Lyr Req: Kempy Kaye (sung by jock tamson's bairns)

Subject: Lyr Add: KEMPY KAYE (from A' Jock Tamson's Bairns)
From: Roberto
Date: 02 Jan 04 - 07:35 AM

Help with Kempy Kaye as sung by A' Jock Tamson's Bairns. I see the text they sing is from several Child's texts. I've tried to put them together in the right order, but I'm not sure of too many words, and I miss a stanza and a half in the last part of the song. Sometimes I have written down verses not as I hear them, but directly from Child's. A lot of help needed. I hope in Malcolm Douglas or some other braw Mudcatter. Thank you. Roberto

Kempy Kaye's a wooing gane
Far, far ayont the sea
And he has met with an auld, auld man
His gudefaither to be

An ye be gaun to court a wife
An ye dae tell to me
'Tis ye sall hae my Fusome Fug
Your ae wife for to be

Gae scrape yoursel, gae scart yoursel
Mak your brucket face clean
For the wooers are to be here the nicht
And your body's to be seen

She rampit out and she rampit in
She rampit but and ben
The tittles and the tattles that hang frae her tail
Wad muck an acre o land

I'm coming to court your daughter dear
And some part of your gear
And by my sooth - quoth Bengoleer
She'll sare a man a wear

She had a neis upon her face
Was like an auld pat-fit
Atween her nose bot an her mou
Was inch thick deep o' dirt

Ilka hair intae her head
Was like a heather-cowe
And ilka louse anunder it
Was like a linsteed-bow

She'd tauchy teeth and kaily lips
And wide lugs fou o hair
Her pouches fou o peasemeal-daighe
A' hinging down her spare

She had twa een intae her head
War like twa-rotten plums
The heavy brows hung doun her face
And O I vow she glooms!

When Kempy Kaye came to the house
He peeped thro a hole
And there he saw the dirty drab
Just whisking oure the coal

His teeth they were like tether-steeks
His nose was three feet lang
Atween his shouthers was ells three
Atween his een a span

He's gied to her a braw gowd ring
Was made of an auld brass pot:
....
....

(…)

When thir twa lovers had met thegither
A-kissing to tak' (?) their fill
The slaver that hang atween their twa gabs (?)
Wad hae tetherd a ten year auld bill (?)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: a' jock tamson's kempy kaye
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 02 Jan 04 - 08:45 AM

Presumably you have the CD reissue. The original vinyl (Jock Tamson's Bairns: The Lasses Fashion, Topic 12TS424, 1982) had mostly good source notes and lyrics for the songs. It appears that this is a collation made from "some of the more unpleasant passages" from the examples in C K Sharpe, Ballad Book, 1823 (Child 33A), and G R Kinloch, Ballad Book, 1827 (Child 33B). Neither book included music, so I can't tell off-hand where they got the tune they used, as unfortunately they don't say. Bronson has two tunes only, the only traditional ones known for this song, and it isn't either of those.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: a' jock tamson's kempy kaye
From: Roberto
Date: 02 Jan 04 - 11:24 AM

Please, if somebody has the booklet that Malcolm Douglas says was with the original lp, or has the recording and the time and will to correct and complete the text I've posted, I would thank you. Roberto

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: a' jock tamson's kempy kaye
From: rodentred
Date: 02 Jan 04 - 02:18 PM

Looks like you've got most of it as much as makes any difference. Last three verses:

He's guid tae her a braw gowd ring
Made o' an auld brass pat
It's we can wed wi' sich a thing
The better matched for that

He's gied tae her a napkin fine
Made o' an auld horse brat
I've lacked a clout since auld lang syne
I'll dicht ma face wi' that

When they twa lovers had met thegither
A-kissing to tak' their fill
The slavers that hung atween their twa gabs
Wad hae tether'd a ten year auld bull

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: a' jock tamson's kempy kaye
From: Roberto
Date: 03 Jan 04 - 09:12 AM

Thank you very much, rodentred!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: a' jock tamson's kempy kaye
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 03 Jan 04 - 04:49 PM

My copy of 'The Lasses Fashion' came without booklet, so if anyone has got it I'd be interested in purchasing a photocopy (at a reasonable price ...). The sleevenotes merely say:

[1982:] A ballad concerning the "disgusting courtship of two hideous giants" and which surpasses a lot of erotica for grossness. (Notes Jock Tamson's Bairns, 'The Lasses Fashion')

Some more notes:

[1966:] We may therefore surmise that another, and possibly very potent, cause of fracture [in tradition] is social attitude. Now, the outcome of a shift of attitude toward the subject matter of a ballad can be called loosely parody, and a number of varieties of parody may be distinguished. [One is] burlesque. Since burlesque normally consists of exaggeration, it will be likely to stay sufficiently close to the original to make the contrast vividly part of the fun. It can be regarded as a kind of practical joke at the expense of an original on which it is patterned. [...] Of course it by no means goes without saying that the author of a burlesque despises or dislikes the object of his sport. But he must be so far detached from it in spirit as to be willing to see its tragedy or high romance travestied from time to time without psychic recoil. Such psychic detachment is alien to tradition, which typically accepts without criticism what it passes on. [...] We may conjecture that a similar cycle [of alienation] has occurred in the case of[, among others,] Kempy Kay (no. 33), where, however, the originals vanished without being recorded, and only their mockeries have survived. (Bronson, Ballad 266f)

[1973:] [This is] a broad burlesque of the loathly lady theme that occurs in The Marriage of Sir Gawain (Ch 31) and King Henry (Ch 32). (David Buchan, Ballads 223)

[1976:] It seems that fifty to a hundred years ago there was a tendency among some scholars and others to attribute the exotic in traditional song and balladry to a Scandinavian origin. Alternatively, as many songs as possible - and a few beside - had Arthurian origins postulated for them. (Britannia with her growing Empire doing homage at the shrine of this mighty long-dead warrior. Certainly the romantic imagination was caught by this ragamuffin warlord and his band of Romano-British cast-offs.) C. K. Sharpe, in his "Ballad Book" (1823), seems almost to suggest both origins for Kempy Kay: "This song my learned friends will perceive to be of Scandinavian origin and that the wooer's name was probably suggested by Sir Kaye's of the Round Table [...]". King Knapperty is basically the version from Peter Buchan's MSS printed in Child's "English & Scottish Popular Ballads", with interpolations from other sets, and is the story of the wedding of the queen of all sluts to the king of all slobs. (Notes Martin Carthy, 'Crown of Horn')

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: a' jock tamson's kempy kaye
From: Roberto
Date: 05 Jan 04 - 03:26 AM

Susanne, I'm trying to get a copy of the booklet, and if ever I succeed, I'll tell you and send you a copy, through e-mail or fax. Thank you for the notes.