07 Jun 01 - 08:20 PM (#478821) Subject: Lyr Add: LADY ALL SKIN AND BONE From: toadfrog There are two or three short versions of the song in the forum, mostly with screeches & howls interspersed, for Halloween. Here is a somewhat more urbane version, to be sung in harmony. I'll submit the tune when I've worked through ABC some more. LADY ALL SKIN AND BONE Author not known There was a lady all skin and bone, And such a lady was never known. It happened on a holiday The lady went to church to pray. And when she came unto the stile, She tarried there a little while, And when she came unto the door, She tarried there a little more. And when she came unto the aisle, She wore a sad and a woeful smile. She'd come a long and a weary mile, Her sin and sorrow to beguile. And she walked up, and she walked down, And spied a dead man upon the ground. And from his nose unto his chin, The worms crept out, and the worms crept in. And the lady to the sexton said, Shall I be so when I am dead? And the sexton to the lady said, You'll be the same when you are dead! As sung by Ewan McColl and Peggy Seeger, on "Two-Way Trip," Folkways Records FW 8755 The liner notes refer the "Theme of death and the lady," and observe that "most of the songs on this theme retain something of the medieval homiletic poem," and refer to JEFDSS, Vol. V, p. 19. Edinburgh rhymours, Vol I., p. 108. The liner notes are less than clear on several matters, including to what extent this version is a spoof. Also see Halloween Songs |
09 Jun 01 - 09:49 PM (#479986) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Lady All Skin and Bone From: toadfrog Someone said this was a Scottish nursery rhyme. Anyone know if that is correct? |
10 Jun 01 - 11:47 PM (#480577) Subject: Lyr Add: THERE WAS A LADY ALL SKIN AND BONE From: Malcolm Douglas Probably English originally, though it can be found throughout England, Scotland and Ireland and further afield.
There is a set in the DT, heard in Vancouver in 1969, which is very similar to the MacColl recording:
Skin & Bones Discussion with a number of versions, two with tunes.
Know Lady All Skin and Bone or...? Discussion.
There is an entry at The Traditional Ballad Index:
The Oxford Book of Nursery Rhymes (Iona and Peter Opie, 1951) gives the earliest known set of words, from 1810:
There was a lady all skin and bone,
When she came to the church stile,
When she came to the church door,
On looking up, on looking down,
Then she unto the parson said,
"Here the lady screams, notes the editor of Gammer Gurton's Garland, and ever since the story was first told, her experience has been bringing terror to the listeners in the nursery. [The poet] Southey, in tears, used to beg his family not to proceed. An essayist, in 1863, recalled his 'suppressed anticipation' as the story 'drew near its terribly personal ending'; a correspondent in 1946 said that these verses in Rimbault's book 'scared us so much as children, we fastened the leaves together'. The lady, the title says, was a 'gay' lady before the event, and therefore undoubtedly wanting in virtue. Perhaps the macabre moralist whe wrote the tale had in mind the paintings of bodies corrupting in the grave at one time hung in churches."
References:
"The most haunting of these quietly told tales with electrifying endings is probably also the oldest, for it was in print by 1810. Its popularity today amongst children is, nevertheless, almost certainly due to an unbroken chain of retelling through the years, rather than to print. They say `Let's play The woman all skin and bone', or `Let's do The woman in a churchyard' (the tale is currently known in two versions), and the children crouch around in the darkest part of the room while the narrator recites in a sepulchral voice :
She thought she'd go to church one day
When she got to the wooden stile
When she reached the old church door
The grubs crawled in, the grubs crawled out,
Oh you ghastly ghost, she said,
Version from girl, c.12, Welshpool.
A woman in a churchyard sat,
Woman to the corpses said,
Version from girl, 10, London.
Such a story could have been the `sad tale' young Mamillius began to tell on a winter's day long ago. He, too, knew that the story must be told softly, so softly that `Yond crickets shall not hear it', and he began his tale in the same way: `There was a man dwelt by a churchyard.'
That's Mamillius from Shakespeare's Winter's Tale, of course. M.R. James wrote a chilling little story about the tale that the young prince never had a chance to finish, based on traditional versions that can still be heard now, nearly a century later.
Of the references cited by MacColl, the Rymour Club one he probably got from an article by Anne Gilchrist in the Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society of 1941: "Death and the Lady" in English Balladry:
There was a lady all skin and bone.
[Miscellanea of the Rymour Club, Edinburgh, 1909: contributed by Alan Reid, who had it from a great-aunt who learnt it in Edinburgh c.1850).
The article includes a discussion of various examples of The Lady All Skin and Bone, including one which I think is the version MacColl recorded (the text is the same as the one posted at the beginning of this thread): it's an Irish variant from Petrie's Ancient Music of Ireland (1855). Music is given. Reference is also made to the use of the song in Dorset as a cure for the hiccups.
