Favorite songs with Nonsense refrains

Subject: RE: Favorite songs with Nonsense refrains
From: BK Lick
Date: 12 Nov 12 - 01:36 AM

The Tailor and the Mouse is in the DT.

Some additional verses Richard Dyer-Bennet sang:

The tailor thought his mouse was ill
So he gave him part of a large blue pill

The tailor thought his mouse might die
So he baked him into a cherry pie

The pie was cut and the mouse jumped out
And the tailor chased him all about

(I believe he sang "feedle" rather than "feed-a.")

Subject: RE: Carol the song you where wondering about
From: GUEST,Sarah
Date: 11 Nov 12 - 04:49 PM

I know the song carol was talking about. I got to this site because I was wondering what it was called it goes like this

There was a taylor and a mouse
high diddle ump tum, fiddle.
They lived together in one house
high diddle ump tum, fiddle.
They lived together in one house
high diddle ump tum, fiddle.
high diddle ump tum,
tarum tantum
in the town of rammses
high diddle ump tum
over the lee
high diddle ump tum, fiddle.
The taylor had a tall silk hat
high diddle ump tum, fiddle.
The mouse he ate it, fancy that
high diddle ump tum, fiddle.
high diddle ump tum,
tarum tantum
in the town of rammses
high diddle ump tum
over the lee
high diddle ump tum, fiddle.
Fee, Fi, Foe, Fum,
Tarum tantum
Diddle ump tum
Fee fi...
Foe Foe fum.
Hey diddle diddle
The cat and the fiddle
The cow jumps over them moon
The little dog laughs
To see such fun
and the dish ran away with the
spoon!
there is also a verse about how the taylor kills the mouse but a skip that verse to prevent small children from being exposed to violence.
I know the song but not the name.

Subject: RE: Favorite songs with Nonsense refrains
From: PHJim
Date: 24 Mar 11 - 12:06 AM

Tootler - My dad used to sing that song. He ended it with:

They paddled off across the lake
"Hey Ho" says Roly
And got swallowed up by a big black snake
With a roly poly gammon and spinach, "Hey Ho" says Anthony Roly.

That was the end of him and her
"Hey Ho" says Roly
Now we won't have tadpoles covered in fur
With a roly poly gammon and spinach, "Hey Ho" says Anthony Roly.

Subject: RE: Favorite songs with Nonsense refrains
From: Bert
Date: 23 Mar 11 - 12:32 AM

Guest posting at 6:52 was me.

Subject: RE: Favorite songs with Nonsense refrains
From: Tootler
Date: 22 Mar 11 - 07:08 PM

A frog he would a wooing go
"Hey Ho" says Roly
Whether his mother would let him or no
With a roly poly gammon and spinach, "Hey Ho" says Anthony Roly.

Let's face it, it doesn't really make much sense.

One my daughter used to like when she was a child we got from a book of nursery rhymes

Huggity puggity puddle and fogs
The cats are to marry the poodle dogs.
Cats in blue jackets,
Dogs in red hats.
What will become of the the mice and rats?

Subject: RE: Favorite songs with Nonsense refrains
From: GUEST
Date: 22 Mar 11 - 06:52 PM

My Great Grandma used to sing.

They've banished all the hogs on the rocky road to Dublin
Garra ga dira thum
Garra ga dira thagga dee
Garra ga dira thum

Subject: RE: Favorite songs with Nonsense refrains
From: LadyJean
Date: 21 Mar 11 - 09:33 PM

Little black bull come down the medow, hoosen johnny hoosen johnny
Little black bull come down the medow, long time ago!

And, of course, the great Mr. Kelly:

Deck us all with Boston Charley, Walla Walla Wash and Kalamazoo
Norah's freezing on the Trolley, swaller dollar cauliflower alligaroo.
Don't we all archaid barrell.
Hushaby lullaby Louiville lou.
Trolley Molly don't love Darrell etc.

The man was a genius.

