Subject: green green rocky road From: GUEST,lee@isn.net Date: 28 Oct 00 - 06:38 PM hi, looking for lyrics to green, green rocky road. i have it in my rise up singing songbook. the mcgarrigles did it with emmy lou harris on their mcgarrigle hour cd. i'd like to find lyrics. any help anyone? lee Messages from multiple threads combined. |
Subject: RE: green green rocky road From: harpgirl Date: 28 Oct 00 - 09:58 PM Green Rocky Road I was born in Tennessee, I was born in Tennessee, I was born in Tennessee, Miss my friends and they miss me. Green, green rocky road, (Promendade in green,) Tell me who you love, Tell me who you love. I'm going down to Baltimore,boys Been that way six times before. Follow the bird up in the sky, He don't preach, he just flies. I'm goin down to Galilee, Why don't you come and go with me? Ain't no use to sit and cry, You will see me by and by. I'm goin down to Baltimore, boys, Been that way six times before. ^^ From County Down, "Living in the Country." |
Subject: RE: green green rocky road From: raredance Date: 28 Oct 00 - 10:16 PM The followin version was copyrighted in`1961 by Len Chandler and Robert Kaufman and apears in the SingOUt! reprints. The notes say the song was collected from the children of Lilly' Chapel School in York, Alabama and is found in "Negro Songs From Alabama" by Harold Courlander.
GREEN GREEN ROCKY ROAD
When I go by Baltimore,
Hooka, tooka , soda cracker,
If you seem me comin' fast, richr |
Subject: RE: green green rocky road From: Mark Clark Date: 28 Oct 00 - 10:16 PM I haven't heard those lyrics but I like them. I'm guessing the melody is different than I remember as well. In 1963 we used to sing:
Ooka dooka soda cracker,
Green, green rocky road, The story I got was that the song was a street chant sung by neighborhood children to warn the prostitutes upstairs that the police were coming. I can't remember anymore where I got that story. Now I'll have to hunt up the mcgarrigles' version. - Mark
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Subject: RE: green green rocky road From: Mark Clark Date: 28 Oct 00 - 10:19 PM It looks like I remembered parts of the same version that rich_r remembers. And exactly at the same time too. - Mark |
Subject: RE: green green rocky road From: harpgirl Date: 28 Oct 00 - 10:34 PM ...gee...I learned the homogenized version, I guess! |
Subject: RE: green green rocky road From: wysiwyg Date: 28 Oct 00 - 10:38 PM So this would be another one where you can make up endless verses and just keep going? ~S~ |
Subject: RE: green green rocky road From: DonMeixner Date: 28 Oct 00 - 10:42 PM I have it by Tim Hardin. Very nice slow blues tune. |
Subject: RE: green green rocky road From: MarkS Date: 28 Oct 00 - 11:15 PM Try it too by Dave Van Ronk, or come into a hearme and ask our very own 'Catter, dwditty, to do it again. It was great when he did it the first time. MarkS |
Subject: RE: green green rocky road From: GUEST,CraigS Date: 29 Oct 00 - 02:38 PM I know that this song is based on a religious song of the same name; I also know that I've seen the religious version in a book. I'd be grateful for the original. |
Subject: RE: green green rocky road From: Abby Sale Date: 30 Oct 00 - 12:27 AM This is my best memory of the Len Chandler / Robert Kaufman version as Bob Kaufman transmitted it to me. Kaufman was not a collector or singer, he was one of the North Beach (San Francisco) unknown Beat poets (I'm pretty sure "The Abomunist Manifesto" was his best known work.) See that man walkin' down the street? There's a man with-a happy feet. See that man with the happy feet, Come a-walkin' on down the street? Cho: And it's a green, green rocky road, my honey Promenadein' to green, And tell me who y'all love, And tell me who y'all love. Now when you come to Baltimore Need no rug upon your floor And when you come a-visiting, Don't you knock, just you walk right in. See that bird up in the sky, He don't walk, baby, he just fly. He don't walk and-a he don't run Jus' keeps climbing up to the sun. Little missey walk up to the wall, Don't you stumble and don't you fall; Jus' take a walk and-a go with me And we'll go down to Galilee.