The other reference MacColl made to JEFDSS was to a set of Death and the Lady, noted by Francis M. Collinson from Mr. Baker of Maidstone in 1946. It doesn't really have any direct connection to this discussion, besides the momento mori theme. Mr. Baker's song was re-published in the Penguin Book of English Folk Songs (1959), and the notes, together with links to texts and other related stuff, can be seen here: Death and the Lady. Malcolm Skin and Bones (The Skin and Bones Lady)DESCRIPTION: "There was an old woman, all skin and bones." The old woman decides to go to church. At the church she encounters a (rotting?) corpse. She asks the (parson/clock), "Will I be thus when I am dead." When told "Yes," she screams and/or diesAUTHOR: unknown EARLIEST DATE: 1810 (Gammer Gurton's Garland) KEYWORDS: death questions FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,NE,SE,So) Britain(England) REFERENCES (7 citations): Randolph 69, "The Skin-and-Bone Woman" (2 texts, 2 tunes) Eddy 86, "The Skin-and-Bone Lady" (2 texts, 1 tune) Ritchie-SingFam, pp. 11-12, "[Skin and Bones]" (1 text, 1 tune) JHCox 167, "The Skin-And-Bone Lady" (2 texts) Chase, p. 186, "The Old Woman All Skin and Bones" (1 text, 1 tune) Botkin-NEFolklr, p. 586, "Old Woman All Skin and Bone" (1 text, 1 tune) DT, SKINBONE File: R069 Go to the Ballad Search form The Ballad Index Copyright 2002 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle. |
10 Jun 01 - 11:57 PM (#480586) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Lady All Skin and Bone From: Sorcha Whoosh, Malcolm. Your fingers tired yet, grin? |
11 Jun 01 - 12:22 AM (#480605) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Lady All Skin and Bone From: toadfrog Thanks Malcom. A very thorough report. I goofed in not finding this in the DT; the words were just sufficiently non-conforming to resist search. I did find the references in the forum. |
21 Aug 04 - 08:01 PM (#1253128) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Lady All Skin and Bone From: GUEST,pearl crane beng My grandmother would sing me a version of this song when I was very small: There was an old woman All skin and bones Oh such an old woman Was never known She went to church one day To hear the parson preach and pray And when she got there Beside the door There lay a ghost All dressed in white She said to the minister Will I look so when I am... DEAD! I realize that this must be quite a corrupted version of the old song. However, it still succeeded in scaring me to death when I was young! I enjoy it very much to this day. |
21 Aug 04 - 11:40 PM (#1253214) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Lady All Skin and Bone From: Stewart This is on Paddy Graber's new CD HERE. Cheers, S. in Seattle |
22 Aug 04 - 05:07 AM (#1253311) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Lady All Skin and Bone From: John MacKenzie Somewhere in the recesses of my mind I hear a few lines, The worms crawled, the worms crawled out They played Pinochle on her snout. This is probably of US origin, as Pinochle is a card game I've only ever heard of in America. Of course it may be lines from a different song altogether, although the wording is similar. Somebody, I have forgotten who, used to replace the last line with just the word 'AYE' shouted out in a loud voice. Giok |
22 Aug 04 - 05:29 AM (#1253324) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Lady All Skin and Bone From: The Fooles Troupe Pinochle developed in the United States in the mid-19th century. It has similarities to some older European games such as the French card game bezique. There are several varieties of the game, but the most popular four-player version (and the one played at Yahoo!) is most often called Double Deck Pinochle. http://games.yahoo.com/games/rules/pinochle/pinochlehistory.html?page=pi |
22 Aug 04 - 05:15 PM (#1253746) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Lady All Skin and Bone From: Tannywheeler Shall I assume everyone has heard the Kentucky version done by Jean Ritchie during the 1940s-50s? Called "The Boo Song" by my youngest son (now 34), it was his favorite lullaby!!! There was an old woman all skin and bone. Ooo-oo-oo-oo She lived down by the old churchhouse. Ooo-oo-oo-oo One night she thought she'd take a walk. (Ooo------) She walked down by the old churchyard. (Ooo----) She heard the bones a rattlin' 'round. (Ooo----) She thought she'd sweep the old churchhouse. (Ooo----) She went to the closet to get the broom. (Ooo----) She opened the door and BBOOOOOOOO!!!!!! He could be absolutely sack-of-potatoes slumped asleep and giggle in his sleep at the end. I would start with the other popular ones (in our family)-- Hush/word/mockingbird, Go Tell Aunt Rhody, my grandmother's peculiar version of Whole Heap of Little Ponies, etc.-- and when he couldn't keep his eyelids open any more he would ASK for "The Boo Song, mommy." |
