 sj |
||
|
||
Won't you come a bundling with me.
|
|
|
Subject: Won't you come a bundling with me. From: GUEST,Mark Gilston Date: 08 May 22 - 09:50 PM Looking for words for "Won't you come a bundling with me". I know the chorus and verse melody from Camp Woodland (Catskills of N.Y.) back in the early 1960s. I know there is one youtube video, but that version is quite a different tune from the one I remember. I've been doing a YouTube project recording and posting as many of the songs I can remember from my childhood that I learned from oral tradition. Every so often another remembered song or fragment pops into my head. |
|
Subject: RE: Won't you come a bundling with me. From: keberoxu Date: 08 May 22 - 09:57 PM Hey, I've heard of bundling! It's a curious practice: two in a bed, but separated. Someone else can explain it. Historical, a century removed or more. |
|
Subject: RE: Won't you come a bundling with me. From: Stilly River Sage Date: 08 May 22 - 11:34 PM Several bundles turn up in the super search, but no bundling. My dad had a song that included the word, because I remember he answered our question about what it was, but the line isn't coming to me. Now that I'm thinking about it, enough words may drift through my memory that I can track it down. It was an early song of his, so there are a few books and albums he went to at first to learn his songs. |
|
Subject: RE: Won't you come a bundling with me. From: GUEST,paperback Date: 08 May 22 - 11:49 PM New England Winters get cold |
|
Subject: RE: Won't you come a bundling with me. From: Stilly River Sage Date: 09 May 22 - 02:03 PM Share the rest of what you do remember, that would give us a lot more to work with. |
|
Subject: RE: Won't you come a bundling with me. From: Joe Offer Date: 09 May 22 - 02:18 PM This is the only recording I've come across. Very enthusiastic, but very hard to understand. Anybody wanna make a stab at transcribing it? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7KZeFHbgxI |
|
Subject: RE: Won't you come a bundling with me. From: GUEST,The Sandman Date: 09 May 22 - 02:20 PM I was under the impression bundling was two people in a bag. from atlas obscura the following The bundling bag was not always enough. When two people bundled, a bolster or wooden board was installed to separate the two halves of the bed. The bundling bag was not always enough. When two people bundled, a bolster or wooden board was installed to separate the two halves of the bed. All illustrations by Natalie Zarrelli If today’s complicated dating world disturbs you, imagine being a young woman in love in 17th-century Wales. You can’t wait to begin your life with your beau, but first, you need to prove to your parents that you’re ready to marry—by being bundled up in a sack and put to bed. This unusual courtship ritual had a standard format. Step one: invite your date home to meet your parents. Step two: watch in horror as your mother ties you up from feet to waist in a heavy sack. Step three: get into your parents’ bed fully clothed next to your date under the watchful eyes of your parents, who place a thick wooden board between you and tuck you in for the night. This practice would generally keep today’s young person from ever dating again, but bundling seems to have been popular in Ireland, the rural United Kingdom, and the New England colonies from the 16th into the 18th century. William Bingly in his travelogue North Wales described how the “lover steals, under the shadow of the night, to the bed of the fair one, into which (retaining an essential part of his dress) he is admitted without any shyness or reserve.” In the heyday of bundling, ideas surrounding marriage and bedrooms were far removed from the privacy we currently hold dear. Bedrooms were semi-public spaces until roughly the late 18th century, and were used for anything from giving birth to entertaining guests. Bundling, which usually involved adolescents, just added one more ritual to the bedroom’s list of uses. |
|
Subject: RE: Won't you come a bundling with me. From: Nigel Parsons Date: 09 May 22 - 02:34 PM "Bundling" appears to get rave reviews in the "All Souls Trilogy" by Deborah Harkness (Book 1 is 'A Discovery of Witches') I can't honestly recall it being mentioned in the tv series though. |
|
Subject: RE: Won't you come a bundling with me. From: GUEST,Mark Gilston Date: 09 May 22 - 03:17 PM The chorus I remember is:
Now father's resting in his cups and mother's drinking tea. Won't you come a-bundling, a-bundling with me." Bundling was described to me as: before a couple was married, the woman would lie beneath the sheets and the man on top of them. I suspect it had different meanings in different societies, but always it was a way to keep a couple separated while still maintaining the idea of intimacy. |
|
Subject: RE: Won't you come a bundling with me. From: Stilly River Sage Date: 09 May 22 - 03:48 PM I understood it to be a courtship practice, not a married practice. And there was a chaperone in the room. |
|