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Subject: green, green rocky road From: GUEST Date: 04 Nov 00 - 11:14 AM Can anyone help us track down the lyrics to "Green Green Rocky Road," as recorded by Emmylou Harris and Kate and Anna McGarrigle.. |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: green, green rocky road From: Malcolm Douglas Date: 04 Nov 00 - 11:25 AM Lyrics from The McGarrigle Hour and all their other records are available at the official website: http://www.mcgarrigles.com/ Malcolm |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: green, green rocky road From: dwditty Date: 04 Nov 00 - 12:35 PM Green Green Rocky Road When I go to Baltimore, need no carpet on my floor Come along and follow me, we'll go down to Galilee *Green Green Rocky Road, Promenade in green Tell me who you love tell, me who you love See that crow up in the sky, he don't walk no he just fly He don't walk and he don't run, keeps on flappin to the sun * Little miss Jane run to the wall, don't you stumble, don't you fall Don't you sing and don't you shout, when I say come runnin out * Ooka Dooka Soda cracker, does your momma chew tobacco If your momma chews tobacco, sing ooka dooka soda cracker * |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: green, green rocky road From: Benjamin Date: 04 Nov 00 - 08:01 PM Another verse I've heard goes something like-
If you see me coming fast *
~first verse repeated |
Subject: Green, Green Rocky Road From: Jerry Rasmussen Date: 10 Nov 01 - 11:39 PM Back in the 60's in Greenwich Village there was a rumour going around that someone didn't know this song. It seemed like everyone new it. Dave Van Ronk used to do it, among many, many others. My memory being what it is, I can only dredge up a couple of verses, and they may not be exactly right.. When I go by Baltimore,Where are all the old Gaslight Cafe gang these days? Any help here will be appreciated. I want to dust this one off.. Jerry Rasmussen
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Subject: RE: Green, Green Rocky Road From: thosp Date: 10 Nov 01 - 11:50 PM i loved tim hardins version --- but as far as i know it's goes back quite a bit further than the 60's -- i can't recall who -- but i seem to remember some blues man singing it peace (Y) thosp |
Subject: RE: Green, Green Rocky Road From: raredance Date: 11 Nov 01 - 01:12 AM Jerry, Type "rocky road" into the Forum Search (or copy and paste this: http://www.mudcat.org/thread.CFM?threadID=27047 ) and you will get another thread with some additional lyrics. These are the lyrics from "Negro Songs From Alabama" by Harold Courlander (1963 Oak Publications).
GREEN GREEN ROCKY ROAD
rich r |
Subject: RE: Green, Green Rocky Road From: Mark Clark Date: 11 Nov 01 - 01:12 AM Here's another thread discussing green green rocky road. - Mark |
Subject: RE: Green, Green Rocky Road From: Mark Clark Date: 11 Nov 01 - 01:17 AM rich r, We've got to stop meeting like this! In the thread you mention, we both posted lyrics at exactly the same time. Now I see we each posted a reference to that thread at... exactly the same time. - Mark |
Subject: RE: Green, Green Rocky Road From: GUEST,DaisyA Date: 11 Nov 01 - 07:10 AM Weird happenings. I was listening to Green Rocky Road on The McGarrigle Hour when I spotted this thread... A verse that seems to be absent from the other thread is
She can't crow but can she fly? She can't walk but can she run? She's black paint splattered on the sun. Daisy. |
Subject: RE: Green, Green Rocky Road From: Abby Sale Date: 11 Nov 01 - 09:20 AM As a side issue (if you read the cited threads) the reason there are three distinct approaches to the song are that 1) Chandler traveled East, gave the song to Van Ronk who did his vanronkian thing 2) Kaufman traveled West, taught it to San Francisco people (perhaps including Tim Hardin - I haven't heard the record & can't remember) with a much gentler interpretation 3) the Alabama children continued to use it as they had, as a street, play song. Nice song, yes. |
Subject: RE: Green, Green Rocky Road From: wysiwyg Date: 11 Nov 01 - 10:37 AM I saw it in a collection of negro spirituals, with lyrics you would expect in a spiritual-- I just can't remember where! When I come across it again, I will post it in one of the older threads and list it in the index of spirituals posted at Mudcat. ~S~ |
