollo. In between the Dylan references we have verses relating to the assassination of Kennedy and the breaking up of the singer's relationship. In some ways this seems to be a retrospective view of a year in the singer's life.

From Quiz 'Streets Of London' : Story Of A Song

Answer: Ivor Novello Award

The awards are presented annually by the British Academy of Composers and Songwriters, and were introduced in 1955. McTell won his award in 1974. In 2002 Ralph McTell was presented with the prestigious 'Lifetime Achievement Award' at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. As a by-note, another McTell composition, "From Clare To Here" was on Nanci Griffith's Grammy-winning album 'Other Voices, Other Rooms' in 1993.

From Quiz Ralph McTell and the Hill of Beans

Answer: Pretty Wife

Charlie may have had all of these things but the only one mentioned in the song is "the prettiest wife in town". In the song Charlie towels up the singer for a shave then accuses the singer of "seeing his wife",as he holds a cut-throat razor. Which brings me to one of the other options, delirium tremens, also known as the shakes. I for one would not want to deal with a barber who wields a cut throat razor and suffers from this. Three daughters and hidden fortunes are staples of many traditional and modern folk songs but neither theme raises its head in this song.

From Quiz Ralph McTell and the Hill of Beans

Answer: The Horizon

The lyrics start with "I want clear water from here to the horizon", and continue with the theme of the it being the journey that matters not arriving at a destination. Reading the lyrics carefully the journey can be read as a sailor's wish or to represent the journey of life. Lyrics such as "And as for the history. Best it left unwritten" and then a little further on "Comedy and tragedy. Have come along unbidden and they are the port and starboard that we've sailed in between" Of course going back the journey mattering more than the destination, this is a good representation of life. We enjoy the journey through life, but few of us are eager to reach the destination at the end of it.

From Quiz 'Streets Of London' : Story Of A Song

Answer: Country Meets Folk

McTell later recalled: "The first time I sang the song it was greeted by a silence at the end that seemed to last for minutes and then a thunderous applause. I thought that the song still felt too short and so I added the "Seamans' Mission" verse. What I didn't know until many years later was that, on its first broadcast, the switchboard at the BBC was jammed with enquiries about the song." [Source: www.ralphmctell.co.uk]

From Quiz Ralph McTell and the Hill of Beans

Answer: Casablanca

Most if not all of the lyrics, and even the song title come from the film, "The problems of three little people, don't matter a hill of beans" being both a quote from Casablanca and a lyric in the song. But this is not just a list of movie quotes, the various phrases have been moulded into a coherent song. Although the source of the lyrics would appear to pin it down as being from a certain date and time, the message of the song is timeless. What problems seem insurmountable to us are minor in the overall scheme of things.

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