mini ballads

Subject: mini ballads
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 15 Feb 05 - 02:37 PM

I seem to remember an out break of mini ballads. Just one verse long and claimeed to be the origin of the much longer songs that followed.

eg.
A Blacksmith courted me but he was mistaken

It's true my love has listed to 45 degrees

One night while sailing on the deep
From my hammock I fell out

Hang man stay thy rope, stay it for a while
For I think I see my father coming, coming over yonder ugh!

Any more?

Subject: RE: mini ballads
From: GUEST,Scouse (Cookie's gone walkabout)
Date: 15 Feb 05 - 03:44 PM

Tom Pierce, Tom Pierce lend I your Grey Mare.....No!
I went Down to Sammy's Bar.... It was Closed!!.
Martin said to his Man.... Bugger Off!
Where Have you been all day Henry my Son....Out!!

Subject: RE: mini ballads
From: Bill D
Date: 15 Feb 05 - 03:54 PM

The ultimate blues..

"well, I didn't wake up this morning"

Subject: RE: mini ballads
From: Leadfingers
Date: 15 Feb 05 - 08:49 PM

My Favourite Blues is the unaccompanied one !

   Woke up this morning and found someone had stolen my Blues Guitar

And Bill D's is my second fave !!

Subject: RE: mini ballads
From: Teresa
Date: 15 Feb 05 - 08:52 PM

It's been lonely in the saddle since my horse died.

I'll sing you a song of (insert favorite politician here) and all the things he's done.

Teresa

Subject: RE: mini ballads
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Feb 05 - 08:53 PM

Matty Groves he was a prat:
he screwed Lord Darlen's wife
Lord Darlen caught him on the job,
And Matty lost his life.

Subject: RE: mini ballads
From: Don Firth
Date: 15 Feb 05 - 09:06 PM

To follow on Teresa's song of ye olde West,

He rode tall in the saddle
'Til his blister broke. . . .

Don Firth

Subject: RE: mini ballads
From: Bill D
Date: 15 Feb 05 - 09:19 PM

Oh, my flower of the wildwood is long and she's tall
If weren't for her Adam's apple, she'd have no shape at all.
I can still see her standin' underneath the trees,
Tyin' knots in her stockings to look like she has knees.

Subject: RE: mini ballads
From: Teresa
Date: 15 Feb 05 - 09:23 PM

Darn, what's that one that Steve Martin used to play the banjo and sing. ...

Be courteous, kind and forgiving
(... don't remember the middle two lines)
Be obsequious and have your knees removed.

sorry, Bill just reminded me of that. I guess it's sort of an impressionist ballad? :-P

Teresa

Subject: RE: mini ballads
From: Bill D
Date: 15 Feb 05 - 09:23 PM

Michael, row the boat ashore, Hallelujah
For I fear I've lost my oar. Hallelujah

Subject: RE: mini ballads
From: Bill D
Date: 15 Feb 05 - 09:35 PM

Out in the West Texas town of El Paso,
One little kiss, then Felina good-bye.

Subject: RE: mini ballads
From: Bill D
Date: 15 Feb 05 - 09:37 PM

Oh, when the saints go marching in,
Oh, when the saints go marching in.
Lord, I want to see one stumble,
When the saints go marching in.

Subject: RE: mini ballads
From: Bill D
Date: 15 Feb 05 - 09:38 PM

Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket...
Ten to one it burns a hole.

Subject: RE: mini ballads
From: Don Firth
Date: 15 Feb 05 - 09:56 PM

Speaking of Michael,

Michael, quit messin' with that sail;
Get down here and help me bail!

Don Firth

Subject: RE: mini ballads
From: Don Firth
Date: 15 Feb 05 - 10:03 PM

Sorry. Forgot the "Hallelujahs."

Subject: RE: mini ballads
From: Bill D
Date: 15 Feb 05 - 10:04 PM

The old grey mare, she ain't what she used to be-
Out of the stable now; onto the table now.
The old grey mare, she ain't what she used to be-
A blue-plate platter soon.

    Senator Everett Durkson, singing in the senate to comment on a bill to make horse meat legal to serve for human consumption.

Subject: RE: mini ballads
From: Bill D
Date: 15 Feb 05 - 10:05 PM

(it's ok, you can borrow one of my Hallelujahs, Don)

Subject: RE: mini ballads
From: Gurney
Date: 16 Feb 05 - 02:15 AM

Lasla Feyer stole a stallion
His sister tried to bribe the judge
she got screwed and he got hung
serve the pair of bastards right.

Subject: RE: mini ballads
From: Tobyjug
Date: 16 Feb 05 - 03:14 AM

The gallant frigate Amphetrite, she sank in Plymouth sound.

Subject: RE: mini ballads
From: Splott Man
Date: 16 Feb 05 - 03:43 AM

The gallant frigate Anthracite, ablaze on Plymouth Sound.

The gallant frigate Araldite, stuck fast to Plymouth Sound.

Hello darkness ny old friend, I've bumped into the bed again. (Paul Simon)

Unforgettable....... (Nat King Cole)

You're looking for trouble? I'm not! (Elvis)

You broke down my fences, and trod on my rhubarb. (John Denver).


That'll do for now...

Subject: RE: mini ballads
From: YorkshireYankee
Date: 16 Feb 05 - 11:31 AM

Sunshine on my shoulders... gives me sunburn.

Beer is good stuff. Let's get drunk!

War is hell. Let's get drunk!

War is glorious. Let's get drunk!

Love is glorious. Let's get drunk!

