That rarity, an Alphabet Quiz!

Subject: That rarity, an Alphabet Quiz!
From: IanC
Date: 02 Dec 03 - 05:36 AM

That rarity, an Alphabet Quiz!

Here's another complete alphabet, entirely made up of songs (all but a few are in the DT). Answers, as usual, on the forum please.

A - He's no sailor and doesn't want to be a soldier, but the art is that he seems to be a wife.
B - Resting place for a lady's coffin … sad Irish lenders.
C - Hanged for his cruelty; a piratical old goat.
D - On your bike, little flower. We may be more than one-up, though.
E - She was there at the beginning, so why do you keep telling me she won't be in at the final annihilation?
F - Recipe for a thumping? Six feet and a cauldron.
G - Dead poacher inhabits Northumbrian capital.
H - Going back to Dawn's dwelling, seems like he might get pulled apart by a train.
I - Possessed by a centre of European culture, and owning it during weekend drinking.
J - Happy as any monarch. After all, his horse is willing!
K - This could be better than a telescope unless it's dark. Or perhaps the key could be sharp.
L - Irish garden implement would like childrens' prayers.
M - Margaret might, but treading the citrus fruit is definitely out.
N - A simple tool seems quite expensive, but it's a killer.
O - The instrument might as well be destroyed. It won't play the right notes.
P - Unexpected find while hunting. Brutally killed, and female.
Q - Something she dropped has made the king cross. Charing Cross?
R - Street for suicidal rodents? Jack can't get change of a guinea.
S - Jimmy's up for murder. Heather won't save him.
T - Embarrassing for the seamster. He's hardly advertising his products, is he.
U - Like Lydia Pinkhams, these can have unpredictable effects. Made in Wigan.
V - Christmas described at its simplest?
W - This small Teutonic overlord's a cunning fake.
X - It was never good wages, but now the Queen's stopped paying him at all.
Y - On being as long as a piece of string. Jack goes to the seaside.
Z – Heroic swordsman sent up by Alice.

Collaboration is strongly encouraged and comments about songs, tunes, writers, performers
(or anything else) are very welcome.

Good luck.
Ian

Subject: RE: That rarity, an Alphabet Quiz!
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 02 Dec 03 - 06:12 AM

Start the ball rolling with:
"Eve of Destruction" probably wrong, but it fits the question

Nigel

Subject: RE: That rarity, an Alphabet Quiz!
From: GUEST,MCP
Date: 02 Dec 03 - 06:23 AM

Not time for more than a quick glance now, but:

Fathom The Bowl
I Belong To Glasgow
Jim The Carter Lad
Old Orange Flute
Polly Vaughn?
Queen Eleanor
Rattcliffe Highway
Uncle Joe's Mintballs?

Mick

Subject: RE: That rarity, an Alphabet Quiz!
From: Wolfgang
Date: 02 Dec 03 - 06:42 AM

Yarmouth town

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: That rarity, an Alphabet Quiz!
From: IanC
Date: 02 Dec 03 - 06:56 AM

All good so far, except P isn't Polly Vaughan.

17 to go!

:-)

Subject: RE: That rarity, an Alphabet Quiz!
From: GUEST,Martin Ryan
Date: 02 Dec 03 - 06:59 AM

P-oor Murdered Woman

Regards

Subject: RE: That rarity, an Alphabet Quiz!
From: SueB
Date: 02 Dec 03 - 07:31 AM

D is Daisy (Bicycle Built for Two)

Subject: RE: That rarity, an Alphabet Quiz!
From: Brian Hoskin
Date: 02 Dec 03 - 07:46 AM

Captain Kidd

Subject: RE: That rarity, an Alphabet Quiz!
From: GUEST,Maritn Ryan
Date: 02 Dec 03 - 07:49 AM

B- anks of Green Willow

Regards

Subject: RE: That rarity, an Alphabet Quiz!
From: GUEST,Martin Ryan
Date: 02 Dec 03 - 07:54 AM

T-ailor's Breeches

Regards

Subject: RE: That rarity, an Alphabet Quiz!
From: Brian Hoskin
Date: 02 Dec 03 - 08:14 AM

Z-orro's Ascent by Alice Cooper?

Subject: RE: That rarity, an Alphabet Quiz!
From: GUEST,MCP
Date: 02 Dec 03 - 08:17 AM

Arthur McBride

Subject: RE: That rarity, an Alphabet Quiz!
From: GUEST,Martin Ryan
Date: 02 Dec 03 - 08:35 AM

W-ee wee German lairdie.

