What did your Dad used to sing?

Subject: RE: What did your Dad used to sing?
From: The Sandman
Date: 01 Oct 14 - 01:05 PM

The Bold Fenian Men.

Subject: RE: What did your Dad used to sing?
From: GUEST,Desi C
Date: 01 Oct 14 - 01:28 PM

He wasn't much of a singer but I can recall these few as a tot in theearly 50's

Pub With No Beer
Tom Dooley
Gypsy Rover
How much is that doggy
I'll take you home again Kathleen
Sunny side of the street

Subject: RE: What did your Dad used to sing?
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Oct 14 - 07:26 AM

Oh what a super thread !!!   yes, its great when people stand up at a club and say "My dad/mum/brother etc used to sing this" It keeps the Tradition Alive !!!

My DAD (Doodah) used to sing

Just an old fashioned lady with those old fashioned clothes,
and the smile that said "welcome" to you
though she wears no fine clothes,
nor no rich silken robes, still there's something that makes
her divine,
for the angels above, taught the way how to love
to that Old Fashioned Mother of Mine.

Subject: RE: What did your Dad used to sing?
From: bubblyrat
Date: 02 Oct 14 - 07:33 AM

"Green Grow The Rushes Oh " ( the "Two Two The Lily-white Boys" version ) and "There Once Was A Monk Of Great Renownm Who Shagged All The Women In London Town " . -- He was ex-RAF Bomber Command , so I forgive him.

Subject: RE: What did your Dad used to sing?
From: CET
Date: 03 Oct 14 - 06:06 PM

I don't recall my father singing many songs, but he enjoyed music and had a pretty good voice. I do, however, have a distinct memory of him singing two songs to me, All Things Bright and Beautiful, and The Bonnie Earl of Moray. I can remember being really impressed by the line "He might have been the King."

Subject: RE: What did your Dad used to sing?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 04 Oct 14 - 01:27 AM

Oh won't you TRY wheaties, TRY wheaties...

Bedtime was Hush Little Baby

Subject: RE: What did your Dad used to sing?
From: The Sandman
Date: 28 May 24 - 04:44 AM

The Bold Fenian Men

Subject: RE: What did your Dad used to sing?
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 28 May 24 - 09:27 AM

As an attempted lullaby: The Owl and the Pussycat.

As his party piece (at pitch): Goliath of Gath.

Subject: RE: What did your Dad used to sing?
From: Charmion
Date: 28 May 24 - 09:44 AM

To the tune (more or less) of the “March of the Toreadors” from “Carmen”:

“Oh, Jemima, look at your uncle Jim,
Diving in the duckpond, teaching ‘em how to swim!”

Dad wan’t tone-deaf, but he couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket. Married into a musical family, I’m sure he often felt side-lined when the rest of us were busy making melodious noise. However, he was an unfailing source of lyrics, especially antique parodies learned as a Boy Scout in the 1930s.

Subject: RE: What did your Dad used to sing?
From: The Sandman
Date: 28 May 24 - 10:09 AM

The Red Flag

Subject: RE: What did your Dad used to sing?
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 28 May 24 - 11:13 AM

> Dad wasn’t tone-deaf, but he couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket.

Very few people really are actually tone deaf; they're more likely to be what I've heard called "tone dumb".* In Herself's case, it was caused by being intimidated by a music teacher, very publicly, for singing flat. Decades later, with much careful encouragement and practice, I've helped convince Herself otherwise --- when she can choose the pitch, she can sing after all, but sometimes needs to be bump-started.

* Used by Pete Atkin [pri comm] to describe Clive James: "He can't even tap his feet along to a Tamla Motown record."

Subject: RE: What did your Dad used to sing?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 May 24 - 12:08 PM

Charmion, you've described a reversal of our family situation. My dad was the folk singer, and as he was learning the music and the words, I I learned the words. My piano playing was never related to folk or his musical interests, I wasn't tempted to pick up a guitar and follow his lead, but I always loved the songs and if he was singing and hit a spot where he forgot words one of us kids could usually fill in the gap. I don't sing in public unless it is part of a group because I don't feel like I carry a tune well.

There were some songs that we kids learned very quickly, usually the ones that Mom said "don't sing it in front of the kids."

When they held hoots at the house everyone would sing family-friendly songs while we were up, and then we were sent to bed, upon which time we sat at the top of the stairwell or next to the heat vent from from the living room up to one of the bedrooms and listen. They knew we were listening, but it was understood that some of the performers might have been shy about singing their bawdy songs in front of children.

For us, those bawdy songs were a part of the home enrichment in our educations, Dad told us what they meant. Rape, murder, infanticide, double-dealings, cheating, wars, plague, it was all in there. Traditional English, Irish, Scottish and American folk songs and ballads. (Plus quite a few of his own songs and parodies in later years.)

Subject: RE: What did your Dad used to sing?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 28 May 24 - 12:21 PM

My Dad was very musical. I remember him singing (and playing on either guitar or accordion) "Irene Goodnight" and the beer barrel polka but everything he sang and played sounded East European!

Subject: RE: What did your Dad used to sing?
From: gillymor
Date: 28 May 24 - 12:41 PM

"How are Things in Guacamole"
Dad used to mangle song lyrics for comic effect but took Gershwin and Cole Porter very seriously. He'd been a crooner in college and his favorites seem to be "But Not For Me" and "I Get a Kick Out of You" among others.
He also became a Kingston Trio fan when they first appeared and used to sing their version of "It Takes a Worried Man" when we did projects around the house.

Subject: RE: What did your Dad used to sing?
From: Neil D
Date: 29 May 24 - 10:05 AM

Little Redwing
Rock Candy Mountain
Derby Town (I've since learned that this was an American variation of The Darby Ram)
Sometimes he would sing the opening line: I'm forever blowing bubbles. He would then turn to my mom and say " Well hi. Bubbles". She'd get so mad.