Subject: RE: Green, Green Rocky Road From: Jerry Rasmussen Date: 11 Nov 01 - 03:48 PM Thanks for all the responses. I heard Len Chandler many times at the Gaslight Cafe in Greenwich Village in the early sixties. The thing that I remember most about him is that he would come down off the stage and walk over to a table where someone wasn't singing along when he asked, and look so threatening that they'd start singing, or squawking. "Yes, Mr. Chandler....." Anybody know where he is now? Back in those days, everyone was a folksinger because it looked like a cushy way to make a living. I remember Lou Gossett singing Rocks and Gravel and doing a pretty feeble impression of someone playing a guitar. Jerry |
Subject: RE: Green, Green Rocky Road From: lamarca Date: 11 Nov 01 - 04:03 PM I first heard Van Ronk sing this at the old Cellar Door in DC around 1981; the first time I'd ever heard him live. It was a great concert! Dave introduced the song with the story mentioned on the other thread about the kids on the street chanting the "Hookah, tookah soda cracker" bit to warn the "ladies" upstairs that the cops were about to pay a visit. I like his version much better than the prettified one that Peter, Paul and Mary recorded. |
Subject: ADD: Gaslight Rag - Dave Van Ronk^^ From: Tiger Date: 11 Nov 01 - 04:44 PM No better time to insert this, a favorite DVR, for the Gaslight vets. Gaslight Rag - Dave Van Ronk INTRO
Another damn day, ah, take it away, INSTRUMENTAL BREAK
I had a dream that the Gaslight was clean,
Ah, honey babe, honey babe, |
Subject: RE: Green, Green Rocky Road From: simon-pierre Date: 11 Nov 01 - 11:17 PM Hey, Tiger, that's one of my favorite! Thanks for the lyrics. Don't have the chords, by any chance? |
Subject: Green, Green Rocky Road From: GUEST,Foe Date: 19 Jun 02 - 02:36 PM I just bought the McGarrigle Hour CD and hearing Green, Green Rocky Road remembered everyone singing it many, many years ago. I'd like to start playing it again but I can't find music or chords on the web. Merci. Foe Meader Chords & Tune Request |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Green, Green Rocky Road From: Mrrzy Date: 19 Jun 02 - 03:27 PM Red light green light round the town I found a penny on the ground Met a friend I never knowed Walking down old Rocky Road Red, green old Rocky Road Tell me what do you see? That one? |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Green, Green Rocky Road From: GUEST,Foe Date: 19 Jun 02 - 03:38 PM No, it's, When I go to Baltimore Dave Van Ronk recorded it. |
Subject: RE: green green rocky road From: Mudlark Date: 20 Jun 02 - 02:39 AM Great song...I have an old Fred neil record with this on it.. His version very mellow... |
Subject: RE: Green Green Rocky Road From: GUEST,Foe Date: 20 Jun 02 - 11:37 AM Thanks for the info. Being fairly new to computers - forced to use them at work, I think of them as typewriters with a screen. To put it in perspective, in elementary school I learned to write with a straight pen and we had inkwells at each desk - great for dipping the braid of the girl in front of you. No thread creep please - return to Green Green Rocky Road. Listened to McGarrigle Hour last night with guitar in hand and have tune and words down now. I think the CD notes mention a drop D tuning. Haven't done much with alternate tunings - it always bugged me in the past when someone would borrow my guitar to play something and immediately re-tune every string to some strange open tuning and then give it back to me without tuning it back. Foe Meader |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Green Green Rocky Road From: GUEST Date: 21 Nov 05 - 02:02 AM wow, pretty interesting story behind this tune. I have two questions. 1. Did Harold Courlander obtain this song from alabama school children? What's the story behind that? anybody know? I know he gave it to Kaufman and Kaufman gave it to Van Ronk and went west with it. 2. what on earth is this amazing song about? Anybody know? I can't figure it out. I love the imgaes, the feel, all of the but I don't have a clue what it is about. I would be really grateful to hear any thoughts anyone had about it. Cheers, John |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Green Green Rocky Road From: Peace Date: 21 Nov 05 - 11:12 PM The absolute best rendition of this song I ever heard was by a fellow named Dick Glass. I can't recall much about where I heard him--likely NYC. But he was fantastic. He played a nylon-stringed guitar and had a phenomenal voice. Wore glasses and was a fairly rotund guy. What he could do with that song was wonderful. |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Green Green Rocky Road From: GUEST Date: 25 Jan 09 - 10:05 AM I see that it's been several years since this thread has been posted on, but I'll toss in my two cents anyways. Came looking for lyrics when this tune popped into my mind and I