The Humblebums - Why Don't They Come Back to Dunoon?

[@LeoCapaldi]

I once won a competition - first prize was a week in Dunoon, second prize was two weeks in Dunoon. The old ones are the best!!

[@mervgardner5126]

Spent a month in Dunoon one weekend. Thank you to the Scots couple who put us onto this song that although 40 years old reflected our stay in 2015.

[@cidermonkey5616]

Had over year stationed near there in the late 70's and this song reflects the place perfectly. Dont get me wrong, we had a good time but a lot of the income to the town was from the US Navy stationed in the Holy Loch. When they pulled out, it went even further downhill sadly. Have been back a few times in the 80's and 90's and yep, still the same and now even harder to get to with the withdrawal of one of the car ferry services. It was not till we had left there that this record surfaced in my ears but it really is so very true. Maybe I'll get back there one more time before I pop my clogs just for old times sake and see what its really like now. Happy times there though.

[@tonyproc8148]

Just heard that Tam has passed away 02.01.2022...R.I.P.

[@dockazoo8582]

Lived in Dunoon for several years in the 80's, sadly this song was so true back then and I suspect even more today.

[@christineanderson6233]

This is a classic. I knew them back then, and before. Billy had been my pal and had introduced me to Tam in the Scotia Bar.Everywhere they played this, the whole audience were hysterically laughing.I can sing the whole of this album still. I used to type Billy's lyrics out for him when he'd written something new.If anyone reading this knows of my X, Tam Harvey's whereabouts, could they please ask him to get in touch as his daughter in Australia has been trying to reach him.

[@wildscotsman1]

I think the last I read about Tam he was living in Saltaire, Yorkshire.

[@reubenroo]

Hi Christine. Hope you found Tam. I also heard that he’d moved from Hove to Saltaire. I remember you from Maryhill as I am the daughter of Tam’s cousin, Catherine Grehan. Still have a pic of you all taken when the New Zealand branch of the family came for a visit. All the best to you and I hope you’ve found him.

[@emilylove9923]

I used to work in a pub at the Brighton Marina a few years back, and Tam was a regular!

[@TonyTheDriver100]

I've still got this album that Billy and Tom signed for me in 1967 or 8 when they appeared at the Windmill Hotel, Arbroath. I'm not a good guitarist and I'm a crap banjo player even now - but I was a bloody sight worse back then! But they used to let me get up and make an arse of myself every week without fail! Billy and Tom were SO pissed on the second occasion they were at the Windmill that Billy sort of fell asleep in the wings while they were being introduced and Tom walked on by himself!

[@Toupret]

Thank You For Sharing This! Great Photo Too

[@raymondspicer]

sad to hear Tam Harvey passed away today. saw them many times in Irvine folk club RIP

[@helenharvey8497]

Tam was my uncle, my dad's identical twin. We only found out tonight because his new family never let us know😬😬

[@pimposki6232]

