Songs about circus performers, fairs, carnivals

Subject: RE: Songs - Circus/Show/Fetes Characters/Themes
From: PHJim
Date: 16 Jan 17 - 11:39 PM

This thread's been retired for seven or eight years, but recent news stories have caused me to re-open it.
Here's my favourite circus song that I've decided to start singing again after a few years off.


Circus Song       David Essig

Fat boy plays the guitar in the back of his old trailer
For the flipper man and the little flipper girl
And he stares across the vacant lot as he sings Hank Williams' Lonesome
Draws a curtain tied around his sideshow world

And the flipper man says he smokes too much as he lights another Camel
At the mention of his wife he shakes his head
She could never take the circus life she couldn't stand the travel
And he tries to get his little girl to bed.

And Shorty Jones the wheelchair clown and assistant chief mechanic
He's lying fast asleep in the lighting gear
He lost his legs when his ship went down in the frozen North Atlantic
And he put an end to a major league career.

   So get your tickets early grab the kids and come on down
   To the carnival, the circus is in town
   They'll be spills and thrills for children of all ages young and old.
   For the people in the carnival it's just another day on the road.

Now the motorcycle thrill rider's got a steel plate in his head
And a kid who flew a chopper in the war.
Now his son's an unknown soldier in a picture by the bed
As his Daddy drives the wall of death once more

And the stripper she says she don't know where the circus life will take her.
Ah the constant bump and grind drives her insane.
She said she's gonna chuck it all someday and become an undertaker
And buy a house in the sunny South of Spain.

So get your tickets...

Now old Bob the midway barker he slumps down at the table
He said he's heard this song how life's a carnival
And it makes him laugh that people think the circus life is special
"It's just another job," he said, "that's all."

So get your tickets...

Subject: RE: Songs - Circus/Show/Fetes Characters/Themes
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 17 Jan 17 - 02:28 AM

Just gave Willie Nelson's Red Headed Stranger album a listen through again and was admiring his take on an old American circus/carnival instrumental standard, Juventino Rosas' Sobre las Ola (Over the Waves):

YT: Willie Nelson - O'er the Waves

Here's Nashville version:
YT: Chet Atkins - Over The Waves

On the album it's followed by Bobbie Nelson's cover of L. Wolfe Gilbert's Down Yonder (another Texas keyboard favorite); a nice turn-of-the-century leitmotif.

Subject: RE: Songs - Circus/Show/Fetes Characters/Themes
From: Long Firm Freddie
Date: 17 Jan 17 - 05:33 PM

There's a monologue about Little Aggie and the rest of her elephant troupe:

Aggie The Elephant

Marriott Edgar

When Joe Dove took his elephants out on the road
He made each one hold fast with his trunk
To the tail of the elephant walking in front
To stop them from doing a bunk.
There were fifteen in all, so 'twere rather a job
To get them linked up in a row,
But once he had fixed 'em Joe knew they'd hold on,
For an elephant never lets go.

The pace it was set by the big 'uns in front,
'Twas surprising how fast they could stride,
And poor little Aggie, the one at the back...
Had to run till she very near died.
They were walking one Sunday from Blackpool to Crewe,
They'd started at break of the day,
Joe followed behind with a bagful of buns
In case they got hungry on t'way.

They travelled along at a rattling good pace
Over moorland and valley and plain,
And poor little Aggie the one at the back
Her trunk fairly creaked with the strain.

They came to a place where the railway crossed road,
An un-gated crossing it were,
And they wasn't to know as the express was due
At the moment that they landed there.
They was half way across when Joe saw the express-
It came tearing along up the track-
He tried hard to stop, but it wasn't much good,
For an elephant never turns back.

He saw if he didn't do something at once
The train looked like spoiling his troupe,
So he ran on ahead and he waggled the buns
To show them they'd best hurry up.

When they caught sight of buns they all started to run,
And they soon got across at this gait,
Except poor little Aggie-the one at the back,
She were one second too late.

The express came dashing along at full speed,
And caught her end on, fair and square
She bounced off the buffers, turned head over heels,
And lay with her legs in the air.

Joe thought she were dead when he saw her lyin' there,
With the back of her head on the line
He knelt by her side, put his ear to her chest,
And told her to say " ninety-nine."
She waggled her tail and she twiggled her trunk ;
To show him as she were alive;
She hadn't the strength for to say "ninety-nine,"
She just managed a weak "eighty-five."

When driver of th' engine got down from his cab
Joe said "Here's a nice how-de-do,
To see fifteen elephants ruined for life
By a clumsy great driver like you."

