Lyr Add: The Rich Lady from Over the Sea

Subject: Lyr Add: THE RICH LADY FROM OVER THE SEA
From: Lesley N.
Date: 24 Jan 99 - 11:16 AM

I didn't find this in DT or in a forum search either - It's from _Colonial and Revolution Songbook_ by Keith and Rusty McNeil. They say the words and music are anonymous from the Revolutionary Era. The incident refered to in the song is the Boston Tea Party. Anyone know anything about the song?

The Rich Lady From Over the Sea

There was a rich lady lived over the sea,
And she was an island queen,
Her daughter lived off in the new country,
With an ocean of water between.
With an ocean of water between.
With an ocean of water between.

The old lady's pockets were filled with gold,
Yet never contented was she,
So she ordered her daughter to pay her a tax,
Of thruppence a pound on the tea.
Of thruppence a pound on the tea.
Of thruppence a pound on the tea.

Oh mother, dear mother, the daughter replied,
I'll not do the thing that you ask,
I'm willing to pay fair price on the tea,
But never the thruppenney tax.
But never the thruppenney tax.
But never the thruppenney tax.

You shall, cried the mother, and reddened with rage,
For you're my own daughter, you see,
And it's only proper that daughter should pay
Her mother's a tax on the tea.
Her mother's a tax on the tea.
Her mother's a tax on the tea.

She ordered her servant to come up to her,
And to wrap up a package of tea.
And eager for thruppence a pound she put in
Enough for a large family.
Enough for a large family.
Enough for a large family.

The tea was conveyed to her daughter's own door,
All down by the oceanside,
But the bouncing girl poured out ever pound
On the dark and the boiling tide.
On the dark and the boiling tide.
On the dark and the boiling tide.

And then she called out to the island queen,
Oh mother, dear mother, called she,
Your tea you may have when 'tis steeped enough,
But never a tax from me!
But never a tax from me!
But never a tax from me!

Subject: RE: LYR ADD: The Rich Lady from Over the Sea
From: Joe Offer
Date: 24 Jan 99 - 02:07 PM

"Care to give MIDITXT a try and post a tune, Lesley?" said Joe, remindingly.....

---

Here's the Traditional Ballad Index entry on this song:

Revolutionary Tea [Laws A24]

DESCRIPTION: Mother Britain is angry that her daughter America will not pay the tea-tax. The mother sends the daughter a great deal of tea and demands she pay the tax (on pain of a beating); the daughter dumps the tea into the ocean
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Cox)

KEYWORDS: political rebellion commerce money patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec. 16, 1773 - Boston Tea Party. Americans protest the British tax on tea by dumping a shipload into Boston Harbor
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont) US(Ap)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Laws A24, "Revolutionary Tea"

JHCoxIIB, #25, pp. 188189, "Revolutionary Tea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scott-BoA, pp. 59-61, "The Rich Lady Over the Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Mills/Blume, pp. 54-56, "Revolutionary Tea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Arnett, pp. 8-9, "Revolutionary Tea" (1 text, 1 tune)

DT 368, REVTEA*
Roud #1934
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Granny Wales (Granny O'Whale, Granua Weal)" (subject: The Tea Tax)
Notes: For background on the Tea Tax, see the notes to "Old Granny Wales (Granny O'Whale, Granua Weal)." - RBW
File: LA24

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Go to the Discography

The Ballad Index Copyright 2007 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.

Subject: Tune Add: THE RICH LADY FROM OVER THE SEA
From: Lesley N.
Date: 24 Jan 99 - 02:30 PM

I KNEW someone was going to say that. O.K. Here's an attempt with the melody line.... Joe - you are in charge of quality control here - let me know if "the computer" made a mistake (as operators never do...)

