Best 100 folk words ever

Subject: RE: Best 100 folk words ever
From: fat B****rd
Date: 28 Feb 13 - 03:58 PM

What about "azoy" ?. Y'know "Azoy roved out" etc.

Subject: RE: Best 100 folk words ever
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 28 Feb 13 - 03:31 PM

Good meat, good drink, good God, let us eat.

Subject: RE: Best 100 folk words ever
From: GUEST
Date: 28 Feb 13 - 03:03 PM

Have we not got to 100?

Subject: RE: Best 100 folk words ever
From: Lighter
Date: 28 Feb 13 - 02:12 PM

"Catawampus" is good too.

Subject: RE: Best 100 folk words ever
From: GUEST,Ed
Date: 28 Feb 13 - 01:05 PM

Raggytash,

A 'Rantypool' (also spelt Rantypole or Rantipowl) is defined in The English dialect dictionary as:

1. A see- saw; the game of see-saw
2. A termagant ; a romping, boisterous child ; a clumsy person.

Subject: RE: Best 100 folk words ever
From: Lighter
Date: 28 Feb 13 - 10:10 AM

What, no "schnitzelbank"?

Subject: RE: Best 100 folk words ever
From: kendall
Date: 28 Feb 13 - 09:35 AM

I think Art is "Having us on"

Subject: RE: Best 100 folk words ever
From: GUEST,Raggytash
Date: 28 Feb 13 - 08:32 AM

Has Rantypool been mentioned ?

In Best O' Bunch by the Lancashire Dialect Poet Harvey Kershaw the opening line is:

"This worlds just like a rantypool, it's nowt but ups and downs"

I still don't know what a Rantypool is, I'm thinking it's some sort of fairground ride but don't know for sure.

Subject: RE: Best 100 folk words ever
From: GUEST,JHW
Date: 28 Feb 13 - 04:46 AM

With so much stuff I might have missed

MAY

Though surely the folkies most sought after word is FREE

Subject: RE: Best 100 folk words ever
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 27 Feb 13 - 06:08 AM

Or, for that matter

CUMAWLYEE

Subject: RE: Best 100 folk words ever
From: TheSnail
Date: 27 Feb 13 - 05:19 AM

How can this thread have reached 66 posts without mentioning "Twas"?

Subject: RE: Best 100 folk words ever
From: Will Fly
Date: 27 Feb 13 - 04:02 AM

Fallorum, dingdorum...

Subject: RE: Best 100 folk words ever
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 27 Feb 13 - 03:58 AM

To me whack fol de diddle i-doh
To me whack fol de diddle day

Subject: RE: Best 100 folk words ever
From: Mr Happy
Date: 27 Feb 13 - 03:52 AM

Tiddley winky winky winky
Tiddley winky woo!

Subject: RE: Best 100 folk words ever
From: Mr Happy
Date: 27 Feb 13 - 03:51 AM

But how about "desp'rous"? As in "John Hardy was a desp'rous little man."

A good example of a mis-hearing

Subject: RE: Best 100 folk words ever
From: GUEST,Chris B (Born Again Scouser)
Date: 27 Feb 13 - 03:21 AM

Twankydillo!

Subject: RE: Best 100 folk words ever
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 27 Feb 13 - 12:53 AM

--"An entire Scottish song sung by Maddy Prior with Steeleye Span that is in 'English' but completely incomprehensible"--
-- above

.,.,

That must have contained somewhere that brave Scots word "braw" which no-one seemed to have mentioned all those 14 years back - or did I miss it somewhere?

~M~

Subject: RE: Best 100 folk words ever
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Feb 13 - 08:03 PM

MAN ALIVE Y'ALL HAVE SOME STOMPIN GREAT FLOK TERMS HERE! THANKS FOR THE GIGGLES AND WIGGLES AND HONEST PREACHIN TO A YOUNG BODY LIVING WITH AN OLD SOUL :)

Subject: RE: BEST 100 FOLK WORDS EVER:
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 27 Aug 99 - 07:56 AM

I'm really glad "fod" made it!

But how about "desp'rous"? As in "John Hardy was a desp'rous little man."

Linn the Bat Goddess

Subject: RE: BEST 100 FOLK WORDS EVER:
From: Bert
Date: 26 Aug 99 - 03:43 PM

As Lonnie Donnegan sang...
and if you see a dustman
looking all pale and wan
don't kick him in the dustbin
'cos it might be my old man.