Subject: RE: Favorite songs with Nonsense refrains
From: GUEST,Carol
Date: 21 Mar 11 - 09:13 AM

Cannot find this song anywhere but I remember singing it long ago.
Aye diddle ump tum
Tartan tantum
In the town of Raasay
Aye diddle ump tum
That's for me
Aye diddle ump tum fiedle

Does anyone recognize this or anything like it? Scottish tune?

Subject: RE: Favorite songs with Nonsense refrains
From: GUEST,Guest
Date: 24 Feb 11 - 11:20 AM

There was an old frog and he lived in the stream,
chingachanga polly mitch a cow me oh,
He was so horse that he couldn't sing,
chingachanga polly mitch a cow me oh,

Kemo kimo do mor ror
may hi, may lo,
may rump side, penny wiggle,soap butt, link horn
Chinga Changa polly mitch a cow me oh

Seems similar to

There was a frog lived in a spring,
With a ringtang ponny once a kimie-o.
He had such a cold that he could not sing,
With a ringtang ponny once a kimie-o.
Kimo, caro, gilto narrow,
Kimo, caro, kimo,
With a strimstram pommadiddle lair upon a ring,
With a ringtang ponny once a kimie-o.

Subject: RE: Favorite songs with Nonsense refrains
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 03 Sep 09 - 04:31 AM

Cross ref to thread — Song lyric enquiry #2 - Archers shooting cuckoos

Subject: RE: Favorite songs with Nonsense refrains
From: BK Lick
Date: 02 Sep 09 - 06:41 PM

See this post up above, why dontcha?

Subject: Nickety, Nackety Hey ee dum dafferty
From: GUEST,carol
Date: 02 Sep 09 - 08:35 AM

Nickety Nackety Hey ee dum dafferty. I heard that song as a child, does anyone know all the words to that song or where I can get them? Boy does that bring back memories. [e-mail]
Thank you

Subject: RE: Favorite songs with Nonsense refrains
From: GUEST,open mike
Date: 30 Aug 06 - 01:38 AM

Nickety, Nackety
Hey ee dum dafferty
willaby wallaby
rustical quality
Nickety nackety now now now

first verse goes :
I married my wife in the month of June
Nickety, Nackety now now now
I courted her home by the light of the moon



i think this song was on the sound track of
Alfred Hitchcock's "the Birds" movie
with kids singing in on a school play ground

Subject: RE: Favorite songs with Nonsense refrains
From: Elmer Fudd
Date: 30 Aug 06 - 01:25 AM

Oh, the beedle um bum
Come and see me if you ain't had none
Makes a blind man see, a lame man run
Sure have plenty if you ain't had none.
Oh the beedle um bum,
Oh he beedle um bum.
Got the best beedle bum down in Tennessee.

And then there's always that traditional ballad, "My Sharona."

Elmer

Subject: RE: Favorite songs with Nonsense refrains
From: GUEST,Rowan
Date: 30 Aug 06 - 01:02 AM

Helen,
When I worked at Old Sydney Town, 'Botany Bay' was so often part of the repertoire it was usually known as the 'Sir Joseph Banks Waltz', adding to various customers' confusion, I'm sure.

Kitty,
There are people who gather at the National in Canberra who, 30 years after they learned it, still sing the 'Three jolly huntsmen' you mention. At a wedding where we were put up in the shearers' quarters we thought the ugle ugle ugle was so perfecly accompanied by the boiling of the electric jug we used to make a cup of tea that we thought to give the song an electric (jug band) accompaniment.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: Favorite songs with Nonsense refrains
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 29 Aug 06 - 05:29 PM

Three jolly huntsmen, which I learned a long time ago from Marrowbones, an antbology of songs from the Hammond and Gardiner collection published by the then EFDS in the 1960s. I sang it at the Four Fools festival when it was still held in Redditch, and Les Barker commented that it was a very silly song (well, he should know!):

With my hip, hip, hip and my holloa, And away went the merry, merry band, With my ran, tan, tan and my chivy, chivy chan, All over the merry, merry strand, With my ugle, ugle ugle went the bugle horn, Fal-le-ral, fal-le-ral-le-dee, Through the woods we'll go brave boys, And through the woods we'll go.

