Lyr Req: Songs by the Limeliters

Subject: RE: Songs by the Limeliters
From: Genie
Date: 17 Jun 08 - 04:11 PM

Anyone know the origins of the Limeliters' song "Curimão" or the origins of that song?
I believe that's the Portugese name of the food fish that the song is about but I don't know if the song was written by that "Trad" guy or if the author is known.

Subject: RE: Songs by the Limeliters
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego
Date: 17 Jun 08 - 04:56 PM

By the way, for the contributor who loves Glenn Yarbrough's version of "Malaguena Salerosa," please listen to it as performed by Travis Edmonson, of Bud & Travis. Even seasoned Mexican performers have said he was the best. As for "Have Some Madiera, M'Dear," I'll settle for the late Lou Gottlieb's deliciously "naughty" version.

Subject: RE: Songs by the Limeliters
From: Genie
Date: 17 Jun 08 - 06:17 PM

Of course, Flanders & Swan's original of "Madiera, M'Dear" is equally deliciously naughty!

Subject: RE: Songs by the Limeliters
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego
Date: 17 Jun 08 - 07:13 PM

With such a recommendation, I must try it. Thanks!

Subject: RE: Songs by the Limeliters
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego
Date: 22 Feb 10 - 04:13 PM

For everyone who loved the Limeliters, as I did, and with no disrespect to Glenn Yarbrough, I submit that for Malaguena Salerosa, the definitive version was done by the recently departed Travis Edmonson, of Bud & Travis. His lyrical version was applauded by Mexican Mariachi groups especially, who bowed to his authentic rendering of this difficult piece.

On another subject, I don't believe there has ever been anyone - or anyTHING quite like the late Lou Gottlieb. The good doctor, for me, was the spiritual leader of the group and one of the funniest people I ever saw.

Subject: Lyr Add: MALAGUEÑA SALEROSA
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 02 Aug 10 - 09:37 PM

Malagueña salerosa
Anon.? attrib. Elpidio Ramírez y Pedro Galindo

Qué bonito ojos tienes
debajo de esas dos cejas
debajo de esas dos cejas
que bonitos ojos tienes.

Ellos me quieren mirar
pero si tú no los dejas
pero si tú no los dejas
ni siquiera parpadear.

Malagueña salerosa
besar tus labios quisiera
besar tus labios quisiera
Malagueña salerosa.

Y decirte niña hermosa
que eres linda hechicera
eres linda y hechicera
como el candor de una rosa

Si por pobre me desprecias
yo te concedo razón
yo te concedo razón
si por pobre me desprecias.

Yo no te ofrezco riquezas
Te ofrezco mi corazón
Te ofrezco mi corazón
a cambio de mi pobreza.

y decirte niña hermosa
que eres linda y hechicera
eres linda y hechicera
como el candor de una rosa.
--------------------

You have such beautiful eyes
Beneath those two eyebrows
Beneath those two eyebrows
You have such beautiful eyes

I would like to see them
But if you won't allow that
But if you won't allow that-
you won't even let them blink.

Charming* lady from Malaga
I want to kiss your lips
I want to kiss your lips
Charming lady from Malaga.

And I tell you, beautiful girl
That you are lovely and bewitching
You are lovely and bewitching
As the opened rose.

If you reject me for being poor
I concede that you are right
I concede that you are right
If you reject me for being poor.

I do not offer you riches
I offer you my heart
I offer you my heart
in exchange for my poverty.

*salerosa- several meanings, or a combination; charming, graceful, 'sharp', etc.

Nicandro Castillo, Mexican folk song student, says the song is anonymous, traditional.
BMI lists it as the composition of Elpidio Ramírez and Pedro Galindo, 1947, Peer Int.

It is a son huasteco.
The long emphasis on the next to last syllable of Malague---ña is not to the taste of every singer.

Joe posted the words without accents. I have added a translation, slightly revised from one found through google.

One verse of the song is found in Cancionero folklorico de Mèxico, Tomo 1, no. 1411; collected in Hidalgo in 1967, long after the song appeared among the American folksingers, so may not be from a folk song.

Malagueña salerosa
besar tus labios quisiera
y decirte, niña hermosa
que eres linda y hechicera
como el candor de una rosa.

Subject: RE: Songs by the Limeliters
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 02 Aug 10 - 10:40 PM

Malagueña salerosa, version by Pedro Galindo Galarza and Elpidio Ramírez Burgos, work no. 949033, was cited by Tish Hinojosa, Nana Mouskouri, Lydia Mendoza and the Limeliters.
In all, 11 work numbers cited by BMI for the song as used by others.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs by the Limeliters
From: GUEST,LZ
Date: 29 Sep 10 - 11:37 AM

why can't Folk Matinee be put on digital?! I went onto the correct record label (Sony now owns it) to request it. If anyone else want to-go vote for it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs by the Limeliters
From: Tannywheeler
Date: 30 Sep 10 - 10:53 AM

Hey, Joe O., some of us gals still find you irresistable...Tw

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs by the Limeliters
From: GUEST,Dan Sparkman
Date: 01 May 11 - 08:40 AM

My requests: Uncle Bennie's Celebration
   
I think ALL the Limeliters albums up through Making a Joyful Noise should be issued on digital cd. Especially Folk Matinee and Fourteen 14K Folk Songs.

By the way, I like polished, well-performed, well arranged folk music, and it would be hard to beat the Limeliters in any of these catagories.
The humor is outdated now, but Dr. Lou Gottlieb was imitated by hordes of comedians, who never did it as well as he.

Political commitment is optional for folk singers, in my book. For those who think it was lacking with the Limeliters, though, you should read Dick Weissman's book, "Whose Side Are You On?" There was QUITE a bit more "COMMITMENT" to the Limeliters than anyone at the time appreciated.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs by the Limeliters
From: saulgoldie
Date: 01 May 11 - 02:45 PM

Sorry to drift the thread a little, but it is kind of relevant. I like their music irrespective of whether they are thought by some to be "sellouts." Remember that not all "roots" musicians are all that easy to listen to. Some "roots" music is of interest more to musical academicians than to a wider audience who might make them wealthier in monetary terms. All performers have to decide how much to cater to popular demands versus what they themselves want to play in the way they want to play it.

PPM, The Weavers, The Kingston Trio, Judy Collins, and others have all made some sort of decisions regarding this dynamic. Some manage to "play it their way" and be happy with the money and fame that come with that decision. It is not an easy call, and I do not feel I can judge a performer for not making the decision the way I would have had them make it.

And remember that if some folk performers did not go for "the popular way," then folk music would stay in relative obscurity. Two vignettes relevant to the discussion. One is that Tom Paxton has said that his "favorite Tom Paxton song" is "My Dog Is Bigger Than Your Dog" because it made him enough money to do all the other songs that he wanted to do. "My Dog..." as you might remember, was used in a dog food commercial.

The second vignette is about another musical thing. Leopold Stokowski worked with Walt Disney to make a movie called "Fantasia" that I still think is grossly under-appreciated. However, it made classical music more accessible to a much larger audience than just the usual snooty arts types. Stokowsky took a lot of criticism for "going popular" and diminishing the musical form. But I think that bringing it to a larger audience was a *good thing.*

Saul

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs by the Limeliters
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Sep 16 - 08:30 AM

I wholeheartedly agree°

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Songs by the Limeliters
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Sep 16 - 08:39 AM

Well, It's "Uncle Benny's Celebration", written by the late Fran Minkoff and the late Fred Hellerman, based on an older klezmer melody.

At least in the early years, the Limeliters wrote very few of their own songs, and sang world music tunes, and the standard American and Irish folk canon pieces.