To Thread - Forum Home

The Mudcat Café TM
https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=70524
42 messages

your favorite ironical/comical love songs

09 Jun 04 - 06:12 PM (#1203914)
Subject: your favorite ironical/comical love song
From: Bearheart

Looking for songs that are ironical or comical in nature. Like "The Grey Mare"/"Roger the Miller", or "The Ploughboy and the Cockney", or "Shift and Spin", or "The Laird o Drum". I have about 23 in my collection so far. Your favorites?

Thanks
Bekki


09 Jun 04 - 06:13 PM (#1203915)
Subject: RE: your favorite ironical/comical love song
From: Bearheart

PS I tried doing a search but the keyword I used didn't work...


09 Jun 04 - 06:35 PM (#1203926)
Subject: RE: your favorite ironical/comical love song
From: Blowzabella

Not sure if it's what you are looking for but my favourite is 'I Hold Your Hand in Mine' - Tom Lehrer


09 Jun 04 - 06:41 PM (#1203930)
Subject: RE: your favorite ironical/comical love song
From: The Fooles Troupe

Brush up your Shakespeare, start quoting him now
.... and the ladies you will wow..


09 Jun 04 - 06:54 PM (#1203941)
Subject: RE: your favorite ironical/comical love song
From: Teresa

Ah, one of my favorites is "Not Quite But Nearly", which you can find on Leon rosselson's Rosselsongs collection. I'm sorry I can't post lyrics; can't find them, and my mind is like a sieve when it comes to them ;( But the gist is basically that
the narrator would do outrageous things for his beloved ... and lists some very outrageous ones indeed ... "well, not quite, but nearly." :)
Teresa


09 Jun 04 - 07:00 PM (#1203946)
Subject: RE: your favorite ironical/comical love song
From: Jim Dixon

TAKE HER IN YOUR ARMS by Andy M. Stewart is a comical song about an inept lover which is also rather touching, in my opinion.

IN SPITE OF OURSELVES is another good 'un. John Prine sings it with Iris DeMent. They alternate verses and then they both sing the chorus.


09 Jun 04 - 07:15 PM (#1203965)
Subject: RE: your favorite ironical/comical love song
From: Leadfingers

ANY of Lehrer is GOOD - Old and Grey , Hold Your Hand , and a stack more I cant think of this time of night !


09 Jun 04 - 07:16 PM (#1203966)
Subject: RE: your favorite ironical/comical love song
From: Blackcatter

Monty Python - Sit On My Face.


09 Jun 04 - 08:29 PM (#1204016)
Subject: RE: your favorite ironical/comical love song
From: Amos

I hold your hand in mine, dear
I press it to my lips.
I take a healthy bite, dear
Of your precious fingertips.
The night you died, I cut it off
I really don't know why!!
For every time I kiss it, I
Get bloodstains on my tie....


Tom Lehrer, "I Hold Your Hand in Mine".

See also his Wiener Schnitzel Waltz, which always gets a guffaw.


09 Jun 04 - 09:12 PM (#1204039)
Subject: RE: your favorite ironical/comical love song
From: Soundcatcher

My two current favourites are "Don't get married girls" by Leon Rosselson and "Belle of Barnstaple" by Jeremy Taylor.
On a traditional note I think "A sailor courted A farmer's daughter" (The farmer's daughter) takes a bit of beating.


09 Jun 04 - 09:32 PM (#1204049)
Subject: RE: your favorite ironical/comical love song
From: Bearheart

Thanks--these are good starts. I guess I need to get serious about looking for Leon Rosselson's stuff-- most of what I've heard has been other people recording his stuff-- like Les Barker...

Most of my personal interest lies in traditional stuff, but hopefully people will keep this going?

