Tune Req: Untimely Death is topic. What songs?

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Untimely Death is topic. What songs?
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego
Date: 20 May 08 - 07:33 PM

"Papa Loved Mama" may have been done by Burl Ives, but I never heard it. I did hear it done by Garth Brooks, of all people, several years ago at the height of his popularity.

I was also reminded, reading this thread, how many maudlin teenage death songs I heard in my teens (1950's). Then, in the 1970's, there was the "Tallahatchee Bridge" number - people were always killed by jumping off things or getting caught on the railroad track; grisly stuff! Then, of course, the singer laments the tragic loss of this lost soul of questionable judgement.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Untimely Death is topic. What songs?
From: Bob the Postman
Date: 20 May 08 - 07:01 PM

The Vacant Chair. American Civil War parlour song.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Untimely Death is topic. What songs?
From: GUEST,Ken Brock
Date: 20 May 08 - 03:49 PM

"I Am the Walrus" (Beatles). During the fadeout, there's about 6 lines from Act IV, Scene 6 of King Lear including the lines "untimely death".

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Untimely Death is topic. What songs?
From: GUEST,Chief Chaos
Date: 20 May 08 - 03:47 PM

Admittedly I didn't ask the writer about a day in the life. I heard this over the radio. Sorry if it's incorrect.

How 'bout "The Ballad Of Billy Joe"

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Untimely Death is topic. What songs
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 20 May 08 - 02:51 PM

How about "the world's shortest folk song"? (From, I think, Burl Ives, heard sometime in the '50s) --

"Papa loved Mama
And Mama loved men.
Mama's in the graveyard
And Papa's in the pen."

Linn

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Untimely Death is topic. What songs?
From: GUEST,Neil D
Date: 20 May 08 - 11:21 AM

1952 Vincent Black Lightning

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Untimely Death is topic. What songs?
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 20 May 08 - 06:47 AM

Agnes Martin from Ludford, a Lincolnshire lass,
Well known for her sewing and a listening ear.
Gave birth to her firstborn in 1901,
A beautiful girl then a boy the next year.

In Ludford the whole of the family were born,
Their living of humble but adequate means.
George worked for small wages, at two nearby farms,
Growing carrots and turnips, potatoes and beans.

Agnes in her spare time, stitched pictures so fine,
Admired by so many, from both near and far.
Her pictures all hung, in folks houses we're told,
And there's one that still hangs in a local pub bar.

Tales came of a life of adventure and fun,
Abroad in the Americas far over the sea.
They sold off their dwelling for sovereigns bright,
And felt for the first time in life they were free.

They departed on horseback, for Southampton Dock,
Their neighbours all came out to bid them "God Speed".
They had so little time to get there for their ship,
They took only belongings, they knew they would need.

They arrived in Southampton, in adequate time,
Soon ushered on board and their cabin they found.
In no time at all, the great foghorn was blown,
And their beautiful ship was Americas bound.

Now Agnes and George and young Hilda and John,
Not one of them ever for a moment would think.
That the ship they had boarded, thought unsinkable,
The "Titanic" would hole on an iceberg and sink.

The whole Martin family, they perished that night,
Fate took them and dragged them beneath the wild waves.
Sucked under by a giant thought unsinkable,
Below to their quiet and watery graves.

Mike Hill.
(July 2006)

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Untimely Death is topic. What songs?
From: Bernard Quenby
Date: 20 May 08 - 06:36 AM

Hobo Bill's Last Ride - excellent, you can even do some yodelling!

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Untimely Death is topic. What songs?
From: Padre
Date: 20 May 08 - 12:38 AM

Any good train wreck song:
Wreck of the Old97
Wreck of the Virginian #3
Casey Jones
True and trembling Brakeman

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Untimely Death is topic. What songs?
From: GUEST
Date: 19 May 08 - 11:23 PM

Wind that Shakes the Barley (lover killed, coupled with Irish rebel song)

Four Maries (lady-in-waiting to be executed)

Gettysburg (Sally Don't You Cry) by the Journeymen (sung by a friend of the fallen soldier) (not a true folk song, but certainly in the idiom

MANY songs relating to war seem to have this theme. Good luck!

