No 1. The European National Anthem
There was always going to be music in my presidency. We were still in the EU before the 2016 EU referendum when I played the European National Anthem, ‘Ode to Joy’ at John Ashton’s leaving party. There’s a taste of it from my leaving party, three years later, still just in Europe here:
No 2. I almost lost my mind
At the Brighton Conference 2016 where I became President, David Stuckler in his keynote presentation gave me the licence I needed to play, when he said he had the ‘Brexit blues’ , when opinion polls showed Brexiteers in the lead. Seeing Muddy Waters and Bruce Springsteen on the walls of the conference syndicate rooms, I needed no more excuse to play the Brighton Dome and played a blues with my closing speech. So, I played my ‘go to’ blues number., the one I learned from Shakey Walter Horton, one of the giants of Chicago blues harmonica, he called it ‘Easy’, and Dr Harp’s Medicine Band version of it is here . He borrowed it from Ivory Joe Hunter, a blues crooner and piano player; he called the song ‘I almost lost my mind’. His words were sadly prophetic for the Brexit experience.
“Well, I can tell you, people, the news was not so good
She said, “Your baby has quit you, this time she’s gone for good”
No 3. Freedom come all ye!
Scottish colleagues had already booked me for their Autumn conference, but now they expected me to also play the mouthie. I said I would if they could find me someone to sing the great Scottish anthem, ‘Freedom come all ye!’ in Scots. And they did: the wonderful Josie Murray stepped up to the mark. ‘Freedom come all ye’. It is wonderful song, written by Hamish Henderson at the time of the Polaris CND protests at Faslane in 1960. The ‘Come all ye’ is a rallying cry used in political protest, forever, I called my talk to the Scottish conference ‘Health Come All ye.’ , and recounted my time in Dundee, by the silvery Tay. I spoke also to great Scottish public health work, the campaign for rights to health and the Scottish beacon and conscience for health. Henderson saw his anthem as a world anthem, overcoming Imperialism, where ‘no more would our bonnie callants march to war’, instilling fear as the bagpipes played ‘Scotland the brave’. The tune was ‘The bloody fields of Flanders’, Henderson had heard on the beach of Anzio in the allied invasion of Italy in 1944. The poetry of this song is important, elegant and worth the effort.
No 4. Please see my grave is kept clean
One of my saddest, but ultimately uplifting duties was to commemorate the life of Alwyn Smith, one of our best regarded presidents, which we held at the Christie Hospital in his beloved Manchester. But he was, at least, a proper Yam Yam, like June Crown, they were born in the Black Country; I was only adopted ‘Honorary Black Country’. In amongst the remembrances, I performed Blind Lemon Jefferson’s ‘Please See my Grave is Kept Clean’ more symbolic than literal, the words are a celebration of living, and a plea to remember the achievements of those gone before. I also gave the Faculty Grace that Alwyn composed, passed on to me by John Ashton. I hope my successors will keep up alive this lovely, simple statement which I say at family meals and now, in European public health gatherings.…
No 5. Watermelon man
Another great hero of my public health history was Peter Draper. Peter Draper invented ‘upstream factors’ the things we carelessly talk about not realising this is internal jargon that few outside public health will get without an explanation. He also compiled the definitive text ‘Health through public policy’ to which we all owe an enormous debt for our pious thoughts on health in all policies. His forensic analysis of how media predicts and hijacks our efforts to communicate health messages, was visionary. It pre-dated anything anyone is trying now with social media and we need to develop this kind of surveillance of media – fortunately Martin McKee and colleagues are on the case.
Peter was a great humanist and a great jazz lover, so when we came to celebrate his life, it was fitting that we went to Conway Hall, home of British humanists, and also a venue in which Humphrey Lyttleton had recorded one of his great jazz live albums. Herbie Hancock’s jazz classic is a blues tune I love to play wherever I get the chance. So where better than Conway Hall? I also got to play it at the 2016 Gastein conference with the house band. Thanks guys!
No 6. Juke
Little Walter was the Hendrix of the Chicago blues harmonica. I would take his songs to a desert island hoping I might practice and learn how he did it. I played my version of ‘Juke’ at the brilliant Oxford Registrars public health conference in September 2017. Thank you, Emily Dobell and colleagues.
