The Colliers (A Lot Of Little
  Blackbirds In A Cage)

Harry Castling & Fred Godfrey; EMI database also credits Billy Williams — London: Francis, Day & Hunter, 1909.

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The chorus goes:

Early in the morning,
Down, down, down into the pits,
Work like n*****s, we look such pretty figures
All among the nobbly bits
(Lord love you).
Work all day for very little pay,
That’s what puts us in a rage.
We go down white, and up we come at night
Like a lot of little blackbirds in a cage.

Miners were much on people’s minds when this song appeared — a major strike by Durham coalminers took place in 1908, the year it was written, and likely inspired its creation. A problematic song, though, as measured by the sensitivities of a more enlightened era; the casual racism of Harry Castling’s lyrics — not deliberately meant to hurt but simply to entertain a Music Hall crowd in its own idiom — now sounds a sour note. Even its good-humoured sympathy with the plight of the coalminer cannot save it. Too bad, because Fred Godfrey’s melody is as good as any of the time.

Recordings

Billy Williams recorded five versions of this song: 28 August 1908 for Homophon; 21 December 1908 for Zonophone; ca. January 1909 for Jumbo; ca. September 1909 for Pathé; and ca. October 1909 for Edison Amberol. Reissues appeared on several other labels.¹

Fred Murray (Bell Disc 179, ca. 1910)

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Note

1  For comprehensive discographies of recordings by Billy Williams, see Brian Rust,
     British Music Hall on Record (Harrow, UK: Gramophone, 1979); and Frank
     Andrews and Ernie Bayly, Billy Williams’ Records: A Study in Discography
     (Bournemouth, UK: Talking Machine Review, 1982). For a collection of recordings of
     all the Billy Williams songs, see J.P. Myerscough, Billy Williams: All the Songs
     [8-CD set and accompanying notes] (Lowestoft, UK: Music Hall Masters, 2001).