Here's the other one from Randolph. I'll post the tunes at Mudcat MIDIs (If you're fussy like I am, you will notice what appear to be mistakes in the meter of the first verse of the tune, but that's the way Ranfolph has it in Roll Me). So, the question remains - are these all the same song? The tunes for the two Randolph versions are almost the same, and quite different from the 1940 song and the Yiddish song.
-Joe Offer-MOTHER, MAY I GO OUT TO SWIM?
"Mother, may I go out to swim?"
"Yes, my darling daughter.
Hang your clothes on a hick'ry limb,
But don't go near the water!"A B C D E F G,
H I J K L M,
N O P Q R S T,
And that's the way to spell `em.
U V double U X Y Z,
Let the chorus ring `em,
Come and learn your A B C's,
For that's the way to sing `em!
From May Kennedy McCord, Springfield, Mo., Sept. 1, 1939. "My father learned his letters by singing this song, more than ninety years ago," she writes. "There were many verses, some not at all suitable for children to sing. But the ABC chorus was always used as a refrain."
[873A]source: Ozark Folksongs, Vance Randolph, 1982
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