How to Create a Folksong (FS for Dummies)

Subject: How to Create a Folksong (FS for Dummies)
From: Peter T.
Date: 22 Aug 97 - 12:49 PM

Inspired by the "How To Sing the Blues" thread, herewith a first draft of:

HOW TO CREATE A FOLKSONG

1. All folksongs begin with the phrase: “I asked my love to take a walk”

2. The walk should be:

a. Down by the riverside
b. Past the prison
c. Into the valley
d. Over the sea and far away.

It should not be:

a. To the store for a loaf of bread
b. To Wallmart
c. Along the Champs-Elysee, Park Avenue, or Pennsylvania Avenue
d. On rollerblades.

3. The conversation along the way should be about:

a. Your racehorse
b. The perfidious British
c. The revelation that you are her/his longlost brother/husband/blacksmith/Lord
d. The inevitable baby
e. Murder

Subject: RE: How to Create a Folksong (FS for Dummies)
From: Peter T.
Date: 22 Aug 97 - 12:56 PM

4. Places to be mentioned include:

a. Botany Bay
b. The Mountains of ————
c. A Land called Honalee
d. Carrickfergus
e. The valley
f. The fair
g. All of the above in reverse order, Botany Bay always coming last.

5. All folk songs repeat the same words in each verse, but move them around until one person is killed or the ghost appears. If the ghost appears, it repeats the original verses and the process begins all over again. This is known as revenge.

6. The chorus of all folk songs is half of the words of the verse moved around some more, and with the addition of some poignant nonsense syllables, all in a minor key. No new information is provided.

7. References to work in folk songs should include:

a. Hammers (visionary or steam)
b. Railroad trains, preferably on the same track hurtling towards each other
c. Lots of whales
d. Sowing, reaping, harvesting, babies dropped in furrows, etc.

8. Job categories allowed in folk songs include:

a. Circus work
b. Lighthouse keeping
c. Mourning
d. Gypsying (especially kidnapping)
e. Blowing up British buildings.

9. References to work in folk songs should avoid the following job categories:

a. Insurance
b. Work for any government agency except prisons
c. Re-insurance
d. Insurance

10. Words that can be sprinkled at random over folk songs:

gather, farewell, thee, dead, twa, alas, true love, bonnie, dagger, do Lord.

and so on.... Any additions? Yours, Peter

Subject: RE: How to Create a Folksong (FS for Dummies)
From: LaMarca
Date: 22 Aug 97 - 02:10 PM

These apply mostly to ballads:

11. True loves are always either:

a) Missing (gone for seven years)
b) Dead (see Necrophilia element)
c) In disguise
d) Your brother/sister (either known or unknown)
e) False (off chasing/married to another)

If it's a happy ending, it's a very rare folksong...

12. If your true love is dead, you must:

a) Long to kiss his/her dead lips or other portions of the anatomy (The Tradition of Necrophilia)
b) Never love again
c) Have done her in yourself after spending all night diggin' of her grave
d) Have done him in yourself because he done you wrong

13. If you are a sailor, and you meet a fair young lady, you will:

a) Wind up with no money and no clothes, wearing a dress (the Transvestite Element)
b) Get laid after pulling her string
c) Acquire a painful and unpleasant social disease
d) Get shot after she dresses in men's clothing and finds you've been false (see 11-e, 12-d and Transvestite Element)

14. If you are a young lady, and you meet a sailor, you will:

a) Turn him down because he's dirty
b) Turn him down because you don't recognize him (see 11-c and 12-b)
c) Change your mind when you find out he's got money (see 13-a)
d) Change your mind after experiencing his sexual prowess (see 13-b)
e) Dress up in man's clothing (the Transvestite Element, yet again)

More as I think of them...This is fun!

Subject: RE: How to Create a Folksong (FS for Dummies)
From: Bill D
Date: 22 Aug 97 - 03:10 PM

15.and LOTS of metaphors!! Refering to various actions, body parts, etc., should be as circumspect as possible. Birds,flowers,alcoholic beverages,(blud red wine, etc)... may be freely substituted for lips, breasts etc.
And for Male Parts...anything is ok as long as it is longer than it is wide.

16. Women who are NOT active heroines in the song may be given away as prizes to men who achieve some goal...such as killing villians, saving ships, etc.

