The song about the injustices of the Welsh coal industry has been performed by many people, but Robyn references The Byrds version.

The history of the Bells of Rhymney is interesting.

Idris Davies wrote the poem "Bells of Rhymney" in the 1930s. It's in his poetry cycle _Gwalia Deserta_, which is all about the Great Strike in which the coal miners, oppressed and mistreated for years, rose up in a mass work stoppage to demand decent wages and better conditions, and how the strike ground on for over a year, the people growing hungrier, the owners refusing to budge. Finally the union leaders caved in and the Strike was defeated. "Bells of Rhymney" is one of the few really lyrical poems in _Gwalia Deserta_, mostly because it was a take-off on the old London song "Oranges and Lemons, Say the Bells of St. Clement's." Underneath the nursery-rhyme setting is the unbelievable misery and death in the South Wales coal mines of the 20s and 30s; the town names are references.

Pete Seeger found the poem "Bells of Rhymney" and set it to music. His music is essentially "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" -- you don't realize it until you see the score, though. He performed it as an acoustic folk song; Seeger is the dean of American protest singers, and this fit in well with his repertoire.

The Byrds took Seeger's song and did their own arrangement, dropping the middle verse with its references to plunder and God. This is the version that Robyn, the Soft Boys, and many other bands have covered in later years.

The Oyster Band, on their album _Deserters_, go back and rework the Seeger version, playing it with all its original political force.

- David Librik