The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #4300   Message #2376205
Posted By: Jim Carroll
28-Jun-08 - 01:01 PM
Thread Name: Children's Street Songs
Subject: RE: Children's Street Songs
Nice little collection of Australian kids songs (all rude) entitled, 'Shocking, Shocking, Shocking.
A friend of mine who used to visit schools and talk about theatre told me of the time he asked permission of a headmaster to record some children's songs.
He set the tape-recorder up in front of the class and one-by-one they came up and sang or recited their polite pieces into the microphone and went back and sat down.
After a while he decided on a fresh tack so, with the permission of the teacher he placed the recorder inside a walk-in cupboard with a blanket over the door so the kids could do their thing in relative privacy, left the tape running while he and the teacher disappeared to the staff room for a cup of tea.
They returned some time later to find the tape full of songs and rhymes which would out-Burns The Merry Muses of Caledonia.
My own favourite of the genre was a rhyme recorded by a friend from East London, from one of his daughters
Poor Little Sparrer, poor little fing,
No fevvers on its 'ed, no fevvers on it's wing,
Can't fly, can't sing
Useless barsted
(or alternatively)
Cut its bleedin' ed orf.
Jim Carroll