Folk music questions I'm afraid to ask

Subject: RE: Folk music questions I'm afraid to ask
From: Fortunato
Date: 13 Feb 03 - 10:56 AM

How in the world could Ian have divorced Sylvia, aka, the sexiest folk singer of my youth?

Subject: RE: Folk music questions I'm afraid to ask
From: Mr Happy
Date: 12 Feb 03 - 08:49 PM

D'ye John Ken Peel?

hilight above!!

Subject: RE: Folk music questions I'm afraid to ask
From: JennyO
Date: 12 Feb 03 - 08:42 PM

Also Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau in a Pink Panther movie - I think it was "The Pink Panther Strikes Again" - his best PP movie IMO.

Subject: RE: Folk music questions I'm afraid to ask
From: Cluin
Date: 12 Feb 03 - 03:43 PM

"No child no!"

"Okay.... nice puppy, nice doggy..."

*CHOMP!*

"Ow! OW! Hey Granny! I thought you said your dog didn't bite?"

"That's not my dog, child."

Subject: RE: Folk music questions I'm afraid to ask
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 12 Feb 03 - 08:25 AM

I could have made it an even 25 if I had remembered this one:

25. Granny, does your dog bite?

Subject: RE: Folk music questions I'm afraid to ask
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 12 Feb 03 - 08:18 AM

OK, here are my answers to the quiz. Some of the answers given above, although different, are just as good.

1. Our Saviour, Christ, and His Lady. I SAW THREE SHIPS
2. On the DARK OLD WATERS, all alone. (Gordon Bok)
3. Gold I will give you and my daughter for your bride. THE GOLDEN VANITY
4. That's only a milk cow my granny sent to me. FIVE NIGHTS DRUNK.
5. After you've been havin' steak for a long time, beans, BEANS TASTE FINE. (Shel Silverstein)
6. MY GET UP AND GO HAS GOT UP AND WENT. (Pete Seeger)
7. A little bit of cucum, cucum, cucum, LITTLE BIT OF CUCUMBER. (a music hall song)
8. Oh, no, my love. Farewell! PLEASANT AND DELIGHTFUL
9. Pulled a great big fish out the bottom of the pond. FISHIN' BLUES (Taj Mahal)
10. Either "The Southern Pacific and the Santa Fe" or "A glass of water and a cup of tea" JAY GOULD'S DAUGHTER
11. 'Tis the bag he puts his provender in. TROOPER WATERING HIS NAGG (from "Pills to Purge Melancholy")
12. Bacon and beans, a bellyful. OH SHEPHERD, OH SHEPHERD
13. Sit on the bank and watch the crawdads die. CRAWDAD
14. When I grow rich (say the bells of Shoreditch). ORANGES AND LEMONS 2
15. I don't know when, but we'll get together then. CAT'S IN THE CRADLE (Harry Chapin)
16. IN THE PINES, in the pines, where the sun never shines. (Lead Belly)
17. Young girls picked them, ev'ry one. WHERE HAVE ALL THE FLOWERS GONE (Pete Seeger)
18. In the woods, dear mother. HENRY MY SON
19. Down in yonder green field. THE THREE RAVENS
20. Radio said, they are just DEPORTEES. (Woody Guthrie)
21. Mama will glove my hand. DON'T LET YOUR DEAL GO DOWN (and others)
22. With a straw, dear Henry. THERE'S A HOLE IN THE BUCKET
23. BONEY FINGERS (Renee Armand and Hoyt Axton)
24. Another day older and deeper in debt. SIXTEEN TONS

Subject: RE: Folk music questions I'm afraid to ask
From: mg
Date: 12 Feb 03 - 02:17 AM

where am I to go Johnnies where am I to go
Isn't it grand boys to be bloody well dead
How can you hold a moonbeam in your hand

Subject: RE: Folk music questions I'm afraid to ask
From: Schantieman
Date: 11 Feb 03 - 05:24 AM

Ah!   A wooden bucket caulked with straw makes sense.

Who'll come a waltzing matilda with me?