Kitty

Subject: RE: Favorite songs with Nonsense refrains
From: Helen
Date: 29 Aug 06 - 04:26 PM

Botany Bay has always been a favourite of mine, because I like the melody and because it brings history to life a bit, and because there is a bit of humour in it, e.g. the last verse.

Botany Bay

Farewell to olde England forever
Farewell to my olde pals as well
Farewell to the well known Old Bailey
Where I once used to look such a swell.

Chorus:

    Singing Too-ral Li-ooral li-ad-dity
    Singing too-ral li-ooral li-ay
    Singing too-ral li-ooral li-ad-dity
    And we're bound for Botany Bay
------------------
Now all my young Dukies and Duchesses
Take a warning from what I'd to say
Mind all is your own that you toucheses
Or you'll find us in Botany Bay

(The DT has this to say about it. It's not a convict-written song, but I still like it.)

BOTANY BAY (3)
First published in Sydney Golden Songster in 1893
This song is a burlesque, written by Stephens and Yardley, from the comedy
'Little Jack Shepherd' that played in London in 1885, and in Melbourne in
1886.

'Botany Bay' shares two verses with 'Fairwell to Judges and Juries' a
broadside c.1820

Subject: RE: Favorite songs with Nonsense refrains
From: Bert
Date: 29 Aug 06 - 01:17 PM

The Old Sow Song is one of my favourites.

Subject: RE: Favorite songs with Nonsense refrains
From: Mr Red
Date: 29 Aug 06 - 08:06 AM

A trooper Watering his Nag the version I sing

"With me rowdy dowdy dow & me rowdy dowdy day."

Maybe it is the verses I like best...

Subject: RE: Favorite songs with Nonsense refrains
From: The Sandman
Date: 29 Aug 06 - 07:23 AM

to black catter ,diddling.
   I reckon I dont know atune until I can diddle it.
the other day I was sitting in a pub listening to seamus creagh,I asked him whether he could play for me Rodneys Glory, he said can you diddle me the first
                      few bars which i did ,he then Played a fine version of the tune.

Subject: RE: Favorite songs with Nonsense refrains
From: The Sandman
Date: 29 Aug 06 - 07:16 AM

Toffee loddington.
whos the man with sky blue hair, whos the man whos never there. Good old toffee loddington.
   This was one my dad used to sing to me ,I reckon he made it up .

THE BARNYARDS OF DELGATY.

Linton loren loren loren,linton lorenloren lay.
linton loren loren loren,the barnyards of delgaty

Subject: RE: Favorite songs with Nonsense refrains
From: GUEST,Fogie
Date: 29 Aug 06 - 06:52 AM

There was a frog lived in a well,
With a ring ding bullet in a coin mill,
And a merry mouse lived in a mill,
So fine me, slip strip strap, with a divel on a ring, ching a ring dong bullet in a coin mill

Seems to be a feature of animal songs. Wonder how many were from other languages, Theres not enough nonsense choruses these days in my opinion- superceded by nonsense verses?

Subject: RE: Favorite songs with Nonsense refrains
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 28 Aug 06 - 08:51 PM

So THAT's where Spike Milligan pinched it!

Subject: RE: Favorite songs with Nonsense refrains
From: GUEST,tulsateacher
Date: 28 Aug 06 - 03:48 PM

Nickety nackety noo noo noo is from "Wee Cooper of Fife".

Subject: RE: Favorite songs with Nonsense refrains
From: GUEST,JOHN OF ELSIE`S BAND
Date: 05 Nov 03 - 11:35 AM

Our version of "Cut Away_Mike"

With his rub-a-dub,ro-di-dow,
Fife-away all the day,
Fill-a-loo, that`ll do,
Cut away Mike.

Subject: RE: Favorite songs with Nonsense refrains
From: Alex.S
Date: 04 Nov 03 - 10:26 PM

Hughie Graeme, as sung by Ewan MacColl, has this refrain:


"Tay Amarray-o, Londonderry, tay amarray-o Londondee" (spelled phonetically of course).