Subject: RE: How to Create a Folksong (FS for Dummies)
From: Peter T.
Date: 22 Aug 97 - 03:47 PM

To keep to the numbering:

17. You are a bona fide folk singer if:

a) you have nine different guitar capos, including a semi-automatic flipoff
b) your first name is one syllable long, or at most is two syllables that end in a vowel, e.g. Doc, Pete, Woody, Joan, Judy
c) you learned the song on a porch, preferably one with a sofa with the insides sprung out
d) you refuse to make an anatomical pun about “The Londonderry Air”
e) you have “This X fights Y” inscribed somewhere on your instrument, e.g. “this E string fights sexism”.
f) you have a dog named after a colour.

You are not a bona fide folk singer if:

a) you play the Hammond Organ
b) your first name is Brittany (unless you are a boy)
c) your last name is Rockefeller or Windsor
d) you learned the song from your chauffeur or housekeeper, unless her name is Elizabeth Cotten
e) you have a sticker on your guitar that reads: “Baby On Board”
e) you have a cat (whether it comes back or not) or goldfish (see Entry under whales). You can have a horse as long as you race it in England or France.

Subject: RE: How to Create a Folksong (FS for Dummies)
From:
Date: 22 Aug 97 - 04:45 PM

You forgot references to greenwoods, milk-white steeds and lily-white breasts, and angry fathers refusing to let their daughters consort with sailor/ploughboy/gypsy. Folk-song fathers tend to be very stern about these matters, and prone to swift and violent action when provoked, going so far as to exile or even burn their troublesome child. Very rarely do they come round to the daughter's point of view, unless Jack The Tarry Sailor of course returns home with "gold and silver plenty", in which case their view of matters changes quite dramatically.

Subject: RE: How to Create a Folksong (FS for Dummies)
From: Claire K.
Date: 22 Aug 97 - 05:10 PM

Continuing the above message...

Or, in the case of Willie o' Winsbury, you're so handsome that your beloved's father the King says that if he were a woman *he'd* sleep with you, and gives you, a mere stable boy, both permission to marry his long-pregnant daughter *and* the keys to his kingdom.

Claire K.

Subject: RE: How to Create a Folksong (FS for Dummies)
From: Alison
Date: 23 Aug 97 - 12:13 AM

Hi

Can we add a 1b, to the effect that if the song does not start with 1a "I asked my love to take a walk", it has to start with ,

1b "As I went out on a .......... morning."

Thanks

Slainte

Alison

Subject: RE: How to Create a Folksong (FS for Dummies)
From: Henrik
Date: 23 Aug 97 - 02:45 AM

Alison - you beat me to it! A variation (1c) is "As I came in by (obscure Irish/Scottish/English town)..."

Still, I think we have overlooked one thing:

18. If the song is Irish, it should generally include a reference to whiskey.

19. If the song actually IS about drinking, well then the hero must be given a choice between: a) whiskey b) his beloved

If it is to end happily, then he chooses a).

Regards,

Henrik

Subject: RE: How to Create a Folksong (FS for Dummies)
From: Alice
Date: 23 Aug 97 - 11:22 PM

20.There has to be at least one bird in the song.

a. a nightengale waking you
b. a soaring turtle dove
c. a swan in the evening on the lake
d. a blackbird (metaphor for Bonny Prince Charley)
e. esp. if Irish, a thrush, linnet, or wren
f. a lark in the tree
g. a cuckoo with a message (from your false lover)
h. a cock crowing to wake you from your fantasy

Alice

Subject: RE: How to Create a Folksong (FS for Dummies)
From: Bert
Date: 25 Aug 97 - 09:01 AM

And three out of every four verses have to be sung in gaelic.

Bert.

Subject: RE: How to Create a Folksong (FS for Dummies)
From: Justin
Date: 25 Aug 97 - 09:48 AM

If you're a good looking, young woman, and you've got a name like "Shawn" or one that can be shortened to something like, "Bar" or "Dar", then you can ignore all of the above rules and write something like, "My boyfriend was acting like a real putz so I made myself a cup of coffee, but then, when I went to bed, I had a hell of a time falling asleep," and practically everyone between 16 and 26 years old will come to hear you sing it.

Subject: RE: How to Create a Folksong (FS for Dummies)
From: Jon W.
Date: 25 Aug 97 - 10:32 AM

My father, who liked to listen to Mexican music whenever we were within transmitter range of the border, used to say that the Mexicans couldn't write a song without using the word "corazon" (heart). Well I say the Irish can't write a song without using the word "morning."