Bekki


10 Jun 04 - 03:01 AM (#1204136)
Subject: RE: your favorite ironical/comical love song
From: alanabit

Tom Lehrer's "Masochism Tango" is a love song of sorts and I'll go along with Leadfinger's comment that just about any Tom Lehrer is good. Paddy Roberts was nowhere near as talented, but I still like his song "Love in a Mist", which contains the lines:
    I'm cast in a spell by the perfume of yellow mimosa
    I'm drugged by you charms and the fact that our arms are entwined
    But somehow I feel the reason you're stealing closer
    Is that if you let go you'll fall on your small behind


10 Jun 04 - 07:49 AM (#1204245)
Subject: RE: your favorite ironical/comical love song
From: Billy Weeks

She's big and she's beautiful
She's fat and she's fair
Like the buttercups and daisies
That grow in the air

When she said she'd marry I
It made I feel big
I'd rather have Sarey
Than farmer's fat pig

- extract from'Sarey', sung in 1930s by Albert Richardson of 'Fat Sow' notoriety. Might not go down all that well in modern company.


10 Jun 04 - 10:02 AM (#1204300)
Subject: RE: your favorite ironical/comical love song
From: Big Jim from Jackson

One of the best songs in this genre has to be "Waltz of the Wallflowers" by a duo called Small Potatoes! It is a superbly crafted and performed song. It describes two lonely people who go to a dance and spot each other across the room. Absolutely great! It has to be heard to be believed.


10 Jun 04 - 10:18 AM (#1204309)
Subject: RE: your favorite ironical/comical love song
From: Dave Hanson

Cushie Butterfield,

She's a big lass and a bonny lass,
And she likes her beer,
And they call her Cushie Butterfield,
And I wish she was 'ere.

eric


10 Jun 04 - 10:28 AM (#1204319)
Subject: Lyr Add: THE BACHELOR'S WARNING (Dominick Murray)
From: Blackcatter

Well this isn't quite on topic, but it's close, and I don't think that many people know it. It was written and performed by Celtic Thunder.

THE BACHELOR'S WARNING
Dominick Murray

Come hither me boys while I'll make some old noise
And I'll tell you of stories would provoke you to ponder.
Your station in life should you e're take a wife
Who would cause naught but strife and pull all joys asunder.

The boys of the nation with great trepidation
Do swear that they ne'er will consent to be trothed,
But when out cavorting, imbibing, and courting,
Their senses all dulled they renege on their oath.

For the face of a blaggart may look worn and haggard         
But full is his soul as he tears on the spree.
He has no distraction to give satisfaction
It's happy he is to live single and free.

At each wedding feast as they call in the priest
To invoke marriage blessings the boys wonder in silence
If God will allow this poor man take a vow,
To surrender his will and be doomed to compliance.

For many's the bachelor get into a match
Hor the glories of love and connubial bliss.
To late to discover his wife's not his lover
And he wishes his mrs. were still just a miss.

There was young Paccy Hayes all singing the praise
Of the wee lass who's father was cursed with the nagging.
We knew if he married himself would be harried
His songs now laments that his spirits are draggin'

For the new Mrs. Hayes had a mouthful of nays
Yhat she learned from her mother, a creature displeasing
Their schemes and their plots tied Paccy in knots
They'd prevent peace from pleasin' his soul any season.

So young men take care if a wedding you dare
Pick a girl that was raised to take great joy in life.
The woman you wed should delight in your bed
And not stand on your head like poor Paccy's wife.

And you old ones take warning lest you be left mourning
That no man will wed or take your daughter's hand
If you will impart the goodwill of your heart
It's of peace and contentment you'll have full command.


10 Jun 04 - 10:47 AM (#1204342)
Subject: RE: your favorite ironical/comical love song
From: GUEST,JOHN FROM ELSIE`S BAND

"I went to your wedding,
Although I was dreading,
The thought of seeing you-u-u-u-u, chuckle)"
"Your mother was laughing
Your father was laughing
And I was laughing too"

Etc.,etc.