S

Subject: RE: Folk music questions I'm afraid to ask
From: GUEST,Mad Tom
Date: 11 Feb 03 - 05:09 AM

Fixing a bucket with straw: It's a wooden bucket, with oakum between the (staves?). If you don't have any oakum handy, jam some straw in the gap.

- Why does the sun go on shining? / Why does the sea rush to shore? / Don't they know it's the end of the world?
- Tell me why you cried / and why you lied to me.
- Who's gonna hold you when I'm gone?
- When whiskey and blood run together / Did you hear anyone pray?
- Where's the jolly jumbuck you've got in your tuckerbag?

Subject: RE: Folk music questions I'm afraid to ask
From: mg
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 10:33 PM

How are things in Gloccamorra?
Can she bake a cherry pie?
Can't you hear the captain shouting Dinah blow your horn
Will you come to the bower will ye come will ye will ye
My son my son what have you done to be sent to Charlestown


mg

Subject: RE: Folk music questions I'm afraid to ask
From: Little Robyn
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 08:45 PM

I'd like to know who slew Lady Mondegreen???

And has Les Barker's polar bear had any news of the iceberg yet??

Robyn

Subject: RE: Folk music questions I'm afraid to ask
From: Schantieman
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 11:56 AM

ten thousand

Subject: RE: Folk music questions I'm afraid to ask
From: Amos
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 11:28 AM

How many roads must a man walk down? That's the Big Question.

A

Subject: RE: Folk music questions I'm afraid to ask
From: Snuffy
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 10:26 AM

How many holes in Blackburn, Lancashire?

Subject: RE: Folk music questions I'm afraid to ask
From: Declan
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 08:46 AM

4. Thats the lovely sow that me mother gave to me (but there are many versions.)
6. My get up and go has got up and went.
20. The radio says they are just deportees.
21. Papa will glove your hand

Subject: RE: Folk music questions I'm afraid to ask
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 08:28 AM

Steve: it's not "With a straw", but "With straw", a binding material for clay bricks, or a temporary fix (woven or otherwise) for the bucket.
24: another day older, and deeper in debt

Nigel

Subject: RE: Folk music questions I'm afraid to ask
From: Mr Happy
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 07:54 AM

D'ye John Ken Peel?

Subject: RE: Folk music questions I'm afraid to ask
From: Schantieman
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 07:48 AM

Some quiz answers:

1. Jesus Christ and his Lady
2.
3. Ten thousand pounds in gold and my daughter for your bride
4. 'Taint a horse, 'tis a clothes horse (or summat like that)
5.
6
7
8. Oh no, my love, farewell (or Oh no my love, like Hell, the way I sing it!)
11. I'll sit & watch them crawdads die, honey baby mine!
14. When I am rich, say the bells of Shoreditch
17. Young girls picked them, every one.
18. Woods, dear Mother
19. In behint yon auld fell dyke, I ken there lies a new-slain knight
22. With a straw, dear Henry (I've never understood that one!)


Any good for starters?


Steve

Subject: RE: Folk music questions I'm afraid to ask
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 06:34 AM

DMcG: Jerusalem "answers No,No,No & no ?"
Surely here we pay attention to folklore. To quote from the "Cyberhymnal":
"The theme is unique­ly Eng­lish, and there is an un­der­tone of 19th Cen­tu­ry pol­i­tics. The lyr­ics may refer to folk­lore that says Je­sus vis­it­ed Bri­tain as a teen­ag­er with Jo­seph of Ar­i­ma­thea, who was said to be a dis­tant rel­a­tive and had a stake in Cor­nish tin mines. How­ev­er, there is no his­tor­ic­al da­ta sup­port­ing this sto­ry."

So how about Maybe, Maybe, Maybe & Maybe" ?

