Song Sung Wrong

Subject: Song Sung Wrong
From: Phil Edwards
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 05:09 AM

(I thought of posting this on the "Rout of the Blues" thread, but decided it was too silly. You have been warned.)

I've got a retentive memory for lyrics; usually when I've heard a song three or four times, most of it will have stuck. But sometimes, for whatever reason, something else sticks instead. So for some time now I've never been able to hear "Rout of the Blues" without wanting to sing out:

O bring me a bottle of Manchester ale
And a pair of my Manchester shoes!

(My alternative version stops there, fortunately.)

Similarly, a while ago I learned the whole of the Red Flag - to the tune of the White Cockade - from a recording on which it was sung with great seriousness and intensity. Practising the song, I found myself mimicking that intensity but singing

The people's flag is blue and brown
You mustn't fly it upside-down
It's known to every horse and cow,
We must not change its colour now!

Apologies to Jim Connell - very silly and disrespectful. (I got it right when I sang it in public.)

Does anyone else's lyric-learning brain misbehave like this, or is it just me?

Subject: RE: Song Sung Wrong
From: Joe Offer
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 05:37 AM

Song sung wrong,
Everybody knows one.
Song sung wrong,
Every garden grows one.
Me and you are subject sing wrong now and then
But when you take a song and sing it wrong
You'll sing it wrong again.

Sorry. The devil made me do it. And if that isn't bad enough for you, try this YouTube Video.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Song Sung Wrong
From: Will Fly
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 05:38 AM

I was at a singaround last night and someone struck up with "The Black Velvet Band". Every time I hear this, or join in on it (which, thank God, isn't very often), I can't help thinking of the words as taught to me by an old friend who'd served in Northern Ireland with the 2nd Battalion the Scots Guards.

In which the last lines of the chorus go: "And her hair hung down to her arsehole - Tied up with a black velvet band".

Unfortunately, last night, I drifted off in the middle of the song and, without thinking, sang these lines loudly and clearly. I didn't actually get my coat as I don't think anyone heard...

Subject: RE: Song Sung Wrong
From: Will Fly
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 05:41 AM

Joe - just caught your post... Why in heaven's name can't I, just for once, resist a blue clicky thing?

Subject: RE: Song Sung Wrong
From: catspaw49
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 05:50 AM

Shouldn't this be transferred to the RUS thread?

...........ducking and running..............

Spaw

Subject: RE: Song Sung Wrong
From: Weasel
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 06:18 AM

I'm afraid I can't sing Black Velvet Band without thinking
"Her head was on top of her shoulders
Tied on with an elastic band"

Sorry.

Subject: RE: Song Sung Wrong
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 06:30 AM

Will:
Black Velvet Band: (mark II)

They drink their Guinness & Cider
And then the performers all stand
With a fiddle, guitar & a bodhrun
They call them the '*Black Velvet' Band




*Black velvet: a drink of stout & champagne, or, more commonly, Guinness & Cider

Subject: RE: Song Sung Wrong
From: matt milton
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 06:39 AM

I've started to sing Sometimes I feel Like a Motherless Child recently, accompanying myself on the mandolin. It's one of the songs in Dix Bruce's excellent First Lessons: Mandolin book (Mel Bay publishers).

Twice now, I've mis-sung the line in the second verse 'Sometimes I feel like a feather in the air' as 'Sometimes I feel like a ferret in the air'. I don't know whether that's a Freudian slip or not, or what that says about me...

Subject: RE: Song Sung Wrong
From: Will Fly
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 06:49 AM

Black Velvet is an excellent drink. I have it on my birthday every year - and that's the Guinness & champagne version!

Subject: RE: Song Sung Wrong
From: GUEST,Howard Jones
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 07:08 AM

"And her knickers hung over her ankles
She'd broken her elastic band"

I used to know a singer who would insist on singing, apparently in all seriousness, "I'll give you seven years penile servitude" - the mind boggles!

Subject: RE: Song Sung Wrong
From: GUEST,Musket
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 07:38 AM

Her eyes they shone like footballs
I thought her the queen of the kop
I said "Do you like Sheffield United?"
"No" she said "not a lot."

As sung on the kop at Hillsborough over the years.

Song sung wrong?

How many people do hear singing Pomona as Lomona?

Subject: RE: Song Sung Wrong
From: Leadfingers
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 07:43 AM

Every time I hear Sovay I keep having the urge to sing " With a sawn oif shotgun all by her side"

And B V B - Her Boobies hung over her shoulder , held up by a big navvie's hand .