MIDI file: richlady.mid

Timebase: 120

Name: Rich Lady Over the Sea
Text: Lesley Nelson
TimeSig: 3/4 24 8
Key: C
Tempo: 190 (315789 microsec/crotchet)
Start
0240 1 69 113 0108 0 69 000 0012 1 69 109 0106 0 69 000 0015 1 74 118 0106 0 74 000 0013 1 74 110 0108 0 74 000 0013 1 74 107 0107 0 74 000 0013 1 73 117 0106 0 73 000 0013 1 74 111 0107 0 74 000 0014 1 76 118 0108 0 76 000 0012 1 78 114 0107 0 78 000 0013 1 76 113 0108 0 76 000 0012 1 76 124 0204 0 76 000 0035 1 79 112 0106 0 79 000 0014 1 78 104 0106 0 78 000 0015 1 76 110 0107 0 76 000 0013 1 74 111 0107 0 74 000 0012 1 74 105 0108 0 74 000 0012 1 73 106 0107 0 73 000 0013 1 74 096 0106 0 74 000 0015 1 76 120 0347 0 76 000 0253 1 69 118 0107 0 69 000 0012 1 69 122 0108 0 69 000 0012 1 74 118 0106 0 74 000 0015 1 74 116 0106 0 74 000 0014 1 74 113 0108 0 74 000 0012 1 73 115 0107 0 73 000 0012 1 74 111 0108 0 74 000 0012 1 76 123 0107 0 76 000 0013 1 78 113 0107 0 78 000 0013 1 76 116 0106 0 76 000 0014 1 76 116 0203 0 76 000 0038 1 79 109 0059 0 79 000 0001 1 79 117 0060 0 79 000 0000 1 78 118 0106 0 78 000 0013 1 76 120 0106 0 76 000 0015 1 74 114 0108 0 74 000 0011 1 76 126 0108 0 76 000 0012 1 74 111 0107 0 74 000 0013 1 73 114 0106 0 73 000 0015 1 74 113 0347 0 74 000 0252 1 78 119 0060 0 78 000 0001 1 78 119 0059 1 78 109 0001 0 78 000 0107 0 78 000 0013 1 76 118 0107 0 76 000 0013 1 74 110 0106 0 74 000 0013 1 76 120 0108 0 76 000 0012 1 74 108 0107 0 74 000 0014 1 73 102 0107 0 73 000 0013 1 74 114 0564 0 74 000 0035 1 79 112 0060 0 79 000 0001 1 79 103 0059 0 79 000 0000 1 78 120 0106 0 78 000 0014 1 76 118 0107 0 76 000 0014 1 74 107 0108 0 74 000 0011 1 76 113 0107 0 76 000 0014 1 74 112 0107 0 74 000 0013 1 73 113 0108 0 73 000 0011 1 74 116 0466 0 74 000
End

This program is worth the effort of learning it.

To download the March 10 MIDItext 98 software and get instructions on how to use it click here

ABC format:

X:1
T:Rich Lady Over the Sea
M:3/4
Q:1/4=190
K:C
A6|A2d2d2|d2^c2d2|e2^f2e2|e4g2|^f2e2d2|d2^c2d2|
e6|-e4A2|A2d2d2|d2^c2d2|e2^f2e2|e4gg|^f2e2d2|
e2d2^c2|d6|-d4^f^f|^f2e2d2|e2d2^c2|d6|-d4gg|
^f2e2d2|e2d2^c2|d6|-d7/4||

Subject: RE: LYR ADD: The Rich Lady from Over the Sea
From: rich r
Date: 24 Jan 99 - 07:53 PM

This song is also known by the title "Revolutionary Tea" A version of it can be found on an album recorded by a group called Yankee Tunesmiths (1975, Old North Bridge Records) . The album was called oddly enough "Revolutionary Tea" The members of the Yankee Tunesmiths are/were : Tony Saletan who had a PBS TV series called Let's All Sing, Irene Saletan who once recorded an album "Bowling Green" with her sister Ellen as the Kossoy Sisters, Paul Cole a noted Boston singer, fife & drum player, collector & reprinter of revolutionary era ballads & broadsides. Oh, one more little thing, Revolutionary Tea is in the DT, albeit with the line "So she ordered her daughter to pay her a tax of three pence a pound on the tea" severely garbled.

rich r

Subject: RE: LYR ADD: The Rich Lady from Over the Sea
From: Gene
Date: 24 Jan 99 - 11:51 PM

Listen to a recording - * HERE *

Subject: RE: LYR ADD: The Rich Lady from Over the Sea
From: Joe Offer
Date: 25 Jan 99 - 04:16 AM

I'd say you passed the MIDITXT test with flying colors, Lesley. Since you have such nice MIDIs on the Contemplator site, I was hoping you could do the same here. Thanks very much.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: LYR ADD: The Rich Lady from Over the Sea
From: Lesley N.
Date: 26 Jan 99 - 05:59 PM

You flatterer. I just started student teaching so my hobby will have to take a back seat to my goal of finding gainful employment - but you've made the midi conversion so easy that it's not much extra work to add here when I add to my pages if it's not here already.

