Lives and Experience in Gypsy Songs, c.1700-2020

ABSTRACT We can learn much about the history of Gypsy-Roma in Britain through their song culture. This comparative analysis looks at a range of songs from different tradition-bearers whose words have been recorded from the late nineteenth century into the twenty-first. First the piece examines the shared-song culture of songs from the wider British vernacular. Then, it focuses on some neglected older recorded pieces in Angloromani (to varying degrees) which provide an even more intimate source created by Gypsy-Roma people.