So:

18) the walk you take should be:
a. Just as the day is a dawnin'
b. One fine morning, all in the month of June
c. When the sun she rises, early in the morning
d. One May morning, all in the month of June.

19) If you mention the name of a month in your song, it must be one of:
a. May b. June

20) Otherwise, to denote the time of year you must use a holiday ending in "mas":
a. Martinmas
b. Michaelmas
c. Christmas

Subject: RE: How to Create a Folksong (FS for Dummies)
From: Wolfgang (Hell)
Date: 25 Aug 97 - 10:57 AM

20) or d. sunday mass

Subject: RE: How to Create a Folksong (FS for Dummies)
From: Bert
Date: 25 Aug 97 - 11:14 AM

Jon,
Re 19. For songs of great drama The month December can be used occasinally.

Subject: RE: How to Create a Folksong (FS for Dummies)
From: Bert
Date: 25 Aug 97 - 11:17 AM

For those of us who consider themselves working class, a gray mare can be substituted for the milk-white steed

Subject: RE: How to Create a Folksong (FS for Dummies)
From: Jon W.
Date: 25 Aug 97 - 11:24 AM

Bert: true, it's hard to freeze to death in May and June

Subject: RE: How to Create a Folksong (FS for Dummies)
From: Allan Samuels
Date: 25 Aug 97 - 03:01 PM

This is just wonderful, and EVERY post has been right on the money (except the ones with generalizations).

I would like to offer additional beginings: 1C. Date beginings-- The year was eighteen and (pick 2 digits) 39 49 53 91 work well, avoid ending in seven In March,(Name Month), The fourteenth (2 sylable date) Day -- Salutation -- Brave boys, Fair Maids, Young men etc. In winter months omit "in" -- nothing happened in January.

1D. Who the singer is- I am just a poor boy, I am a weary traveler, I'm a a lumberjack etc. My name it is John Wilson, My tale I'll tell to you, (will not take long, I swear is true) 1E. What he's been doing-- I've been wandering, working whaling, etc. all occupations must be manual, exhausting and lead to poverty.

Keep it going brave boys!

Allan

Subject: RE: How to Create a Folksong (FS for Dummies)
From: Bert
Date: 25 Aug 97 - 03:40 PM

" all occupations must be manual, exhausting and lead to poverty. " with the exception of moonshining

Subject: RE: How to Create a Folksong (FS for Dummies)
From: Alice
Date: 26 Aug 97 - 01:11 AM

All occupations except for that of the "high born gentleman", the "lord" or "master" who has just lost his Lady-oh to the Gypsie-oh.

Alice

Subject: RE: How to Create a Folksong (FS for Dummies)
From: Bo
Date: 26 Aug 97 - 05:12 AM

Along those lines, Money, in a man, leads to general wimpyness and inability to keep a woman happy or satisfied. All heroes are poor because thats how you satisfy a woman.

2 big exceptions:

a) The last verse of a song, where money, wealth, power etc are good because the characters are generally sick of being in a folk song anyway.

b) If you are a woman, money is almost always good because it helps you afford those poor, heroic, satisfying types with a heart of gold.

Women with money are especially good if the song is about drinking as they represent the tipplers retirement plan.

Subject: RE: How to Create a Folksong (FS for Dummies)
From:
Date: 26 Aug 97 - 12:50 PM

Maybe we should post folksongs we think are archtypical and see which one hits the mark most often. Of the top of my head I think Jack The Tarry Sailor, along the lines of the previous posts.

It begins "As I walked out one May morning/By the seaside as I was a wandering/'Twas there I saw a pretty maid all with her father talking" (ever notice how folksongs always use "all with" in this sense; you never hear people talk like this outside of folksong lyrics). The father is upset that she is in love with a sailor; wants her to drop sailor; Jack then shows up fresh from sea with "five hundred bright guineas" which he drops into his true love's apron; old father has a remarkable change in attitude towards Jack; Jack and true love get married; song ends with Jack enjoining us to "drink boys drink and pass the grog about / For tonight we shall be merry.".