Subject: RE: BEST 100 FOLK WORDS EVER:
From: John Nolan
Date: 22 Aug 99 - 09:34 PM

My introduction to American Folk Music festivals (and the lack of drink, thereat, but that's another sad story)was when Barry Finn took me along to Sing into Spring at Tufts University in the mid-80s. Instead of swigging down beer between songs, the Greater Boston Folk Song Society had taken up Analyzing in a big way. At one workshop they managed to debate themselves into paralysis, over the meaning of "wan" which had cropped up in a song in connection with the water quality of an obscure stream or the pallor of a damsel's skin, or somesuch....I wandered off, in search of "wan" decent pint. Anyway, I nominate "wan" for a place in the Top 100, in honor of the linguistic boffins of GBFSS.

Subject: RE: BEST 100 FOLK WORDS EVER:
From: kathcart
Date: 22 Aug 99 - 02:51 AM

I believe that's amanita, Frank. Pale Amanita with the blue gills. No, wait... a blue gill- that's a catfish, eh? Well here's a puzzle. So what's a tipple roar? I'd like to nominate IE... that's a latin word that Ian Tyson (Katy & The Navajo Rug) stole from John Denver (Calypson), only no one knows cause he SECRETED AWAY the 2nd half.

Subject: RE: BEST 100 FOLK WORDS EVER:
From: JerryO
Date: 21 Aug 99 - 06:42 PM

How about "skinamarinkadoodle" from "The Little Beggarman"?

Subject: RE: BEST 100 FOLK WORDS EVER:
From: Mandochop
Date: 21 Aug 99 - 02:19 PM

Lets not forget:

"mandalay" - from "Mandalay" "swagman", "mangrove", "jumbuck" - from "Waltzing Matilda" "toora-loora-loora-loo" and "toora-loora-loora-laddie" -from "Courtin in the Kitchen" "whack-fo-the-diddle" - from "Whack-Fo-The-Diddle" "abu" -from "O'donnel Abu" "ring-a-ding-a-rosie" - from "Rare Ould Times" "sport" - from "Tie me kangaroo down, sport"

and also: "ye", "me" (instead of "my"), "de" (instead of "the"), and "rover" Rob

Subject: RE: BEST 100 FOLK WORDS EVER:
From: Pelrad
Date: 21 Aug 99 - 12:46 AM

How about

Hogeye

yeller (the color)

a-grievin', a-mournin', a-sighin', and a-leavin'

on a similar note, a-tremble and a-quiver

Subject: RE: BEST 100 FOLK WORDS EVER:
From: katlaughing
Date: 20 Aug 99 - 11:04 PM

Frank,

I am an amateur plant growing and lover, but a quick search only turned up this orchid:

Amalia Hybrids I (b) grex. ('Vasaras Prieks' x L. cernuum) R:&N: V.P.Orehovs, c.1963. LYB 33: 81 (1970). NOT REGISTERED Pale lilac to intense violet, sometimes with dark brown spots; pollen dark brown. Fls 100-120mm wide, Turk's-cap shape, slightly scented. Stems 0.4-0.8m, with 3-5 fls. Late June-early July.

Otherwise, do you think it might be Amelita Galli-Curci (1889-1963), a reknowned coloratura, born in Italy, who moved to the US? She looks pale in her pics and according to her bio, at one years old, was singing her mother's lullabies in perfect time and pitch. Here is a link to some audio clips and info: Amelita

kat

Subject: RE: BEST 100 FOLK WORDS EVER:
From: Frank Hamilton
Date: 20 Aug 99 - 06:56 PM

The pale amelita and the islips so blue. (eyes of deep blue) Any botanists out there know what a pale amelita is? Can't find it in any book anywhere.

Frank

Subject: RE: BEST 100 FOLK WORDS EVER:
From: JedMarum
Date: 20 Aug 99 - 02:07 PM

and dont forget the lovely, if sad word:

drear

and how did we miss:

ain't

and it's close cousin:

cain't

and what about expressions like:

chilly wind/s apple blossoms travelin' shoes miner's grave

Subject: Lyr Add: FOLK SINGER'S BLUES (Shel Silverstein)
From: Dani
Date: 20 Aug 99 - 12:00 PM

Forgive me if y'all have heard this before, but I uncovered this gem following a lead on the Amusing Work Songs thread. In light of the current lists, it seemed appropriate:

FOLK SINGER'S BLUES
(Shel Silverstein)

Well, I'd like to sing a song about the chain gang (Whap!)
And swingin' twelve-pound hammers all the day, (Whap!)
And how I'd like to kill my captain (Whap!)
And how a black man works his life away, but...