Subject: ADD: The Bundling Song (Graham Pratt) From: GUEST Date: 09 May 22 - 04:17 PM i believe graham pratt wrote a song about it THE BUNDLING SONG (Graham Pratt) When I was a young lad me folks were so poor We ate off the bed and we slept on the floor And the table we used in the place of a door Cos all of its legs had gone missing. And though we all lived in the very same room The prospect of courting ne'er filled me with gloom For privacy sure now I never did lack I did all me courting tied up in a sack Tied up in a sack, tied up in a sack I did all me courting tied up in a sack. Well this grand old tradition's as ancient as stone - You fancy a girl and you bring the girl home When you've a mind to be almost alone It's the best system ever invented. But how, you'll be asking in questioning tones, Did he manage to stifle the squeals and the groans? Me father was deaf and me mother she drank Which helps when you're courting tied up in a sack. Tied up in a sack, tied up in a sack Which helps when you're courting tied up in a sack. Ah well Martha Malone was big strapping girl With a body to set a man's heart in a whirl. Her passion and temper would make your hair curl And me, well I fancied me chances. And just for good measure, to prove her good will, She brought round some whiskey made in her dad's still. Well I can't recall much, but she near broke me back The night I went courting tied up in a sack. Tied up in a sack, tied up in a sack The night I went courting tied up in a sack. Well Elspeth McGrath was a puritan maid, Her morals correct and her manners quite staid. I didn't have too much success I'm afraid For all that the flesh it was willing. Three hours I spent in attempts to subdue Me face it went red and the air it went blue. But her virtue stayed white and me eyes became black For trying to court her tied up in a sack. Tied up in a sack, tied up in a sack For trying to court her tied up in a sack. Well Molly McGuire was a girl of some means, Her father, a farmer, was big in broad beans. Not giving to mixing with riff-raff like me But Molly she found me appealing. Well she came round that night with her finery on, Laces and ribbons and fine satin gowns. But even with corsets you soon get the knack Of courting young ladies tied up in sack. Tied up in a sack, tied up in a sack Of courting young ladies tied up in sack. Ah, there's nothing so fine on a cold Winter's night As kissing and cuddling your own heart's delight In the shadowy gloom of a bag tied up tight, Positioned alongside the fire. But the darkness breeds dangers, I'll have you to know, As I found to me sorrow a few years ago, When I spent half the night with a fellow called Jack. Well you can't see too clearly tied up in a sack. Tied up in a sack, tied up in a sack Well you can't see too clearly tied up in a sack. Ah, well now that I'm wed with a son that's full grown I've given him everything money can show Fine education and a room of his own And twenty-one barrels of Guinness. And as I sit down with a satisfied grin Well I know that I've sacrificed much just for him "What more could you want, son?" He answers me back: "I'd like to go courting tied up in a sack, Tied up in a sack, tied up in a sack I'd like to go courting tied up in a sack". Source:LP, Graham and Eileen Pratt, To Friend And Foe - Dingles DIN308 |
|
Subject: RE: Won't you come a bundling with me. From: Neil D Date: 10 May 22 - 10:34 PM Here in east central Ohio bundling is generally considered to be an Amish custom. |
|
Subject: RE: Won't you come a bundling with me. From: GUEST,Mark Gilston Date: 13 May 22 - 10:10 AM Words found. Thanks all. |
|
Subject: RE: Won't you come a bundling with me. From: Stilly River Sage Date: 13 May 22 - 10:40 AM If you found them please share them here (or indicate which post had the words you were looking for.) |
|
Subject: RE: Won't you come a bundling with me. From: Joe Offer Date: 13 May 22 - 02:27 PM I don't have time to transcribe it right now, but here's a New Engand "Bundling Song" recorded by Jim Douglans: It was recorded on Folkways, but the Folkways album notes don't include the lyrics. |
|
Subject: RE: Won't you come a bundling with me. From: GUEST,Mark Gilston Date: 13 May 22 - 03:35 PM As sung by Bob (Fiddler) Beers: (Thanks to Barry O'Neill for remembering it) The frost is on the fiddle and the ice is on the lea All the boys and girls are going home their lovers for to see There’ll be maple in the sugarpot and honey in the tea Won’t you come a-bundling, a-bundling with me Lou-ie, Lou-ie, Please come home with me Father’s heavy in his cups and mother’s making tea Won’t you come a-bundling, a-bundling with me The frost is on the fiddle and the plague is on my knee When dancing’s done we’ll all go home and have a quilting bee There’ll be fire on the griddle and a keg upon the tree Won’t you come a-bundling, A-bundling with me We’ll have a sip of daddy’s brew And sample up the gin There’ll never be a better time to have the fun begin And when the fire on the hearth is drawing bleak and thin We’ll twist the sheets the proper way and then we’ll tumble in. Curious about the line "the plague is on my knee". I haven't come upon this usage of plague before, and wondering if it's a mondegreen. |
|
Subject: RE: Won't you come a bundling with me. From: Stilly River Sage Date: 13 May 22 - 04:04 PM If it were a typo - instead of "plague" something similar in letters like "ague - it would be on more than just his knee, though I suppose shaking and shivering could show just there. And "plague" is one syllable while "ague" is two. So it's how it scan also. |
| Share Thread: |