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Untimely Death is topic. What songs?
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego
Date: 19 May 08 - 05:19 PM

"Sam (or Samuel)Hall" works for me. Of course, I have a rather frivolous sense of the macabre, where songs and stories are concerned. "Tom Dooley (Dula)", "The Ballad of Jesse James," "Unfortunate Miss Bailey" and "The Ship Titanic (if you are into major tragedy)" all spring to mind.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Untimely Death is topic. What songs?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 19 May 08 - 04:59 PM

whats a timely death?

I cant recall anybody saying - by gum I was ready for that!

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Untimely Death is topic. What songs?
From: GUEST
Date: 19 May 08 - 04:38 PM

A Day In The Life" The first verse is actually about the death of John Lennon's mother, killed by a drunk driver

No it isn't. It's about Tara Browne.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Untimely Death is topic. What songs?
From: GUEST,Chief Chaos
Date: 19 May 08 - 04:20 PM

"A Day In The Life" The first verse is actually about the death of John Lennon's mother, killed by a drunk driver.

"And You Say That The Battle Is Over" The untimely death of animals at man's hands.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Untimely Death is topic. What songs?
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 19 May 08 - 02:37 PM

"The Banks of Red Roses" is the best I can think of.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Untimely Death is topic. What songs
From: topical tom
Date: 19 May 08 - 01:50 PM

Again, a young soldier.

   http://www.lyricsdownload.com/laura-cantrell-when-the-roses-bloom-again-lyrics.html When the Roses Bloom Again

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Untimely Death is topic. What songs?
From: frogprince
Date: 19 May 08 - 12:20 PM

Willy Seton

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Untimely Death is topic. What songs?
From: ClaireBear
Date: 19 May 08 - 12:00 PM

Here's one my father used to sing:

UNDER THE WILLOW SHE'S LAID WITH CARE
-- Stephen Foster


Under the willow she's laid with care,
Sang a lone mother while weeping,
Under the willow, with golden hair,
My little one's quietly sleeping.

Chorus:
Fair, fair, and golden hair;
Sang a lone mother while weeping,
Fair, fair, and golden hair;
Under the willow she's sleeping.

Under the willow by night and day,
Sorrowing ever I ponder;
Free from its shadowy, gloomy ray,
Ah! never again can she wander.

Chorus

Under the willow I breathe a prayer,
Long to linger forever
Near to my angel with golden hair,
In lands where there's sorrowing never.

Chorus

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Untimely Death is topic. What songs?
From: Bernard Quenby
Date: 19 May 08 - 11:44 AM

Nobody's Moggy (Eric Bogle)

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Untimely Death is topic. What songs?
From: Snuffy
Date: 29 Feb 08 - 03:28 PM

A reprieve was comin' o'er the brig o' Banff
Tae set MacPherson free,
But they put the clock a quarter before
And hanged him tae the tree.

It don't get more untimely than that.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Untimely Death is topic. What songs
From: topical tom
Date: 29 Feb 08 - 02:13 PM

I remember listening to this song on the radio back in the fifties. Surely the death of any young soldier is untimely.
I remember the last lines as :

             Go tell his sweetheart who's waiting
             For his ship to anchor at shore
             That he died in enemy action.
             Her sweet lips he'll kiss no more.


Subject: Lyr Add: FROM MOTHER'S ARMS TO KOREA (Louvin Bros)
From:
Date: 05 Aug 97 - 12:07 PM

Hi, Dale. Love that song, in fact, love any song the Louvin Brothers did.

FROM MOTHER'S ARMS TO KOREA
The Louvin Brothers
Written by Charles and Ira Louvin

I just got an unfinished diary
That I once gave my darling son.
It starts the day when he left us
And ends 'neath the enemy's gun.

CHORUS: "From mother's arms to Korea
And tomorrow I'll face the front lines."
But the next line was wrote by his buddies:
"From a foxhole to a mansion on high."

"Last night I saw Mother kneeling
By the old hearthstone to pray.
In my dream, I thought I was with her."
And that's all my darling could say.

Please tell his sweetheart who's waiting
For his ship to anchor at shore
To change her plans and forget him.
Her lips he'll kiss no more.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Untimely Death is topic. What songs?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 29 Feb 08 - 10:38 AM

Most death is untimely.

I suppose if we lived in Huxley's Brave New World, all our deaths would be scheduled and right on time. ven in Huntsville Penitentiary (where they seem to have a fairly well oiled death factory line organised) - I bet no one says, well this is timely....really opportune!