Regards

Subject: RE: That rarity, an Alphabet Quiz!
From: GUEST,Martin Ryan
Date: 02 Dec 03 - 08:37 AM

M-aggie May

Regards

Subject: RE: That rarity, an Alphabet Quiz!
From: Brian Hoskin
Date: 02 Dec 03 - 08:48 AM

G-allant Poacher

Subject: RE: That rarity, an Alphabet Quiz!
From: GUEST,Martin Ryan
Date: 02 Dec 03 - 08:52 AM

I'm tempted to suggest:
Q-ueen Jane - but it might just be a train of thought!

Regards

Subject: RE: That rarity, an Alphabet Quiz!
From: IanC
Date: 02 Dec 03 - 08:53 AM

A brief run down, so far


A - Arthur McBride (Arthur Le Bride)
B - Banks of Green Willow
C - Captain Kidd
D - Daisy Bell
E - Eve of Destruction
F - Fathom The Bowl
G - ??
H - ??
I - I Belong to Glasgow
J - Jim the Carter's Lad
K - ??
L - ??
M - Maggie May
N - ??
O - Old Orange Flute
P - Poor Murdered Woman
Q - Queen Eleanor's Confession
R - Ratcliffe Highway
S - ??
T - Tailor's Britches
U - Uncle Joe's Mintballs
V - ??
W - Wee German Lairdie
X - ??
Y - Yarmouth Town
Z - Zorro's Ascent (Alice Cooper)

:-)
Ian

Subject: RE: That rarity, an Alphabet Quiz!
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 02 Dec 03 - 08:54 AM

V-irgin Mary, Meek and Mild



Virgin Mary, meek and mild,
She gave birth to a little child.

(The Second Book of Penguin Christas Carols, collected in Kentucky by John Jacob Niles)

Subject: RE: That rarity, an Alphabet Quiz!
From: IanC
Date: 02 Dec 03 - 08:55 AM

Mary ... pretty close, but not the one I was thinking of, which is even more concise.

:-)

Subject: RE: That rarity, an Alphabet Quiz!
From: GUEST,Martin Ryan
Date: 02 Dec 03 - 08:55 AM

Apologies - hadn't noticed the Queen EWleanor.

Regards

Subject: RE: That rarity, an Alphabet Quiz!
From: Snuffy
Date: 02 Dec 03 - 09:00 AM

Geordie

Subject: RE: That rarity, an Alphabet Quiz!
From: GUEST,Martin Ryan
Date: 02 Dec 03 - 09:02 AM

Aaaaaaargh!

V-irgin Mary had a baby boy.

Regards

Subject: RE: That rarity, an Alphabet Quiz!
From: GUEST,Martin Ryan
Date: 02 Dec 03 - 09:03 AM

p.s.
We used to follow that line with:

".. So no wonder she called him "Jeezus!"!

regards

Subject: RE: That rarity, an Alphabet Quiz!
From: greg stephens
Date: 02 Dec 03 - 09:05 AM

And they said that his name was Jesus

Subject: RE: That rarity, an Alphabet Quiz!
From: Snuffy
Date: 02 Dec 03 - 09:08 AM

Keyhole in the door?

Subject: RE: That rarity, an Alphabet Quiz!
From: Brian Hoskin
Date: 02 Dec 03 - 09:10 AM

H-ouse of the rising Sun

Subject: RE: That rarity, an Alphabet Quiz!
From: Snuffy
Date: 02 Dec 03 - 09:11 AM

The Limerick Rake

Subject: RE: That rarity, an Alphabet Quiz!
From: Brian Hoskin
Date: 02 Dec 03 - 10:21 AM

N-ine Pound Hammer?

Subject: RE: That rarity, an Alphabet Quiz!
From: greg stephens
Date: 02 Dec 03 - 10:26 AM

Brian: think youre right on 9 pound hammer. I couldnt figure it out at first, but now youve posted it, I listened to my old merle Travis record.. It killed John Henry,but it cant kill me.
Thank you, ian C and Brian. havent played that LP for years, and its great.

Subject: RE: That rarity, an Alphabet Quiz!
From: GUEST,Nigel parsons (at work)
Date: 02 Dec 03 - 11:14 AM

Strange, I've heard it as "Joe, the carrier's lad"

"Crack, crack, goes my whip,
I whistle and I sing
I sit upon my wagon, I'm as happy as a king.
My horse is always willing, and I am never sad
For who could lead a life so gay as Joe, the carrier's lad" !

Nigel

Subject: RE: That rarity, an Alphabet Quiz!
From: IanC
Date: 02 Dec 03 - 12:00 PM

Nearly all done ...