Subject: RE: Song Sung Wrong
From: Rog Peek
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 12:06 PM

I have a recording of Elvis Presley singing 'Are You Lonesome Tonight' where he sings...............
             ......when I kissed you and called you sweetheart
Do the chairs in your parlour seem empty and bare?
Do you gaze at your bald head and wish you had hair?
Is your heart filled with pain...........
...followed by much laughter!

Rog

Subject: RE: Song Sung Wrong
From: Snuffy
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 01:06 PM

BVB - And her hairy toungue over her shoulder ...

Subject: RE: Song Sung Wrong
From: Acorn4
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 01:14 PM

And her breasts hung down from her shoulders
Held up by a great navvy's hand.

Subject: RE: Song Sung Wrong
From: Weasel
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 04:57 PM

And, of course, the one we all know -

"Come all ye tons of soil".

Subject: RE: Song Sung Wrong
From: Phil Edwards
Date: 21 Jan 09 - 06:36 PM

Forgot one.

"Now Jonathan died and he left his head
On an ironing-board, they say..."

I may need professional help.

Subject: RE: Song Sung Wrong
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 21 Jan 09 - 10:29 PM

Finally, after all these years, I learn what Neil Diamond is singing in 'Song sung blue.' I thought it was something in French until Joe posted that link.

Thanks, Joe.

Now can somebody explain who Andy was in 'Goin' to the chapel, Andy, goin'ta get mar-ar-ar-ied' ?

Subject: RE: Song Sung Wrong
From: katlaughing
Date: 21 Jan 09 - 11:05 PM

Joe, that's exactly the song that came into my mind when I saw the thread title! Thanks for the link.

Subject: RE: Song Sung Wrong
From: GUEST,HughM
Date: 22 Jan 09 - 08:22 AM

There she blows, my Ringsend rose.....

Subject: RE: Song Sung Wrong
From: Joe_F
Date: 22 Jan 09 - 09:27 PM

I think I have recorded this elsewhere in this company, but: For many years, in listening to Ewan MacColl sing "Wark of the Weavers", I heard
"There's folk that's independent o' ither tradesmen's wark"
as
"There's folk that's independent -- a' ither trades must wark".
Pawky humor, I thought: Being financially independent is like any other trade, except for one detail.

Subject: RE: Song Sung Wrong
From: GUEST,Rich
Date: 23 Jan 09 - 08:03 AM

"Down the lane I walk with my sweet mary,
teeth all bent, and lips so hairy,
Its good to touch the green, green grass of home."

Subject: RE: Song Sung Wrong
From: lady penelope
Date: 23 Jan 09 - 09:34 AM

A friend of mine permanently ruined 'Oh Boy' for me, now I couldn't tell you what the correct lyrics are, all I can sing is -
"All of my life I've been missing
Your left tit cos your right one's missing, oh boy..."

Recently I've been learning "My Johnny was a shoemaker", and in the last couple of weeks he's ended up with various careers, but has ended up thus
"My Johnny was a punk rocker,
And dearly he loved me,
My Johnny was a punk rocker,
And pogo'ed out to sea...."

An imagination is a dangerous thing to leave to it's own devices...

Subject: RE: Song Sung Wrong
From: melodeonboy
Date: 23 Jan 09 - 09:49 AM

Yes, a similar thing happened to me many years ago with "Let's Dance" by Chris Montez.

"Hey baby, won't you take a chance,
Put your hand down my underpants, and let's dance....."

Subject: RE: Song Sung Wrong
From: Flash Company
Date: 23 Jan 09 - 10:43 AM

Ian Shaw, Jazz pianist and comedian started to sing Mel Torme's Christmas Song, then stopped, laughed and said 'Sorry, but I always want to sing that as 'Geoff's nuts roasting on an open fire'

FC

Subject: RE: Song Sung Wrong
From: Tootler
Date: 23 Jan 09 - 11:33 AM

Not just words, but sometimes tune as well.

At a singaround the other night I announced I was going to sing "The Lea Rig". I started and I knew almost immediately there was something wrong with the tune. I couldn't figure out what and what I was singing fitted so I kept going and completed the song. At the end the M/C commented that the tune was very like "The Parting Glass". It was then I realised I had sung the words of the Lea Rig to the tune of the Parting Glass. The words and tune fitted, but I was annoyed with myself.

There's more. The next one whose turn it was stood up and said they had been going to sing The Parting Glass!