Nigel

Subject: RE: Folk music questions I'm afraid to ask
From: Mad Tom
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 06:11 AM

re: << Why is "Derry" "Down"? >>
Maybe a corruption of (Neil Sedaka) "down-down doobie-doo down down"?

re: Deep River Blues / waterfowl
Maybe she had her apron wrapped about her, like the ill-fated Polly Vaughn?
"His arrow was loosed and it flew thru the dark / And his true love was slain as the shaft found its mark / For she'd her apron wrapped around her / and he took her for a swan"

- Who put the bop in the bop-she-bop?
- Who is that there now knocking the window pane?
- Granny, does your dog bite?
- "Oh, where are you going?" said the knight upon the road.
- Oh, where have you been, Lord Randal, my son?
- Hey, look yonder, tell me what's that you see / Marching to the fields of Concord?
- Would you forsake your house and home, /... / To ride with the Blackjack Davey?
- Who do you love?
- Does your chewing gum lose its flavour on the bedpost overnight?
- "How, how, how, how?"
- Did you bring some silver? / Did you bring some gold? / What did you bring me my dear friend / To keep me from the gallows pole?
- What was sent to the soldier's wife / From the ancient city of Prague ?

Subject: RE: Folk music questions I'm afraid to ask
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 09 Feb 03 - 02:45 PM

A QUIZ! All the following questions have answers. Sometimes they're lying or evasive answers, but answers nonetheless. Answer with a quote from the song.

Since many of these songs have multiple versions, liberal credit should be given for answers that are approximately right. Answers are all in the download version of DigiTrad, but I have changed a word here and there (they're close enough for folk music) so looking them up won't always be too easy.

1. And what was in those ships all three?
2. And where will you be when I'm thinking of thee?
3. Captain, what will you give me if that ship I will destroy?
4. How come that horse in our stable where my horse ought to be?
5. How come you're in here, eatin' beans?
6. How do I know my youth is all spent?
7. Is there anything you fancy?
8. May I go along with you?
9. Now, what do you think that he did do?
10. Tell me, daughter, what can they be?
11. What are you gonna do when the creek runs dry?
12. What have you got for my breakfast?
13. What is this hangs under his chin?
14. When will you pay me?
15. When you coming home, Dad?
16. Where did you sleep last night?
17. Where have all the flowers gone?
18. Where have you been all the day, my currant bun?
19. Where shall we our breakfast take?
20. Who are these dear friends that are falling like dry leaves?
21. Who will glove your hand?
22. With what shall I fix it, dear Liza?
23. Work your fingers to the bone - what do you get?
24. You load sixteen tons and what do you get?

Subject: RE: Folk music questions I'm afraid to ask
From: JennyO
Date: 08 Feb 03 - 10:42 PM

Mama, do they have guitars in heaven?

Well, do they?

Subject: RE: Folk music questions I'm afraid to ask
From: Sam L
Date: 08 Feb 03 - 08:23 PM

How can there be a cherry with no stone? a chicken with no bone? U.S. government experimentation and radioactive fallout, that's how.

Codeword: The cheese stands alone.
Operation Pop goes the weasle.

Subject: RE: Folk music questions I'm afraid to ask
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 08 Feb 03 - 06:45 PM

Buddy, can you spare a dime? Daddy, what's a train? Didn't my Lord deliver Daniel? Do ye ken John Peel? How can I keep from singing? What child is this? Which side are you on? Who knows where the time goes? Who's the fool now? Whose garden was this? Will the circle be unbroken?

Subject: RE: Folk music questions I'm afraid to ask
From: DMcG
Date: 08 Feb 03 - 06:24 PM

And was I born to die?
To lay this body down?
And must my trembling spirit fly
Into a world unknown?

(Yes, Yes and Yes are the serving suggestion, though many people opt for Yes, Yes and No)

And, as I read somewhere on the net, 'Jerusalem' can't be taken too seriously when the responses are 'No', 'No', 'No', 'No' and 'Fetch them yourself'

Subject: RE: Folk music questions I'm afraid to ask
From: Sam L
Date: 08 Feb 03 - 05:58 PM

I was never satisfied with the answers to the questions in I gave my love a cherry, and think they are evasive and mendacious. Some sort of cover-up is going on in that song. The truth is out there.

