Broadside ballad entitled 'It's No' The Clean Tattie Ava'

Commentary

Verse 1: 'Noo, I'll sing ye a song if ye listen, / As the time it does glide fast awa'; / It was composed by me, and the title will be / "It's no' the clean tattie ava."' Below the title we are told that 'Copies can always be had at the Poets Box, 190 Overgate, Dundee'. 'Ava' means 'at all'.

This ballad is an interesting piece of social history, for the way in which it supports a railway strike that took place during the early days of the railways. It is likely that the phrase, 'It's No' The Clean Tattie Ava', is a colloquial expression meaning 'something is not fair at all'. Given that this railway strike probably took place some time in the 1840s, the obscure expression might well be an anti-establishment reference to the potato famines that caused so much suffering in Ireland and Scotland. Certainly, the ballad sounds like a trade union song, although the peculiar last verse appears rather incongruous.
The Dundee Poets? Box was in operation from about 1880 to 1945, though it is possible that some material was printed as early as the 1850s. Most of the time it had premises at various addresses in Overgate. In 1885 the proprietor J.G. Scott (at 182 Overgate) had published a catalogue of 2,000 titles consisting of included humorous recitations, dialogues, temperance songs, medleys, parodies, love songs, Jacobite songs. Another proprietor in the 1880s was William Shepherd, but little is known about him. Poets? Box was particularly busy on market days and feeing days when country folk were in town in large numbers. Macartney specialised in local songs and bothy ballads. Many Irish songs were published by the Poets? Box ? many Irishmen worked seasonally harvesting potatoes and also in the jute mills. In 1906 John Lowden Macartney took over as proprietor of the Poet?s Box, initially working from 181 Overgate and later from no.203 and 207.

It is not clear what the connection between the different Poet?s Boxes were. They almost certainly sold each other?s sheets. It is known that John Sanderson in Edinburgh often wrote to the Leitches in Glasgow for songs and that later his brother Charles obtained copies of songs from the Dundee Poet?s Box. There was also a Poet?s Box in Belfast from 1846 to 1856 at the address of the printer James Moore, and one at Paisley in the early 1850s, owned by William Anderson.

Early ballads were dramatic or humorous narrative songs derived from folk culture that predated printing. Originally perpetuated by word of mouth, many ballads survive because they were recorded on broadsides. Musical notation was rarely printed, as tunes were usually established favourites. The term 'ballad' eventually applied more broadly to any kind of topical or popular verse.

previous