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02 Jan 04 - 07:35 AM (#1084453) Subject: Lyr Add: KEMPY KAYE (from A' Jock Tamson's Bairns) From: Roberto 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 (?) |
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02 Jan 04 - 08:45 AM (#1084490) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: a' jock tamson's kempy kaye From: Malcolm Douglas 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. |
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02 Jan 04 - 11:24 AM (#1084587) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: a' jock tamson's kempy kaye From: Roberto 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 |
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02 Jan 04 - 02:18 PM (#1084709) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: a' jock tamson's kempy kaye From: rodentred 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 |
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03 Jan 04 - 09:12 AM (#1085190) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: a' jock tamson's kempy kaye From: Roberto Thank you very much, rodentred! |
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03 Jan 04 - 04:49 PM (#1085432) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: a' jock tamson's kempy kaye From: Susanne (skw) 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') |
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05 Jan 04 - 03:26 AM (#1086202) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: a' jock tamson's kempy kaye From: Roberto 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. |