22 Aug 04 - 06:09 PM (#1253794) Subject: Lyr Add: THERE WAS AN OLD WOMAN (from Belden) From: Q (Frank Staplin) Belden gave three versons from Missouri (one via Virginia). One is different from those previously posted. THERE WAS AN OLD WOMAN There was an old woman lived all alone, Umph-humph, umph-humph!* She was nothing in the world but skin and bone. Umph-Humph, umph-humph!* One day the old woman went to church To hear the parson pray and preach. When she got to the stile she stopped to rest a little while; ** When she got to the door she stopped to rest a little more.** When she opened the door she saw a corpse upon the floor.** She asked the preacher if she would look like that. He told her yes and scared her to death! * "Regarding the refrain, which follows each line but the last. Mrs. A. (Ames) notes that the syllables 'are nasal sounds made with the mouth closed. They are the expressions that Missourians use colloquially to denote assent.'" Printed here only for the first couplet. ** "Each of these lines is probably a couplet in itself. Of the conclusion Mrs A. says that it is delivered as an exclamation instead of being sung. Very exciting to young children." H. M. Belden, "Ballads and Songs" Collected by the Missouri Folk Lore Society, Univ. Missouri Studies Volume 15, No. 1, 1940, 1955, 1973. Pp. 502-503, no music. Mrs. L. D. Ames, Columbia, MO, 1917. |
22 Aug 04 - 06:20 PM (#1253809) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Lady All Skin and Bone From: Q (Frank Staplin) Not mentioned in The Traditional Ballad Index is a version in Moore, Ethel and Chauncy, 1964, Ballads and Folk Songs of the Southwest, 123, p. 255, with music, coll. Norman, Oklahoma. Univ. Oklahoma Press, 414 pp. Verses similar to others posted, each couplet ending hm, hm, hm. |
22 Aug 04 - 06:28 PM (#1253819) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Lady All Skin and Bone From: Q (Frank Staplin) Short version, "Old Woman All Skin and Bones, in the Wolf Collection, from Arkansas. Old Woman |
23 Aug 04 - 06:08 PM (#1254744) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Lady All Skin and Bone From: GUEST Tannywheeler- What good taste your little boy had... that's our family version, all right, or almost all of it. I've been singing it so many years, to children of all ages; I think perhaps it's in every school music textbook in the USA and a few other countries. It may now be heard again, on the same old record- a new combination of EKLP 2, EKL 125 (from Elektra) and "A Time For Singing" from Warner Bros, put out by Rhino/Warner, titled "Jean Ritchie- Mountain Hearth and Home." Maybe Camsco has it by now, and it should be on my site soon (www.jeanritchie.com). |
24 Aug 04 - 05:21 PM (#1255632) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Lady All Skin and Bone From: kytrad (Jean Ritchie) Apologies and thanks, you hardworking staffers- I didn't realize when I posted yesterday that my cookie was missing. BUT HARKEN: The above post was the FOURTH one I had written and had lost because the Submit Message click-on just wouldn't work. Is this usual? |
24 Aug 04 - 07:35 PM (#1255756) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Lady All Skin and Bone From: Stewart Here's Paddy Graber singing his version of Old Lady of Skin and Bones from his new CD The Craic Was Great Cheers, S. in Seattle |
04 Oct 04 - 08:57 AM (#1288204) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Lady All Skin and Bone From: GUEST,Bluenose Canuk I remember learning this version in elementary school: There was an old lady, all skin and bones 0000-ooo-oo-oo One evening she though she'd go for a walk OOOOO-OOO-OO-oo She walked down by the old grave yar OOOO-ooo-oo-o she saw the bones all layin around, OOOOO-ooo-oo-o She went to the closet to get a bromm, oooooo-ooo-oo-o she open the closet door, and BOO! |
04 Oct 04 - 01:02 PM (#1288373) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Lady All Skin and Bone From: Q (Frank Staplin) Guest Bluenose Canuck- The song did appear in some grade school music books. One was the Silver-Burdett "Making Music Your Own," Grade 5 book. |
07 Jun 06 - 03:50 PM (#1755151) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Lady All Skin and Bone From: GUEST,Juan Wow, I had been looking for this song for a while. |