What do you do if you're young and white and Jewish?
And you've never swung a hammer against a spike?
And you've never called a water boy early in the morning
And your only chain is the chain that's on your bike?
Yes, Your only chain is the chain on your bike.

Now I'd like to go a-walkin' up the highway
Feelin' cold and wet and hungry all night long,
Doin' some hard ramblin', hard gamblin', hard smamblin', hard blamblin'
But always takin' time to write a song. But...

What do you do if you're young and white and Jewish?
And you never heard an old freight whistle blow?
And you've never slept the night in a cold and empty boxcar
And you take a subway everywhere you go?
Oh, oh...
You take the subway everywhere you go.

Now I'd like to sing a song about the coalmine
A-chippin' away in tunnel 22
And when I hear that timber crack, why I support it with my back
Until my comrades all crawl safely through, but...

What do you do if you're young and white and Jewish?
And you've got to be in class at half-past nine
And in spite of all your urgin', and your pleadin' and your cryin'
Your mother says it's too dirty down in a mine,
That what she says,
Your mother says it's too dirty down in a mine.

Well now, I'd like to sing about the Mississippi,
Workin' on the levee all the day
And when them cotton bolls get rotten
You got a lotta rotten cotton
And on Saturday you go and spend your pay, but

What do you do if you're young and white and Jewish?
And you've never loaded cotton on the dock?
And you've never worked a day
Or drunk up all your pay
And the only levee you know is the Levy who lives on the block,
Yes, The only levee you know is the Levy who lives on the block.

Subject: RE: BEST 100 FOLK WORDS EVER:
From: Bert
Date: 20 Aug 99 - 08:03 AM

There's two words that are the title of this song and I'm not sure which one I like best. The song is "Manura Manyah"

Subject: RE: BEST 100 FOLK WORDS EVER:
From: wildlone
Date: 19 Aug 99 - 02:40 PM

BACEN BACK YERE YOU, BACEN BACK THERE,IF YOU CASNT BACEN UP, BETTER BACEN BACK DOWN.hows that then. Okay i am just trying to mention that great DORSET folk group the YETTIES. good night all

Subject: RE: BEST 100 FOLK WORDS EVER:
From: Roger the zimmer
Date: 19 Aug 99 - 05:37 AM

Not being one to encourage thread creep (NOT), I don't want to encourage Dani except to say (!) that there is one song that fits that suggestion:
Who put the wop in the wopalopalop
Who put the ram in the ramalamadingdong....

Subject: RE: BEST 100 FOLK WORDS EVER:
From: Jack (who is called Jack)
Date: 19 Aug 99 - 01:33 AM

I gotta cast a vote for WHUP!

As in

Take this hammer (WHUP!) carry it to he captain (WHUP!).

or

WHUP Jamboree, WHUP Jamboree.

There just aint nuthin like a good WHUP! to get the juices flowing.

Subject: RE: BEST 100 FOLK WORDS EVER:
From: katlaughing
Date: 18 Aug 99 - 11:44 PM

hoss

fair

pawdnah (various spellings)

mingalay

LONE

lanky

bloomin'

whoopti-ti-o-ay

pappy

ye

mournful

a'lovin'

Subject: RE: BEST 100 FOLK WORDS EVER:
From: Art Thieme
Date: 18 Aug 99 - 11:25 PM

(SHEEPISHLY) Carol just reminded me that the ad on WFMT for the "great square inches of art" was NOT for a book with those excerpts. If you ordered that which they were selling, you got a sqare inch CUT FROM THE ORIGINAL PAINTINGS!! I'm sorry folks. When your memory goes, forget it.

Art

Subject: RE: BEST 100 FOLK WORDS EVER:
From: Wally Macnow
Date: 18 Aug 99 - 05:55 PM

I vote against "true love" but would substitute "false true love"

Subject: RE: BEST 100 FOLK WORDS EVER:
From: Canberra Chris
Date: 18 Aug 99 - 04:24 AM

Alison - No I heard this song well before the Wiggles! But it would work with "I'll Tell me Ma".

