The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #133214   Message #3020203
Posted By: Steve Gardham
31-Oct-10 - 03:45 PM
Thread Name: Tune Req: 'Where have you been all the night?'
Subject: RE: Tune Req: 'Where have you been all the night?'
I'm with Dick on this one. However the vast majority of Lord Randal variants that specify a time ask in the first line, 'Where have you been all day' But at least one American version has 'Where have you been this morning?' so changing 'day' into 'night' is not such a remarkable stretch as it sounds.

Another possibility is a quite scarce song, possibly a children's song

'John, John, where a' you been all night
'Down in the valley, kissing Sally,
Shooitin' monkeys, ridin' donkeys,
pickin' up cinders, breakin' winders,
I'm a boy for kicking up a row, row, row.

Sung in Bradford in the 1960s, but could be a lot older.

The 'Harlequin Hamlet' piece is most likely a pantomime piece from the mid 19thc. There was a vogue for burlesquing literature such as Shakespeare, and pantomimes were very popular then, with the likes of Sam Cowell performing potted musical versions of literature, Richard III, Robinson Crusoe etc.