Favourite Things from sound poems by Alula Down

TRANSCRIPTION
[Blackbird song]
"... girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes / snowflakes that land on my nose and eyelashes ….
Morning has broken like the first morning
Blackbird has spoken like the first bird"

… the milkmen with the … ?
Yes
... with the horse-drawn carriage?
Yes …
You do… ?
The baker had the horse …
We had a coal man that used to come round with a horse…

The baker had a big shire horse, and I can remember when quite little I was walking to school - to primary school - and I tripped as I was crossing the road and the baker was coming down with his horse and of course I was flat on the ground, and I cried and cried and cried because I thought I was going to be run over by this huge horse! and this cart…

The thing I remember in London were the barrow boys. I lived outside of London and they used to go up to my aunt who lived in Kensington. But there were all these barrow boys with barrows selling fruit nuts…. you name it they sold all sorts of things. They would all arrive early in the morning pulling these barrows.

Do you remember them singing out?
Yes!
“Come buy me! Come buy my wares”

“All me life I wanted to be a barra boy
I wanted to a barra boy years ago
We knew our manners
We earnt our tanners
Walking up the Old Kent Road”.

• Experimental
• brumous
• flotsam
• folk
• sagging
• tattered
• Hereford