A - Arthur McBride (Arthur Le Bride)
B - Banks of Green Willow
C - Captain Kidd
D - Daisy Bell
E - Eve of Destruction
F - Fathom The Bowl
G - Geordie
H - House of The Rising Sun
I - I Belong to Glasgow
J - Jim the Carter's Lad
K - Keyhole in the Door
L - Limerick Rake
M - Maggie May
N - Nine Pound Hammer
O - Old Orange Flute
P - Poor Murdered Woman
Q - Queen Eleanor's Confession
R - Ratcliffe Highway
S - ??
T - Tailor's Britches
U - Uncle Joe's Mintballs
V - Virgin Mary had a Baby Boy
W - Wee German Lairdie
X - ??
Y - Yarmouth Town
Z - Zorro's Ascent (Alice Cooper)

Anyone got any ideas for S and X (and I don't mean putting an E between them)?

:-)

Subject: RE: That rarity, an Alphabet Quiz!
From: GUEST,Martin Ryan
Date: 02 Dec 03 - 12:03 PM

(E)Xcise
Ten..?

Regards

Subject: RE: That rarity, an Alphabet Quiz!
From: Snuffy
Date: 02 Dec 03 - 12:45 PM

S sounds Child-ish to me, but I can't get Sheath & Knife to fit

X - can't find anything with Ex-.... or are we talking Roman numerals

Subject: RE: That rarity, an Alphabet Quiz!
From: IanC
Date: 04 Dec 03 - 05:26 AM

Still S and X to go. S is childish all right. X has to be Roman Numerals due to the dearth of song titles starting with X.

:-)

Subject: RE: That rarity, an Alphabet Quiz!
From: Snuffy
Date: 04 Dec 03 - 06:28 AM

Ten and None/Nine (the Jute Mill Song)?

Subject: RE: That rarity, an Alphabet Quiz!
From: Brian Hoskin
Date: 05 Dec 03 - 10:30 AM

refresh

Subject: RE: That rarity, an Alphabet Quiz!
From: IanC
Date: 05 Dec 03 - 11:26 AM

Still missing S and X.

Here are some of my notes ...

Captain Kidd
Captain William Kidd, a respected Scottish sea captain, was enlisted as a commissioned privateer for the Crown in 1696, with the usual instructions to operate against pirates as well as craft of "unfriendly" nations. Kidd was, himself, publicly proclaimed a "pirate" and arrested in 1700. Specifically, he was charged with murdering a seaman by the name of William Moore, although Kidd later claimed that the killing took place as a suppression of mutiny.

Kidd's trial commenced on May 8, 1701, and he was hanged at Wapping on May 23, 1701. Within hours of Kidd's execution, the stall-ballad writers were turning out songs on the notorious captain. The most famous of these, written to a variant of the tune best known today as Sam Hall, had a repentant Kidd telling his long and gory story in the first person. The remorseful last verses are in striking contradiction to all reports of the time which have Captain Kidd protesting his innocence up until the very moment of death.

Daisy Bell
(From "American Popular Songs" by David Ewen)
"When [Henry] Dacre, an English popular composer, first came to the United States, he brought with him a bicycle, for which he was charged duty. His friend (the songwriter William Jerome) remarked lightly: 'It's lucky you didn't bring a bicycle built for two, otherwise you'd have to pay double duty.' Dacre was so taken with the phrase 'bicycle built for two' that he decided to use it in a song. That song, Daisy Bell, first became successful in a London music hall, in a performance by Kate Lawrence. Tony Pastor was the first one to sing it in the United States. Its success in America began when Jennie Lindsay brought down the house with it at the Atlantic Gardens on the Bowery early in 1892."

Eve of Destruction
Written by P. F. Sloan. First recorded by Barry McGuire.
From Eve of Destruction
LOU ADLER:
I'd heard the first Dylan album with electrified instruments. This is strange, but it's really true: I gave Phil Sloan a pair of boots and a hat and a copy of the Dylan album, and a week later he came back with ten songs, including "Eve of Destruction." It was a natural feel for him - he's a great mimic.
Anyway I was afraid of the song. I didn't know if we could get it played (on the radio). But the next night I went to Ciro's, where the Byrds were playing. It was the beginning of the freak period.... there was this subculture that no one in L.A. knew about, not even me, and it was growing. The Byrds were the leaders of the cult, and the place was jam-packed, spilling out on to the street.
ln the middle of it was this guy in furs, with long hair, and dancing; I thought he looked like a leader of a movement. Terry Melcher told me that he was Barry McGuire, and that he'd sung with the New Christy Minstrels. A week later we cut the record and it sold six million.
I didn't think it was a copy of anything. It was the first rock'n'roll protest song and Sloan laid it down in very simple terms, not like the folk people were doing. If you listen to the song today, it holds up all the way - it's the same problems. It's certainly an honest feeling, from a 16 year old.
Melody Maker, Feb 5, 1972, p. 43; reprinted in Dave Laing, "Troubadours and Stars," in Dave Laing, et. al., The Electric Muse: The Story of Folk into Rock, London, 1975, pp. 58-59.

