Lonnie Donegan MBE (29 April 1931 – 3 November 2002) was a British "skiffle… Read Full Bio ↴Lonnie Donegan MBE (29 April 1931 – 3 November 2002) was a British "skiffle" musician, with more than 20 UK Top 30 hits to his name. He is referred to as the "King of Skiffle" and is often cited as a large influence on the generation of British musicians who became famous in the 1960s.
Donegan was born as Anthony James Donegan in Glasgow, Scotland, the son of a professional violinist. His ethnic mix was Scottish/Irish. He moved with his mother to London at an early age, after his parents divorced. Inspired by blues music and New Orleans jazz bands he heard on the radio, he resolved to learn the guitar, and bought his first at the age of fourteen.
The first band he ever played in was the trad jazz band led by Chris Barber, who approached him on a train asking him if he wanted to audition for his group. Barber had heard that Donegan was a good banjo player; in fact, Donegan had never played the banjo at this point, but he bought one and managed to bluff his way through the audition. His stint in this group was interrupted, however, when he was called up for National Service in 1949. He also played in Ken Colyer's group
In 1952, he formed his first own group, the Tony Donegan Jazzband, which found some work around London. On one occasion they opened for the blues musician Lonnie Johnson at the Royal Festival Hall. Donegan was a big fan of Johnson, and took his first name as a tribute to him. The story goes that the host at the concert got the musicians' names confused, calling them "Tony Johnson" and "Lonnie Donegan", and Donegan was happy to keep the name.
With a washboard, a tea-chest bass and a cheap Spanish guitar, Donegan entertained audiences with folk and blues songs by artists such as Leadbelly and Woody Guthrie. This proved so popular that in July 1954 he recorded a fast-tempoed version of Leadbelly's "Rock Island Line", featuring a washboard but not a tea-chest bass, with "John Henry" on the B-side. It was an enormous hit in 1956 (which also later inspired the creation of a full album, An Englishman Sings American Folk Songs, released in America on the Mercury label in the early 1960s) but ironically, because it was a band recording, Donegan made no money from this recording beyond his original session fee. (Nevertheless, Donegan received considerable music publishing royalties from "Rock Island" simply by claiming the British copyright on an unregistered song which was considered to be in the Public Domain. This led to the peculiar situation that any "cover" version of "Rock Island Line" which was released on record in Britain from 1956 showed the song composition credited to Lonnie Donegan.) It was the first debut record to go gold in the UK, and reached the Top Ten in the United States. His next single for Decca, "Diggin' My Potatoes", was recorded at a concert at the Royal Festival Hall on 30 October 1954.[4] Decca dropped Donegan thereafter, but within a month he was at the Abbey Road Studios in London recording for EMI's Columbia label. He had left the Barber band by then, and by the spring of 1955, Donegan signed a recording contract with Pye. His next single "Lost John" reached #2 in the UK Singles Chart.
His success at the time saw Donegan sent to the United States, where he appeared on television on both Perry Como Show and Paul Winchell Show. Returning to the UK, Donegan recorded his debut album, Lonnie Donegan Showcase, in the summer of 1956, which featured songs by Lead Belly and Leroy Carr, plus "I'm a Ramblin' Man" and "Wabash Cannonball". The LP was a hit, securing sales in the hundreds of thousands.[4] The popular skiffle style encouraged amateurs to get started, and one of the many skiffle groups that followed was The Quarrymen formed in March 1957 by John Lennon. Donegan's "Gamblin' Man" / "Puttin' On the Style" single was number one on the UK chart in July 1957, when Lennon first met Paul McCartney.
Donegan went on to make a series of popular records with successes including "Cumberland Gap" and, particularly "Does Your Chewing Gum Lose It's Flavour (On The Bedpost Over Night)", his only hit song in the U.S., released on Dot. He turned to a music hall style with "My Old Man's a Dustman" which was not well received by skiffle fans, or in an attempted but ultimately unsuccessful American release by Atlantic in 1960, but it reached number one in the UK Singles Chart. Donegan's group had a flexible line-up, but was generally formed by Denny Wright or Les Bennetts (of Les Hobeaux and Chas McDevitt's skiffle groups) playing lead guitar and singing harmony vocals, Micky Ashman or Pete Huggett - later Steve Jones - on upright bass, Nick Nichols - later Pete Appleby and Mark Goodwin - on drums or percussion and Donegan playing acoustic guitar or banjo and singing the lead.
He continued to appear regularly in the UK charts until 1962, before succumbing to the arrival of The Beatles and beat music.
