The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #43706 Message #3972991
Posted By: Lighter
22-Jan-19 - 07:27 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req/Add: Brian O'Lynn & Tam o' the Linn
Subject: RE: Lyr Req/Add: Brian O'Lynn & Tam o' the Linn
"Tom Boleyn," etc., 1896-2019:
1903 Sharp coll. “Brian O Lynn or Tom Boleyn” in Somerset. Text recollected from Brian O’Linn broadside.
1906-07 Sharp coll. 1 stz (“Thomas A Lynn…I’ll marry them both”) in Somerset.
1907 4 stzs. of “Wiley Bolin” coll. in E. Tennessee by E. C. Perrow.
1912 The Hardware Reporter (St. Louis): “I’ll sleep in the middle.”
1917 Sharp coll. 2 texts to different tunes in Hyden, Ky.
1930 George Brown coll. 4 stzs (and 1 new one), with tune and refrain (“Old Tombolin”) from lady whose father, born 1800, had sung the song. Pub. In H.H. Flanders & Brown, “Vermont Folk Songs and Ballads” (1931).
1940 Courier-Journal (Louisville, Ky.) 1 stz. : “Tom Bo-lin…no watch to wear.”
1940 Downes & Siegmeister, “Treasury of American Song,” “Tombolin” adaptation of Brown-Flanders.
1945 Helen Flanders coll. 14 stzs., with tune, in Middlebury, Vt.
1957 Oscar Brand, LP “Bawdy Songs and Backroom Ballads,” Vol. IV. Bawdified rewrite, at least partly inspired by Flanders-Brown.
ca1958 Brand’s polite version on LP “Laughing America.”
1962 folkie group The Swagmen record adaptation of Brand, LP “Meet the Swagmen.”
1966 Helen Vita, German-language adaptation of Brand on LP “Freche Chansons aus dem alten Frankreich” [!]
1979 Brand records his own new song, in old form, about “Tam O’Lynn…a leprechaun king.”
1980s “Annie Boleyn had no panties to wear”: 2 stzs. reported by “Leslie” to Mudcat in 2005. “Jim” replies that his mother had learned it ca1950.
1989 G. Legman receives "Xeroxlore" copy of "Tumble O'Lynn's Farewell," a new song about AIDS partly inspired by "Tom Boleyn."
2011 “Nicole” reports same 2 stzs of “Annie Boleyn,” app. Adapted from Brand. Another online report (1 stz.) from Martin Wainwright.
2014 Oakland group Starboard Watch performs Brand, with 1 stz. added from “Bryan O’Linn.”