Said the driver, "There's no need to mak' all this fuss,
There's only one hit as I've seen."
Joe said, "Aye, that's right, but they held on so tight
You've pulled back end off t' other fourteen."

Joe still walks around with his elephant troupe,
He got them patched up at the vet's,
But Aggie won't walk at the back any more,
'Cos an elephant never forgets.

Aggie at Monologues.co.uk

I think the words may have been transcribed from a recording by Bernard Wrigley.

Likes his elephants, does Bernard.

LFF

Subject: RE: Songs - Circus/Show/Fetes Characters/Themes
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 18 Jan 17 - 07:15 PM

Here is the complete text of an 1886 interview given by American circus man John Robinson (I've posted the link in a couple of threads.) Interesting for both the intersection of circus music and circus animals; and the American circus as popular music medium/distributor:

CIRCUS MUSICIANS.

The Difficulties of Selecting Music for the Performance.

WHAT THE LEADER'S DUTIES ARE.

Time and Tune Must Be Adapted to the Character of the Work in the Ring – Men and Horses That Cannot Stand Any Change.

"Once a man gets into the life of a circus band," said the leader, and accustomed to its hard work, he likes it, and very few care to leave it again for the casual and chance engagements of unattached musicians. Even if they were so fortunate as to get places in regular theatre orchestras they would have their dull season each year, and, when at work under union rates, would only get $2 50 a performance, out of which they would have pay. their personal expenses, so that they would be no better off than in a circus. Then, there is no small attraction in, the travel, excitement, open-air life and variety of a circus. Some of our circus band-men go on playing until they are quite old.

"It is the duty of the leader to select and arrange the music for his band in a circus just the same as any other band, but the circus leader has much the hardest work to do. In the first place he must have such an immense quantity of music, as you will readily conceive. But, still more difficult for him, if he does not thoroughly understand the circus business, is the selection of the particular airs that will fit to the various performances in the ring. That would not be so hard too if there was only one ring and one performance in it at a time, but when you have from three to five various performances going on simultaneously you don't find it so easy to pick out music that will trump in or follow suit with them all.

TIME AND MUSIC TO SUIT.

"If there are two or three riding acts simultaneously, it will be comparatively easy to fit them, but when you have things going on upon the ground and in the air at once, you must be very careful or you will throw your horses or your people out. Then you have to know which one of the lot is most important, to which you will have to play, making the others secondary, but serving them as well as possible at the same time. For instance, when the stars are doing their really wonderful triple trapeze act, though 'there are three other acts going at the same time, I have to play for the stars and must control the time and force of the music to suit them. When he sounds his bell the band has to play pianissimo, for that is the signal that he is about to speak a word of direction or warning to the girls, and his voice must be heard. And when one of their astounding feats has been performed, the band must break out with a fortissimo crash, blending with the roar of applause from the audience. No matter where the writer of the music may have put his diminuendos or crescendos, I have to play it that way, whether the piece becomes unrecognizable or not, whether it may suit the other performers or not, and whether people say 'how badly the band plays that air' or not, for it may be a question of limb, if not of life, to have it done in just that way.

"One thing that gives, necessarily, a certain sameness to much circus music is the compulsory emphasis of notes in regular recurrent order, not demanded at all for musical expression, but very requisite for marking the time for the horses in a menage act, or some other riding. If you do not thus sharply accent the time the best trained horse is liable to be all broken up and make a failure of his performance. When I was with Hengler many a time I had to go with my violin to the ring at 6 o'clock in the morning to play by the hour near a horse that was undergoing training, so as to familiarize the animal with the air to which he would be required to perform in the ring. Hengler would have a horse in training in that way as much as three months steadily before trusting him in the ring, and he was very careful never to allow the time to be made slower or more rapid, to suit the horse, but kept regular, until the beast fell naturally into the step to it.

PLAYING THE "SAME OLD TUNE."

"Here there is so much careful training, and we have to adapt the time to the horses, to a certain degree, but still the marked accent must be kept, and that is enough to make a very strong family resemblance between tunes; enough to make many people say 'same old tune.' The elephants and the trained stallions require to have always the same music, or if not nearly the same, then so very near to it that the animals cannot recognize any difference. Of course we do work in some changes on them, but not abrupt ones, for the American public will not stand the same thing all the time, no matter what the preferences of the animals may be. When I was in England, seven years ago, Hengler's band was playing the same music for menage and trick acts that they had played for seven years before, and I have no doubt they are playing the same pieces now. That would be likely to breed a riot in this country, I think.

