Taylors for Paper of Every Desire!
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TAYLORS FOR PAPER OF EVERY DESIRE
words & music: Mike Ford 2017
A conflict is raging in lower Siam...
The duchess displayed young George in his pram
The Empress of Cornwall is sailing south seas
They've just found a cure for McSmortsen's disease
There's rubber in the Amazon, gold in the west
Lord Franklin's set off on a new Arctic quest
And for this breaking news what was your one source?
You read it all written on paper of course...
It's the paper from Todmorden that we regale
Delivery by trans-colonial rail
Word of which is spreading wider and higher
Yes it's Taylor brothers paper for every desire......
Our factory sends it to our Market store
You'll never make paper from rag-ends no more
Yes the pulp of the poplar, the balsam and pine
Gives Taylor brothers paper of every design
Oh we've scrollers and screeds and playbills and waybills
Weeklies and dailies and papers festooned gaily.....
Gilded invitations for saucy celebrations
Coming out soirées and fisticuffsmanship
Sail regattas, sonatas, so do make the trip
To see our most impressive presses' manufacture
Paper goods for every need and every stature
Blessed by the crown for invention and skill
We work round the clock at our factory and mill
And the mighty Don washes away all the swill
Make your appointment today...up the river that flows to the bay
See Taylor Bros for papery...without delay!
Background
We are inundated with advertisements - Internet, TV, Radio, Billboards, etc. I enjoy exploring old (and very old) newspapers and such for examples of older styles of advertising.
The Todmorden Mills site was for a long time a place of successful industry - lumber, grain processing, bricks, beer (all of which has been cleverly put into glorious song by student visitors in this project). The greatest manufacturing era of the site was in paper production - it was only the 2nd Paper Mill in Canada, and from the early to late 1800s it produced paper products sent far and wide. With paper so easily accessible (and cheap) today, it's hard to imagine the rarity, and luxury, of quality paper back then.
With this song, I've set out to imagine what a publicity JINGLE for Taylor's Paper Mills at Todmorden might have sounded like. The song celebrates the product's importance, the great diversity of output from the Mills, and their customers. I couldn't resist inserting an environmentally-directed line just before the ending. It is quite possible that many thought it was wonderful, at the time, that the Don River not only drove the mills, but carried away the refuse. Unfortunately, their are many today, often in positions of great wealth and power, who feel more or less the same about our waterways.
Other Examples
Check out these other composers who have imagined Jingles for products that lined the shelves long before iPods, Fidget Spinners and PlayStations:
PINEAPPLE by Sparks (Bet you're hungry for some now!)
PIRELLI'S MIRACLE ELIXIR from Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd
...and this clever bit by the amazing Flanders & Swann, advertising the joys and lovable aggravations of a London Double Becker Bus in:
(Hold very tight please!)