Lyr Req: Kitty Alone

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Kitty Alone
From: katlaughing
Date: 30 Sep 00 - 12:52 AM

Thanks for the intriguing information, Bruce. It is much appreciated. I find this to be quite a lovely tune; it certainly sticks with me!

kat

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Kitty Alone
From: GUEST,Bruce O.
Date: 28 Sep 00 - 04:11 PM

Some of the "Kitty Alone" songs above seem to be versions of "Martin said to his man" rather than "Froggie went a courting".

The "Hey ho, say Rowley" version is "The Frog in the cock'd hat" which you can see on the Bodley Ballads website. The song has been around since November of 1580. It's ZN3249 in my broadside ballad index, and you can see the earliest known version on the SCA Minstrel website (in Mudcat's Links) in 'Melismata', 1611.

I counted up traditional texts of it Steve Roud's folksong index (Roud #16) and came up with 425. Some collectors published their texts in more than one place, so there aren't quite that many, but it appears to be one of the best known of folksongs in English. One most often can't tell what the chorus is from Steve Roud's entries, but one can see enough to know that the "Kitty alone" chorus isn't limited to American texts.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Kitty Alone
From: katlaughing
Date: 28 Sep 00 - 03:15 PM

Robby,

If you PM me with an email addy, I could send you a sound file of the tune which goes with the one Joe Offer posted,which I am just learning.

OR, you could join us in HearMe, sometime, and hear one of us sing it. Heck, you could even just tell me what is a convenient time for you and we could meet in there so you could hear it. I could play the cd which has it on it. If you aren't familiar with HearMe, please go look it up on the Mudcat FAQs thread and holler if you have any problems with it. It really is a beautiful tune.

Thanks,

kat

Subject: Lyr Add: THE FROG IN THE WELL
From: Robby
Date: 28 Sep 00 - 01:58 PM

Alas, I don't know the tune to Kitty Alone. However, the structure of the verses reminds me of a childrens' song I learned, which we called The Frog In The Well. IIRC, the first verse went like this:

There was a frog lived in the well
Heigh Ho, said Rollie.
There was a frog lived in the well
And a merry mouse in the dell
With a rolly polly, cabbage and spinach
And Hi, Sir Anthony Rollie.

Only you who can read notes and perhaps know this one can tell if the two are the same or share the same tune. I would be curious to know if they do.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Kitty Alone
From: katlaughing
Date: 27 Sep 00 - 10:20 PM

Joe, thanks for having posted the version from the Cindy Mangsen and Anne Hills CD. It's the first one I am learning from that one. Double thanks. :-)

kat

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Kitty Alone
From: GUEST,JackieB
Date: 06 May 00 - 04:00 PM

The Frog's Wedding is a Child Ballad, Dick Hogan's CD 'The Wonders Of The World, has three versions of this ballad (of which there are many)within the one song accompanied by The Voice Squad.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Kitty Alone
From: Barbara
Date: 06 May 00 - 04:30 AM

Do any of these include a sort of throat-clearing noise in the repeating line? I've heard Ed Silverman in SF sing a version with an odd noise in the middle of the "kitty alone, alone a-chm-chm ...[a word or two more, I forget]". Highly entertaining to try to get the sound into the middle of the line, sort of like the African language that includes tongue clicks.
Blessings,
Barbara

Subject: Lyr Add: KITTY ALONE (from C Mangsen & A Hills)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 06 May 00 - 03:58 AM

You'll find a nice recording of the song on an album called Never Grow Up, by Anne Hills and Cindy Mangsen. Lots of good stuff on this album.
-Joe Offer-

KITTY ALONE
(as sung by Cindy Mangsen & Anne Hills)

As I came in by Bandyrowe
Kitty alone, kitty alone
Saw a crow flyin’ low
Kitty alone alee
Saw a crow flyin’ low and a cat spinnin’ tow
Kitty alone a lee, rockama-rye-ree

First came in was little John
One shoe off and one shoe on

Way up yonder above the moon
Bluebird nests in a silver spoon

Way up yonder above the sun
Eagle flies when his work is done

Big old owl in a tree
Just as sleepy as he can be

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Kitty Alone
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 05 May 00 - 04:15 PM

Howie Mitchell added the verse with the "groundhog" reference when he recorded the song for us. This was done in honor of Frank Proffitt, with whom we all exchanged a series of humorous letters suggesting such things as a chain of franchised "groundhog restaurants" (built underground, of course) to take advantage of all the groundhog meat he was wasting when all he wanted was the animal's hide for making fretless-banjo heads.

