Lyr ADD: Key of R (Elizabeth W. Anthony)

Subject: RE: Key of R - Bill D???
From: Joe Offer
Date: 28 Jan 01 - 07:49 PM

Thank you, Bill. I knew you'd 'fess up to it.

-Joe, one of those who stole it from you-

I tried to steal "You Don't Even Care" from Roger in Baltimore, but it just didn't work for me. You have to have Roger's inimitable talents for that one.

Subject: RE: Key of R - Bill D???
From: Bill D
Date: 28 Jan 01 - 07:04 PM

yes, Joe..Mary wrote it, in, I believe, her role as part of the group "Women, Women and Song"....I did NOT write it, I was merely the one singing it when Dick G heard it...I hope the DT doesn't give the impression I had anything to do with it. It was brought to the Getaway maybe 8 years ago by Dick Hamlet, of Oregon, who heard it from the source...(he and Corrine were there last October. also)...Several poeple have stolen it from ME since, and I ALWAYS tried to be sure credi twas given properly...but you know how these things go...

Subject: RE: Key of R - Bill D???
From: Joe Offer
Date: 28 Jan 01 - 06:48 PM

Hmmmm. The Digital Tradition says that "Key of R" was written by one William Day, which I assume is our very own Bill D. While I have great respect for Bill's talent and imagination, I don't think he's the songwriter.

Up above, Blessings Barbara says that "it" was written by Mary Litchfield of Bellingham, Washington - but since more than one song is discussed in this thread, the identity of "it" is a bit uncertain.

So, although I firmly believe that Bill D added much to this song, who really wrote it, and when?

-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Key of R - Bill D???
From: MAG (inactive)
Date: 10 Apr 99 - 07:52 PM

I heard this sung at Seattle Folklife a year or three back -- want to say it was Rawson, but am not sure.

It's not the right tune, but the lyrics would fit "I am an old cowpuncher," would they not??

-- MA

Subject: RE: Key of R - Bill D???
From: Ferrara
Date: 10 Apr 99 - 05:15 PM

I sent the tune to Joe as either a MIDI or a Noteworthy Composer file, I forget which. If anyone else wants to try it, give me an e-mail. The only question I have is about ownership or copyright. The tune and words have been through several people by now and are being supplied courtesy of Bill's and my memory, but -- Barbara? -- any thoughts whether the author would mind my posting the tune here? I don't know why I should cavil if we've already posted the words, but I don't even know whether the author has recorded it yet and I know some songwriters are quite worried about having their songs sung or passed around before they're recorded. - Rita Ferrara

Subject: RE: Key of R - Bill D???
From: Joe Offer
Date: 10 Apr 99 - 04:29 PM

I am pleased to report that the "Key of R" was a big hit at the Sacramento song circle last night. Thank you very much, Bill and Rita.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Key of R - Bill D???
From: rich r
Date: 10 Apr 99 - 03:56 PM

Ian Tyson has recorded the song with alternating choruses, but he probably doesn't qualify as "revival folk', at least not any more.

rich r

Subject: RE: Key of R - Bill D???
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 08 Apr 99 - 12:48 AM

Sorry I've overlooked this thread. Yes, our recording of "Rivers of Texas" is still available, but only as one of our "custom" cassettes. However, I refer you all to Vance Randolph's Ozark Folksongs, the original source for this song, wherein the chorus changes periodically. Caroline and I prefer (now) to close the song by repeating the chorus with the:

Li, li, li, lee, lee lee, pole the boat on,
My Brazos River sweetheart has left me and gone.

chorus that Irene Carlyle (spelling?) actually sang when Randolph collected the song from her. Most of us "revival folk" have chosen to keep the words to the chorus the same from verse to verse in order to let audiences sing along with us. Switching the words around in mid-stream seems a bit sneaky.

Sandy

Subject: RE: Key of R - Bill D???
From: Bill D
Date: 07 Apr 99 - 10:53 AM

and the tune is a 'bit' like "The Bastard King of England"..if you know that. I think that it is also almost identical with some other well-known tune..I just cant remember what!. I will mess with Noteworthy and see if I can create it....

Subject: RE: Key of R - Bill D???
From: Ferrara
Date: 07 Apr 99 - 07:48 AM

Bill didn't mention that the chorus changes each time; the last line of the chorus uses the "key" mentioned in the associated verse. For example, the chorus for the fourth verse (the one about America) ends with,

"But the key of the key of R..flat..minor..seventh..
just sounds like that."