10 Jun 04 - 06:46 PM (#1204675)
Subject: RE: your favorite ironical/comical love song
From: Joe_F

The Bold Soldier. Pleasant irony, possibly 18th-century. I especially like the part where the lady realizes she is on to a good thing:

"Fight on!" said the lady,
"The portion is too small."


10 Jun 04 - 07:58 PM (#1204714)
Subject: RE: your favorite ironical/comical love song
From: freightdawg

There is "The Ballad of the Shape of Things" whose key verse is,

"Rectangular is the hotel door, my true love tried to sneak through
rectangular is the transom over which I had to peep through,
rectangular is the hotel room I enter angrily,
and, rectangular is the wooden box
where lies my love 'neath the golden phlox
they say he died of the chicken pox...
in part I must agree...one chick too many had he."

Freightdawg


11 Jun 04 - 01:01 AM (#1204859)
Subject: RE: your favorite ironical/comical love song
From: LadyJean

From my mother:

They strolled along together.
The sky was studded with stars.
They reached the gate together, and for her he lifted the bars.
She rolled her brown eyes to him.
There was nothing between them now.
For he was just a hired hand.
And she was a Jersey cow.

Mooed music.


11 Jun 04 - 01:07 AM (#1204860)
Subject: RE: your favorite ironical/comical love song
From: alanabit

I heard a version of that in Cornwall some thirty five years ago. These things get around a bit, don't they?


11 Jun 04 - 01:51 AM (#1204878)
Subject: RE: your favorite ironical/comical love song
From: GUEST,reggie miles

I like "You're The Fingernail Scratchin' On The Blackboard Of My Heart".


11 Jun 04 - 03:07 AM (#1204897)
Subject: RE: your favorite ironical/comical love song
From: Lin in Kansas

"Put Another Log on the Fire" by Tompall Glaser. "May To December" by Lehrer. "Will You Still Love Me When I'm Sixty-Four" (the Beatles?--I think).

Lin


11 Jun 04 - 12:38 PM (#1205226)
Subject: RE: your favorite ironical/comical love song
From: JennyO

"The Shape of Things" was written by Sheldon Harnick and was sung in the 60's and 70's by Blossom Dearie.

I had not heard it since then - until Cloudstreet revived it. It is on their CD "Violet Sarah and Muckle John". They describe it as a song of love, betrayal, revenge and geometry.

The rest of the words are in the DT as "The Shape of My Love" here


11 Jun 04 - 01:55 PM (#1205253)
Subject: Lyr Add: THE THRESHING MACHINE
From: Georgiansilver

I love the "Threshing Machine"

I knew an old farmer, and I knew him well.
He had a daughter and her name was Nell.
Nell was so pretty and only sixteen.
When I showed her the works of my threshing machine.

Chorus......
I 'ad 'er, I 'ad 'er, I 'ad 'er I ay.
(repeat)
then last two lines of verse.

We went to a barn and we went us inside.
There in the corner some straw we espied.
Nell worked the throttle and I worked the steam.
I showed her the works of my threshing machine.

Chorus

Six months has gone past and all is not well.
Something has happened to our little Nell.
Under her apron can clearly be seen.
The dirty old works of my threshing machine.

Chorus

Nine months has gone past and all is now well.
A baby is born to our little Nell.
Under his nappy can clearly be seen.
A brand new "two cylinder" threshing machine.

Be Blessed.


11 Jun 04 - 02:07 PM (#1205259)
Subject: RE: your favorite ironical/comical love song
From: saulgoldie

"Rufus and Beverly" I think is the title. Recorded by Bryan Bowers, written by...Marc Adams?

Anyway, it is about a fairly typical "boy meets girl, falls in love, gets married" kinda thing, except that they find out on their wedding night that they are both transsexuals.

I haven't listened to it for a while, and some details are a little fuzzy. I will find the CD at home and correct any errors.