Subject: RE: How to Create a Folksong (FS for Dummies)
From: Peter T.
Date: 26 Aug 97 - 02:17 PM

I also agree with all the above (I have been away and also fighting with the cookie monster) -- certainly morning has to be something one can walk out in -- what use is a folk song without dew? And it surely must be in the 18's. And occupationally challenged. A friend notes that there must also be a glen -- though no one is quite sure what constitutes a glen. The same friend notes that this could all be useful as an FSAT - Folk singers aptitude test, so that if you got into the highest percentile, you could be assured of friends and poverty forever. Sounds fair -- sharpen your pencils. Yours, Peter

Subject: RE: How to Create a Folksong (FS for Dummies)
From: Bert
Date: 26 Aug 97 - 03:21 PM

Peter,
You can have the Morning Dew, I'll stick to the MountainDew myself.

Subject: RE: How to Create a Folksong (FS for Dummies)
From: Bert
Date: 26 Aug 97 - 03:27 PM

BTW it is the Mountain Dew of folk song fame that I mean, Not the "Sody Pop"

Subject: RE: How to Create a Folksong (FS for Dummies)
From: Alice
Date: 26 Aug 97 - 04:40 PM

There have to be riddles in the lyrics, such as strawberries growing in the sea or roses growing on an apple tree, to illustrate the contrariness of life and love.

Alice

Subject: RE: How to Create a Folksong (FS for Dummies)
From: Bill D
Date: 26 Aug 97 - 04:59 PM

Death, dismemberment, and wholesale slaughter are not only permitted in folk songs, but are really required for proper 'tone' in some...as long as they are not merely gratuitous...
....i.e., they must have a 'reasonable' justification ...such as getting rid of pregnant girlfriends (or unwanted babies) or recovering your horse, or setting an example for those who disagree with you! High standards, I know, but important.

Subject: RE: How to Create a Folksong (FS for Dummies)
From: Charlie Baum
Date: 27 Aug 97 - 12:11 AM

The colors orange, silver and purple are to be avoided, UNLESS the song is so traditional that rhyme is unimportant.

Subject: RE: How to Create a Folksong (FS for Dummies)
From: rechal
Date: 27 Aug 97 - 01:56 AM

Chartreuse is out of the question, I suppose?

Also, I'm curious about that season denoted as "all in the month of May." What if the fair maid's promenades extend through the month of the May to overlap into June?

Reminds me of the Seinfeld bit about "all nude" shows. What else would there be?

Subject: RE: How to Create a Folksong (FS for Dummies)
From: Alan of Australia
Date: 27 Aug 97 - 09:58 AM

G'day,
Here is my attempt at following your instructions. Don't know if it works though - we seem to end up with a song that wanders aimlessly from verse to verse and goes nowhere, apparently providing no logical reason for people's actions.

On the other hand, maybe that means the instructions do work after all.

When the first white settlers sailed into Botany Bay in 1788 Kurnell was the place they landed. I doubt if many people were transported to Botany Bay because the settlement very quickly moved up the coast to Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour). This entire area is now surrounded by suburban Sydney where I live.

Obviously May is winter here and a coolibah grove is more likely than an ash grove. Scans better in this song too.

A DUMMY'S FOLK SONG As I walked out on a May morning On a cold, grey winter's day At length I came to far Kurnell On the shores of Botany Bay. With a down derry derry derry down And as I wandered down the road An Irish girl I spied I am your long lost love said I But she knew not that I lied. Oh Willie, dearest Willie she said My father ordered you slain When he discovered I was with child - And with you I had once lain. Now you must be my lover's ghost Come back to haunt me so And I will kiss your clay cold lips But with you I cannot go. I am no ghost and if you've a child A lover I ne'er was to thee But if you'll consent I'll walk with you My racehorse for to see. Kind sir you are too bold said she To speek so freely to me For you only wish to remain as free As a lark up in a tree. How many ships sail in the forest said I I've wondered all my life If you can tell me this I said I'll take you for my wife. I cannot be your wife she said For I fear Britannia's huns And by the uniform you wear I see that you are one. I drew my dagger from my cloak And slew my own true love And now she sleeps beneath the green turf Down by the coolibah grove.

Cheers,
Alan

Subject: RE: How to Create a Folksong (FS for Dummies)
From: Bert
Date: 27 Aug 97 - 10:03 AM

Nice one Alan.

Rechal, talking of "All Nude" shows, I saw a sign on a bar once that advertized "Live Dancers"

TTFN, Bert.

Subject: RE: How to Create a Folksong (FS for Dummies)
From: Peter T.
Date: 27 Aug 97 - 10:11 AM

Dear Alan, beautifully gruesome, perhaps it should have a slight ghostly continuation (being the Aussie edition of FSFD) involving something like:

"And her voice may be heard...."

