Lyr Req: I Wish I Was a Rock (from Derroll Adams)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Wish I Was a Rock (from Derroll Adams)
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 16 Dec 18 - 03:00 PM

Derroll Adams once told me, in a Wimpy Bar in Earl's Court, at about 2 AM one morning, that he reckoned I was the ugliest bastard he'd ever seen. Who's to say he's wrong?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Wish I Was a Rock (from Derroll Adams)
From: Mr Red
Date: 15 Dec 18 - 06:52 PM

Saw him twice at the Fitters Arms in Walsall 70's ish.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Wish I Was a Rock (from Derroll Adams)
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 15 Dec 18 - 03:31 PM

Sometime, back in the 60s, I heard Alex Campbell raving about Derroll, and I couldn't wait to see him. And, when I did see him, at the Spinner's club in Liverpool, I wasn't disappointed.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Wish I Was a Rock (from Derroll Adams)
From: GUEST,Hootenanny
Date: 14 Dec 18 - 06:17 AM

I believe Derroll's wife is still around, she came along to a session in London about three years ago. She is a friend of Joe Locker.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Wish I Was a Rock (from Derroll Adams)
From: GUEST,Phil Davison
Date: 13 Dec 18 - 09:13 PM

i recorded a live show by Derroll in Bern, Switzerland, circa 1970. Plus a long and fascinating interview with him.
I think I have it on (reel to reel tape) somewhere. I was planning get it to his family if any of them are still around.
I was a yougn journalist and Derrol was brilliantly nice to me.
He explained five black dots he had on his hand. And I've stolen his Rock song ever since, adding my own philosophical lyrics along the way.
Phil, London.
14 December 2018

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: wish i was a rock derroll adams
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Oct 07 - 11:28 PM

does ramblin jacks version have a capo on the 3rd fret?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: wish i was a rock derroll adams
From: GUEST
Date: 29 Aug 07 - 03:26 PM

what would be easier chords to use if using a capo and what fret?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: wish i was a rock derroll adams
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 29 Jul 07 - 02:18 PM

Bflat15 supended 4 - followed by, Eflat minor suspended 2, segueing into C, F and G7

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: wish i was a rock derroll adams
From: GUEST
Date: 28 Jul 07 - 11:04 PM

what are the chords to this song?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: wish i was a rock derroll adams
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 26 Jun 07 - 08:59 PM

With Google Book Search, I found this in "The Fighting Fleets: Five Months of Active Service with the American Destroyers and Their Allies" by Ralph Delahaye Paine, 1918, page 206:

There was little growling among these youthful tars who had been toughened by half a year of it, but to be stood on one's head in a bucking destroyer did become tiresome after a while, and a voice was raised from a gloomy bunk:—

"I wish I were a little rock, a-sitting on a hill:
I would n't do a thing all day, but just be sitting still.
I would not eat, I would not sleep, I would not even wash,
But sit up there a thousand years and rest myself, by Gosh!"

The French pilot had taken this tuneful plaint unto himself as sound doctrine....

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: wish i was a rock derroll adams
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 24 Jun 07 - 02:54 PM

theres another verse

Wish I was a brick sitting in a wall
With a plaster coat and hat


and I've forgotten the rest......

Derek Brimstone might know.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: wish i was a rock derroll adams
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 24 Jun 07 - 01:04 PM

Yup I got that LP FC.
G

[Like all the initials? ¦¬]]

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: wish i was a rock derroll adams
From: Flash Company
Date: 24 Jun 07 - 12:54 PM

It was on the Topic LP of Jack & Derroll in the '50's sung by Derroll who olso did the ' Hi-di-diddle' nonsense chorus.

FC

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: wish i was a rock derroll adams
From: Ernest
Date: 24 Jun 07 - 11:23 AM

It is also on Derroll`s own album "Songs of the Banjoman".

Best
Ernest

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: wish i was a rock derroll adams
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 24 Jun 07 - 06:48 AM

And the Big Yin, who sings it better than Ramblin Jack.

eric

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: wish i was a rock derroll adams
From: GUEST,AMC
Date: 24 Jun 07 - 04:19 AM

The song is on the album "Banjoman - a tribute to Derroll Adams", produced by Hans Theessink and Arlo Guthrie.
It is sung on the CD by his friend Ramblin' Jack Elliot.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: wish i was a rock derroll adams
From: GUEST,thegreypicker
Date: 24 Jun 07 - 12:57 AM

This is how Alex Campbell used to sing it!

I wish I was a rock
Sitting on a hill
Doing nothing the whole day long
But just sitting still
I wouldn't sleep and I wouldn't eat
And I wouldn't even wash
I'd just sit there ten thousand years
And rest myself by gosh

Alex added a gibberish chorus - hi chi cheedlum ... etc

I hope this helps

John

Subject: Lyr Req: wish i was a rock derroll adams
From: GUEST
Date: 24 Jun 07 - 12:40 AM

anyone know the lyrics to this song?


thanks