The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #11190   Message #500178
Posted By: Chicken Charlie
06-Jul-01 - 06:14 PM
Thread Name: Counting Songs
Subject: RE: Counting Songs
(Oh, Children) Go where I send thee.
How shall I send thee?
I'm gonna send you one by one,
One for the little bitty baby that was born in Bethlehem.

[Start over; build each verse like Twelve Days of Xmas.]
I'm not going to recall all the numbers, but search "Go Where I Send Thee" or variants thereof.

Two for Paul and Silas.
Three for the Hebrew children.
Six for the six that couldn't get fixed.
Eight for the eight that stood at the gate.
Etc....

Flanders and Swann [not BTF? Damn age!]did a pseudo-Russian folk song they called "In the Desert." Odin, odin, odin verblud ushol--One camel moves of. They got up to twelve. You had to hear it; point was it was done--or overdone--in imitation of a Jewish cantor with that kind of resonance and intonation. Not exactly a knee-slapper if you just tell it.

Also "Green Grow the Rushes," another one that builds like 12 Days.
I'll sing you one, ho! Green grow the rushes, oh.
What is your one, oh?
One is one and all alone, and everymore shall be it so.
Two, two the lily-white boys, cloth-ed all in green, oh.
Three, three, the rivals.
Four for the Gospel makers.
Five for the symbols at your door.
Six for the six proud walkers.
Seven for the bright stars in the sky.
Eight for the April rainers.
Nine for the nine bright shiners.
Ten for the Ten Commandments.
'leven for the 'leven that went to Heaven.
Twelve for the Twelve Apostles.

CC