07 Jun 06 - 07:11 PM (#1755297) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Lady All Skin and Bone From: Tannywheeler Ya shoulda come to us sooner, Juan. As you can see, it was never missing. Tw |
27 Mar 09 - 11:06 AM (#2598568) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Lady All Skin and Bone From: GUEST,Teacher Ben This sond is really effective when using a guitar and playing just using Dm and A7 chords.. picking individual strings.. i use this version The Scariest Song ever There was an old woman all skin and bone. Ooo-oo-oo-oo She lived down by the old churchhouse. Ooo-oo-oo-oo One night she thought she'd take a walk. (Ooo------) She walked down by the old churchyard. (Ooo----) she saw the bones all layin around, (Ooo----) She thought she'd sweep the old churchhouse. out (Ooo----) She went to the closet to get the broom. (Ooo----) She opened the door and BOOO!!! |
28 Mar 09 - 01:29 PM (#2599320) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Lady All Skin and Bone From: Jim Dixon The original text (or at least the oldest known published version), in Gammer Gurton's Garland by Joseph Ritson (London: Harding and Wright, 1810), titled THE GAY LADY THAT WENT TO CHURCH, can be seen at Google Books—click the link. |
28 Jul 10 - 12:09 AM (#2953603) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Lady All Skin and Bone From: GUEST,ivy douglas My grandmother sang this to us kids and it was very creepy....each line was repeated 3 times There was an old woman, who was nothing but skin and bones. Oh-oh,oh,oh One day the woman said, I'll go hear the parson preach and pray. Oh-oh,oh,oh When she got to the church-house stile, she said she'd rest a little while. Oh-oh,oh,oh When she got to the church-house door, she said she'd rest a little more. Oh-oh,oh,oh When she got to the church-house aisle, she spied a corpse upon the floor. Oh-oh,oh,oh The woman to the parson said, will I look so when I am dead? Oh-oh,oh,oh The parson to the woman said, Yes you'll look so when you are dead. Oh-oh,oh,oh The woman to the parson said....AHHHHHHHHHH (END WITH LOUD SCREAM) Very cool.... |
28 Jul 10 - 04:31 PM (#2954015) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Lady All Skin and Bone From: Gurney Cyril Tawney recorded it on his LP of children's songs. I gave the LP to my (then) small niece, and she played it ONCE! The scream frightened her. |
28 Oct 20 - 09:36 PM (#4077181) Subject: ADD Version: The Skin-and-Bone Woman From: Joe Offer Randolph #69 A THE SKIN-AND-BONE WOMAN There was an old woman all skin and bones, Who went to the church all alone, oh, oh, oh, When she got to the church stile, She thought she'd rest a little while, oh, oh, oh, When she got to the church door, She thought she’d rest a little more, oh, oh, oh, She got up an’ she went in, With a smile an’ then a grin, oh, oh, oh. She looked up an’ she looked down, She seen a corpse layin’ on the ground, oh, oh, oh, The woman unto the corpse did say, When I am dead will I look that-a-way? oh, oh, oh. The corpse unto the woman did say, When you are dead you’ll look this-a-way, oh, oh, oh Ozark Folksongs, collected and edited by Vance Randolph (University of Missouri Press, 1980) Song #69A, sung by Miss Leone Duvall, Pineville, Missouri - July 16, 1923 |
28 Oct 20 - 09:45 PM (#4077183) Subject: ADD Version: The Skin-and-Bone Woman From: Joe Offer And Randolph #69B THE SKIN-AND-BONE WOMAN There was an old woman all skin and bones, uh-hum, uh-hum, uh-hum, The likes in London never was known, uh-hum, uh-hum, uh-hum, It was upon a Sabbath day, uh-hum, uh-hum, uh-hum, An’ when she got to the church stile, uh-hum, uh-hum, uh-hum, She rested an’ set a little while, uh-hum, uh-hum, uh-hum, An’ when she got to th’ church door, uh-hum, uh-hum, uh-hum, She rested an’ set a little more, un-hum, uh-hum, uh-hum, An’ when she got the church within, uh-hum, uh-hum, uh-hum, The parson did both pray an’ sing, uh-hum, uh-hum, uh-hum, She look-ed up an’ she look-ed down, uh-hum, uh-hum, uh-hum, She seen a corpse upon the ground, uh-hum, uh-hum, uh-hum, The lady to the parson said, uh-hum, uh-hum, uh-hum, Will I look so when I am dead? uh-hum, uh-hum, uh-hum, The parson to the lady said, uh-hum, uh-hum, uh-hum, Yes, you’ll look so when you are dead, uh-hum, uu-hum, uh-hum, The rest of this song lies on the shelf, uh-hum, un-hum, uh-hum, If you want any more you can sing it yourself, uh-hum, uh-hum, uh-hum. Ozark Folksongs, collected and edited by Vance Randolph (University of Missouri Press, 1980) Song #69B, contributed by Mr. Lee H. Reed, Poplar Bluff, Missouri - Sept 13, 1929 Melody for these two songs transcribed upon request |