was trying to teach it to my kids but couldn't remember very many words. I learned it at a (very white)Girl Scout camp somewhere in the Northeast sometime in the early 1980's. My recollection says the song went something like: Hooka tooka my soda cracker? Does your Mama Chaw tobacca? (Yes she does) If your mama chaws tobacca, Then it's hooka tooka my soda cracker Red and Green oh Rocky Road I said Red and Green oh Rocky Road I said Red and Green oh Rocky Road I said Promenading Green Now, granted, the song never made any sense to me so I am probably not likely to have remembered it accurately and I make no promises that my recollection of how the song goes is anything like how they sung it at camp. But, interestingly, my mother was a big fan of PP&M and when I came home singing the song it was completely unfamiliar to her or any one else in my suburban neighborhood. I'll have to find a recording and see if my memory of the tune is even accurate. What a fun story, would be very cool to see the history of the song charted on a tree with the lyric and geographic changes plotted over time, like a genetic map. Loved the story about warning the prostitutes. Thanks for the info. - G |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Green Green Rocky Road From: Azizi Date: 25 Jan 09 - 10:59 AM This dance song from Thomas W. Talley's 1922 collection Negro Folk Songs, Wise and Otherwise [p. 81, Kennikat Press edition] may have been one of the sources of the children's game song "Green Green Rocky Road" GREEN OAK TREE! Green oak tree! Rocky'O! Green oak tree! Rocky'O! Call dat one you loves, who it may be, To come an' set by de side o' me. "Will you hug 'im once an' kiss 'em twice? "W'y! I wouldn't kiss 'im once fer to save 'is life!" Green oak tree! Rocky'O! Green oak tree! Rocky'O! -snip- "Green Oak Tree" may have been based on the English game song "Walking On The Green Grass". Here's a link to a Mudcat thread about that song: Lyr Add: Walking on the Green Grass Here are the words to that song: WALKING ON THE GREEN GRASS Walking on the green grass, Walking side by side, Walking with a pretty girl, She shall be my bride. And now we form a round ring, The girls are by our sides, Dancing with the pretty girls Wo shall be our brides. And now the king upon the green Shall choose a girl to be his queen, Shall lead her out his bride to be, And kiss her, one, two, three. Now take her by the hand, this queen, And swing her 'round and 'round the green. And now we'll go around the ring, And every one we'll swing. Oh, swing the king and swing the queen, Oh, swing the king and swing the queen, Oh, swing 'em 'ound and 'round the green, Oh, swing 'em 'round the green. W.W. Newell, Games and Songs of American Children, New York, 1883 (Dover reprint, New York, 1963), p. 228. |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Green Green Rocky Road From: Azizi Date: 25 Jan 09 - 11:19 AM I remember seeing "Green Green Rocky Road" performed by Black girls in a segment from the early days of Sesame Street . If I recall correctly, the girls performed this song by forming two lines like the Soul Train Line. In other words, they formed two vertical lines facing each other, but with a space in between. The person at the head of the line had her "name called" and she strutted or danced down that aisle. I had never heard that rhyme before seeing it on tv. When I heard the phrase "promanade in green", I thought the girls said "Come ah lady's dream". But I'm sure I was just doing some folk etymology before I knew what that was. ** See the first two games in this video of Black girls playground rhymes: Pizza Pizza Daddy O [1967 film of Los Angeles schoolgirls by Bob Eberein and Bess Lomax Hawes] Those two games games are performed like what I remember "Green Green Rocky Road" being performed in that Sesame Street segment. |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Green Green Rocky Road From: Azizi Date: 25 Jan 09 - 11:32 AM I also recall Odetta singing this song on one of her first albums, but can't recall the exact words. I think her rendition of the song ended with the words "I'm gonna sing your rocky road". But I don't know if this is an accurate memory. |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Green Green Rocky Road From: GUEST,mike Date: 14 May 09 - 02:07 AM I'v been reading these Green Rocky Road threads till my eyeballs are falling out. No mention was made of the obovious meaning of the Crow verse. Noah sent out birds as look outs in the old testament. The dove returned with an olive branch and the crow just flew toward the sun and did not return. I dont