Fathom The Bowl
The recipe in this song is hardly different from that given by Bully Dawson, mentioned in Charles Lamb's "Popular Fallacies"
" Sugar, twelve tolerable lumps; hot water, one pint; lemons, two, the juice and peel; old Jamaica rum, two gills; brandy, one gill; porter or stout, half a gill; arrack, a slight dash. I allow myself five minutes to make a bowl in the foregoing proportions, carefully stirring the mixture as I furnish the ingredients until it actually foams; and then Kangaroos! how beautiful it is!"

:-)
Ian

Subject: RE: That rarity, an Alphabet Quiz!
From: Mary Humphreys
Date: 05 Dec 03 - 11:31 AM

I go with Snuffy's suggestion:
S-heath and Knife where heath is an alternative to heather.
Mary

Subject: RE: That rarity, an Alphabet Quiz!
From: IanC
Date: 05 Dec 03 - 11:41 AM

Nope ...

Heather in this one is no alternative ... It's almost all there in the clue. Think, perhaps, of names and titles.

;-)

Subject: RE: That rarity, an Alphabet Quiz!
From: GUEST,Martin Ryan
Date: 05 Dec 03 - 05:33 PM

S-ir James the rose - bracken/heather?

Regards

Subject: RE: That rarity, an Alphabet Quiz!
From: IanC
Date: 06 Dec 03 - 06:23 PM

OK. Well done, Martin.

Only X to go. Who would the Queen be?

:-)

Subject: RE: That rarity, an Alphabet Quiz!
From: Brian Hoskin
Date: 19 Dec 03 - 05:34 AM

Ian,

Looks like you might as well tell us what the X is

Subject: RE: That rarity, an Alphabet Quiz!
From: greg stephens
Date: 19 Dec 03 - 06:42 AM

This X needs solving, it's getting irritating.It refers to wages. When IanC runs out of xebecs and xylophones, he either goes for words starting ex, or for Roman numerals, so ten is a possibility. Low wages suggest ten pence or ten shillings or ten bob.Ten pence is not of much signicance in pre-decimal trad folksong days(though there is a Tenpenny Bit jig): so ten bob or ten shillings? And what Queen? A generic serving the Queen, taking the Queen's shilling, or something more specific? The only serious active queens in folksong(if we're sticking to Britain) would be Victoria, Anne. Jane, hearts I ssuppose. No tens or Xs there.
Sorry, I'm no nearer an answer here, I'm just rambling in the hope it will set someone else's juices flowing.

Subject: RE: That rarity, an Alphabet Quiz!
From: DMcG
Date: 19 Dec 03 - 07:13 AM

As I was away, I only saw the quiz this morning, but that X is still pretty irritating. I keep thinking of the line in Green Fields of Americay "Ten dollars a week isn't very bad pay" but as far as I know it hasn't got an alternative title like that. "The Queen is no longer paying sounds" like an ex-soldier/sailor to me. Something like "On board a 98", perhaps?

Subject: RE: That rarity, an Alphabet Quiz!
From: greg stephens
Date: 19 Dec 03 - 07:30 AM

Well, if there ws a song actually called "The Ex-Soldier" or "The Ex-Sailor" we might have the answer, but I dont think there is. I've thought of this, but I think it's a blind alley. But I'm sure it's going to be along these lines.

Subject: RE: That rarity, an Alphabet Quiz!
From: Wolfgang
Date: 19 Dec 03 - 07:36 AM

I have tried 'exciseman' and 'ten bob a week' without success.

When I'll make an alphabet quiz I'll torment you with 'Xnessee waltz'. You'll never guess that.

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: That rarity, an Alphabet Quiz!
From: DMcG
Date: 19 Dec 03 - 07:37 AM

Sorry, I didn't mean ex-soldier as any kind of answer. I was thinking of songs about Chelsea Pensioners, the Forfar Soldier, emigrants who had been sailors and so on.

Not that it seems to help much ....

Subject: RE: That rarity, an Alphabet Quiz!
From: greg stephens
Date: 19 Dec 03 - 07:48 AM

Well, I normally try to do these quizzes out of my head or using my books. But I have just succumbed to the temptation of doing some serious computer-searching. And lo and behold there is indeed a song called "The Poor Ex-Soldier". I reckon this must be the answer. OK, IanC?

Subject: RE: That rarity, an Alphabet Quiz!
From: GUEST,Ross
Date: 20 Dec 03 - 06:24 AM

The theme music to Xena (warrior princess) - (I watched all twenty six series, hopeless falling in love with her; only to find out she was a lesbian - damn)

or the xylophone song

Subject: RE: That rarity, an Alphabet Quiz!
From: greg stephens
Date: 20 Dec 03 - 07:55 AM

I havent actually managed to find any lyrics for "The Poor Ex-Soldier", but I think the title is a reasonable answer to the clue. i wait for adjudication.