Subject: RE: Favorite songs with Nonsense refrains
From: Alaska Mike
Date: 04 Nov 03 - 08:12 PM

Here she comes just a walking down the street,
singing, "doo wah ditty ditty dum ditty doo".

Subject: RE: Favorite songs with Nonsense refrains
From: GUEST,Guest
Date: 04 Nov 03 - 04:39 PM

Just wanted to thank you folks for the tidbits about the song "Sarasponda". My mom grew up with it and was told it was a rythym song but didn't know for what exactly. She had actually been told it was for sewing but she wasn't sure because she'd also been told that it was used along with an old treadle sewing machine as well as hand sewing.I've tried it with both and it doesn't really work.The spinning wheel theory does seem to work.Thanks! Just in case anyone's interested my mom's family is all from Ireland and England, so that's where they got the song in my family.I also grew up with slightly different lyrics and doing the song in rounds, but figure that's a matter of semantics.The main body of the song is still the same as the lyrics listed here.I've been looking for this information for awhile. I had a feeling my best bet would be to find it here :D So thanks again...
Melinda

Subject: RE: Favorite songs with Nonsense refrains
From: Cluin
Date: 09 Apr 03 - 12:50 AM

I thought it was called "lilting"?

Subject: RE: Favorite songs with Nonsense refrains
From: Blackcatter
Date: 08 Apr 03 - 09:14 PM

Hey Joe F,

Some nonsense lyrics could be corrupted Gaelic, but many of the songs can be sung in the original Gaelic with the nonsense in it as well.

It probalby derrives from the tradition of "Diddling" or "Mouth Music." While I'm by no means an expert Diddler, I try to keep the tradition going by taking jigs and reel without lyrics and diddling to them.

Subject: RE: Favorite songs with Nonsense refrains
From: Joe_F
Date: 08 Apr 03 - 06:38 PM

Willa: Aliter:

There was a frog lived in a spring,
With a ringtang ponny once a kimie-o.
He had such a cold that he could not sing,
With a ringtang ponny once a kimie-o.
Kimo, caro, gilto narrow,
Kimo, caro, kimo,
With a strimstram pommadiddle lair upon a ring,
With a ringtang ponny once a kimie-o.

My mother sang it, but she never spelled it. %^)

I gather that some of the time, the "nonsense" turns out to be corrupted Gaelic or the like. But I also gather that one must be skeptical of statements to that effect in any particular case.

Subject: RE: Favorite songs with Nonsense refrains
From: Cluin
Date: 08 Apr 03 - 03:02 AM

And the next jumped up was a jenny wren,
"Ah, ye know what I'd do if I was a man?
In case one love should rise and go,
I'd wear two strings on ev'ry bow
Skiddelee idle lootle lidle lootle lidle lum,
Skiddelee idle lootle lidle lootle lidle lum,
In case one love should rise and go,
I'd wear two strings on ev'ry bow."

Subject: RE: Favorite songs with Nonsense refrains
From: Ely
Date: 07 Apr 03 - 10:40 PM

I've got a seriously distorted version of "Old Bangum" that has a lot of "diddle-aye" garbage in it. I normally don't like nonsense lyrics but I'll forgive them this time.

Subject: RE: Favorite songs with Nonsense refrains
From: Blackcatter
Date: 07 Apr 03 - 10:32 AM

Hey Alison,

I learned it as New South Wales

It always interesting to find all the different names for old songs.

Subject: RE: Favorite songs with Nonsense refrains
From: alison
Date: 07 Apr 03 - 03:57 AM

Lime juice tub is an Aussie song... its here in the dt

slainte

alison

Subject: RE: Favorite songs with Nonsense refrains
From: Gurney
Date: 07 Apr 03 - 03:49 AM

Twanky-dillo, Twanky-dillo, Twanky-dillo-dillo-dillo-dill-o.....

