 Way back in 1971, Robbins Music Corporation put out this rather lovely song book to accompany the Oak, Ash and Thorn album. Illustrated throughout by Peter and Anthea Bellamy and containing words and chords for all the songs on the album, these days it's as rare as hen's teeth (The Folk Police were very excited when a copy appeared on eBay, but were stymied when it went for considerably more than the seventy five sparkly new pence it could originally have been yours for). So we owe a big thank you to Raymond Greenoaken of Stirrings Magazine, who scanned the cover and some of the illustrations from his copy for us, which we've reproduced here for your viewing pleasure. The booklet contains twenty five illustrations in all, with at least one for each song. The sleeping man to our left is one of a series of six drawings for the song Oak, Ash And Thorn, all with the same tree, but each with a different little man under it doing something described in the song. Below we've also reproduced the front cover and the frontpiece (which exhorts us to use the arrangements with our pianos and recorders, bringing to mind the sort of Time & Tune session that may have been experienced by primary school children in a benign parallel universe...), along with the drawings accompanying The Looking Glass and The Brookland Road. Postscript: Thanks to Reinhard Zierke of the excellent Mainly Norfolk website for letting us use a scan of the cover of his copy... the very same copy mentioned above!    The Looking Glass  The Brookland Road CommentsHi, I fear that I may have been the one who stole away the songbook from the eBay auction you mentioned. On my website shown above is a scan of the songbook's front without the damaged text on Raymond Greenoaken's copy. There is also an autographed copy of the Oak, Ash & Thorn album with a Kipling quote: "Get that long-haired layabout off my record!" Feel free to use the scans for your site. 09/08/2010 12:02
At least it's gone to a good home, Reinhard! Thank you for your kind offer. I would urge all readers of this blog to visit Reinhard's excellent "Mainly Norfolk" website. Here's a link to his Peter Bellamy pages: Leave a Reply | The Folk SalonFeaturing contributions from the Folk Police, label artists and friends. ArchivesJune 2011 CategoriesAll BlogrollFolk Catalogue
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