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Untimely Death is topic. What songs?
From: Elmore
Date: 29 Feb 08 - 10:16 AM

Eric Bogle's "No Man's Land" (Willie McBride)

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Untimely Death is topic. What songs?
From: GUEST,Suffolk Miracle
Date: 29 Feb 08 - 09:56 AM

Presumably, the younger the dier the more untimely the death?

The baby in Lamkin
Sweet Fanny Adams (actually eight, but seven in the song)
Hugh of Lincoln (eight)
The 'children playing in the street' in Number Two Top Scene
The lords' and ladies' sons in Bitter Withy
Long a-Growing (a veritable old married man of 16)

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Untimely Death is topic. What songs?
From: bfdk
Date: 29 Feb 08 - 04:33 AM

The Water Lily (Lawson/Herdman) and Where the Brumbies Come to Water (Ogilvie/Trad.) - from Martyn Wyndham-Read's 'Undiscovered Australia')

Mama's Lily and Prayer from Little Round Top (Jed Marum)

Who Pays the Piper (Nancy Nicolson)

The Aberfan Coaltip Tragedy (Thom Parrott)

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Untimely Death is topic. What songs?
From: GUEST,Mike B.
Date: 29 Feb 08 - 12:59 AM

Cruel War (if you include the last verse that Peter, Paul & Mary chose to omit)

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Untimely Death is topic. What songs?
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego
Date: 28 Feb 08 - 07:24 PM

I imagine it's all untimely, unless you've been planning for it.

Tom Dooley
Roddy McCorley
The Long Black Veil

And, just for fun, Sam Hall.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Untimely Death is topic. What songs?
From: pavane
Date: 28 Feb 08 - 08:37 AM

Clementine

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Untimely Death is topic. What songs?
From: pavane
Date: 28 Feb 08 - 08:37 AM

William and Diana (and parody Villikens and his Dinah)
Bruton Town
Clerk Sanders
Musgrave/Matty Groves
She moved through the fair
Brave Wolfe
Banks of Green Willow
Crazy man Michael
Lord Randall (and parody Green and Yeller)
Sir Patrick Spens

The list is endless

(PS why the Lowlands of Holland? We don't hear if he died or not)

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Untimely Death is topic. What songs?
From: GUEST,Suffolk Miracle
Date: 28 Feb 08 - 08:17 AM

I'll tell you a story and it won't take long
About a friend of mine who now is gone.
They found him dead just the other day
And why he died - noone can say.

For he was handsome and he was young
His muscles firm and his heart was strong
'You'll live for years' the doctor said.
But just the other day they found him dead.

They found him dead so I've been told.
His heart was still and his body cold.
There was just one clue to why he died -
A German bayonet thrust through his side.

Lee Hayes, I suspect. No doubt one of our American viewers can clarify.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Untimely Death is topic. What songs?
From: GUEST,HughM
Date: 28 Feb 08 - 07:57 AM

The Battle of Killiecrankie
The Massacre of Glencoe
Rolf Harris used to sing a song about apprentices having accidents -anyone remember that?
Threescore and ten
The Border Widow's lament.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Untimely Death is topic. What songs
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 28 Feb 08 - 02:40 AM

Look at the tombstones,
Bloody great boulders,
Oh, aint it grand boys
To be bloody well dead
Oh, aint it grand boys
To be bloody well dead.

Let's not have a sniffle,
Let's have a bloody good cry,
And always remember, the longer you live,
The sooner you'll bloody well die.

Look at the mourners,
Bloody great hypocrites...etc


'Bout all I can remember of it; can't even recall where I heard it (Dominic Behan maybe).

Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Untimely Death is topic. What songs
From: open mike
Date: 27 Feb 08 - 08:22 PM

how about a thread about Ultimate Death?

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Untimely Death is topic. What songs
From: open mike
Date: 27 Feb 08 - 08:10 PM

Here in Townes Van Zant's Tecumseh Valley, Caroline is found beneath the stairs...lyrics in this thread..not in D.T. (yet) both untimely and unbecoming for a girl whose father just died.....a double death song....