Subject: RE: Favorite songs with Nonsense refrains
From: GUEST,celtaddict
Date: 07 Apr 03 - 03:26 AM

This thread reminds me of my younger brother, who as a preschooler always called a horse (in the late 50s) a "biddlumbumbum." My parents and the other grownups were baffled and spent a good deal of time trying to figure out why. They proposed absurdly lame (to my eight year old ear) explanations, such as "Maybe he's trying to say big animal?" It seemed a prime example of the denseness of the grownups. This was the era of The Lone Ranger and his themesong, the William Tell Overture, and in that era every kid riding a toy horse accompanied it by the overture: "biddle um, biddle um, biddle um bum bum."

Subject: RE: Favorite songs with Nonsense refrains
From: Padre
Date: 06 Apr 03 - 09:57 PM

"Fod"

Subject: RE: Favorite songs with Nonsense refrains
From: GUEST
Date: 06 Apr 03 - 09:44 PM

I like "the farmer's curs't wife" not so much for its hi-diddle-i-diddle-i-fi, but for the story it tells (take us back daddy, she'll ruin us all!)

Subject: RE: Favorite songs with Nonsense refrains
From: GUEST,celtaddict
Date: 06 Apr 03 - 07:49 PM

By the way, the second half at least of Haruo's favorite,
"Sarasponda, sarasponda, sarasponda, ret-set-set. . ."
was a work song of women spinning, and supposedly mimicked (or guided) the rhythm of the work. It had many verses and was almost certainly sung, as shanties and many other worksongs, with improvised verses. There are many of these work songs from Scotland, Ireland, and particularly the northern islands, where automation arrived later, and from much of Europe. I am not sure but believe "Sarasponda" is from northern Europe.

Subject: RE: Favorite songs with Nonsense refrains
From: GUEST,celtaddict
Date: 06 Apr 03 - 07:41 PM

OK, Blackcatter, got 'em all but #11. That is probably readily found at a shanty site. A "lime-juice tub" is a British ship, from the practice of using limes to prevent scurvy, required by the British Navy before most industries were thinking of OSHA concerns.

Subject: RE: Favorite songs with Nonsense refrains
From: Blackcatter
Date: 06 Apr 03 - 07:06 PM

Name these songs:

1) Mush shirigim duraham da - whack fol the daddy oh!

2) With a too-roo, roo-roo rantin hi; a too-roo, roo-roo rantin hi . . .

3) And she said: Litha-doo, a-litha-doo, a-litha-doo, a-lee, And she hi-da-del-lee, and she hi-da-del-lee and she landed.

4) Whack fol the dol now, dance to your partner.

5) Ah-dee-doo, ah-dee-doo-da-day,   Ah-dee-doo, ah-dee-day-ay

6) Toor-a-loora-loo, toor-a-loora-lay, toor-a-loora-loo, toor-a-loora-lay

7) Giddy i-ae Giddy i-ae Giddy i-ae for the one-eyed Reilly. Giddy i-ae (bang bang bang) Play it on your old bass drum.

8) Aye da diddly dyddle dum, diddly doodal dyddle dum, diddly do rye, diddly dy day

9) Whack fol-lol-de-ra.

10) Whack fol the diddle all the di do day. So we say, Hip Hooray!

11) With the rattum-rattum-rub-a-dub-dub, we'll send you back on the lime juice tub.

12) Lintin addie toorin addie, Lintin addie toorin ee. Lintin lowrin, lowrin, lowrin,

13) Sing hushabye loo, low loo, low lan. Hushabye loo, low loo

14) To my toora loora la, my toora loora laddy. Ri toora loora la, ri toora loora laddy.

15) Tiddle-lee-oh-toe, tiddle-lee-oh-toe, tiddle-lee-oh-toe - toe-tum. Tiddle-lee-oh-toe, tiddle-lee-oh-toe, tiddle-lee-oh-toe - toe-tum. Tiddle-lee-oh-tah-den, tiddle-lee-oh-toe, tiddle-lee-oh-toe-tum. Tiddle-lee-oh-dah-den, doodle-lee-dah-dum

16) Diddle-ly row-da-row-da-row. Diddle-ly row-da-row-da-row. Diddle-ly row-da-row-da-row. Diddle-ly row-da-row-da-row.

