Andrew Curry writes: The song Tom Paine’s Bones is only 30 years old, but it has been covered widely enough since Roy Bailey and Dick Gaughan recorded their versions to have become an established part of the folk repertoire. There are also good versions by younger performers, such as The Young ‘Uns, The Trials of Cato, The Shee, and Grace Petrie.
(American stamp commemorating Thomas Paine. Public domain.)
And since it is the anniversary today of Tom Paine’s death in 1809, it seems a good excuse for a Cover Story about the song.
Paine’s life story was the kind of stuff that films are made of.
In his thirties, he emigrated to the United States with help from Benjamin Franklin, almost dying on the crossing. He arrived just in time for the American Revolution, writing the influential pamphlet Common Sense, which made the case for independence, as well as a host of other journalism. He served in the Revolutionary Army, and helped to raise funds from France to finance the fledgling US government.
Briefly back in Britain, he wrote his classic book The Rights of Man, in defence of the French Revolution, but had fortunately had left the country before he was tried in absentia for seditious libel. In France he was elected to the National Convention, but then arrested, escaping execution only by luck. James Monroe, who later became the American President, negotiated his release and return to the United States.
His political principles and relentless pamphleteering made more enemies than friends. Six people attended his funeral in 1809, including two freed black slaves.
And somewhere in all of that, Paine patented the first design for a single span iron bridge—which was used for the first Wearmouth Bridge in Sunderland.
So you can see why Tom Paine might have attracted the interest of the singer and songwriter Graham Moore as being worth writing a song about. The title is taken from one of the odd details about Paine—that the radical writer William Cobbett arranged for his bones to be disinterred and returned to England, where he planned for Paine to be honoured in his own country. That never happened, and the bones, now lost, were still in Cobbett’s possession when he died.
The song itself rollicks along, with a great chorus:
I will dance to Tom Paine’s bones, dance to Tom Paine’s bones,
Dance in the oldest boots I own to the rhythm of Tom Paine’s bones.
The song manages to sketch in a few verses the essence of Paine’s history and influence. As Roy Bailey put it on the sleeve notes to his record Coda,
Graham Moore manages to convey in a few words and a dramatic tune the strength of a man who, two hundred years after his death, manages to remain controversial.
Obviously the point of Cover Story is partly to compare and contrast different versions, and I have included three here. Dick Gaughan’s version, because it was the first time I heard to song, and I always like the way Gaughan interprets songs.
The Young ‘Uns get the nod because their a capella version is very different from most of the others out there.
And although I’m not always a fan of Grace Petrie, I’m very fond of her arrangement here, which really amps up the energy of both the music and the lyrics. And there’s definitely other versions out there that also deserve a listen. Roy Bailey is accompanied by John Kirkpatrick’s accordion on his recording; The Trials of Cato apparently play it at every gig because they like the song so much, and there’s a slightly wobbly video of a live performance on YouTube that includes a long instrumental break in the middle and some audience participation.
Cover Story is not meant to be a competition, but I think my preference here is for Grace Petrie’s version because of the bigger sound she brings to the song.
I said earlier that Paine’s life was the stuff that films were made of. In fact the director and producer Richard Attenborough spent years trying to sell a historical drama, based on a script by Trevor Griffiths. By then, big historical dramas had gone out of fashion—and maybe Hollywood didn’t like the politics much either.
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