Stanley Bootle, known as Stan Kelly-Bootle (15 September 1929 – 16 April 2014), was a British author, academic, singer-songwriter and computer scientist. He took his stage name Stan Kelly (he was not known as Stan Kelly-Bootle in folk music circles) from the Irish folk song "Kelly, the boy from Killane". His best-known song is the "Liverpool Lullaby" or "The Mucky Kid" which was recorded in 1965 on the ''Three City Four'' LP and sung by Marian McKenzie. It was also sung by the

Ian Campbell Folk Group The Ian Campbell Folk Group were one of the most popular and respected folk groups of the British folk revival of the 1960s. The group made many appearances on radio, television, and at national and international venues and festivals. They per ...

on the ''Contemporary Campbells'' LP. It was later recorded by

Judy Collins Judith Marjorie Collins (born May 1, 1939) is an American singer-songwriter and musician with a career spanning seven decades. An Academy Award-nominated documentary director and a Grammy Award-winning recording artist, she is known for her ec ...

in 1966 for her album ''

In My Life "In My Life" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles. It appeared on their 1965 album '' Rubber Soul''. Its lyrics were written primarily by John Lennon, credited to Lennon–McCartney. George Martin contributed the piano solo bridge. ...

''.

Cilla Black Priscilla Maria Veronica White (27 May 1943 – 1 August 2015), better known as Cilla Black, was an English singer, actress and television presenter. Championed by her friends the Beatles, Black began her career as a singer in 1963. Her ...

recorded it three years later as the

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record compan ...

to her pop hit "Conversations". Kelly-Bootle achieved the first postgraduate degree in computer science in 1954, from the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

Early life

Stan Kelly-Bootle was born Stanley Bootle in

Liverpool Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancas ...

, on 15 September 1929 and grew up in the

Wavertree Wavertree is a district of Liverpool, England. It is a ward of Liverpool City Council, and its population at the 2011 census was 14,772. Located to the south and east of the city centre, it is bordered by various districts and suburbs such as ...

area of the city. His parents were Arthur Bootle and Ada Gallagher.

Education

Kelly-Bootle was schooled at the

Liverpool Institute The Liverpool Institute High School for Boys was an all-boys grammar school in the English port city of Liverpool. The school had its origins in 1825 but occupied different premises while the money was found to build a dedicated building on ...

. He spent 1948–1950 doing his national service in the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurkha ...

, achieving the rank of Sgt. Instructor in

RADAR Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, Marine radar, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor v ...

. He attended

Downing College, Cambridge Downing College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge and currently has around 650 students. Founded in 1800, it was the only college to be added to Cambridge University between 1596 and 1869, and is often described as the old ...

, graduating with a first class degree in Numerical Analysis and Automatic Computing in 1954, the first postgraduate degree in computer science.

Folk singing career

In 1950 954, not 1950, from personal experience of Peter Gardner, who was also one of the founder members of the St Lawrence Folk Song Society, and who contributed to http://stlawrence.jongarvey.co.uk/ Kelly-Bootle helped found the St. Lawrence Folk Song Society at

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

. As a folk singer-songwriter, he performed under the name Stan Kelly. He wrote some of his own tunes and also wrote lyrics set to traditional tunes. In the course of his musical career, he made over 200 radio and television appearances, and released several recordings, as well as having his songs recorded by others.

Discography

Solo releases include: *''I Chose Friden – Songs for Cybernetic Lovers''. Computer humour songs recorded in 1963. *''Liverpool Packet'', Topic Records release TOP 27, 1958. Songs about Liverpool. *''Songs for Swinging Landlords To'', Topic Records release TOP 60. Rent protest and anti-landlord songs of both varieties. *Wrote and produced a sound and song depiction of

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Mersey Estuary and comprises five metropolitan boroughs: Knowsley, St Helens, Sefton, Wir ...

called ''Echoes of Merseyside'' (LPDE 101) for the

Liverpool Echo The ''Liverpool Echo'' is a newspaper published by Trinity Mirror North West & North Wales – a subsidiary company of Reach plc and is based in St Paul's Square, Liverpool, Merseyside, England. It is published Monday to Sunday, and is Liverp ...

newspaper. *''O Liverpool We Love You'', Transatlantic Records XTRA 1076, released 1976. This album was a tribute to

Liverpool F.C. Liverpool Football Club is a professional football club based in Liverpool, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. Founded in 1892, the club joined the Football League the following year and has ...

, prepared with the team's cooperation. While creating the album, Kelly travelled with the team for both UK and European games for several years, and also for two seasons managed several players, including

Kevin Keegan Joseph Kevin Keegan (born 14 February 1951) is an English former footballer and manager. A forward, he played for several professional clubs from 1968 to 1984. Having begun his career at Scunthorpe United, he moved to Liverpool in 1971 a ...

and Tommy Smith. Other audio recordings include: *Kelly performed the part of "The Rambler" in the BBC's 1958 production ''The Ballad of

John Axon John Axon GC (4 December 1900 – 9 February 1957) was an English train driver from Stockport (Edgeley Depot) who died while trying to stop a runaway freight train on a 1 in 58 gradient at Chapel-en-le-Frith in Derbyshire after a brake failu ...

''. This broadcast won the Italia Prize, and excerpts were subsequently released on a highlights LP. This was the first BBC

radio ballad The radio ballad is an audio documentary format created by Ewan MacColl, Peggy Seeger, and Charles Parker in 1958. It combines four elements of sound: songs, instrumental music, sound effects, and, most importantly, the recorded voices of those wh ...