think that this tune is religious but some of the implications "follow me to Gallile" are a little less than subtle. |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Green Green Rocky Road From: GUEST,marguerite Date: 10 Apr 12 - 07:46 PM this is all great. and I'd be SO happy if I could find sheet music for the song. not guitar music but something i could sing or play on recorder. anyone? |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Green Green Rocky Road From: GUEST,Balladeer Date: 24 Sep 13 - 07:03 PM I may have mislaid a verse or two, but this is how I remember my friend Len Chandler singing this song he and poet Bob Kaufman collaborated on (and how I performed it for three decades after Len taught it to me). I feel the song loses a little something when performed without the episodic refrain: Ya better tell me honey who d'ya love C'mon and tell me who ya love Why don't ya tell me who ya love, Green Green Rocky Road by Len Chandler and Robert Kaufman and some unnamed skipping children When I go by Baltimore, Need no carpet on my floor. Take my hand and follow me. We'll go down by Galilee We're singin' Green, green rocky road Promenade in green Tell me who j'all love, Tell me who j'all love. Little miss Jane run to the wall, Don't you holler gal, don't you call; Don't you sing and don't you shout When you see me comin' come runnin' out We're singin' Green, green rocky road Promenade in green Tell me who j'all love, Tell me who j'all love. When you see me comin' fast, Sweep the yard and cut the grass; Girls who kiss are bound to fall, Boys who kiss will soon tell all. We're singin' Green, green rocky road Promenade in green Tell me who j'all love, Tell me who j'all love. Ya better tell me honey who d'ya love C'mon and tell me who ya love Why don't ya tell me who ya love, Hooka, dooka , soda cracka, Does your mama chew tobacka? If your mama chews tobacka, Hooka, dooka soda cracka. Singin' Green, green rocky road Promenade in green Tell me who j'all love, Tell me who j'all love. Ya better tell me honey who d'ya love C'mon and tell me who ya love Why don't ya tell me who ya love, See that crow up in the sky, He don't walk now, he just flies. He don't walk and-a he don't run Gotta keep flappin' til he's done. We're singin' Green, green rocky road Promenade in green Tell me who j'all love, Tell me who j'all love. Some folks say that a preacher don't steal I caught three down in my corn field One had a bushel, one had a peck The third had a roasting ear around his neck We're singin' Green, green rocky road Promenade in green Tell me who j'all love, Tell me who j'all love. Ya better tell me honey who d'ya love C'mon and tell me who ya love Why don't ya tell me who ya love, When I go by Baltimore, Need no carpet on my floor. Take my hand and follow me. We'll go down by Galilee We're singin' Green, green rocky road Promenade in green Tell me who j'all love, Tell me who j'all love. Tell me who j'all love, Tell me who j'all love. Joanne Crabtree |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Green Green Rocky Road From: voyager Date: 20 Nov 13 - 12:28 PM Here's some fingerstyle Tab for GGRR - Green Green Rocky Road - Drop D Tab (1 of 2) Green Green Rocky Road - Drop D Tab (2 of 2) Green Green Rocky Road - DVR YouTube Lesson voyager |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Green Green Rocky Road From: GUEST,Gerry Date: 20 Nov 13 - 06:17 PM Is it just me, or does the song really have the same tune as Arlo Guthrie's Motorcycle Song? I mean, the part that goes, It was late last night the other day, I thought I'd go up and see Ray. So I went up and I say Ray-- There was only one thing Ray could say, was: is more or less the same tune as When I go by Baltimore, Need no carpet on my floor. Take my hand and follow me. We'll go down by Galilee |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Green Green Rocky Road From: GUEST Date: 04 Jan 14 - 08:56 AM When I was a child my mother and us use to sing this song on road trips and we would use a person in the cars name instead of "minnie": GREEN GREEN ROCKY ROAD Green, green, rocky road, Come a lady green rocky road. Tell me who you love, rocky road, Tell me who you love, rocky road. Dear Miss (Insert name) your name is called, Come take a seat beside the wall, Give her a kiss and let her go, She'll never sit in that chair no more. And then whose ever name is inserted is who starts the song all over again. Im looking for the origin of this song and the story behind it. If anyone knows, please email me at mistylobrano3312 @ hotmail .com |
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