The song circulated quite widely after Howie introduced it at an early Fox Hollow Festival.

Sandy

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Kitty Alone
From: AoifeO
Date: 05 May 00 - 03:04 PM

The song is also on Malcolm Dalglish and the Ooolites album, "Pleasure" same lyrics as "saw a crow flying low....kitty alone kitty along." This version includes Jenny Armstrongs daughters singing as Ooolites!

Subject: Lyr Add: KITTY ALONE (Howie Mitchell)
From: GUEST,Matt S
Date: 05 May 00 - 02:41 PM

I also love the Howie Mitchell recording,

Saw a crow flying low... And a cat spinning toe...

Saw a possum in a log... Looking like a big groundhog...

Big ol' owl in a tree... Just as sleepy as he can be...

Way up yonder above the moon... Bluebird sleeps in a silver spoon...

Way up yonder above the sun... Eagle flies when his work is done...

Subject: Lyr Add: THE FROG'S WEDDING (from Dick Hogan)
From: Charlie Baum
Date: 05 May 00 - 02:40 PM

Arrgh! the html went bad. Here it is, a version from Dick Hogan at http://mp3ireland.com/dickhogan/lyrics/The%20Frogs%20Wedding%20lyrics.html:

Now there was a frog lived in a well
With a ring-dum bull-a-dum-a-coy-me
And a merry mouse lived in a mill
With a ring-dum bull-a-dum-a-coy-me,

Chorus

Coy-me nero kill-to-car-o
Coy-me nero coy-me
Plim-strin slammer-diddle,
laddle-bull-a-ring-ting
A-ling-dum bull-a-dum-a-coy-me.

Now this merry frog he caught a snail
With a ring-dum bull-a-dum-a-coy-me
This merry frog he caught a snail
And rode between his horns and tails
With a ring-dum bull-a-dum-a-coy-me.

Chorus

Lady mouse, a will you me
Kitty alone, kitty alone
Lady, mouse, a will you marry me
Kitty alone, and I am
Lady mouse, a will you marry me
Ask my uncle rat she said
To my cax-my-carey, duck-in-i-dill,
Kitty alone, and I am.

Uncle rat, will you marry Lady Mouse?
Kitty alone kitty alone
Uncle rat, will you marry Lady Mouse?
Kitty alone, and I am
Uncle rat, will you marry Lady Mouse?
Yes, kind sir, and half my house
To my cax-my-carey, duck-in-i-dill
Kitty alone, and I am.

Lady Mouse, where will the wedding be?
Kitty alone, kitty alone
Lady Mouse, where will the wedding be?
Kitty alone, and I am
Lady Mouse where will the wedding be?
Up in the top of a hollow tree
To my cax-my-carey, duck-in-i-dill
Kitty alone, and I am.

Then the first to come was a great big bear,m-hm
The first to come was a great big bear,
And he filled up the ole armchair, m-hm.
The second to come was a great big snake
And he ate up al the wedding cake, m-hm

Oh wasn`t that a catastrophe, m-hm
Oh wasn`t that a catastrpohe
To happen in the ole oak tree, m-hm.

Then whilst at dinner they all sat
Heigh ho, heigh ho
Then whilst at dinner they all sat
In came the kitten and the cat
With a rowley powely,
gammon and spinach
Heigh ho, said Anthony Rowely.