i know this is a funny song, but as places like ayr go the same way, its hard to miss the seemingly sincere melancholy and sadness that lies beneath the ironic, absurd humour. i suppose you can trace that same ironic detachment on to much of billy's stand up later; underneath it all was a guy trying to come to terms with things like childhood abuse, growing up in a poor urban tenement, feelings of sexual inadequacy, and the alcoholism that permeates working class scotland even today. but for all that, the standup still is too funny to feel sad over; you can analyse it and find its sad origins, but the end result is still overwhelmingly humorous. its perhaps due to being quite young and having been born roughly as package holidays started taking off, if you pardon the pun; i grew up hearing about what these old, hollow holiday towns used to be, while seeing them continue to fall into disrepair, often creating incredibly stark inequality, with the families those who ran the businesses made for life and the families of those who worked in the businesses stuck without any prospects and either leaving or living in a place that nobody would ever invest in. i lived in ayr for a bit and my main memories are not of families on the beach, or the old fish market, or butlins, or people going to the dancing in the pavilion, as my parents and grandparents did from their holidays to ayr from glasgow as kids; no, my memories are of walking around the white city scheme, hearing shards of broken buckfast bottles crunch under my feet every day, of asbestos washing up on the beach, of the town centre heaving with legal high shops, and of the station hotel, which used to house people from all over the greater glasgow area enjoying their holiday, being wrapped in tarpaulin in order to hide the fact that it was literally crumbling and not even safe to stand next to anymore. maybe its due to being there for that period of time that i find this song as melancholy as i do. if his stand-up was too funny to notice the bleak subject matter, it seems that in this song that the comedy almost makes it sadder, in a way, as it actually describes a particularly scottish way of coping with misfortune or general hard times; to take the piss out of our own suffering, and joke about it. its almost emblematic of the response many of these very real towns went through, and i think the subdued, wistful music helps accent this sort of mirthless humour. i dont know if im just a bit odd, because i've never really met anybody who thinks of it as anything other than a funny novelty song, but it shines a surprisingly emotionally mature, realistically detached (without self pity or dramatisation) light on the harsh decline of ex-holiday towns which has only gotten much, much worse since the song was written, and because of that i legitimately think its a really good song that rivals at least half of gerry rafferty's best material, both as a humblebum and on his own, both in terms of songwriting and general pathos. i always wished billy wrote more songs.

[@jeanmarieLillymar]

beautiful

[@leesawford]

Destined for greatness.

[@luornu]

that intro about the children with the broken bottles in their feet is quite ivor cutleresque. That line would easily fit into an episode of 'life in a scotch sitting room'

[@boldbhoy67]

Brilliant!

[@petercolledge2236]

Wonderful juxtaposition with Scots: the great fondness for Scotland as a whole, contrasted with certain spots within it. Frankie Boyle's comments about Dundee mirror this song.

[@kevh9497]

I think this is from the show broadcast on Wednesday 27th November 1968; the band did appear on MKOF on that date, and it was hosted by Archie Fisher, so it is very likely.

[@nonditaray3034]

i know tam harvey's nephew and from what i heard, he was a great guy. famous people might be gone but they leave their legacy behind

[@keef71]

i suppose folk would write this off as a piss-take because of the content, but listen to the guitar work, it's beautiful. that pic of tam harvey shows where james hetfield stole his look from!

[@AMRPK]

RIP Tam Harvey

[@Celynalba]

Imagine adding Ivor Cutler to this. :)

[@xciteful]

I actually know Billy. Great guy.

[@gartnait1]

i never heard billy talking about tam harvey.Did they have an arguement >

[@jjsworld1010]

gartnait1; I can ask Tam Harvey why Bill doesn't talk about him if you'd like?!

[@gartnait1]

J J did u ask Tam JJ.?. Thought Billy might have set Tam up with a good job or something like that after he became famous. Can't remember Billy talking about Tam which had me thinking is there a story here.? Also there's not much info online about Tam Harvey.

[@tsb3093]

@@jjsworld1010 is Tam Harvey still alive?

[@jjsworld1010]

@@tsb3093 yes, he's still alive and kicking!

[@jjsworld1010]

@@gartnait1 I can try to ask him and make a video out of his answer.

[@guitarplayerdonald7546]

⚓🇺🇸🙏🌞☮ also KZbin video under Sobriety Castle about Holy Loch Scotland

[@robsargent4]

@louiecostello I think you're mistaken in thinking all Scottish & Irish people have lovely singing voices - most of us can't sing for toffee!

[@janethrnton3988]

Billy owes me a pound going back to thr sixties. I used to help Harry Stratton run a folk club. Jane Cowan.

[@tsb3093]

@@janethrnton3988 well at least you know he’s good for it right?....🤣

[@MG-bs5mr]

Funnily enough I actually sing better whilst chewing toffee.

[@gartnait1]

Actually a decent wee tune.

[@1mrmullis]

I dunno

[@colincarroll7954]

Ripped off from Johnathan King's Everyone gone to the moon