"Dashing Away with the Smoothing Iron" is an
English folk song
The folk music of England is a tradition-based music which has existed since the later medieval period. It is often contrasted with courtly, classical and later commercial music. Folk music traditionally was preserved and passed on orally with ...
about a man admiring the woman he loves as she goes through daily stages of washing and ironing clothes. It is classified as
Roud number 869. The earliest date in the
Vaughan Williams catalogue is 1904, as collected in
Somerset
Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...
and arranged by
Cecil Sharp
Cecil James Sharp (22 November 1859 – 23 June 1924) was an English collector of folk songs, folk dances and instrumental music, as well as a lecturer, teacher, composer and musician. He was a key figure in the folk-song revival in England dur ...
. A later entry for 1908 gives the source as Jane Gulliford from Somerset. The
Fresno State University gives a slightly different title, "Driving Away at the Smoothing Iron", with a date of 1909.
Lyrics
'Twas on a
Tuesday , Wednesday , Thursday , Friday , Saturday , Sunday morning
When I beheld my darling:
She looked so neat and charming
In every high degree;
She looked so neat and nimble, O,
A-hanging , A-starching , A-ironing , A-folding , A-airing , A-wearing of her linen, O,
''Refrain''
Dashing away with the smoothing iron,
Dashing away with the smoothing iron,
She stole my heart away.
Adaptations
The musical comedy duo
Flanders and Swann quoted the first 7/8 syllables of each verse, verbatim and notewise, at the beginning of each verse of ''The Gas Man Cometh'', the first track on ''At The Drop of Another Hat'' (1963).
The tune was used by the English composer
John Rutter
Sir John Milford Rutter (born 24 September 1945) is an English composer, conductor, editor, arranger, and record producer, mainly of choral music.
Biography
Born on 24 September 1945 in London, the son of an industrial chemist and his wife, R ...
for the fourth movement of his ''Suite for Strings'' (1973) under the title ''Dashing Away''.
June Tabor
June Tabor (born 31 December 1947 in Warwick, England) is an English folk singer known for her solo work and her earlier collaborations with Maddy Prior and with Oysterband.
Early life
June Tabor was born and grew up in Warwick, England. ...
and
Maddy Prior
Madeleine Edith Prior MBE (born 14 August 1947) is an English folk rock singer, best known as the lead vocalist of Steeleye Span. She was born in Blackpool and moved to St Albans in her teens. Her father, Allan Prior, was co-creator of the p ...
sang "Dashing Away With the Smoothing Iron" live at
Burnley Mechanics in October 1988. A recording was included on Tabor's 2005 anthology ''Always''.
See also
* "
Monday's Child
"Monday's Child" is one of many fortune-telling songs, popular as nursery rhymes for children. It is supposed to tell a child's character or future from their day of birth and to help young children remember the seven days of the week. As with ma ...
", a traditional English rhyme mentioning the days of the week
* "
Solomon Grundy", an English nursery rhyme mentioning the days of the week
References
External links
The lyrics with the musical notes to Dashing Away with the Smoothing Iron
English folk songs
19th-century songs
Songs with unknown songwriters
Year of song unknown
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