It was a joy to perform overlooked by Sir Richard Doll, and in the company of the brilliant and chilling presentation of Nigel Hewitt, conscience of the care of homeless people in the UK.
No 7. The songs of Ewan McColl
I talked about ‘Dirty Old town’ in my presentation to the Salford University conference on social prescribing in November 2017. I also talked about ‘Kind of Loving’ and Kitchen Sink drama, somehow I didn’t get my organ out though! But Ewan McColl has been with me since I first learned a few words of the Manchester Rambler in about 1971. McColl was the British equivalent of Woody Guthrie, an extraordinary chronicler of UK working lives and communities, and able to put himself into their heads to sing songs of their experience. We should try to do the same- bringing stories into the tapestry of statistics and policies. So I’ve sung ‘Manchester Rambler’ at the 2017 conference in Telford, and on my leaving do It is a song which celebrates the triumph of working class people for the right to roam- started with the Trespass trail in 1934, the ‘Battle of Kinder Scout’; and finally won in 1998 with the Ramblers Association victory in England (Scotland knew the right to roam was there’s!).
I also got to play ‘The Shoals of Herring’ at the East of England Conference in October 2018. It is a truly beautiful song, celebrating herring fishers and fishing fleets from Yarmouth to Peterhead: a life, and an industry long gone. Although post Brexit, we will all have to revert to eating the most healthy oily fish, the Herring!
No 8. Irish tunes
The Irish have the best tunes. It’s a fact. Tunes I’ve been able to play on my travels have been Dingle Regatta, Raglan Road, the Fields of Athenry, Star of the County Down, and Tell Me Ma., though I’ve not recorded that one! The Green Fields of France, is probably the greatest ever song about war, written by a Scot, Eric Bogle, who became an Australian, about a could be, Scottish, could be Irish, Soldier in WW1, Willie McBride. The Fureys made the greatest version I’ve heard and I commend it to you, but our version, featured in the November 2018 FPH bulletin, is here.
No 9. Notable public health tunesmiths and the song of the month
In our number are many outstanding songsters and musicians. Apologies, Alison MacFarlane, but I only learned just after I had passed on the President robes that you have a public health music review- something like ‘the cholera blues’ I believe? I’d like to sit in on that one! I tried to get more public health participants into my song of the month feature in the bulletin. So far only had the great Gabriel Scally’s ‘Public Health Call’ and Carole Wood’s ‘Five in a bar’ acapella piece, ‘Let every spirit fly’.
To mark Fats Domino’s demise in November 2017, I put up the previously unreleased version of ‘Walking to New Orleans’ by Dr Harp’s Medicine Band. I also put up the brilliant piece of stand up by John Denver- not a song in sight- and I know, hijacked by the US temperance movement. But this version of Joseph Mallins’ poem- ‘The Ambulance down in the Valley’ is a parable of the plight, and the need for public health.
We had ‘Down to the Doctors’ at the Christmas bulletin – to remind me of the greatest band to come out of the East of England!
No 10. Hearts and Minds
I first met Lady Nade, performing for my daughter’s café’s 1st year anniversary party in September 2016 in Bristol. I was on stage playing ‘Back to Black’ with her in minutes and we have been working on an album ever since. Nade is a talented singer songwriter who has just completed her second album launch and tour. We have been cooking the album ‘Hearts and Minds’ over three years. I commend it to you. We are selling the CD for young people’s mental health and older people’s dementia charities. You can find us on Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon, CDBaby.com, or you can buy a CD form me. Bill Wither’s great soul anthem, ‘Lean on me’ is also a long-standing favourite of mine. It is a great statement for community development and public mental health. I first heard it played for a health audience by Jackie Lynton at Sandwell’s first public mental health event in 1997! We featured it on the World Mental Health Day issue of the FPH bulletin in October 2018. Enjoy!
Written by Professor John Middleton,
Immediate Past President, United Kingdom Faculty of Public Health,
President, Association of Schools of Public Health in the European Region (ASPHER)
Honorary Professor, University of Wolverhampton,
Visiting Professor, University of Chester.
Better Health For All 
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