The Condemned Cell
Gerry Kearns vocal & guitar
A child lay on his mother’s knee,
She dangled it with joy and pride,
I wonder what my child will be,
When I no more am by his side.
Perhaps a warrior he’ll become,
And armies lead in proud array,
To hear the marshal fife and drum,
And proclaim that he has won the fray.
Perhaps to statesmanship he will rise,
And grasp the rudder of the state,
And leave a name that never dies,
Amongst the noble and the great.
Or if he may not speak the voice,
Which promulgates a country’s laws,
Perhaps in song he will rejoice,
A people’s heart and plead the cause.
Ah thus he mused as on her knee,
The smiling babe she fondly nursed,
No thought that of his destiny,
There hung the plight of the accursed.
The mother died the son lives on,
But does her bosom proudly swell,
To hear of victory’s he has won,
Oh no he’s in the felon cell.
No states-mans laurel crown for him,
No poet’s bias around his brow,
Beside him stands a shadow grim,
Prepared to beckon come, come now.
And when that awful sign is made,
He has no power to it defy,
As on his mother’s knee he lay,
She never dreamt the death he’d die.
A child lay on his mother’s knee,
She dangled it with joy and pride,
I wonder what my child will be,
When I no more am by his side.
Perhaps a warrior he’ll become,
And armies lead in proud array,
To hear the marshal fife and drum,
And proclaim that he has won the fray.
Perhaps to statesmanship he will rise,
And grasp the rudder of the state,
And leave a name that never dies,
Amongst the noble and the great.
Or if he may not speak the voice,
Which promulgates a country’s laws,
Perhaps in song he will rejoice,
A people’s heart and plead the cause.
Ah thus he mused as on her knee,
The smiling babe she fondly nursed,
No thought that of his destiny,
There hung the plight of the accursed.
The mother died the son lives on,
But does her bosom proudly swell,
To hear of victory’s he has won,
Oh no he’s in the felon cell.
No states-mans laurel crown for him,
No poet’s bias around his brow,
Beside him stands a shadow grim,
Prepared to beckon come, come now.
And when that awful sign is made,
He has no power to it defy,
As on his mother’s knee he lay,
She never dreamt the death he’d die.
Gerry came across this as a poem in an edition of a penny weekly paper, The Oldham Operative (Friday, November 21st 1884). Gerry added the tune himself. The Oldham Operative gives no author’s name. Since the title of the poem is The Condemned Cell and the word “cell” does not appear until the penultimate stanza, the Oldham Tinkers have always assumed that the mother herself was in the condemned cell as she dandled her offspring, and she was executed but took solace from the fact that her son might make his mark in life, unaware that he would achieve the same fate as herself. It would appear that his start in life, his birth in adversity, despite his doomed mother’s hopes, contributes to the factors leading to an ignominious death.
The Condemned Cell moralizes and has a message – in this case, for mothers. The author reminds them that even a condemned murderer was once a baby, thus implying that it is the evil of his environment and not evil within himself which makes a man a murderer. The author appeals to mothers who are in a position to determine so much of a child’s early environment, to guard their children from evil
The Condemned Cell moralizes and has a message – in this case, for mothers. The author reminds them that even a condemned murderer was once a baby, thus implying that it is the evil of his environment and not evil within himself which makes a man a murderer. The author appeals to mothers who are in a position to determine so much of a child’s early environment, to guard their children from evil
G. Kearns
Arrangement © Oldham Tinkers
First recorded and published by Topic Records 1975.
Album: FOR OLD TIME’S SAKE 12TS276 stereo.
Recorded and produced by Tony Engle, London, July 1975
Notes by The Oldham Tinkers and A.L.Lloyd.
Re-released on C.D. by Pier Records in 2006 under licence from Topic Records Ltd, England.
The C.D. The Oldham Tinkers, ‘For Old Time’s Sake’ PIERCD 507
A classic Lancashire folk album, available for the first time on CD, with four bonus tracks and full song notes by the band and A. L. Lloyd.
Arrangement © Oldham Tinkers
First recorded and published by Topic Records 1975.
Album: FOR OLD TIME’S SAKE 12TS276 stereo.
Recorded and produced by Tony Engle, London, July 1975
Notes by The Oldham Tinkers and A.L.Lloyd.
Re-released on C.D. by Pier Records in 2006 under licence from Topic Records Ltd, England.
The C.D. The Oldham Tinkers, ‘For Old Time’s Sake’ PIERCD 507
A classic Lancashire folk album, available for the first time on CD, with four bonus tracks and full song notes by the band and A. L. Lloyd.