Subject: RE: Favorite songs with Nonsense refrains
From: Art Thieme
Date: 06 Apr 03 - 06:34 PM

The Star Spangled Banner (mainly the part about the glory of "the rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air")

I'd rather we had a national anthem like "Waltzing Matilda"-----about a homeless hobo sho steals a sheep to keep from starving and rather than get caught, drowns himself.

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Favorite songs with Nonsense refrains
From: Mudlark
Date: 06 Apr 03 - 06:05 PM

I've always like the last verse in the way I learned Jenny Jenkins...
What will you, my dear, oh dear, then what will ya wear J. J.?
Wellllllllll......what do you care if I just go bare,
Gonna...etc.

And I like Strawberry Faire

As I went down to S. F.
Singing, singing, buttercups and daisies
Met a lady making her way, fol de dee
Her eyes were blue, and gold was her hair
As she went on to S. F.

Reevo, reevo, fol de diddle di do
Reevo, reevo, fol de diddle day

Just trips right off the tongue.

Subject: RE: Favorite songs with Nonsense refrains
From: Willa
Date: 06 Apr 03 - 04:53 PM

Here's another link
@displaysong.cfm?SongID=3379

Subject: RE: Favorite songs with Nonsense refrains
From: Willa
Date: 06 Apr 03 - 04:49 PM

Guest Linda
try this
http://www.volcano.net/~jackmearl/songs/ksongs/kemo_kimo.html
The song you want seems to be based on this one.

Subject: RE: Favorite songs with Nonsense refrains
From: Hester
Date: 06 Apr 03 - 04:05 PM

Well, for traditional songs with nonsense refrains, I'd say my favourite is "Thorneymoor Woods". As I hear Anne Briggs sing the refrain, it's "Fol-de-rol tu-ra-la dae", and perfectly expresses a poacher's gleeful disdain for the Game Laws.

And of course, the word "folderol" has come to actually mean "nonsense", in reference to such folk songs.

As far as pop songs with nonsense lyrics go, I like Perry Como's "Hot Diggity".

Cheers, Hester

Subject: RE: Favorite songs with Nonsense refrains
From: GUEST,guesting gamer
Date: 06 Apr 03 - 01:55 PM

Jerry - I love "Jenny Jenkins". I sing it for school kids all the time. When they get to the "roll, jenny jenkins, roll" they hold their arms out and roll them around each other (easier to do than to explain.)

Getting back to favorites, I've always liked to sing "Guabi Guabi". I know that it is not really nonsense, as it actually has a meaning in whichever African dialect it originated from, but I learned it off an old Jim Kweskin Live at the Cafe 47 LP, and just tried to get the phonetics out. It is a real gas to sing, because you can be virtually free of meanings of the lyrics and enjoy the purity of the music. I thinkl I first learned it because I liked the guitar arrangement.

Subject: RE: Favorite songs with Nonsense refrains
From: wordfella
Date: 06 Apr 03 - 07:06 AM

I can't shake the image of Groucho in Duck Soup. He's babbling on about something, and he slides into "With a hey nonny nonny and a hot cha cha!"

Subject: RE: Favorite songs with Nonsense refrains
From: Haruo
Date: 06 Apr 03 - 03:36 AM

I'm rather fond of the Pesky Sarpent (too-loo-ree-loo, too-loo-ree-lay) and the adaptation of it I used in "In Bethlem Town".

Growing up we used to sing in the car, all the way across the United States, the all-nonsense medley:

Quee Quay money-money-money-money dusty,
Quee Quay Quo, Quee Quay Quum,
Quee Quay money-money-money-money dusty,
Quee Quay Quo, Quee Quay Quum,
O Nicodemo! O jolly-olly-umbo!
O Nicodemo! O jolly-olly oompah! oompah! oompah!
Sarasponda, sarasponda, sarasponda, ret set set,
Sarasponda, sarasponda, sarasponda, ret set set!
A-dore-ee-oh! A-dore-ee-boom-day-oh!
A-dore-ay-boom-day-ret-set-set!
Hossay possay oh!

Haruo