Love is hell. Let's get drunk!

And so on...

Subject: RE: mini ballads
From: GUEST,Frank
Date: 16 Feb 05 - 11:50 AM

The Christian-Right is cumin in.
Lewdly sing "coo coo".

Frank

Subject: RE: mini ballads
From: GUEST,Scouse (Cookie's gone walkabout)
Date: 16 Feb 05 - 12:47 PM

When the Alabama's Keel was Laid... The Docker's went on strike!

As Aye Phil

Subject: RE: mini ballads
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Feb 05 - 12:49 PM

As was a-walking one morning in June
I realised that for folk songs I was eleven months too soon.

Subject: RE: mini ballads
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Feb 05 - 01:21 PM

Thankyou, thankyou one and all, just what you need now and again

Subject: RE: mini ballads
From: Mudlark
Date: 16 Feb 05 - 01:33 PM

Great selections all...thanks for a morning laugh.

Subject: RE: mini ballads
From: frogprince
Date: 16 Feb 05 - 07:21 PM

Papa Loved Mama; Mama loved men;
Mama's in the graveyard; Papa's in the pen.

I heard Carl Sandburg sing that on TV as "The shortest blues song" about 50 years ago; to me, using it as the beginning of a longer song is kind of a sacrilege.

Subject: RE: mini ballads
From: Genie
Date: 17 Feb 05 - 03:46 AM

OK, this one's a bit on the long side, but ...

Blood on the saddle, blood on the ground,
Bloody brains lyin' all around.
Pity the cowboy lyin' there dead.
The damned fool horse done stepped on his head!

Subject: RE: mini ballads
From: Genie
Date: 17 Feb 05 - 03:48 AM

And here's one my friend Sonja W. Oates wrote:

Well, my daddy was a rake and my mama was a ho(e),
Well, my daddy was a rake and my mama was a ho(e),
Well, my daddy was a rake and my mama was a ho(e),
But they always hoped that I would be a little mower.

Subject: RE: mini ballads
From: Bill D
Date: 17 Feb 05 - 04:41 PM

You done stole my wiiiiffffe...
..You hoss thief.

Subject: RE: mini ballads
From: Wrinkles
Date: 17 Feb 05 - 08:59 PM

To Bon Jovi's "You Give Love a Bad Name"

With pauses and power chords; good warm-up songette ;-)

I shot you through the heart,
But not the Brain.
'cause no-one alive's
that good and aim.

wrinkles

Subject: RE: mini ballads
From: Genie
Date: 17 Feb 05 - 09:22 PM

Oh, let us sing of Dubya
And the great things he has done ...
.

Subject: RE: mini ballads
From: Abby Sale
Date: 17 Feb 05 - 10:47 PM

Many sing:
We were forty miles from Albany.... forget it.

Nearly all Scots sing:
Amazing Grace, she had three tits...

Subject: RE: mini ballads
From: MartinRyan
Date: 18 Feb 05 - 04:51 AM

" I was homeward bound one night on the deep
The sea was rough and I could not sleep
- So no dream!"
_____________________________________

"Where ae you going?" said the false, false knight
To the lovely little child on the road
"Bugger off!" sez she - and turned him into a toad.

Regards

Subject: RE: mini ballads
From: GUEST,Splott Man by the back door
Date: 18 Feb 05 - 07:27 AM

Are you going to Scarboro Fair?

No

Subject: RE: mini ballads
From: MartinRyan
Date: 18 Feb 05 - 01:42 PM

"There were two brothers, two noble warriors
They fell in love with a lady gay.
But, not surprisingly, she wasn;t interested
- and ran away with a milkmaid."

Regards

Subject: RE: mini ballads
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 18 Feb 05 - 08:51 PM

'Twas Friday morn, when we set sail
And we sank to the bottom of the sea.

Subject: RE: mini ballads
From: Genie
Date: 19 Feb 05 - 08:25 PM

Aye, Dick. That's the Reader's Digest Condensed version! LOL


How 'bout:

'Twas in the merry month of May
When green buds all were swellin'
Sweet William told his love, "I'm gay."
Quoth Barbry, "Go to hell, then!"

Subject: RE: mini ballads - Cripple Creek
From: Genie
Date: 19 Feb 05 - 08:28 PM

Goin' up Cripple Creek, goin' in a run,
Slipped on a rock (glub, glub, glub, glub...)

Subject: RE: mini ballads
From: Genie
Date: 19 Feb 05 - 09:07 PM

My Bonnie lies.
(The bitch!)

Subject: RE: mini ballads
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 19 Feb 05 - 11:45 PM

Genie, I believe it was Tom Paxton who did that first, in 1968 or 69, as "The Ballad of Spiro Agnew." John Denver put it on his first album, and gave Tom credit.

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: mini ballads
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 19 Feb 05 - 11:48 PM

Tom's version goes:

I'll sing of Spiro Agnew
And all the things he's done

Oh, and Bill D's "El Paso" version is one of my favorite "World's Shortest Folk Songs." Another version of that is:

Out in the West Irish county of Mayo
I fell in love with a Mayonnaise girl

But it's not nearly as elegant.

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: mini ballads
From: Genie
Date: 20 Feb 05 - 04:53 AM

Good to know, Mark.
I wouldn't be surprised if that concept's even older than Tom Paxton, though. §;-D

I like that Mayonnaise song of Bill D's!

Subject: RE: mini ballads
From: Genie
Date: 20 Feb 05 - 04:58 AM

This land is your land,
That land is my land.
And now our lawyers've
Made out like bandits.