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A Description Of William Martin

from by Gary Miller

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    Comes in a gorgeous deluxe book-format packaging, including approximately 100 pages featuring lyrics to all 50 tracks, additional interlinking text, a host of beautiful pictures and illustrations throughout, as well as a comprehensive list of credits and acknowledgements. This wonderful and unique presentation, designed by Helen Temperley at www.winkinbitsy.com has been a true 'labour of love' and is a fascinating and real work of art in its own right.

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about

William Bell Scott, poet, artist and master of the School of Design in Newcastle, described a chance meeting with William Martin, on the streets of Newcastle in the 1840's. William, at the time in his 70's, was nearing the end of an extraordinary career which had seen him budding as a philosopher, a poet and an inventor. As Bell Scott testifies, William was wearing on his head a tortoise shell and the breast of his overcoat was festooned with a great many 'military' medals, most of them apparently presented to him as a joke by Newcastle's Quayside clerks and regarded by William as genuine. In fact, William had become the subject of great ridicule. Who indeed would have believed that a quiet and innocent place such as Tow-house, near Bardon Mill, Northumberland, could have spawned one of Tyneside's greatest characters?

lyrics

A DESCRIPTION OF WILLIAM MARTIN


We encountered the well-known figure
in his extraordinary skull-cap,
decorated with military greatcoat
closely buttoned to the throat.

Martin, with exaggerated politeness,
drew his feet together,
bent forward,
lifted his tortoise-shell hat high in the air,
and answered
"Gratified to meet you, sir!
I am the philosophical conquerer of all nations,
this is what I am!
and this is my badge”;

at the same time unbuttoning his greatcoat
he showed a medal as large as a saucer,
which was hung round his neck by a ribbon.
It was not a medal at all,
and he was manifestly crazed,
yet he had that about him
that made one treat him with respect.

A noble presence even was his,
although he was poor enough
to sell his pamphlets thus on the street,
which pamphlets were of course
only evidence of his craze.

(Words: William Bell Scott / Tune: ‘Bobby Shaftoe’ - Trad. arr. Richard Doran & Mick Tyas)

credits

from Mad Martins, released October 10, 2017
Keith Armstrong - Spoken Word
Mick Tyas - Mandolin
Richard Doran - Dulcimer

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Mad Martins England, UK

Mad Martins is a unique project by songwriter Gary Miller with poet Keith Armstrong, producer Iain Petrie, & Friends, with artwork by Helen Temperley, featuring original songs, poetry, narration & illustrations depicting the extraordinary life and times of the notorious Martin brothers, William, Jonathan & John, who were born in the late Eighteenth Century in the South Tyne area of Northumberland. ... more

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