11 Jun 04 - 02:42 PM (#1205287)
Subject: RE: your favorite ironical/comical love song
From: fat B****rd

Maybe a little r'n'b for you but check out "Down Home Girl" by Alvin Robinson.


11 Jun 04 - 03:29 PM (#1205325)
Subject: RE: your favorite ironical/comical love song
From: Herga Kitty

"Confidence" by Chris Sugden (Sid Kipper's agent)- similar to Waltz of the Wallflowers in theme, because it's about a very unconfident bloke who gets chatting to a woman in a pub. There's a refrain line that goes "I can't believe you like me"....


11 Jun 04 - 04:49 PM (#1205383)
Subject: RE: your favorite ironical/comical love song
From: Joe_F

"Minnie the Freak" by Leslie Fish:

Now here's the truth by the bucketful:
There's sex and there's friendship, the rest is bull.


11 Jun 04 - 08:57 PM (#1205540)
Subject: RE: your favorite ironical/comical love song
From: Big Jim from Jackson

Mark Graham wrote "Rufus and Beverly".


11 Jun 04 - 11:35 PM (#1205593)
Subject: RE: your favorite ironical/comical love song
From: Muskratpete

My vote goes for Tompall Glaser's "Put Another Log On The Fire" but I would love to hear the tune for "The Threshing Machine" song listed here. Loved it!


12 Jun 04 - 12:01 PM (#1205805)
Subject: RE: your favorite ironical/comical love song
From: Sooz

The Threshing Machine is sung to the tune of Willikins and his Dinah (I think)


12 Jun 04 - 02:14 PM (#1205872)
Subject: RE: your favorite ironical/comical love song
From: Herga Kitty

Sooz - yes it is, but (more agriculturally) it's also the tune for "you ain't ploughed an acre, I'll swear and I'll vow, that you're damned idle fellows that follow the plough"!

Kitty


13 Jun 04 - 10:26 AM (#1206193)
Subject: RE: your favorite ironical/comical love song
From: mack/misophist

It's too short to be called a song but I've always loved these lines from The Three Penny Opera:

Die liebe dauert, oder dauert nicht
An dem, oder jenem ort.

(Love will endure. Or it won't.
Here, or someplace else.)


13 Jun 04 - 10:58 AM (#1206209)
Subject: Lyr Add: LIEBESLIED (German)
From: Joe_F

mack/misophist: Those two lines are indeed to short to be a song, but they are part of a song:

LIEBESLIED
(LOVE SONG)
Macheath:
Siehst du den Mond über Soho?
(Macheath:
Do you see the moon over Soho?)
Polly:
Ich seh' ihr, Lieber.
Fühlst du mein Herz schlagen, Geliebter?
(Polly:
I see it, beloved.
Do you feel my heart beating, beloved?)
Macheath:
Ich fühl 'es, Geliebte.
(Macheath:
I feel it, beloved.)
Polly:
Wo du hingehst, da will ich auch hingehn.
(Polly:
Wherever you go, there I too want to go.)
Macheath:
Und wo du bleibst, da will auch ich sein.
(Macheath:
And wherever you stay, there I too wish to be.)
Beide:
Und gibt's auch kein Schriftstück vom Standesamt
Und keine Blumen auf dem Altar
Und weiß ich auch nicht, woher dein Brautkleid stammt
Und gibt's keine Myren im Haar --
Der Teller, von welchem du issest dein Brot
Schau ihr nicht lang an, wirf ihm fort!
Die Liebe dauert oder dauert nicht
An dem oder jenem Ort.
(Both:
And even if we have no license from the registrar
And no flowers upon the altar
And though I know not, from where your bridal dress come
And though there's no myrtle in your hair --
The plate from which you are eating your bread
Don't look at it long; throw it away!
Love will or will not endure
Here or at some other place.)