Add 1: In the early fifties after Donegan was demobbed from National Service he joined Chris Barber and Ken Colyer and others called Ken Colyer's Jazzmen which consisted of Ken Colyer (trumpet), Chris Barber (trombone), Monty Sunshine (clarinet), Lonnie Donegan (banjo), Jim Bray (bass) Dickie Bishop (Guitar) and Ron Bowden (drums). This group recorded two excellent blues numbers with Lonnie Donegan as vocal called "In the evening when de sun go down" and "The Midnight Special" After a year, Ken colyer stormed out of the group and Chris Barber took over.
http://www.p.griggsy.btinternet.co.uk/Untitled/Lonnie.html (Memories of Lonnie Donegan by Paul Griggs)
Donegan was born as Anthony James Donegan in Glasgow, Scotland, the son of a professional violinist. His ethnic mix was Scottish/Irish. He moved with his mother to London at an early age, after his parents divorced. Inspired by blues music and New Orleans jazz bands he heard on the radio, he resolved to learn the guitar, and bought his first at the age of fourteen.
The first band he ever played in was the trad jazz band led by Chris Barber, who approached him on a train asking him if he wanted to audition for his group. Barber had heard that Donegan was a good banjo player; in fact, Donegan had never played the banjo at this point, but he bought one and managed to bluff his way through the audition. His stint in this group was interrupted, however, when he was called up for National Service in 1949. He also played in Ken Colyer's group
In 1952, he formed his first own group, the Tony Donegan Jazzband, which found some work around London. On one occasion they opened for the blues musician Lonnie Johnson at the Royal Festival Hall. Donegan was a big fan of Johnson, and took his first name as a tribute to him. The story goes that the host at the concert got the musicians' names confused, calling them "Tony Johnson" and "Lonnie Donegan", and Donegan was happy to keep the name.
With a washboard, a tea-chest bass and a cheap Spanish guitar, Donegan entertained audiences with folk and blues songs by artists such as Leadbelly and Woody Guthrie. This proved so popular that in July 1954 he recorded a fast-tempoed version of Leadbelly's "Rock Island Line", featuring a washboard but not a tea-chest bass, with "John Henry" on the B-side. It was an enormous hit in 1956 (which also later inspired the creation of a full album, An Englishman Sings American Folk Songs, released in America on the Mercury label in the early 1960s) but ironically, because it was a band recording, Donegan made no money from this recording beyond his original session fee. (Nevertheless, Donegan received considerable music publishing royalties from "Rock Island" simply by claiming the British copyright on an unregistered song which was considered to be in the Public Domain. This led to the peculiar situation that any "cover" version of "Rock Island Line" which was released on record in Britain from 1956 showed the song composition credited to Lonnie Donegan.) It was the first debut record to go gold in the UK, and reached the Top Ten in the United States. His next single for Decca, "Diggin' My Potatoes", was recorded at a concert at the Royal Festival Hall on 30 October 1954.[4] Decca dropped Donegan thereafter, but within a month he was at the Abbey Road Studios in London recording for EMI's Columbia label. He had left the Barber band by then, and by the spring of 1955, Donegan signed a recording contract with Pye. His next single "Lost John" reached #2 in the UK Singles Chart.
His success at the time saw Donegan sent to the United States, where he appeared on television on both Perry Como Show and Paul Winchell Show. Returning to the UK, Donegan recorded his debut album, Lonnie Donegan Showcase, in the summer of 1956, which featured songs by Lead Belly and Leroy Carr, plus "I'm a Ramblin' Man" and "Wabash Cannonball". The LP was a hit, securing sales in the hundreds of thousands.[4] The popular skiffle style encouraged amateurs to get started, and one of the many skiffle groups that followed was The Quarrymen formed in March 1957 by John Lennon. Donegan's "Gamblin' Man" / "Puttin' On the Style" single was number one on the UK chart in July 1957, when Lennon first met Paul McCartney.
Donegan went on to make a series of popular records with successes including "Cumberland Gap" and, particularly "Does Your Chewing Gum Lose It's Flavour (On The Bedpost Over Night)", his only hit song in the U.S., released on Dot. He turned to a music hall style with "My Old Man's a Dustman" which was not well received by skiffle fans, or in an attempted but ultimately unsuccessful American release by Atlantic in 1960, but it reached number one in the UK Singles Chart. Donegan's group had a flexible line-up, but was generally formed by Denny Wright or Les Bennetts (of Les Hobeaux and Chas McDevitt's skiffle groups) playing lead guitar and singing harmony vocals, Micky Ashman or Pete Huggett - later Steve Jones - on upright bass, Nick Nichols - later Pete Appleby and Mark Goodwin - on drums or percussion and Donegan playing acoustic guitar or banjo and singing the lead.
He continued to appear regularly in the UK charts until 1962, before succumbing to the arrival of The Beatles and beat music.