"Many trapeze and other specialty performers have music of their own, and when we can accommodate them by playing it we always do so. Generally, however, their music is arranged for string bands to be used in theatres and variety shows, and we could not play it without rearrangement, which would be too much trouble so long as we can supply other music quite as good. The lady who does a fine trapeze act and the long elide on the inclined wire has some beautiful Spanish music, and as it suits very well for the triple trapeze act, which is on at the same time, we play it. Now and then we work in a new piece on her, and she is very good-natured about it, always saying, 'All right; but after two or three days she is sure to come and say, 'Please, Mr. Robinson, let me have my own music again.' She can work better with the music to which she is accustomed. The trapeze performers also have their own music for their special work. Mme. Dockrill was very particular about her music, and need always to sing with the band, but of course in a tone that the audience could not hear, when riding in the ring. She no doubt got into the habit while training her horses in Winter, accustoming them to the measure of music for their movements. Jim Robinson, the great bareback rider, had a certain set of quadrilles that he always insisted upon having played for him, and he would not ride to anything else. Fish, on the other hand, though he had quite a fondness for music and used to practice on the violin in his dressing-room a good deal, did not seem to care at all what was played for him in the ring. Stickney and Melville were very particular to have each season new sets of quadrilles and other melodies for their acts.

(Circus Bandmaster & Proprietor John Robinson, Daily Alta California, Friday, July 9, 1886 p.2)

Subject: RE: Songs - Circus/Show/Fetes Characters/Themes
From: GUEST,Lou Judson
Date: 18 Jan 17 - 08:15 PM

Patreified Man by Stevie Coyle
Petrified Man

Subject: RE: Songs - Circus/Show/Fetes Characters/Themes
From: rich-joy
Date: 19 Jan 17 - 01:13 AM

and don't forget that wonderful Aussie duo - now trio - CLOUDSTREET.

Their "Circus of Desires" CD (just one of many excellent recordings), features "Bill the Bear" : "...... John's epic saga song. It tells of an Aussie strongman that heroically wrestled a bear in the travelling Wirth's Circus at the turn of the twentieth century......"

http://www.cloudstreet.org/

Cheers!
Rich-Joy

Subject: RE: Songs - Circus/Show/Fetes Characters/Themes
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 23 Jan 17 - 12:03 AM

Robinson: " Stickney and Melville were very particular to have each season new sets of quadrilles and other melodies for their acts."

As that was written in 1886 Robert Stickney Jr. was touring the Caribbean with the Donovan Circus. The quadrille (kwadril) remains a huge folk song/dance form in the Lesser Antilles unto this very day.

If there were fan-girly magazines back then, Stickney would have been a cover boy. In 1889-90 Stickney returned the Caribbean with Emma Lake, daughter of Agnes Lake Hickok (aka: Wife of a Legend) and fresh off a command performance for Queen Victoria. The concessionaire for that tour was Aeronaut Charles Colby.

The hook from Colby (Kolbi) can be found in a dozen songs throughout the Americas: Louis Camille (Trinidad); Choucoune (Haiti); Yellow Bird (U.S.) and is still popular during carnival season.

Circus trivia:
Twelve years later in 1902, almost to the day, Mount Pelée erupted and wiped out the city of Saint-Pierre where Colby performed. Survivor Ludger Sylbaris made further history as the first black man ever to star in a segregated side-show (Barnum & Bailey)

Subject: RE: Songs - Circus/Show/Fetes Characters/Themes
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 23 Jan 17 - 01:14 AM

Index to the 1894 Cole and Lockwood United Shows Songster:

1. Mamie, Come Kiss Your Honey Boy.
2. O' Mrs. O'Flarity What Did You Mean by That?
3. The Fisherman's Bride.
4. De Order of the De Golden Key.
5. Sweet Marie.
6. The Widow's Plea for Her Son.
7. Marguerite.
8. Twixt Love and Duty (includes music and lyrics)
9. The Poor Gal Didn't Know, You Know. (includes music and lyrics)
10. The Shamrock's Appeal to the Rose.
11. A Mother Can Never Forget Her Boy.
12. Irishman, Dutchman and Yankee.
13. Engraved on a Irishman's Heart.
14. The Shamrock and the Golden Rod.


http://www.ourtownnews.info/morris-ny/Cole-and-Lockwood-Songster

Subject: RE: Songs - Circus/Show/Fetes Characters/Themes
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 23 Jan 17 - 03:59 PM

Crosslink: thread.cfm?threadid=10686&messages=29#3834257