. *Two tracks ("Liverpool Town" and "The Ould Mark II") on ''Revival in Britain, Vol 1'', produced by Ewan MacColl, Folkways Records FW 8728, Library of Congress R62-1246. *One track ("The Young Sailor Cut Down in His Prime") on ''Topic Sampler No. 2'', Topic Records, TPS 145, 1966 *Performing on

Stan Hugill Stanley James Hugill () (19 November 1906 – 13 May 1992) was a British folk music performer, artist and sea music historian, known as the "Last Working Shantyman" and described as the "20th century guardian of the tradition". Biography He wa ...

's ''Shanties from the Seven Seas'', HMV 1970

Computing career

He started his computing career programming the pioneering

EDSAC The Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator (EDSAC) was an early British computer. Inspired by John von Neumann's seminal '' First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC'', the machine was constructed by Maurice Wilkes and his team at the Univer ...

computer, designed and built at

. He worked for IBM in the United States and the UK from 1955 to 1970. From 1970 to 1973, he worked as Manager for University Systems for Sperry-UNIVAC. He also lectured at the

University of Warwick , mottoeng = Mind moves matter , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £7.0 million (2021) , budget = £698.2 million (2020 ...

Writing career

In 1973, Kelly-Bootle left Sperry-UNIVAC and became a

freelance ''Freelance'' (sometimes spelled ''free-lance'' or ''free lance''), ''freelancer'', or ''freelance worker'', are terms commonly used for a person who is self-employed and not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. Freelance ...

consultant, writer and programmer. He was known in the computer community for ''The Devil's DP Dictionary'' and its second edition, ''

The Computer Contradictionary ''The Computer Contradictionary'' is a non-fiction book by Stan Kelly-Bootle that compiles a satirical list of definitions of computer industry terms. It is an example of "cynical lexicography" in the tradition of Ambrose Bierce's ''The Devil's Di ...

'' (1995), which he authored. These works are cynical lexicographies in the vein of

Ambrose Bierce Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce (June 24, 1842 – ) was an American short story writer, journalist, poet, and American Civil War veteran. His book ''The Devil's Dictionary'' was named as one of "The 100 Greatest Masterpieces of American Literature" by t ...

's '' The Devil's Dictionary''. Kelly-Bootle authored or co-authored several serious textbooks and tutorials on subjects such as the

Motorola 68000 The Motorola 68000 (sometimes shortened to Motorola 68k or m68k and usually pronounced "sixty-eight-thousand") is a 16/32-bit complex instruction set computer (CISC) microprocessor, introduced in 1979 by Motorola Semiconductor Products Secto ...

family of

CPU A central processing unit (CPU), also called a central processor, main processor or just processor, is the electronic circuitry that executes instructions comprising a computer program. The CPU performs basic arithmetic, logic, controlling, a ...

s, programming languages including various C compilers, and the

Unix Unix (; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multiuser computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, ...

operating system. He authored the "Devil's Advocate" column in ''

UNIX Review ''UNIX Review'' was an American magazine covering technical aspects of the UNIX operating system and C programming. Recognized for its in-depth technical analysis, the journal also reported on industry confabs and included some lighter fare. His ...

'' from 1984 to 2000, and had columns in ''Computer Language'' ("Bit by Bit", 1989–1994), ''OS/2 Magazine'' ("End Notes", 1994–97) and ''Software Development'' ("Seamless Quanta", October 1995 – May 1997). He contributed columns and articles to several other computer industry magazines, as well. Kelly-Bootle's articles for magazines such as ''

ACM Queue ''ACM Queue'' is a bimonthly computer magazine founded and published by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). The magazine was established in 2003. Steve Bourne Stephen Richard "Steve" Bourne (born 7 January 1944) is an English comput ...

'', ''AI/Expert'', and ''UNIX Review'' contain examples of word-play, criticism of silly marketing and usage (he refers often to the computer "laxicon"), and commentary on the industry in general. He wrote an online monthly column posted on the Internet. While most of his writing was oriented towards the computer industry, he wrote a few books relating to his other interests, including * ''Liverpool Lullabies, The Stan Kelly Songbook'', SING Publications, 1960. Second edition, 1976. * ''Lern Yourself

Scouse Scouse (; formally known as Liverpool English or Merseyside English) is an accent and dialect of English associated with Liverpool and the surrounding county of Merseyside. The Scouse accent is highly distinctive; having been influenced he ...

– How to Talk Proper in Liverpool'', Scouse Press, 1961, written with Fritz Spiegl and Frank Shaw. Sixteen editions published through 1991. * ''The Terrace Muse, An Anthology of Soccer Songs and Chants'', serialized in the ''

Daily Express The ''Daily Express'' is a national daily United Kingdom middle-market newspaper printed in tabloid format. Published in London, it is the flagship of Express Newspapers, owned by publisher Reach plc. It was first published as a broadsheet ...

'' in 1970.

Death

Stan Kelly-Bootle died on 16 April 2014, aged 84, in hospital in

Oswestry Oswestry ( ; ) is a market town, civil parish and historic railway town in Shropshire, England, close to the Welsh border. It is at the junction of the A5, A483 and A495 roads. The town was the administrative headquarters of the Borough ...

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to ...

References

External links

Stan Kelly-Bootle's homepage
Kelly-Bootle's online monthly column (2000–04); accessed 18 April 2014.
''Stan died. No flowers or tears''
"Bill Leece salutes Stan Kelly-Bootle, a founding father of modern computing and Liverpool folk legend" - an obituary and tribute from his home town newspaper; accessed 23 April 2014. {{DEFAULTSORT:Kelly-Bootle, Stan 1929 births 2014 deaths Alumni of Downing College, Cambridge British computer scientists English songwriters British technology writers English computer scientists Musicians from Liverpool Writers from Liverpool People educated at Liverpool Institute High School for Boys Place of death missing