I Americanized that once as follows:

No JP had signed a certificate,
No-one brought flowers or broke a glass,
Your clothes were the same as on the day we met,
And there was no rice on the grass.
Don't stare at your plate when the food is all gone --
Put it up to wash with the rest.
Our love will go on, or it won't go on,
If not in the east, the west.


13 Jun 04 - 11:21 AM (#1206218)
Subject: RE: your favorite ironical/comical love song
From: John MacKenzie

Get your Biscuits in the Oven, and your Buns in the Bed.

Kinky Freidman [I think]

Giok


13 Jun 04 - 08:29 PM (#1206530)
Subject: RE: your favorite ironical/comical love song
From: Susanne (skw)

Another one by Leon Rosselson: Invisible Married Breakfast Blues (sung - or rather talked - to devastating effect on 'Love Loneliness Laundry' by Val Bailey)


13 Jun 04 - 10:26 PM (#1206566)
Subject: Lyr Add: SHE TICKLES ME
From: Padre

She Tickles Me:

I went to see my gal last night, I stayed till after three
The reason why I stayed so late, that gal just tickles me

She was so doggone bashful, only 16 years of age,
She had the table all dressed up, put britches on the legs

I asked her would she marry, I'm tired of goin' free,
Then she jammed a rag in the keyhole and boy that tickled me

Then she pulled down all the window shades, so no one couldn't see,
Then she turned the lights all out, and boy that tickled me

I stumbled round to find her, the room was dark as night,
I got my arms around her, made everything all right

I hugged her, I kissed her, then the lights came on,
I found her mama in my arms, and my old girl was gone

Then something snapped behind me, and I whirled around to see,
Her daddy, with a shotgun, had come to tickle me

I jumped right through the window and landed in the sand,
Expecting any moment to be plugged by her old man

I've never seen my girl since then, and I'm still goin' free,
She's 1400 miles away, and boy that tickles me.


13 Jun 04 - 11:46 PM (#1206601)
Subject: Lyr Add: LOVE STORY (Randy Newman)
From: Merritt

I like performing this one by Randy Newman. Works well for a nice ragtimey guitar part with alternating bass, especially the chorus. Usually gets a couple of laughs and winces.

Love Story

I like your mother, I like your brother
I like you; you like me too
We'll get a preacher, I'll buy a ring
We'll hire a band, with an accordion
And a violin, and a tenor who can sing

CHORUS: You and me you and me, baby
You and me you and me you and me, baby
You and me you and me you and me, baby
You and me you and me you and me, baby

We'll have a kid, or maybe rent one
He's got to be straight, cause we don't want a bent one
He'll drink his baby brew, from a big brass cup
Someday he may be president..
If things loosen up CHORUS

BRIDGE: I'll take the train into the city
Ev'ry mornin'
You may be plain - I think you're pretty
In the mornin'
And some nights we'll go out dancin'
If I'm not too tired
Some nights we'll sit romancin'
Watching the Late Show by the fire

When our kids are grown
With kids of their own
They'll send us away
To a little home in Florida
We'll play checkers all day
Until we pass away CHORUS

- Merritt


14 Jun 04 - 10:41 AM (#1206922)
Subject: RE: your favorite ironical/comical love song
From: Big Jim from Jackson

Gilbert and Sullivan's "I Have A Song To Sing O!" is a very nice song in the vein of this thread.


14 Jun 04 - 04:33 PM (#1207174)
Subject: RE: your favorite ironical/comical love song
From: JWB

There's "I Want to Kiss Her But She Won't Let Me", and a traditional song recorded by Martin Carthy called "King Napertee".

Jerry


14 Jun 04 - 07:19 PM (#1207297)
Subject: RE: your favorite ironical/comical love song
From: Snuffy

I've always found "I Have A Song To Sing O!" to be the very antithesis of comedy/irony. Indeed, it could be the nearest that G&S got to tragedy. For a G&S song in this vein try
If that is so sing derry down derry
It's evident very our tastes are one
Away we'll go and merrily marry
Nor tardily tarry till day is done