On the new CD called In Harmony's Way, a collection of songs by a collection of San Francisco Bay Area singers, there's a song called "Daddy Fox," sung by Sylvia Herold. It sounded very familiar, and I finally realized that the tune and most of the chorus was identical to a song called "Barbagal," which is on Gordon Bok's "The February Tapes, vol. II," and also on Bok/Muir/Trickett's "Fashioned in the Clay." Sylvia's verses are in English, and are a version of "The fox went out on a chilly night." "Barbagal" is in Piemontese, a dialect of Italian, and the verses are about an old drunken man.

Now, I assumed that "Daddy Fox" resulted from someone putting "new" old words to the tune of "Barbagal."   But then I happened to come across a website called The Originals, by a man from Holland named Arnold Ruypens (based on his radio show and book by the same name), which says this about the song:

Original: Cantovivo (1979) - Messaggerie Musicali -
Seventies folkband from Piemonte (It) with Alberto Cesa. On their album Leva La Gamba. Lyrics mean nothing; plain sound pleasure. Cesa nails it as "Musica tradizionale inglese, testo in stile non senso". According to folkband Snakes In Exile this song originally came from Ireland. Must have traveled to Italy by sea.

So, did someone from Italy put new words to "Daddy Fox"? Or what? Anybody have the straight dope?

Aloha,
Mark

PS: Buy the CD. It's got some very fine songs and singers, including Mudcatters chanteyranger, RiGGy, radriano, Dave Swan, and Dave's wife Pam (whose Mudcat name I've forgotten, sorry, Pam).