Sandy Paton - Thanks for the Seamus Ennis song. I have some of his recordings, but not that one. I didn't get it from him either, his would be an earlier form of the song I heard.

Subject: There Was an Old Piper ^^^
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 18 Aug 99 - 02:53 AM

Hey, Leej: Ya can't have all that "ramblin'" without it's word-mate: "gamblin'" - add "Freight-train" (or is that two words?). "Tracks" or its singular counterpart.

For Chris:

Seamus Ennis used to sing:

There was an old piper, old and hoary,
Who lived in the town of (?) Ballaboree.
This old piper, he played before Moses,
And this the only tune that he could play:
     Nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah!
     Nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah!

Now, this old piper, old and hoary,
Who lived in the town of Ballaboree,
He died one day and he went down below,
And this the only tune that he could play:
     Nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah!
     Nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah!

When the devil saw this old man,
He said, "Put him down in the frying pan!
For this is another old piper, I vow,
Put him down with the others for to play!
     Nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah!
     Nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah!

(The final note sung in a descending groan, like the old pipe running out of air.)

Hey, y'all! Welcome Kath, the little gal we wicked folkies of the east rescued, lo, those many years ago, from a dreary life in Grand Rapids! Glad you're with us, dear heart! See you at the Getaway, where we might invite all of the mob to sing with us the above slur on the noble art of piping.

Grandpa Paton (thanking his lucky stars that folk music isn't a youth-cult!)^^^

Subject: RE: BEST 100 FOLK WORDS EVER:
From: Alice
Date: 17 Aug 99 - 10:52 PM

then there are:

fair young maid(s)
true love
own dear
tarry
homeward
bound
brook
glen
softly flowing (hair, streams, whatevers)
dew
right early (year or morning)
down by the (glen, river, sea, strand, etc)

and of course...
falalalalalalalalala.

Welcome aboard, Kathy.

alice in montana

Subject: RE: BEST 100 FOLK WORDS EVER:
From: Alice
Date: 17 Aug 99 - 10:44 PM

Wally, ya you betcha, I know how to spell it, but yowe knowes, I just couldna help myself. -alice

Subject: RE: BEST 100 FOLK WORDS EVER:
From: bseed(charleskratz)
Date: 17 Aug 99 - 08:08 PM

Dammit, Leej, ya stole my word. I guess I have to go with "Blah," even though it's more of a country/western word:

"Blah, blah, blah, blah blah blah blah blah,in Tiajuana
Blah blah bla-ah blah in nineteen sixty three,
Blah, blah, blah, blah blah blah blah blah, them crazy hippies,
And that is what old Blevins said to me.

This is from the Austin Lounge Lizards (there are lots more blahs in the real song). --seed

Subject: RE: BEST 100 FOLK WORDS EVER:
From: emily rain
Date: 17 Aug 99 - 07:36 PM

i also like "pippin'" as in "a chicken when it's pippin'/it has no bone"

Subject: RE: BEST 100 FOLK WORDS EVER:
From: KathWestra
Date: 17 Aug 99 - 02:36 PM

Wally -- Can't believe you didn't suggest "fod"! Kathy

Subject: RE: BEST 100 FOLK WORDS EVER:
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 17 Aug 99 - 01:49 PM

I think the word "ramblin'" is THE quintessential folk music word. It appears almost nowhere else (Honey, I'm going to ramble down to the 7-11 and get some root beer?), it has the flavor of bygone days, and I like the definition- to leave home and wander aimlessly, although sunny weather and good humor are implied as conditions. Ramblin' conjures images of Woody Guthrie, Ramblin' Jack Elliot,and Steve Martin playing his banjo with an arrow through his head. Ramblin' is an obligation, a compulsion. " I'm bound to ramble."

That's enough. I'm starting to ramble.

LEJ

Subject: RE: BEST 100 FOLK WORDS EVER:
From: KathWestra
Date: 17 Aug 99 - 01:13 PM

Thanks, Bert. This is already becoming a threat to my work productivity! Kathy

Subject: RE: BEST 100 FOLK WORDS EVER:
From: Bert
Date: 17 Aug 99 - 01:10 PM

I'm going to add the best Mudcat word here, which is WELCOME, and dedicate it to KathWestra. Of course once you have been welcomed, you are no longer a newbie and are therefore obliged to jump into any discussion with both feet.

Wellcome aboard.

Bert.