Yours, Peter

Subject: RE: How to Create a Folksong (FS for Dummies)
From: Alan of Australia
Date: 27 Aug 97 - 10:28 AM

Peter,
Thanks for the idea - the verse writes itself:

Key change, tune change (to Waltzing Matilda), heaps of reverb:

And her ghost may be heard in the grove where her body's laid
Here lies a maid by a soldier betrayed.

Cheers,
Alan

Subject: RE: How to Create a Folksong (FS for Dummies)
From: Allan Samuels
Date: 27 Aug 97 - 07:05 PM

To Alan of Australia. Bravo!! Laughed til i Hurt.

My own singing (you've already achieved "versions") has the last line-- In the glen by the coolibah grove. Simillarly in the coda --in the glen where her bodie's laid.

Thanks for the wonderful words-- they make perfect sense to me.

Allan (a penniless itinerant dentist, in fair Blue Bell town, and I've been a-drillin')

Subject: RE: How to Create a Folksong (FS for Dummies)
From: Bert
Date: 02 Sep 97 - 12:53 PM

This reminds me of that party game "consequences" where everyone writes the first line of a story on a piece of paper, folds it over so that it doesn't show and then passes it on to the next person.

The story always follows the form...

1st. line. He meets her
2nd. line. who he meets
3rd. line. where they met
4th. line. He said to he....
5th. line She said to him....
6th. line. and the consequence was.....

Subject: RE: How to Create a Folksong (FS for Dummies)
From: Laoise
Date: 09 Sep 97 - 07:40 AM

I would like to enter a couple more "should do's" for writing folk songs for Dummies.

Someone always has to travel to seek his/her love, first East and then West, and if that fails they've got to go North and South Between. What a palava! A magnetic compass would have been a very useful instrument in olden times.

A more obvious technique is useful to bear in mind in case you really can't think of a daecent chorus. In these situations it is obligitory to mumble nonsensical things like "Fol de roll, de tiddili nando nido" or "with my tiddle do riddle do rum ti tum" and change them variously throughout the song to make it as original as possible.

Alan, "Folk song for the Intellectually Challenged" was so beautiful I had tears in my eyes. How could he kill her so cruelly? It was inspired, truely the work of a folk genius. All you have to do now is wait thirty years or so...

Tog gabh beag e (Take it easy)

Laoise.

Subject: RE: How to Create a Folksong (FS for Dummies)
From: Shula
Date: 09 Sep 97 - 07:44 AM

Laoise, check your messages.

Shula

Subject: RE: How to Create a Folksong (FS for Dummies)
From: alison
Date: 15 Oct 98 - 12:09 AM

Hi,

someone mentioned this in the songwriting thread so I thought I'd bring it back to the top again..

It's a goodie.

Slainte

alison

Subject: RE: How to Create a Folksong (FS for Dummies)
From: Zorro
Date: 15 Oct 98 - 01:00 AM

Has anyone been in touch with David Alan Coe??

Subject: RE: How to Create a Folksong (FS for Dummies)
From: BSeed
Date: 15 Oct 98 - 01:33 AM

Alan, if she were quick, she could have answered his riddle: all of them...if it's early enough in the century, all ships were made of wood, no? --seed

Subject: RE: How to Create a Folksong (FS for Dummies)
From: The Shambles
Date: 15 Oct 98 - 06:01 AM

Thank you Alison for digging this thread up. I have enjoyed it a lot.

Subject: RE: How to Create a Folksong (FS for Dummies)
From: AndyG
Date: 15 Oct 98 - 06:34 AM

Muffled titter...

We appear to be missing the rules for "recruitment".
Which seem to be:-
21a)
i) If you're female you enlist as a drummer or cabin-boy (Transvestite Element @13a)
ii) you get a happy ending and marry an officer (who admires drummers or cabin boys !)
iii) unless you enlist to follow your soldier/sailor -boy
21b)
i) If you're male you're pressed and usually lose bits when encountering a cannon-ball
ii) unless you're Irish, when you outsmart the recruiting party and don't go
iii) or Victorian, when you become a hero and return safely home.

AndyG

I'd missed this thread, jolly silly it is too.