Here is another...Darcy Farrow falls off her horse and dies and then her fiance' shoots himself...bingo another two-in-one..

i hope i got the links right any way i was trying to post
Darcy Farrow, Tecumseh Valley, Blue Wing

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Untimely Death is topic. What songs
From: open mike
Date: 27 Feb 08 - 08:04 PM

I have a few..in fact a few years back when boht of my parents died i sang a lot of =songs that included death...guess i was processing it.

in this song, by Tom Russell (one of his greatest) the last verse is sing from the casket...very untimely to die in the middle of a song.

Blue Wing--look in this thread for lyrics and chords.

When is death "timely?"

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Untimely Death is topic. What songs?
From: SouthernCelt
Date: 27 Feb 08 - 06:51 PM

You're right Peter, "Northern Journey" was the third, not second. Next time I'll check my albums before I rely on memory.

SC

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Untimely Death is topic. What songs?
From: Suegorgeous
Date: 27 Feb 08 - 03:33 PM

I am stretched on your grave (my fave song of all time)

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Untimely Death is topic. What songs?
From: SINSULL
Date: 27 Feb 08 - 02:50 PM

Crash On The Highway (I Didn't Hear Nobody Pray)
Any of the mining disaster songs

Larry Otway (InObu) wrote a beautiful song in commemoration of the World Trade Center firemen and police.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Untimely Death is topic. What songs
From: Midchuck
Date: 27 Feb 08 - 02:19 PM

You're talking about maybe half of all folk songs and 2/3 of bluegrass.

We sing "Long Black Veil" and carefully explain to the audience that it is NOT a bluegrass song, even though some bluegrass groups do it, because the female lead survives.

Peter.

PS - I believe "Northern Journey" was I&S's third album. The first was self-titled, Four Strong Winds was the second. I think.

Peter

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Untimely Death is topic. What songs
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 27 Feb 08 - 01:24 PM

Not yet exactly folk, but
Endless Sleep - Jody Reynolds
B. J. the D. J.
Teen Angel
He Wore Black Denim Trousers (and Motorcycle Boots) - The Cheers
[Does anyone remember the member of The Cheers who became a TV
   game show host?]

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Untimely Death is topic. What songs
From: topical tom
Date: 27 Feb 08 - 01:18 PM

"Will The Flowers (Roses) Bloom In Heaven?"

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Untimely Death is topic. What songs?
From: Jack Campin
Date: 27 Feb 08 - 01:14 PM

If you've got a Highland piper, "The Lament for the Children".

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Untimely Death is topic. What songs?
From: ClaireBear
Date: 27 Feb 08 - 01:05 PM

Polly Vaughan
The Young Man Cut Down in His Prime
The Trees They Do Grow High

and, hmmmmm, if you reworked the lyrics just a bit to evoke, say, "The Demon Lover," wouldn't "You Picked a Fine Time to Leave Me Lucille" make a great ghost story?

Cheers,
Claire

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Untimely Death is topic. What songs
From: topical tom
Date: 27 Feb 08 - 12:56 PM

"Put My Little Shoes Away"

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Untimely Death is topic. What songs?
From: SINSULL
Date: 27 Feb 08 - 12:44 PM

Put My little Shoes Away

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Untimely Death is topic. What songs?
From: SouthernCelt
Date: 27 Feb 08 - 12:34 PM

Correcting: The album name is "Northern Journey" of course, not my hurriedly typed version.

I thought I had posted the lyrics to this version in a lyric add thread but I don't get it on a search...oh well. If you want to hear my version of it (without Sylvia's trilling harmonies of course) you can go my MySpace music page: SouthernCelt: the Music The song will be up there for at least another few weeks or so.

SC

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Untimely Death is topic. What songs?
From: Bernard
Date: 27 Feb 08 - 12:32 PM

With Her Head Tucked Underneath Her Arm (Weston & Lee)

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Untimely Death is topic. What songs
From: GUEST,PMB
Date: 27 Feb 08 - 12:29 PM

Gilderoy.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Untimely Death is topic. What songs?
From: SouthernCelt
Date: 27 Feb 08 - 12:21 PM

I think "The Jealous Lover" (the version done by Ian & Sylvia on their second album "Norther Journey") would fit in the category since the boyfriend shot his girl thinking she was a rival suitor.

SC

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Untimely Death is topic. What songs?
From: GUEST,Volgadon
Date: 27 Feb 08 - 12:14 PM

Lowlands of Holland.