Subject: RE: Key of R - Bill D???
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 07 Apr 99 - 05:13 AM

Darn it Bill, what I missed while sweatin' in that basement bathroom!

Subject: RE: Key of R - Bill D???
From: Barbara
Date: 07 Apr 99 - 04:22 AM

Yes, Bill, we discussed it before, but I don't think all the lyrics were posted. It's Mary Litchfield, Bellingham, and I believe the group was called Women, Women, and Song.
Good luck on the intervals, Joe.
Or maybe it's a recitation. Have fun.
Blessings,
Barbara

Subject: RE: Key of R - Bill D???
From: Joe Offer
Date: 07 Apr 99 - 04:15 AM

Well, Bill, I think the good people of the Sacramento Song Circle are going to be subjected to this song Friday night. I don't remember the tune, but I don't really think that matters....
I'll make one up as I go along, in the key of R flat minor seventh diminished with a suspended 9^th
-Joe Offer-

Say, Bill, who is/was the songwriter?
It's not listed by ASCAP/BMI.

Subject: ADD: Key of R^^^
From: Bill D
Date: 06 Apr 99 - 11:12 PM

The Key of "R"

"I am a young folksinger, I've traveled far & near.
I sing about the pain of life and other things I hold dear.
And when I sing about all the agony I endure,
I always sing in my favorite key..I sing in the key of 'R'.

cho:
Oh, the Key of R is a wondrous key,
That nobody else sings in but me.
Some people think I'm sharp or flat,
But the Key of R....just sounds like that.

I sing about my Mother, and how her life was hard.
She raised 12 kids and worked in the mines, and rendered her own lard.
She sewed our clothes and slopped the hogs, and other things like that.
And when I sing about her, I sing in the key of R..flat.

cho:

I had a good 'ol hound-dog, his name, of course, was Blue,
And we growed up together, when the world was fresh and new.
But, ah, my friends, that old dog died...and no dog could be finer..
And when I sing about old Blue, I sing in the key of R..flat..minor..

cho:

I sing about America, the land where I was born.
Its purple mountains, azure amber waves of grain and fields of corn.
Her oceans and her deserts are a little bit of heaven,
And when I sing of this land I love, I sing in the key of R..flat..minor..seventh..

cho:

But mostly I sing of lost loves...and I seem to lose them all.
The lovers who have left me, would fill a union hall.
And the pain of unrequited love, it never seems to finish
And when I sing about it, I sing in the key of R..flat..minor..seventh..diminished.

cho:

And now my song is finished, and I hope you sang along,
Bearing in mind that the notes we sang were never...ever...wrong.
And though we ruined the meter, and we had to stretch for rhyme,
We sang in the very best key of all, we sang in the key of R..flat..minor..seventh..diminished...with a suspended ^9th."

cho:
^^

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added to DT Apr99

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Note from Joe Offer:
As shown below, songwriter was Libby Anthony. She was a member of Women, Women and Song.

Subject: RE: Key of R - Bill D???
From: Tiger
Date: 06 Apr 99 - 07:33 PM

There's a nice version of this by Richard Dobson. Slightly different words.

Sandy - is your recording available?

....Tiger

Subject: RE: Key of R - Bill D???
From: Bill D
Date: 06 Apr 99 - 06:15 PM

well, Joe I thought I had posted those words..but I don't find it..(Barbara...didn't we discuss this?)..anyway...I'll type them in a bit later..maybe tonight after supper...

Subject: RE: Key of R - Bill D???
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 06 Apr 99 - 05:14 PM

WE don't have Key of R, but we certainly do have Rivers of Texas. Under that name.

Subject: RE: Key of R - Bill D???
From: Joe Offer
Date: 06 Apr 99 - 03:22 PM

....well, I suppose a search for R would crash, huh? -Joe Offer-

Subject: Key of R - Bill D???
From: Joe Offer
Date: 06 Apr 99 - 03:17 PM

After the Rick Fielding concert last month, Bill D sang a couple of great songs. One was "Rivers of Texas" with the "pole the boat on" chorus that my friend Mrs Lev prefers. Another was "The Key of R," which is hilarious. And Bill and his ancient and venerable autoharp performed it so well.
So, Bill, now that I've buttered you up, can we have the lyrics? I've searched the database and the filter; but the forum search keeps crashing on me, so I guess I can't be completely sure you haven't posted it before.
Thanks.
-Joe Offer-

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Genie made a YouTube Video of me singing "Key of R" (with my own tune, not the official one) at the 2008 Getaway.
-Joe Offer, 14 August 2009-