Add 1: In the early fifties after Donegan was demobbed from National Service he joined Chris Barber and Ken Colyer and others called Ken Colyer's Jazzmen which consisted of Ken Colyer (trumpet), Chris Barber (trombone), Monty Sunshine (clarinet), Lonnie Donegan (banjo), Jim Bray (bass) Dickie Bishop (Guitar) and Ron Bowden (drums). This group recorded two excellent blues numbers with Lonnie Donegan as vocal called "In the evening when de sun go down" and "The Midnight Special" After a year, Ken colyer stormed out of the group and Chris Barber took over.
http://www.p.griggsy.btinternet.co.uk/Untitled/Lonnie.html (Memories of Lonnie Donegan by Paul Griggs)
Lonesome Traveller
Lonnie Donegan Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I'm just a lonely and a lonesome traveller
I'm just a lonely and a lonesome traveller
I'm just a lonely and a lonesome traveller
I'm travelling on
Travelled in the mountains, travelled in the valley
Well, I've travelled in the mountains, travelled in the valley
Travelled in the mountains, travelled in the valley
I'm travelling on
I'm just a lonely and a lonesome traveller
I'm just a lonely and a lonesome traveller
I'm just a lonely and a lonesome traveller
I'm travelling on
Travelled with the rich, I've travelled with the beggar
Well, I've travelled with the rich, I've travelled with the
Beggar
Travelled with the rich, I've travelled with the beggar
I'm travelling on
I'm just a lonely and a lonesome traveller
I'm just a lonely and a lonesome traveller
I'm just a lonely and a lonesome traveller
I'm travelling on
One of these days I'm gonna stop all my travelling
One of these days I'm gonna stop all my travelling
One of these days I'm gonna stop all my travelling
I'm travelling on
I'm just a lonely and a lonesome traveller
I'm just a lonely and a lonesome traveller
I'm just a lonely and a lonesome traveller
I'm travelling on
I'm just a lonely and a lonesome traveller
I'm just a lonely and a lonesome traveller
I'm travelling on
Travelled in the mountains, travelled in the valley
Well, I've travelled in the mountains, travelled in the valley
Travelled in the mountains, travelled in the valley
I'm travelling on
I'm just a lonely and a lonesome traveller
I'm just a lonely and a lonesome traveller
I'm travelling on
Travelled with the rich, I've travelled with the beggar
Well, I've travelled with the rich, I've travelled with the
Beggar
Travelled with the rich, I've travelled with the beggar
I'm travelling on
I'm just a lonely and a lonesome traveller
I'm just a lonely and a lonesome traveller
I'm just a lonely and a lonesome traveller
I'm travelling on
One of these days I'm gonna stop all my travelling
One of these days I'm gonna stop all my travelling
One of these days I'm gonna stop all my travelling
I'm travelling on
I'm just a lonely and a lonesome traveller
I'm just a lonely and a lonesome traveller
I'm just a lonely and a lonesome traveller
I'm travelling on
The lyrics of Lonnie Donegan's song Lonesome Traveller depict the life of a lonely man who has travelled far and wide. The repetition of the phrase "I'm just a lonely and a lonesome traveller" emphasizes his solitude and reinforces the idea that he's been travelling for a long time, perhaps even his entire life. He has travelled through the mountains and valleys, and with both the rich and the poor, yet he remains alone.
The song expresses a longing to settle down, as evidenced by the line "One of these days I'm gonna stop all my travelling". The simple melody and acoustic guitar accompaniment evoke a feeling of nostalgia and melancholy, further amplifying the theme of isolation and the desire for a sense of belonging.
Overall, the song portrays a sense of longing and sadness that comes with a life spent in constant motion. It speaks to the human desire for connection and a sense of rootedness, no matter how far we travel.
Line by Line Meaning
I'm just a lonely and a lonesome traveller
I am a solitary individual who spends most of their time travelling without any company
I'm travelling on
I continue to journey forward on my path through life
Travelled in the mountains, travelled in the valley
I have traversed varying landscapes, including both hills and valleys
Travelled with the rich, I've travelled with the beggar
I have been accompanied by individuals from all walks of life, from those who are wealthy to those who are impoverished
One of these days I'm gonna stop all my travelling
At some point in the future, I plan to cease this constant movement and settle down somewhere
Writer(s): Lee Hays
Contributed by Reagan O. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
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matthew caldwell
Lonnie Donegan revving up and the rest backing him is one of the greatest sights and sounds in musical entertainment..Sadly missed.
Trevor Morris
The best version. I've just been listening to a lot of versions of this . Donegan's is the best for me although there are some other very good ones including the original Weavers one. I was always a sucker for Donegan's absolutely unique voice anyway. His voice can be a lonesome wail, and it just fits these lyrics so well. There's also his improvisations that also add to the distinctiveness of this version without getting too far away from the basic melody. And, of course, there's that immense feeling of energy and drive.
Jonathon Ripley
Great track
SirCoughsalot
Always liked to hear Lonnie's take on this number. It's a great song. But what was up with Les's guitar break?
TWANGNASTY
I reckon you are right.Something beyond Les control.Not duff playing.
MoogerTuber
I don't think anything is wrong. They just changed the key for the middle 8. In my opinion it just sounds a bit weird because of the tape drift or something like that.
Zach Baze
I was wondering the same thing. Either that was some next-level David Rawlings-style back yourself into an impossible corner or something went seriously wrong. One of my favorite lead players of all time there...
Warren James
Awesome
Иван Сальников
Double distillation rock`n`roll. Thx man.
Eddie John
Was 12 when this come out , what wonderful days they were