Subject: RE: BEST 100 FOLK WORDS EVER:
From: Wally Macnow
Date: 17 Aug 99 - 01:06 PM

That should be yows as in ca' the yows as opposed to yowsa as in "yowsa that's my baby"

Ben Botkin listed "Steptodarearofdabuspleeze" in his Folklore of New York City.

How 'bout "flimalimalee" or "casalomalee" from Larry Older's "Cambric Shirt"

or "zit" from any number of French-Canadian song chrouses?

Subject: RE: BEST 100 FOLK WORDS EVER:
From: Alice
Date: 17 Aug 99 - 12:14 PM

Ye as in come all ye

Yo as in yo ho ho

Yaw (you know, boat songs)

Ewe as in ca' the ewes

Subject: RE: BEST 100 FOLK WORDS EVER:
From: KathWestra
Date: 17 Aug 99 - 12:03 PM

Hi Art -- Nope, I'm a Mudcat newbie (though a dyed-in-the-wool Old Folk Fart in the sense of the word that you understand and we won't talk about here). I HAVE been lurking around the discussion of definitions, and have no intention of contributing to that one. I'll just sing happily away in Silver Spring. Cheers, Kathy

Subject: RE: BEST 100 FOLK WORDS EVER:
From: alison
Date: 17 Aug 99 - 10:08 AM

Hey Canberra... you aren't a Wiggles fan are you? They sing the whole of "I'll tell me ma" with nyaagh's..... and all the while little kids in green hats and Irish dance costumes dance around..........I don't watch them myself you understand........ my kids make me......

slainte

alison

Subject: RE: BEST 100 FOLK WORDS EVER:
From: Dani
Date: 17 Aug 99 - 09:08 AM

Ok Art - since no one else has bitten...

What IS your best square inch??

And I respectfully submit the following:

poor/po'

ma/mah/mama

gone

Now let's start a thread on the best POP words (where you get to spell things like ramalamadingdong)

Subject: RE: BEST 100 FOLK WORDS EVER:
From: Canberra Chris
Date: 17 Aug 99 - 04:17 AM

1. "Nyaaagh! Nyaaagh! Nyaaagh! Nyaaagh! Nyaaagh! Nyaaagh! Nyaaagh! Nyaaagh! Nyaaagh! Nyaaagh! Nyaaagh! Nyaaagh! Nyaaagh! Nyaaagh! Nyaaagh! Nyaaagh! Nyaaagh! Nyaaagh! Nyaaagh! Nyaaagh! Nyaaagh! And that's the only song that he could sing." I don't remember any of the verses, that's the chorus. Anyone know the rest?

2. An entire Scottish song sung by Maddy Prior with Steeleye Span that is in 'English' but completely incomprehensible. You know the one.

3. A Song title by Adge Cutler and the Wurzels (West Country Zummerzet Straw & Smock Grunge Skiffle from the 60's), I don't have it to hand, that goes something like: "Thee Dursn't Cusn't Hasn't ... etc"

Subject: RE: BEST 100 FOLK WORDS EVER:
From: Art Thieme
Date: 16 Aug 99 - 06:01 PM

Kathy,

Have you been here lurking all along?? It's great to be in touch. This thread got started because I took Carol's medication last night by mistake. And I've been roundly drummed out of other threads around here lately & needed somewhere to go and lurk/hide myself.

Love to all there inside the beltway--outside too.

Art

Subject: RE: BEST 100 FOLK WORDS EVER:
From: KathWestra
Date: 16 Aug 99 - 05:02 PM

This is truly a wacky thread. Must indeed be silly season.I'd just like to note, with gratitude, that the word "Milennium" DOESN'T appear in folksongs. Nice to know we're safe from it somewhere. Kathy

Subject: RE: BEST 100 FOLK WORDS EVER:
From: Bill D
Date: 16 Aug 99 - 04:42 PM

all of the above...but NOT 'folk'

Subject: RE: BEST 100 FOLK WORDS EVER:
From: Charlie Baum
Date: 16 Aug 99 - 12:11 PM

a

an

the

--Charlie Baum

Subject: RE: BEST 100 FOLK WORDS EVER:
From: Art Thieme
Date: 16 Aug 99 - 12:08 PM

E-I-E-I-O

That's from a polka, right? Actually the entire lyic to the song---that over and over and over...probably the title too.