Moonwoman, I keep trying to explain this, but it's a babboon on the right. Why would anyone warn you about a bathroom, or a "bad moon" --whatever that is. It makes no sense. It's a babboon.

Subject: RE: Folk music questions I'm afraid to ask
From: Noreen
Date: 08 Feb 03 - 11:29 AM

Why did Jock Stewart shoot his dog? AAAaargh, Gin!
Personally, I don't believe Jock did any harm at all to the poor dog, who was actually his hunting companion.
For further enlightenmant(!?) see thread: Help: (I'm a) A Man You Don't Meet Every Day



Do you know the way to San José?
Why do you build me up Buttercup?
Why do you whisper green grass?
Why is Paddy not at work today? ...

Subject: RE: Folk music questions I'm afraid to ask
From: GUEST,Moonwoman
Date: 08 Feb 03 - 10:53 AM

I always thought it was "she cries like a WATERFALL". But then, I'm one of those who thinks that Bad Moon Rising" has the line "there's a bathroom on the right".

Subject: RE: Folk music questions I'm afraid to ask
From: katlaughing
Date: 08 Feb 03 - 10:03 AM

Mockingbird MacGillickutty, you are more likely to get more answers by asking that in a separate thread, like this one which I started for you: please click here.

That way, it will be easier to find in a search, too. Welcome to the Mudcat!

kat

Subject: RE: Folk music questions I'm afraid to ask
From: Sam L
Date: 08 Feb 03 - 08:57 AM

Morning has broken because night fell on it.

why does the cheese stand alone?

How and why does the weasle pop? From going round and round either a mulberry bush or a cobblers bench and having some financial problems and high blood pressure so the stress is eventually too much?

Subject: RE: Folk music questions I'm afraid to ask
From: Santa
Date: 08 Feb 03 - 07:51 AM

Why is Derry down? was asked earlier.

In railway parlance, "up" is towards the capital "down" away from, therefore Derry is "down" from Belfast.

This confirms the first appearance of this song to after the establishment of railways in Northern Ireland.

HTH

Subject: RE: Folk music questions I'm afraid to ask
From: Mr Happy
Date: 08 Feb 03 - 02:31 AM

'Creeping Bent': a type of grass

Subject: RE: Folk music questions I'm afraid to ask
From: Mockingbird MacGillickutty
Date: 07 Feb 03 - 11:58 PM

I
need to know what the expression "lay the bent to the bonny broome"
Broome is a weed or grass in Scotland-does one "lay the bent to" it by means of sexual activity? Help me out I need to explain it to the old folks. It has got to be fairly acurate. Unlike the Mojo thread. Doesn't any folkie ask about for such information while on Louisiana holiday?

Subject: RE: Folk music questions I'm afraid to ask
From: GUEST,Gin
Date: 07 Feb 03 - 07:08 PM

Why did Jock Stewart shoot his dog?

Subject: RE: Folk music questions I'm afraid to ask
From: Joe_F
Date: 07 Feb 03 - 06:34 PM

Is this the way it always is in Baltimore?

Subject: RE: Folk music questions I'm afraid to ask
From: leprechaun
Date: 07 Feb 03 - 05:36 PM

Those horses would have to roll the snort-straw up really big, and I don't think they have a lot of manual dexterity, what with having hooves and all.

Subject: RE: Folk music questions I'm afraid to ask
From: Charley Noble
Date: 07 Feb 03 - 05:12 PM

"The Minch is white" 'cause the surf is up!

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Folk music questions I'm afraid to ask
From: katlaughing
Date: 07 Feb 03 - 05:05 PM

Do you know the muffin man?

Are you lonesome tonight?

Hello, hello, hello, is there anybody there?

Have you ever heard a robin grieve?

Is your lamps gone out?

Why is the Minch white? (I know there's a memorable thread on it!)

If morning has broken, how do we put it back together?

Why do they ride for their money?

If smoke keeps getting in your eyes, shouldn't you move?

How can there be sounds of silence?

Subject: RE: Folk music questions I'm afraid to ask
From: Charley Noble
Date: 07 Feb 03 - 05:02 PM

How many ships sail in the forest?