It's just a bit frustrating when I search the DT and forum and STILL don't catch duplicates!! Revolutionary Tea (thanks rich) has "old lady" instead of rich lady... Any suggestions?

Subject: RE: LYR ADD: The Rich Lady from Over the Sea
From: rich r
Date: 26 Jan 99 - 09:11 PM

Lesley,

I just say do your best. If it is already in the DT some anal person will eventually point that out. Hey, I've typed in stuff that was already there, too. Even typing in an odd word doesn't always work. Say you typed in "thruppence". I've seen versions with "three pence" and "three pennies", so you might still have missed. I got it with "Revolutionary Tea" but only because I had recently listened to the recording and had a vague recollection of seeing the song in a book called "Songs that Changed The World". The only other solution would be to download your own copy of the DT and then get one of those programs that will take a large block of text and search for the nearest matches. Researchers have used them to hunt for plagiarism.

rich r

Subject: RE: LYR ADD: The Rich Lady from Over the Sea
From: Joe Offer
Date: 26 Jan 99 - 10:16 PM

Hey, Rich, where did you get a copy of Songs That Changed the World? I found it in the library and I really liked it - now I'm trying to find a copy of my own. That one and Songs of the American West by Lingenfelter-Dwyer are at the top of my shopping list, but I haven't been able to find them anywhere.
-Joe offer-

Subject: RE: LYR ADD: The Rich Lady from Over the Sea
From: rich r
Date: 27 Jan 99 - 01:07 AM

Joe,

Library and personal photocopier. I also have access to a hand operated comb binding device.

rich

Subject: RE: LYR ADD: The Rich Lady from Over the Sea
From: Genie
Date: 03 Jul 08 - 03:26 AM

This is a very REFRESHING song for July 4. ; D

It's the "old lady over the sea" song I was trying to think of earlier today.

G

Subject: Lyr Add: REVOLUTIONARY TEA (Seba Smith)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 04 Jul 08 - 07:51 AM

REVOLUTIONARY TEA is in the DT, but the following version is a bit different from that one and the one above.

Here's the oldest version that Google Book Search has to offer, from The Wide-awake Gift: A Know-nothing Token for 1855 By One of 'em, New York: J. C. Derby, 1855, page 279:

REVOLUTIONARY TEA.
BY SEBA SMITH.

THERE was an old lady lived over the sea,
And she was an Island Queen;
Her daughter lived off in a new countrie,
With an ocean of water between.

The old lady's pockets were full of gold,
But never contented was she;
So she called to her daughter to pay her a tax
Of "thrippence" a pound on her tea.

"Now, mother, dear mother," the daughter replied,
"I shan't do the thing that you ax;
I'm willing to pay a fair price for the tea,
But never the thrippenny tax."

"You shall," quoth the mother, and reddened with rage,
"For you're my own daughter, ye see;
And sure 'tis quite proper the daughter should pay
Her mother a tax on her tea."

And so the old lady her servants called up,
And pack'd off a budget of tea,
And, eager for thrippence a pound, she put in
Enough for a large familie.

She ordered her servants to bring home the tax,
Declaring her child should obey,
Or, old as she was, and almost woman-grown,
She'd half whip her life away.

The tea was conveyed to the daughter's door,
All down by the ocean side,
And the bouncing girl poured out every pound
In the dark and boiling tide.

And then she called out to the Island Queen,
"Oh, mother, dear mother," quoth she,
"Your tea you may have, when 'tis steeped enough,
But never a tax from me—
No, never a tax from me."

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Rich Lady from Over the Sea
From: masato sakurai
Date: 04 Jul 08 - 10:30 AM

Revolutionary Tea on YouTube.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Rich Lady from Over the Sea
From: Genie
Date: 04 Jul 08 - 03:55 PM

I wouldn't have gone to YouTube expecting to find this song there. Thanks, Masato.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Rich Lady from Over the Sea
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 04 Jul 08 - 10:28 PM

Has this poem shown up in print prior to the 1855 printing?

Alan Mills sang this long ago.