Youtube Of The Day Mike Harding - King Cotton
@arthurchappell (45002)
Preston, England
March 13, 2016 3:03pm CST
What song really captures the essence of your home town?
Manchester has as much music history as the Liverpool of Beatlemania. The Halle Orchestra, Bee Gees, Freddie & The Dreamers, Simply Red, Oasis, New Order, Inspiral Carpets and many more started here. The Manchester music scene was even called ‘Madchester’ for a while.
But songs about the city are fewer and further apart outside of folk music, and one of the best is King Cotton by a composer normally associated with comedy material, but Mike Harding can also be incredibly poignant. King Cotton captures the rise and fall of the city’s fortunes as the capital of the industrial revolution and the cotton trade perfectly here. This is truly the song of Manchester
Arthur Chappell
another one with a lot of meaning from mike harding,with images of l s lowrys matchstalk men that evoke such memories that one can almost smell and taste the...
8 people like this
8 responses
@arthurchappell (45002)
• Preston, England
13 Mar 16
yes, Strangeways Hotel and The Rochdale Cowboy are well known Harding songs
1 person likes this
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
13 Mar 16
@arthurchappell They are probably his most famous, although he did produce many comedy albums in the form of stand up comedy as well.
1 person likes this
@arthurchappell (45002)
• Preston, England
13 Mar 16
@Asylum I have some of them on vinyl but no record player at present
1 person likes this
@arthurchappell (45002)
• Preston, England
14 Mar 16
yes the Strangeways Hotel - it has a few lines that might be seen as too rude or I would have put a link on here
1 person likes this
@arthurchappell (45002)
• Preston, England
14 Mar 16
yes his folk music show for radio two was great and then they sudenly replaced him with Mark Radcliffe @Ronrybs
1 person likes this
@Ronrybs (17854)
• London, England
14 Mar 16
@arthurchappell I used to make sure I caught his show on the BBC
1 person likes this
@louievill (28851)
• Philippines
13 Mar 16
The industrial revolution really turned small quiet agricultural places to hubs of factories but prosperity has a price, I really like the message and the drawings are incredible, it's as if you are there (cough)
1 person likes this
@Jessicalynnt (50525)
• Centralia, Missouri
14 Mar 16
well hometown is a tiny town in the middle of nowhere,but I cant think of a song for that
1 person likes this
@Poppylicious (11133)
•
13 Mar 16
The Stone Roses are my favourite Manchester export. At least, I think they were from your neck of the woods.
1 person likes this
@arthurchappell (45002)
• Preston, England
14 Mar 16
the art work in the youtubes is by L S Lowry - I wrote a post about him recently too
1 person likes this
@TiarasOceanView (70035)
• United States
13 Mar 16
Yes like a little Motown sort of get what you are saying Arthur.
This is really a lovely tale isn´t it?
1 person likes this
@teamfreak16 (43421)
• Denver, Colorado
13 Mar 16
I've never heard it until now. Pretty good.
1 person likes this