Well says he; Mister rat, will you give us a song?
Heigh ho, heigh ho
Says he, Mister rat will you give us a song?
And I hope you won`t detain us long
With a rowely powely, gammon and spinach
Heigh ho: said Anthony Rowely.

Then the cat she collared the blooming great rat
Heigh ho, heigh ho
The cat she collared the blooming great rat
And the kitten she collared the poor little mouse
With a rowley powely, gammon and spinach
Heigh ho, said Anthony Rowely


Then this little frog went down the hill
Witha ring-dum bull-a-dum-a-coy-me
This merry frog went down the hill
Witha ring-dum bull-a-dum-a-coy-me
Coy-me nero-to-care-o
Coy-me nero coy-me
Plim-strin slammer-diddle, laddle-bull-
a-ring-thing
A-ling-dum bull-a-dum-a-coy-me

And there he met this little white duck
Witha ring-dum bull-a-dum-a-coy-me
And there he met this little white duck
Who swallowed him up with a quack,
quack, quack!
And a ring-dum bull-a-dum-a-coy-me
Coy-me nero kill-to-care-o
Coy-me nero coy-me
Plim-strin slammer-diddle, laddle-bull-a-
ring-thing
A-ling-dum bull-a-dum-a-coy-me.


Copyright:Dick Hogan

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Kitty Alone
From: Charlie Baum
Date: 05 May 00 - 02:31 PM

Here's another set of lyrics to Kitty Alone.

--Charlie Baum

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Kitty Alone
From: Charlie Baum
Date: 05 May 00 - 02:21 PM

There are at least three versions of "Kitty Alone" I can think of. The "Froggie Went A-Courtin" version noted above in the first post--which can also be found on the Smithsonian Folkways "Mountain Music of Kentucky" and in this diary excerpt form 1798, which certainly means that this version has been around for at least two centuries. (There are many dozens, probably many hundreds, of variants of the "Froggie Went A-Coutrin'" ballad, though F.J. Child ignored it, somehow.

Another version of "Kitty Alone," which I learned from Howie Mitchell on his Folk Legacy recording, associates the refrain with the "Saw a crow flying low/and a cat spinning tow/Way up yonder, above the moon, bluebird sits in a silver spoon." children's rhyme.

Yet another version, with a different tune, gets sung by the likes of Ed Trickett and Dave Para/Cathy Barton.

The refrain sure does get around, but a couple of centuries of folk processing will do that to a good refrain.

--Charlie Baum

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Kitty Alone
From: wysiwyg
Date: 05 May 00 - 01:04 PM

I've heard Kitty Alone as a refrain on what I recall as a whole different topic. If I can dig up the tape.... And I think the rhythm must be different too..... And I think she's singing, Kitty Alone, Kitty Alone, Kitty Alone and I.... Jenny Armstrong on a fiddle instruction tape??? (Hogeye Music, Evanston, IL, distributor.)

Hey, does that Kitty prowl around Alone through the whole genre like the Whack Fol Diddle fiddles around wherever it can?

~S~

Subject: Kitty Alone
From: GUEST,Al Secen
Date: 05 May 00 - 12:58 PM

I have a cassette tape of tune used in Beatrix Potter stories. One story, the Tailor of Glocester, contains a tune that is not included in the original text. It appears to be a variant of the "Frog went Courting" tune. I have a guess at the words, but can't be sure. My five year old daughter is desperate to know what's being sung and doesn't trust my interpretation. Can anyone help?

The words as I hear them are:

"There was a frog lived in a well,
kitty alone, kitty alone,
A merry mouse in the mill
Cock me carry, kitty alone, kitty alone."

"The frog he went a wooing ride,
kitty alone, kitty alone,
a sword and buckler by his side,
cock me carry, kitty alone, kitty alone"

"When he was on his high horse set,
kitty alone, kitty alone,
his boots they shone as black as jets
cock me carry, kitty alone, kitty alone"


Am I close to a proper interpretation? They singers seem to have a very heavy cockney accent so I'm just not sure.

Thanks for your help!

Al ([e-mail])