Lyr Req: The Nightingale (Burl Ives, et al)

Subject: Lyric Req: The Nightingale
From: Lohouse8
Date: 21 Nov 97 - 07:46 AM

This old tune was recorded by Burl Ives. I can remember opening lines and fragments.

Do you happen to know of a maiden in need, Of a sweetheart, here's one who is anxious to plead.

Also contains:

The time it is short there is none I can spare, And the nightingale's song will soon die in the air, Don't you think dearest Phyllis, You'd better agree, to make love While the nightingale sings in the tree.

Can someone help me put it all together?

Subject: RE: Lyric Req: The Nightingale
From: rechal
Date: 22 Nov 97 - 02:51 PM

I remember a snatch of a song about a soldier and a lady who didn't act like one. After the deed was done, she suggested marriage, and he says something like

Oh, no fair maid, that never can be

For I something something something

For I've me a wife, and children twice three

Something something something

Oh, hush, cried the lady, hear the nightingale sing.

It's a lovely song.

Subject: RE: Lyric Req: The Nightingale
From: Bruce O.
Date: 22 Nov 97 - 03:14 PM

The song cited by rechal seems to be quite different than the one requested. 4 copies of the latter may be found in DT as (Laws) P14. A 17th century broadside copy is ZN277 in my internet broadside index.

The one requested I don't know. It is not in the Burl Ives Songbook.

Subject: Lyr Add: THE TROUBADOUR SONG (sung by Burl Ives)
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 22 Nov 97 - 03:19 PM

rechal- we have a couple of versions of this one. Search for nightingale.

Lohouse8- Thought we had this one. As I remember it:

Did you ever hear tell of a young maid in need
Of a handsome young lover who's anxious to please
It's a pity that such a handsome young fellow as me
Must sit here while the nightingale sings in the tree
(repeat last 2 lines of each verse)

In the valley and woodland there shines a new moon
Each lad with his lass mekes the best of the June
All the world's gons a-wooing excepting of me
While the nightingale sings to his mate in the tree

The time it is short, there is none I can spare
And the song of the nightingale fades on the air
Don't you think, darling Phyllis, you'd better agree
To make love while the nightingale sings in the tree.

Different songs. Same bird. Both good.

Subject: RE: Lyric Req: The Nightingale
From: Bill D
Date: 22 Nov 97 - 06:22 PM

first verse, as sung bu Burl...

"Do you happen to know of a maiden in need
"Of a sweetheart;here's one who is anxious to please
"It's a shame that a handsome young fellow like me
"Should be left while the Nightingale sings in the tree"

2nd verse

"In the woods & the meadow beneath the bright moon"
3rd verse, 2nd line

"And the nightingale's song will soon die in the air"

3rd line...'dearest for 'darling'

(I've sung this off & on for 35 years...I 'think' I got it the way Burl Ives recorded it...not that Dick's lines weren't ok, too)

I think the melody for this is one of the prettiest tunes I know...just moves me somehow....

Subject: RE: Lyric Req: The Nightingale
From: Lohouse8
Date: 22 Nov 97 - 09:49 PM

Thanks to everyone who contributed to the recovery of the Ives lyrics. First learned this 35-40 years ago. Bill D is correct .. the tune is simple, beautiful and a perfect fit for the lyric. Plays well and stays with you a long time. Thanks again!

Subject: RE: Lyric Req: The Nightingale
From: Amos
Date: 16 Mar 02 - 02:21 PM

I don't believe this is in the Digitrad and it should well be. I first learned it from Richard Dyer Bennet's singing.

I am starting a Lyric Add for it.

A

Subject: The Nightingale's Song
From: Amos
Date: 16 Mar 02 - 02:28 PM

This has been briefly discussed on another thread and as far as I can tell it is not in the DigiTrad DB.

It was recorded by Richard Dyer-Bennet as well as, later, Burl Ives.

The Nightingale's Song

Do you happen to know of a young maid in need
Of a sweetheart? Here's one  who is anxious to plead
It's a shame that a handsome young fellow like me
Should be left while the Nightingale sings in the tree
It's a shame that a handsome young fellow like me
Should be left while the Nightingale sings in the tree


In the wood and the meadow, beneath the bright moon
Every lad and his lass make the most of the June
The world's gone a wooing, excepting of me
And the nightingale sings to his mate in the tree,
The world's gone a wooing, excepting of me
And the nightingale sings to his mate in the tree.

The time it goes fast, there is none I can spare
And the nightingale's song will soon die in the air!
Don't  you think, dearest Phyllis, you had better agree
To make love while the nightingale sings in the tree?
Don't  you think, dearest Phyllis, you had better agree
To make love while the nightingale sings in the tree?

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I moved this message here from another thread on the same topic.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyric Req: The Nightingale
From: GUEST,Frank Harte
Date: 17 Mar 02 - 11:50 AM

It's so nice to see that there are people like Dick Grenhaus and Bill D. who must be at least as old as myself if they remember Burl Ives singing this particular song. Like Bill D. it is a song that has stuck in my mind all down through the years and even now I still find myself singing it every so often. Those were the days when there were few singers other than Burl Ives singing the traditional songs, and didn't he sing them well?

The song is on a record by Burl Ives called 'The Wayfaring Stranger',he calls it 'The Troubador Song'. The L.P. was put out by Columbia Records CL 628. Those were the days when a singer was able to put twenty six songs on an L.P. and that was thirty five years ago.