Subject: RE: How to Create a Folksong (FS for Dummies)
From:
Date: 15 Oct 98 - 07:15 AM

You could also add that vegetation, if specifically mentioned,other than as a perch for the bird, must be unusual i.e. apples growing on an ivy tree, roses changing colour from red to white when placed on a grave etc.

If inland, water must always be either :a) wide and deep, or b)fast flowing to sweep the body away.

If the sailor is to have the required sexual prowess he must be a rating, not an officer, otherwise the rule about lords and general wimpyness apply.

If the sailor is leaving his own true love it must be for a good length of time, like twenty five years. Two weeks in Bognor won't do. Naturally, the true love must remain true during this time, unless of course the sailor returns early, when it is mandatory that he catches her with another man or is told she is gone to be wed to another. The true love then ceases to play this role and instead becomes The False Jade.

This is brilliant fun! Mo

Subject: RE: How to Create a Folksong (FS for Dummies)
From: Frank in the swamps
Date: 15 Oct 98 - 07:27 AM

Let me get this straight (sort of), if I wanna be a folksong hero....

...I have to go out one morning, dressed in womans array (the transvestite thing) in search of my true love who has gone off for a soldier (don't ask). He/She will ask She/He/Me a few obscure riddles (don't tell) and whichever one of us is not pregnant will have to kill the other. Said victim can be knifed or thrown in the waters deep (don't inhale) but has to be buried in the cold, cold clay. Talk about your Larks in the morning!

Now this can take place in some obscure village or Kansas City, but in Kansas City you substitute shooting for drowning. It has to be in May or June or bleak December,but in either case I wind up in the Frankfurt jail and tonight I'm goin' on a spree, 'cause tomorrow I'm gonna be hanged. Thanks a lot you bunch of lowdown, dirty dogs (Hey! folksong rules, I wanted to call you high class yip yaps). You know, I think I'll just forego my dreams of being commemorated in folksong, and continue my hard, laborious, menial career of skinnin' gators down by the cypress grove.

Frank down by the green swamp sidey O.

Subject: RE: How to Create a Folksong (FS for Dummies)
From: Art Thieme
Date: 15 Oct 98 - 10:40 AM

Don't think anyone mentioned starting with:

COME ALL YE BOLD...
COME ALL YOU BOLD...

Subject: RE: How to Create a Folksong (FS for Dummies)
From: Art Thieme
Date: 15 Oct 98 - 11:16 AM

The guy is always gone for 7 years but when he gets home she doesn't recognize him because he's become a seal. Finally, he shows her his half of a golden ring that they' cut in half before he left to swim half way 'round the damn world to a place near Detroit called SOUL SCARY. He had grabbed the ring when they were once riding on a merry-go-round in Coney Island when they had been there singin' and drinkin' and visiting with Jack & Woody & Billy Faier & Frank Hamilton and Guy Carawan and a baby named Arlo. (No proper name for a kid I'm thinking.) The seal shows her his and she shows him hers. (THE RING--you guys have filthy minds.)He takes their kid for a swim and her new guy is a harpooner for a country that STILL hunts whales and he kills them both while being harrassed by a boat from Greenpeace! Says he thought they were whales but she thinks something's fishy about that. The harpooner is attacked by a dog named Blue and he kills the dog by cutting off it's tail. A week later the ghost of the dog shows up and the harpooner and the gal take the ghost to a liquor store---'cause that's where they retail spirits!!

Art

Subject: RE: How to Create a Folksong (FS for Dummies)
From: The Shambles
Date: 15 Oct 98 - 11:35 AM

I think we have to move with the times a bit now. It should be- COME ALL YE BOLD

Subject: RE: How to Create a Folksong (FS for Dummies)
From: The Shambles
Date: 15 Oct 98 - 01:42 PM

I need help on the same lines as these on how to write a country song.

See the thread- How to write a country song-TIPS PLEASE.

Subject: RE: How to Create a Folksong (FS for Dummies)
From: Jerry Friedman
Date: 15 Oct 98 - 06:47 PM

LOL the second time around!

Subject: RE: How to Create a Folksong (FS for Dummies)
From: Alan of Australia
Date: 15 Oct 98 - 10:35 PM

G'day,
I've always had a problem with the idea of half a ring. Wouldn't it fall off?? Or did they slice it the other way? If so with what, a laser cutter? Actually the practise seems to have been so common they probably had patented ring cutters. The vendors would have done a roaring trade with sailor boys.

Cheers,
Alan