Subject: RE: Song Sung Wrong
From: terrier
Date: 23 Jan 09 - 07:33 PM

One of the first times I sang 'The Mira' I fluffed the line "They dance 'round the fire singing songs with their friends" and sang "They dance 'round the fire setting fire to their friends". I always have a mini panic when I get to that line now.

Subject: RE: Song Sung Wrong
From: Phil Edwards
Date: 26 Jan 09 - 04:27 AM

For me, I think, it's a variant form of the earworm - the tune sticks in my head, and words just kind of attach themselves to it as an alternative to rumty-tumty-tum.

Another example is Gamble Gold as recorded by Steeleye Span (Womble Period), which I find extremely memorable - in fact, so memorable it's downright irritating. At least, it's extremely memorable apart from the words, which go something like
Ye fiddlers three
How well ye be
With a pint or three
When it's time for tea...

Subject: RE: Song Sung Wrong
From: oldhippie
Date: 28 Jan 09 - 05:20 PM

While singing the chorus of Tom Paxton's "Along The Verdigris"

"Down along the Verdigris, the seasons come and go
Life is right beside you here and you can feel it flow
Down to meet the Arkansas then rolling to the sea
All the way to New Orleans from here on the Verdigris"

the third line became "Down to mediocricy rolling to the sea"

Subject: RE: Song Sung Wrong
From: Fidjit
Date: 28 Jan 09 - 06:41 PM

Had a gig singing in a church. Yeah I can do that stuff.

All went well, But when I was into Sid Kipper's Happy, Clappy, Chappy In The Church. I was asked to leave out the verse about, Mr Lister's sister in the shop.

chas

Subject: RE: Song Sung Wrong
From: Genie
Date: 28 Jan 09 - 07:45 PM

Hey, Joe O, I love your Neil Diamond parody! And it's so true.

I have been known to sing (Edelweiss) "Blossom of snow, may you groom and blow, groom and blow forever."

Subject: RE: Song Sung Wrong
From: GUEST,GUEST dulcimer player
Date: 28 Jan 09 - 07:52 PM

Floating froggies on the river (Sweet Thames flow softly)- once by accident and now practically impossible not to sing!

Subject: RE: Song Sung Wrong
From: Donuel
Date: 29 Jan 09 - 05:51 PM

I've only heard 'song sung wrong' performed by Pinkard and Bowden.

Subject: RE: Song Sung Wrong
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 29 Jan 09 - 06:18 PM

In Canada, "Black Velvet" is a cheaper Canadian whiskey, or a cocktail made with dark rum and beer.

My christmas song mistake is 'chestnuts hanging by the open door.'
Jack Frost nipping at your... Then I realize my mistake.

Subject: RE: Song Sung Wrong
From: MartinRyan
Date: 29 Jan 09 - 06:20 PM

Wild Rover:

Some friends of mine used to sing the following, to check if the audience was still listening:

She said "I have whiskey and wines of the best"
Then she whipped off her tee-shirt and showed me her chest!

Goodnight!

Subject: RE: Song Sung Wrong
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 31 Aug 10 - 05:36 PM

I can't do 'Surrey with the fringe on top' without mixing 'Chicks and ducks and geese better hurry' into 'Dick and Chuck and Pete better worry, when I take you out for a curry'...


And it was me wot corrupted 'Oh Boy' for Lady Penelope... after a year and more I can admit it!

LTS

Subject: RE: Song Sung Wrong
From: Young Buchan
Date: 31 Aug 10 - 06:04 PM

Decca Mitford called a volume of autobiography A Fine Old Conflict because, she claimed, when her Nanny used to take her for walks through Hyde Park Corner she thought the Communists were singing 'It is a fine old conflict, let each stand in his place' rather than 'It is the final conflict...'

Actually I've always been rather doubtful about that story because British communists normally sang the translation which goes 'Comrades come rally, and the last fight let us face, till the Internationale unites the human race', rather than the Final Conflict translation which is popular in America (where of course she lived in later life).

Subject: RE: Song Sung Wrong
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 31 Aug 10 - 06:07 PM

Song Sung Wrong? I've never heard him, and I think he went back to Korea.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Song Sung Wrong
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 31 Aug 10 - 07:18 PM

There's a Dorothy Hewitt poem, The Sailor Home From The Sea, set to music by Chris Kempster, with the first two lines, O cock of the morning/With a dream in his hand,

A friend of mine worried that she would start the song, O dream of the morning....