The record sleeve carried a warning that ' PERMANENT NEEDLES MAY CAUSE PERMANENT DAMAGE. No needles are really permanent. Some last much longer than others but all should be changed from time to time to safeguard your record collection.

Play safe. Ask your dealer for the new Columbia Needle, engineered, tested and guaranteed by Columbia Records.

Thanks for the memories, It brings back a lot of fond memories from that time.

Slán........Frank

Subject: RE: Lyric Req: The Nightingale
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Mar 02 - 12:31 PM

I learned this from a Burl Ives record in the late 40s.

All through my late teens and early 20s I was, as I saw it, outstandingly unsuccessful with the girls, and was full of self-pity. I couldn't sing this song without tears.

I sing it today with love and not a little nostalgia.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Lyric Req: The Nightingale
From: breezy
Date: 17 Mar 02 - 12:45 PM

I go with Bill d's lyric,I learnt it while singing with Dave Cooper when he ran a club at the Rising Sun Catford S.E.London during the the very early 70s.What happened to him?

Subject: RE: Lyric Req: The Nightingale
From: SINSULL
Date: 17 Mar 02 - 12:53 PM

Frank - I owe you a giant Thank You. I have searched all of Burl Ives recordings looking for this one. It never occurred to me that the name might be different.
DaveO sings this one on Paypal. If I were Phyllis, I would jump at the chance.

Subject: RE: Lyric Req: The Nightingale
From: GUEST,YUmYUm
Date: 17 Mar 02 - 07:12 PM

Sure and didn't you sing it well yourself Frank.. a great recording of 'The Nightingale' on your 'My Name Is Napoleon Bonepart'CD.. I managed to buy it, though I must say, there was NOT enough copies produced. I have friends who have been trying for months to buy it and it is like HEN'S TEETH.

SLAN yum yum

an old friend

Subject: Lyr Add: THE NIGHTINGALE
From: GUEST,Guest DonD
Date: 17 Mar 02 - 07:51 PM

That lovely old song from Burl Ives' 78 (!) record in my collection has been a joy to sing for over 50 years, but so is the one that LoHouse asks for originally which I've been singing as long tho I can't remember whose recording I learned it from, nor how it's titled, but the complete lyrics are:

As I was out walking one morning in May,
I spied a young couple out making their way,
And she was a maiden so young and so fair,
And he was a soldier and a bold grenadier.

"Good morrow, good morrow, good morrow," said he,
"And where are you going, my pretty lady?"
"I'm going for a walk by the edge of the sea,
For to see the waters rising, hear the nightingale sing."

Well, they had not stood there but a moment or two,
When out of his knapsack a fiddle he drew,
And the tune that he played made the woods for to ring.
"Oh, hark," said the maiden, "Hear the nightingale sing!"

"Oh, soldier, oh soldier, will you marry me?"
“Oh, no, pretty lady, that never can be.
I've a wife back in London and children twice three,
Two wives and the army's too many for me!

"I'm going back to London to stay for a while.
But it's often I'll think of your pretty smile
And if ever I return it will be in the spring
For to see the waters rising, hear the nightingale sing."

I hope that this will, Lo, and that you know the lovely melody which is minor or modal. I've always suspected that there's more than a double entendre in the fiddling around he did, and her rapturous response and expectations of marriage. May we all see the water rising and hear the nightingale sing.

HTML line breaks added. --JoeClone, 22-Mar-02.

Subject: RE: Lyric Req: The Nightingale
From: GUEST,Frank Harte
Date: 17 Mar 02 - 08:02 PM

YUm, YUm,

Thanks for the kind words, but its a different Nightingale that we are talking about, likewise with Don D's Nightingale.

'My Name Is Napoleon Bonaparte' C.D. is just now available again.

Slán.......Frank

Subject: RE: Lyric Req: The Nightingale
From: GUEST,YumYum
Date: 18 Mar 02 - 06:53 AM

oops!

Subject: RE: Lyric Req: The Nightingale
From: greg stephens
Date: 18 Mar 02 - 07:06 AM

About the other Nightingale song "and they kissed so sweet and comforting etc". I believe the version universally known in English folk revival circles came from the singing of Aubrey Cantwell in Oxfordshire. Anybody know if there is a recording available of him singing it(or any other songs?)

Subject: RE: Lyric Req: The Nightingale
From: Genie
Date: 19 Mar 02 - 04:55 AM

LoHouse, Thanks so much for requesting this song. I fell in love with it from hearing the Burl Ives "Wayfaring Stranger" album back about 1960, and I had totally forgotten about it. So good to have it back again!

Bill D., That's the way I remember the Burl Ives lyrics, too (only I recall him singing "whilst," instead of "while.")

Subject: RE: Lyric Req: The Nightingale From: GUEST Date: 17-Mar-02 - 12:31 PM

Dave Oesterreich, You wrote, "In my late teens and early 20s I was, as I saw it, outstandingly unsuccessful with the girls, and was full of self-pity. I couldn't sing this song without tears." When I first learned the song, I could have been a female counterpart to your story. I even switched the genders in the song (e.g., ... don't you think, dearest Philip, ...") when I sang it (only for my own enjoyment, never for an audience). Only, for me, singing the song made me smile or laugh (...It's a shame that a lovely young maiden like me should be left whilst the nightingale sings in the tree...)! It tended to lift me out of my self pity, rather than intensify it.

I've gotta do this song at Singtime Frolics this weekend!

Genie §;-)

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