How many shantymen does it take to change a sail?

If a ship sank in the forest, would anyone write a ballad about it?

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Folk music questions I'm afraid to ask
From: Bill D
Date: 07 Feb 03 - 02:23 PM

ise worms? Sure....here is the explanation
and here is more
and here is an ice worm

Subject: RE: Folk music questions I'm afraid to ask
From: Charley Noble
Date: 07 Feb 03 - 12:55 PM

And I suspect that "Eloise" is up to more than efficient rail maintenance in "See Eloise Lining Track." There were few affirmative action songs in this period. But I still haven't found my reference in "Unprintable Songs."

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Folk music questions I'm afraid to ask
From: Charley Noble
Date: 07 Feb 03 - 11:29 AM

Bruce-

"Meanwhile, why are there no bluegrass songs about "My Little Condominium on Sanibel Island" or "That Old Split Level in the
Suburbs"? Always cabins in pines and hills and such."

There's always Pete Sutherland's "Shacks and Chalets" if you're really interested.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Folk music questions I'm afraid to ask
From: Deda
Date: 07 Feb 03 - 10:45 AM

Who, who, who wrote the book of love?

And what does "Jimmy Crack Corn" mean anyway?

And Where, oh where has my little dog gone? Where, oh where can he be?

Subject: RE: Folk music questions I'm afraid to ask
From: Frankham
Date: 06 Feb 03 - 06:02 PM

1. Who is Eloise and how'd she get a job lining track?

Maybe she didn't get a job. Maybe she was strong enough and that's something to sing about.


2. Why is the postman whistling cheerfully in "The Letter Edged in Black,'' knowing that a black-bordered envelope denotes a death?

It could be a dramatic device. It makes the letter more poignant.



3. How, exactly, does my old gal look like a waterfowl in "Deep River Blues''? Is she standing on one leg, like a crane? Holding her head down like a duck?


It could be she looks like a waterfowl because she's thin with spindly legs. It's really descriptive.


4. Why does "Cocaine Blues'' posit that cocaine's for horses? What equine ailment would it treat?

I don't know but I never saw horses use it. (Sorry, Big Bill).

Frank

Subject: RE: Folk music questions I'm afraid to ask
From: Ebbie
Date: 06 Feb 03 - 04:07 PM

"Worms occupy the most diverse niches on the planet," said Daniel Shain, an evolutionary biologist at Rutgers University. "They live near hydrothermal vents in the ocean at temperatures that can exceed 100 degrees Celsius (212 degrees Fahrenheit), and they're living in ice on Alaskan glaciers at zero degrees Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit). That's about as extreme as you can get."

Subject: RE: Folk music questions I'm afraid to ask
From: MMario
Date: 06 Feb 03 - 04:06 PM

Christmas Eggses is white so that you can hide them in the snow!

Subject: RE: Folk music questions I'm afraid to ask
From: mg
Date: 06 Feb 03 - 03:58 PM

oh dear what can the matter be seven old ladies got locked in the lavotry

Subject: RE: Folk music questions I'm afraid to ask
From: jimlad
Date: 06 Feb 03 - 03:50 PM

And Why??

"may all your Christmas Eggs be white"

Subject: RE: Folk music questions I'm afraid to ask
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 06 Feb 03 - 03:38 PM

Beccy - Thanks for the clarification on the Jim Morrison anagram. I had never considered that using the abbreviation "Mr." instead of the entire word "Mister" does make it a perfect anagram. Gawd, the things ya learn at the Mudcat Cafe!


Meanwhile, why are there no bluegrass songs about "My Little Condominium on Sanibel Island" or "That Old Split Level in the Suburbs"? Always cabins in pines and hills and such.

And all those songs about moonshine, and nary a one about Galliano or Kalua.

Bruce

Subject: Ice Worm Cocktail
From: Micca
Date: 06 Feb 03 - 02:46 PM

Re:Ice worms, see Robert W. Service " The Ballad of the Ice-worm Cocktail" Here