Roger---you have no problem. De nada! The guy who has a real problen is the one who attends TWELVE STEP GROUPS ANONYMOUS---for people addicted to 12 Step Groups. Just going to the meetings activates your compulsion.

These are wonderful words. All of them. And they so rarely get any chance at all to showcase themselves as the very real individuals they truly are. Next year they're all going to the big Folk Alliance meeting in Tienamin Square. (But I heard that China won't allow any AGENTS into the country...)

Another good old folk word, that I understand was anathema to Woody Guthrie (and many during the 60s) but was widely touted in a recent thread about Dr. Bronner is:

SOAP

Subject: RE: BEST 100 FOLK WORDS EVER:
From: Bert
Date: 16 Aug 99 - 09:43 AM


Titifalafalay - from Look at that Now
Nipperkin - The Barley Mow
Dinga - The Curate and the Vicar
Maggie - Maggie May
Divoty (Sp) - Swansea Town
Hiraeth - We'll keep a Welcome in The Hillside
Westering - Westering Home'
Billabong - Waltzing Matilda
Upidee - Upidee
stalwart - Tarpaulin Jacket
Shenandoah - Shenandoah
croonin', cromak & Tummel - from The Road to The Isles
E-I-E-I-O - Old Macdonald
Gloamin' - Roamin' in the gloamin'

Bert.

Subject: RE: BEST 100 FOLK WORDS EVER:
From:
Date: 16 Aug 99 - 08:46 AM

LONG as in "Seven LONG years" - this can be applied to girls disguised as sailor boys 'til their tits pop out & they marry the captain, to years my true love spent in jail, americay or on the high seas and almost every other period of interest in a folk song.

Subject: RE: BEST 100 FOLK WORDS EVER:
From:
Date: 16 Aug 99 - 08:42 AM

Subject: RE: BEST 100 FOLK WORDS EVER:
From: Roger the zimmer
Date: 16 Aug 99 - 05:38 AM

Drink

(What do you mean, I have a problem?
OK I confess. My name is Roger and I have a kazoo, but I haven't played it for several weeks....
Oh, you mean THAT problem...)
If the good Lord meant me to be teetotal he wouldn't have invented so many lovely drinks.

Subject: RE: BEST 100 FOLK WORDS EVER:
From: Barbara
Date: 16 Aug 99 - 01:23 AM

"absquatulate" v.t. from some civil war era song I heard a long time ago; means to make off with the goods, as in "that feller absquatulated with all our tin".

Subject: RE: BEST 100 FOLK WORDS EVER:
From: CarlZen
Date: 16 Aug 99 - 12:45 AM

skinamerinkadoodle (Little Beggerman)

Subject: RE: BEST 100 FOLK WORDS EVER:
From: Pelrad
Date: 16 Aug 99 - 12:30 AM

I always liked "heave-a-pawl," from various shanties. Great verb.

Oh, and "jakaijenut" from a song I once heard some Polish guys sing in French. To this day I don't know what they meant, but they were very earnest about it. :-)

Subject: RE: BEST 100 FOLK WORDS EVER:
From: Art Thieme
Date: 15 Aug 99 - 10:30 PM

Len,

"A Horse Named Bill" was included in Carl Sandburg's ___THE AMERICAN SONGBAG___ (1927) Harcourt, Brace, Jovanavich.

It was on Bob Gibson's first LP for Riverside called __Offbeat Folksongs__

Art

P.S.--- to you all: My absolute favorite word in all of American folk studies has to be, from the song "JOHN HENRY"--------"HAMMER !!! (Now that's a word to be reckoned with (I reckon).) There are so very many implications. And they have such a social conscience--indeed, such a presence that I can hardly stand it---man against the machine & all that crap. And the various virgins---er versions----can actually be numbered like those famous Children's Ballads are. There are so very many favorite words of mine within those scholarly holy pages collected in the fields (?)that I can barely contain myself------AAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!! ("I'll have what she's having.") I just wish you all knew what I know. Those were grand times drinking and carousing and acting like nutsos and hoping we'd turn into Woody. If we could only live through an actual dust storm.

That's another great folk word: DUST

Art

Subject: RE: BEST 100 FOLK WORDS EVER:
From: Bill D
Date: 15 Aug 99 - 09:34 PM

"splatamalatamalingo"...since it was only sung and not written, I take the liberty of calling it one word..*grin*..heard Hedy West sing it as one version of "Wee Cooper 'o Fife"

"Little old man lived way out west"
Dan-doo, dan-doo
Little old man lived way out west,
Clash to my clingo.
Little old man lived way out west,
He had a wife, she's none o' the best
Splatamalatamalingo.."

etc....

