What is "strawhead"

n. (label en rare) A (l/en: stupid) person.

Strawhead is a northern England, Preston-based folk musical group founded in 1974, that specializes in historical British music. Bolstering their national reputation for their accurate and powerful interpretation of the genre of social history of the 16th to 19th centuries, the group's repertoire includes popular songs from the English Civil War era to the Victorian period performed on period and electronic instruments.

The band members are:

• Gregg Butler ( vocals, cornett, cittern, recorder, keyed bugle, ophicleide, euphonium)
• Malcolm Gibbons (vocals, 12-string guitar, laúd)
• Chris Pollington ( keyboard, midi horn, accordion, guitar)
• Alison Younger (occasional vocalist)

The group have engaged in projects associated with disparate musical traditions in British history. In October 2005, Strawhead celebrated the 200th anniversary of 21 October 1805 Battle of Trafalgar through a performance at the 2005 Canalside Festival in the market town of Banbury. Other projects have included music of the English Civil War and the Victorian period. The Fylde Folk Festival website lists "subjects such as the colonisation of America, the English Civil War, Marlborough’s Wars in the Low Countries, Monmouth’s Rebellion, and drinking songs."

According to a BBC review, "Strawhead have enjoyed considerable success appearing at the top of the bill at most of the UK's major folk festivals, becoming firm favorites among folk fans." In addition, Strawhead has achieved worldwide recognition for their distinctive sound and interpretation of songs.

Strawhead fueled some controversy when it made a derivate work from an old ballad entitled "The Bold Fusilier". The Bold Fusilier is a British song which some argue predates the 1903 tune to Waltzing Matilda. Waltzing Matilda is Australia's most widely known folk song, and has been referred to as 'the unofficial national anthem of Australia. There are similarities between Waltzing Matilda and The Bold Fusilier, making for argument that one of the songs is based on the other song. There is no evidence that The Bold Fusilier is older than Waltzing Matilda and Australia and most sources reject the idea that a British song serves as a parent work for the Australian Waltzing Matilda.

In the 1970s, Strawhead wrote four more verses for The Bold Fusilier and called their resulting song, The Rochester Recruiting Sergeant. The Rochester Recruiting Sergeant was adopted by a generation of folkies and battle re-enactors. The four additional verses called to mind the Marlborough's Wars of 1702 to 1713. In addition, the Strawhead creation sounded so like a relic of Marlborough's wars that many of the folkies and battle re-enactors came to believe that Strawhead's The Rochester Recruiting Sergeant was from the early 18th century. As a result, folkies and battle re-enactors came to mistakenly believe that the 1903 tune of Waltzing Matilda was borrowed from the 1970s The Rochester Recruiting Sergeant, rather than the reverse, even though the sleeve notes to Strawhead's 1978 record features an explanation of how they developed The Rochester Recruiting Sergeant.

In April 2012 Strawhead announced that they were to retire from live performances.

Strawhead is a play by American writers Norman Mailer and Richard Hannum about Hollywood icon Marilyn Monroe. The play is a stage adaptation of Mailer's 1980 book, Of Women and Their Elegance, an imaginary memoir told in Monroe's voice.

Strawhead takes place in New York City during the last few days of Monroe's life in August 1962, a period in which she is alone with her memories, most of which revolve around the days when she lived in New York. The play largely is composed of a fanciful collection of interviews that never took place between Monroe and Mailer during Marilyn Monroe's last hours. The play made its Off Broadway debut in January 1986, which included Mailer's wife Norris Church in the cast and subsequently his daughter Kate Mailer in the Monroe role. Kate Mailer additionally appeared on the April 1986 Vanity Fair cover as the Marilyn Monroe character in Strawhead.