I'd agree with Malcolm that the 'Hey ho' round seems to have at some time become mixed up with the Souling Song. (that's folk for you)

However, the woman I first heard the song from remembers singing it in the Girl Guides in the eary '50s so it would appear doubtful that Peter, Paul and Mary combined them.

Malcolm also mentions that the "Go down into the cellar" verse may come from the 'other' group of souling songs. In Roy Palmer's 'Everyman's book of English Country Songs' there is a version from 1886 which includes this verse along with the Watersons verses.

I'd agree though that the Christmas verse does seem completely out of place.

Malcolm - I'd be interested to know what you mean by the other souling song group. I'd always assumed they were variants of the same one? Thanks.

As far as the meaning of the song is concerned, for those interested:

"The end of October and start of November is the time of Hallowe'en, All Saints and All Souls, a time once thought full of magic, when the dead temorarily returned to the world of the living and roamed around the villages on the misty evenings. Till recently in parts of the Midlands and the Northwest, children went from door to door begging for soulcakes, representing as these did, food for the momentarily-returning dead, so that they would not feel rejected and thus be made angry"

A.L.Lloyd's notes from The Watersons: Frost and Fire album.

Finally. Peter, the chords I play are:

For the round and the verse:

[Em] Hey [D] ho, [Em] Nobody home
Meat nor [D] drink nor [Em] money have we none
Yet [D] we'll be [Em] merry
[Em] Hey [D] ho, [Em] Nobody home

And for the chorus pretty much the same except that it goes to G on:

[Em]An apple[D] a pear [G] a plum or a [D] cherry

Hope this helps

Ed

What an excellent thread...