Subject: RE: BEST 100 FOLK WORDS EVER:
From: Len N
Date: 15 Aug 99 - 09:26 PM

Art... I got to agree with you about exhaustionized and sharpshootress. I recall these two and cataleptics from a song, (Horse named Bill, or something like that), off of Jerry Garcia's and David Grisman's Not Just For Kids... Not having heard any other renditions of the song besides theirs, I have wondered if those three words were their contribution to the song or if that is the way it has been sung by others.... Are you able to enlighten me?

Thanks

Len

Subject: RE: BEST 100 FOLK WORDS EVER:
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 15 Aug 99 - 09:23 PM

Actually "fire", I made it up, but I was a little worried about defining it as a "folk" or "contemporary acoustic" word, so I attributed it to John Jacob Niles. No royalties expected though. Enjoy it.
Rick

Subject: RE: BEST 100 FOLK WORDS EVER:
From: campfire
Date: 15 Aug 99 - 08:59 PM

I don't think its in a song, but the best word I ever learned on this SITE was "flunderblunking" - thanks to Rick Fielding. I forget where he said he got it, but I use it regularly now.

campfire

Subject: RE: BEST 100 FOLK WORDS EVER:
From: emily rain
Date: 15 Aug 99 - 04:44 PM

kittypulullapulullapuleye

(do we count diddle lines as words? i consider this the best diddle line ever.)

Subject: RE: BEST 100 FOLK WORDS EVER:
From: Llanfair
Date: 15 Aug 99 - 04:06 PM

This is a wind-up, isn't it? You can't be serious!!! This makes wrestling in jelly look like an olympic sport. AAAAAAh, of course, it's the silly season!!!!! Hwyl, Bron.

Subject: RE: BEST 100 FOLK WORDS EVER:
From: DonMeixner
Date: 15 Aug 99 - 03:49 PM

Sorry Rick,

I forgot to read however.

Don

Subject: RE: BEST 100 FOLK WORDS EVER:
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 15 Aug 99 - 03:36 PM

Don. I didn't forget "bold".
Rick

Subject: RE: BEST 100 FOLK WORDS EVER:
From: DonMeixner
Date: 15 Aug 99 - 03:29 PM

Lets don't forget:

Bold

Bonnie

Dearie

-oh

Don

Subject: RE: BEST 100 FOLK WORDS EVER:
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 15 Aug 99 - 03:01 PM

How about "silkie', it can be used to describe seals, thighs and hair. However I think that "bold" may be the most popular word of all. "Gutless, craven, cowardly, dimwit, and incontinent" rarely seem to come up at all - at least in my repertoire.

Rick

Subject: RE: BEST 100 FOLK WORDS EVER:
From: Margo
Date: 15 Aug 99 - 02:34 PM

How about "Fooba Wooba"! That is from a Burl Ives song, Fooba Wooba John. I found a very similar song at a renaissance site. Very interesting, but stupid! (I wonder how many youngsters will understand that last remark!)

Margarita

Subject: BEST 100 FOLK WORDS EVER:
From: Art Thieme
Date: 15 Aug 99 - 02:19 PM

In keeping with our need to pick the ONE HUNDRED BEST of various things lately, please allow me to propose a new survey:

For years I've seen ads for "The Greatest Symphony Themes Ever"--(only the well know parts) sold in sets for very little money from Readers Digest & other place.

Years ago, radio station WFMT-FM in Chicago created an ad for a book called "Great Square Inches Of Art"---filled with only the best square inches from the great paintings of the world---a Botticelli cheek, a Rubens buttox, a Cezanne apple segment, a Grant Wood hayfork tyne tip, a square from a Monet water lilly, a Divinci genital, a square from a Dali watch, an actual replica of square from a Rodin bulging bicep suitable for use as a paperweight--etc., etc.

My idea here is for us to see if we can agree on the hundred (or so) favorite/best single WORDS from any folksong in any language!!

I would like to start with these words:

dogies

cuckoo

Abulbul

Ameer

cataleptics

sharpshootress

exhautionized

levee

cuckoo

long-haired-preachers (one word 'cause it's hyphenated)

diddle (v.)

juberju

El-a-noy