I note that the song is in the DT database, but with the first line, Oh Cock of the North, and with the tune attributed to Martyn Wyndham-Read. I think that's wrong.

Subject: RE: Song Sung Wrong
From: Reinhard
Date: 01 Sep 10 - 12:38 AM

Why is that wrong? Chris Kemster wasn't the only one. According to Lyr Add: Cock of the North there are four different tunes for this song, one of them by Martyn Wyndham-Read.

Subject: RE: Song Sung Wrong
From: Ernest
Date: 01 Sep 10 - 01:43 AM

Heard years ago....

I went to a toilet I used to frequent
and told the landlady my money was spent
I asked her for credit, she said "not a bit,
if you haven`t got a Deutschmark, you can?t have a shit"

or sometimes

she said "go to a bank
if you haven`t got a Deutschmark, you can`t have a ...."

Subject: RE: Song Sung Wrong
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 01 Sep 10 - 01:58 AM

I went into a toilet I used to frequent
And told the landlady my penny was bent
I asked her to open the lavatory door
She answered me "Nay", so I shat on the floor.

Subject: RE: Song Sung Wrong
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 01 Sep 10 - 01:59 AM

Reinhard, thanks for the link, I stand corrected on tune attribution. I note that the substitution of "North" for the original "morning" is attributed to MW-R in that thread, and the possible unfortunate way to sing the song wrong is also canvassed at length there.

Subject: RE: Song Sung Wrong
From: Reinhard
Date: 01 Sep 10 - 02:30 AM

Unfortunate? Wrong? I'd think it's a fine example of the folk tradition at work evolving a song. Now wait a wee hundred years and even Dick Miles will call me a traditional singer when I sing whatever has come out of it by then...

Subject: RE: Song Sung Wrong
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 01 Sep 10 - 02:49 AM

Hamish Imlach said he knew a version called ' The Black Velvet Gland ' but he never sang it in public.

Dave H

Subject: RE: Song Sung Wrong
From: Genie
Date: 01 Sep 10 - 03:28 AM

Melodeon Boy, I've never actually done this, but when I sing the song "A Good Man Is Hard To Find" (even in my own mind) a childhood rhyme intrudes in my head and I can't help wanting to sing:
"... so if your man is nice, take my advice:
Pull down your underpants and slide on the ice.
..."

Subject: RE: Song Sung Wrong
From: Rob Naylor
Date: 01 Sep 10 - 08:03 AM

In the late 70s, I learned Cat Stevens' "Moonshadow" as:

"I am being swallowed by a huge sparrow"

I'd automatically sing those lyrics if I heard the tune, I think.

Subject: RE: Song Sung Wrong
From: Paul Burke
Date: 01 Sep 10 - 01:06 PM

Unchained Melody...

Oh, my love, my darling,
I fumble for your crutch...

Subject: RE: Song Sung Wrong
From: Bernard
Date: 01 Sep 10 - 01:57 PM

By a lonely prison wall
I heard a young girl calling
'Michael, they're singing that bloody song again!'

Subject: RE: Song Sung Wrong
From: terrier
Date: 01 Sep 10 - 02:14 PM

..and the Larks, they played melodeons at the dawning of etc.
Brave Benbow lost his legs, biting sharks, biting sharks..
Islands industry, that's what we are..

all heard in folk clubs :)

Subject: RE: Song Sung Wrong
From: Genie
Date: 01 Sep 10 - 04:26 PM

Whenever I hear or sing "Riders In The Sky" and come to the line that goes,
"He saw the riders comin' hard and he heard their mournful cry"

I have to stifle the urge to yell "Ohhhhhhhh, Baby!!!!"
instead of "Yippie-yi-aaay, yippie-yi-o."

Subject: RE: Song Sung Wrong
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 01 Sep 10 - 07:31 PM

Reinhard, perhaps I wasn't clear. What I meant by "the unfortunate way to sing the song wrong" is the one where instead of "O cock of the morning/With a dream in his hand" you
interchange the words "cock" and "dream." But maybe you did understand me, and that's your idea of "the folk tradition at work, evolving a song."

Subject: RE: Song Sung Wrong
From: Clontarf83
Date: 01 Sep 10 - 07:53 PM

Suzanne--overheard on a bus in ireland

And jesus was a sailor when he walked upon the water
and he spent a long time walking from his lonely wooden shower...


My friend steve killed off Darcy Farrow as a song for me with this amendment:

Young bandy in his gall put a bullet through his balls
They buried them together as the snow began to fall