Req: The Garden Song, (Inch by Inch) (answered)

Subject: The Garden Song, (Inch by Inch)
From: GUEST,betty
Date: 11 May 02 - 03:19 PM

Does anyone have the lyrics to The Garden Song? (aka Inch by Inch) Thanks, betty

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Garden Song, (Inch by Inch)
From: Sorcha
Date: 11 May 02 - 03:22 PM

Posted by Musicman, here.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Garden Song, (Inch by Inch)
From: GUEST,Sonja
Date: 11 May 02 - 03:24 PM

I can't believe this isn't in the DT, but I just tried a DT search for "Garden" and didn't find it.

Betty, try typing "inch by inch" or "garden song" into the filter box, and set the time frame for 3 years. I'll bet it's in a thread somewhere.

It is in Rise Up Singing, and, if all else fails, I can post the lyrics later today, but I'm sure someone will beat me to it.

Sonja

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Garden Song, (Inch by Inch)
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 11 May 02 - 03:25 PM

Oh, it's in the DT alright. What you need to do is type garden song into the "Digitrad and Forum Search" box on the main Forum page; it is your friend if you will allow it to be. This will find you a number of past discussions touching on the song, at least one of which will contain lyrics. It will also find you the entry in the Digital Tradition database, which includes a midi of the tune:

GARDEN SONG

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Garden Song, (Inch by Inch)
From: GUEST,Sonja
Date: 11 May 02 - 03:26 PM

Betty, I did find it in the DT, by going to the letter "G" and clicking on it, to find it alphabetically. here (click)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Garden Song, (Inch by Inch)
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 11 May 02 - 03:34 PM

A thread on this: Inch
Follow Malcolm's instructions and do not capitalize, although this is the natural tendency with titles.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Garden Song, (Inch by Inch)
From: GUEST,Betty
Date: 11 May 02 - 04:08 PM

Thanks all. My searching skills just need a little work ;>)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Garden Song, (Inch by Inch)
From: Genie
Date: 11 May 02 - 04:19 PM

Malcolm and Dicho,

I found the song in the "DigiTrad Lyrics Search" using the single word "garden"(both with and without initial capital).
When I typed "garden" in the box for the "DT/Forum Search,"  I got a long list of songs with "garden" in the title or lyrics, including "The Garden Song."
When I tried "Garden,"  I got a much shorter song title list (some of which titles did not include the word "garden"), but without "The Garden Song."   Why?

You'd think that you could find a song in the DT by typing in a single key word from the title, wouldn't you?  Why do you chide folks for using a capital letter when looking for a word in the title of a song?  If that is the way the DT/Forum Search operates, it's not intuitively obvious that it should be so or why.

Genie

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Garden Song, (Inch by Inch)
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 11 May 02 - 05:00 PM

Genie, "Ours not to reason why." ... "My heart gets weary and sick of tryin'"..... Intuition ain't enough, you gotta get your mojo workin'. Looking for Old Man River- Put Old Man River, old man river, ole man river, in the Forum and no luck. Put in man river and thar she blows, as "Ol' Man River" (Man River doesn't work). Put in "Ol' Man River," and no result but ol' man river does.
Put Old Man River (or old man river) in the DT, and lots with old man show up, but no old man river.
Nothing could be more obvious, Genie- he! he! he!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Garden Song, (Inch by Inch)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 11 May 02 - 05:56 PM

With thanks to Eric Kilborn:

Slug by slug, weed by weed,
This "Garden's" got me really peeved...;~)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Garden Song, (Inch by Inch)
From: Genie
Date: 12 May 02 - 01:06 AM

Dicho,
To quote Harry Belafonte in "Man Piaba,"
that's "clear as mud but it cover[s] the ground!" LOL!

Charley, Rise Up Singing has that line as "...my garden's really got me teed." That parody must be somewhere in the DT or forum. (I'm too tired to look for it right now.)

Genie

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Garden Song, (Inch by Inch)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 12 May 02 - 10:11 AM

Genie-you're certainly correct. The DT has some form of the parody in it somewhere but I'm more confident that the version in Rise Up Singing is how Eric wrote his parody.

Subject: The Anti-Garden Song (Inch by Inch)
From: Genie
Date: 16 Apr 06 - 03:57 AM

I found The Anti-Garden Song in this thread also:
The Anti-Garden Song

Subject: RE: Req: The Garden Song, (Inch by Inch) (answered
From: open mike
Date: 16 Apr 06 - 10:17 AM

written by david mallett

Subject: RE: Req: The Garden Song, (Inch by Inch) (answered)
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 16 Apr 06 - 10:55 AM

If David Mallet wrote this song, when did he do so? Also did he do the tune, or is the idea I have floating in my mind that it is supposed to be 'traditional' mistaken? That idea would have come to me from seeing the tune attributed thus in a tune book, I think...

Subject: RE: Req: The Garden Song, (Inch by Inch) (answered)
From: GUEST,EBarnacle
Date: 16 Apr 06 - 06:02 PM

It first appeared in the early 1970's. I heard him perform it at Folk Songs in February, a concert at the student run radio station in Orono, Maine. I am not sure when he copywrit it.

Subject: RE: Req: The Garden Song, (Inch by Inch) (answered)
From: GUEST,wordy
Date: 16 Apr 06 - 06:09 PM

It's Dave's alright! He's a master of his craft.

Subject: RE: Req: The Garden Song, (Inch by Inch) (answered)
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 16 Apr 06 - 08:31 PM

Thanks

Well, I certainly heard it first about that time. It's not unknown for unscrupulous publishers to claim things are 'trad' so they claim they don't need to pay any rights - I have several tune books published in Ireland like that.

Subject: RE: Req: The Garden Song, (Inch by Inch) (answered)
From: kendall
Date: 17 Apr 06 - 06:40 AM

I first met Dave when we did Folksongs in February back in 1977. Who else was there?
Joe Hickerson
Debbie McClatchy
Sparky Rucker
The Patons

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Garden Song (David Mallett) 'Inch by inch
From: GUEST,oldhippie
Date: 15 Oct 06 - 06:35 PM

There's also this parody.....


Another Garden Song

music: David Mallet
words: Tom Seiling
as recorded by Nancy Tucker



Chorus:
Inch by inch, row by row, bugs and weeds are all I grow
Just dropped a big rock on my toe, I think I broke a bone
Inch by inch, row by row, one more weed by back will go
Can't wait until it starts to snow and hides this battle zone


Blistered hands, dripping sweat, bugs and weeds ain't licked me yet
Rototiller left me in debt, no money left for seeds
Sunburned shoulders sting with pain
Weeks without a drop of rain
A horsefly's driving me insane, and woodchucks ate my beans

Repeat chorus


Dirt and pebbles fill my shoes, ivy rash on my wazoo
I got the self-sufficient blues, my luck had better turn
Pigweed, ragweed, dandelion
All these crops I grow just fine
My garden is a holy shrine to the God of cabbageworms

Repeat chorus