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

Subject: RE: Key of R - Bill D???
From: GUEST,Roger in Baltimore
Date: 28 Jan 02 - 06:21 PM

Just a ditto of Joe for Jon. Yes, this song not only can be sung acappella, it does very well without accompaniment. Don't be put off by Bill D.'s description of how to present it. He's mighty particular about performance, so his suggestions are great, but find your own way. And remember: no one, I repeat, no one, can out Bill Day, a Bill Day performance.

Roger in Baltimore

Subject: RE: Key of R - Bill D???
From: Bill D
Date: 28 Jan 02 - 07:37 PM

.....same to you, buddy! *grin*

Subject: RE: Key of R - Bill D???
From: GUEST,micca at work
Date: 29 Jan 02 - 05:07 AM

Bill, did you do this at the Getaway?(and if not you, who did, I remember a lady was involved in the performance, and an autoharp) someone certainly did as I remember stuffing my sleeve in my mouth not to laugh too loud and interrupt the singing....

Subject: RE: Key of R - Bill D???
From: Bill D
Date: 29 Jan 02 - 08:23 AM

Micca...I believe the people who originally brought it to me, Dick Hamlet and Corrine McWilliams, did it ...I was not at that workshop..(he plays banjo)...I don't think I did it at all, but I have done it several times late at night, so perhaps I forgot...*shrug*..(maybe you heard it twice...*grin*)

Subject: RE: Key of R - Bill D???
From: MMario
Date: 29 Jan 02 - 09:27 AM

I heard it at least three times during the weekend - and I wasn't there all day saturday - so it may have been done more often.

Subject: RE: Key of R - Bill D???
From: Micca
Date: 29 Jan 02 - 11:53 AM

Bill, it was, the name Corrine rings a bell, and it was on stage in the "volunteer" evening concert on the stage and they did the "flat, diminshed" part beautifully, it was a "change of underwear" moment,If I had had any..

Subject: RE: Key of R - Bill D???
From: GUEST,PaulM
Date: 29 Jan 02 - 11:59 AM

BillD

Is there any chance of you posting an mp3 / wav / real audio / whatever of this, somewhere?

I'd really love to hear it

Paul

Subject: RE: Key of R - Bill D???
From: Bill D
Date: 29 Jan 02 - 01:01 PM

Paul...yeah...I'm over my cold, and I guess it's time for me to see just how simple it is to mave a .wav file..(and maybe to turn it into an MP3)...I'll poke into the innards of this machine and see if I can re-create MY version...(I assume you have messed with the midi?..It is 'close', but voice is better.)

Subject: RE: Key of R - Bill D???
From: GUEST,PaulM
Date: 29 Jan 02 - 01:05 PM

Thanks a lot, Bill

Looking forward to it, audio is about 1000% better than midi...

Paul

Subject: RE: Key of R - Bill D???
From: Haruo
Date: 30 Jan 02 - 03:26 AM

Well, not to hurt anybody's feelings, my source for the "azure" reading was Joe Offer's website, so I'm not sure how much credit or blame can attach to Bill D. And I do actually think it's good in context. If I ever sing it in public, I'll sing it "azure"... ;-)

The tunes remind me more than anything, at first hear, of Tom Lehrer's "Rickety Tickety Tin" (sp?)... "...she did every one of them in."

Liland

Subject: RE: Key of R - Bill D???
From: Bill D
Date: 30 Jan 02 - 09:42 AM

Liland...that there's a perfect example of the folk process! We'll never know if I got it right from Dick H., whether Joe got it right from ME, or whether one of us changed it accidently...and until we hear from the author, we are not even sure how it was originally...I hear it in my head as 'amber', as the humor seems to lie in the 'key' part, and the descriptions are sung as if they are totally serious.....but when you look what is done to Scots dialect, it is a minor issue...*grin*

Subject: RE: Key of R - Bill D???
From: Haruo
Date: 31 Jan 02 - 11:03 PM

Paxton's Marvelous Toy is the other tune that it reminds me of.

Liland

Subject: RE: Key of R - Bill D???
From: Bill D
Date: 01 Feb 02 - 12:02 AM

ok...I made the Windows sound recorder work today...pretty simple, actually...so tomorrow I will attempt to produce a representation of how I do "The Key of R"...with Autoharp!(yes, a suspended ^9th chord IS a bit strange on a 21 bar autoharp...but that's the point...)

Subject: RE: Key of R - Bill D???
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Feb 02 - 03:07 PM

Any luck, Bill?

Subject: RE: Key of R - Bill D???
From: Bill D
Date: 19 Feb 02 - 03:25 PM

funny you should ask...I got my cataract operation out of the way and I was just setting things up last night. I got a new recording system and can convert to any format now..now I need to tune the poor old autoharp (it's been months) and give it all a whirl....

Subject: RE: Key of R - Bill D???
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Aug 02 - 08:33 PM

Any luck, Bill?

The link to Joe's tune doesn't work either.

Subject: RE: Key of R - Bill D???
From: Micca
Date: 13 Aug 02 - 08:41 PM

Bill, Joe Offer sung this at "Sharps FC" here in london UK tonight!!! I dont think they had heard it before!! they were impressed

Subject: RE: Key of R - Bill D???
From: Bill D
Date: 13 Aug 02 - 08:49 PM

*grin*...had to look all over the hard drive...I have it in RealAudio or MP3...2.9 megs or 2.5 megs..(I sang it in a hurry and one key too ^high, but it will give you an idea of how it can go...)

now...how to convey it, since it is twice the size my little website allows me?...can you get BIG emails?...or would Pene Azul post it on Mudcat temporarily?

Subject: RE: Key of R - Bill D???
From: Bill D
Date: 13 Aug 02 - 08:52 PM

Joe, bless him,..*grin*...has 'folk-processed' the tune I got a lot! Dick Hamlet supposedly got it from the source....

Subject: RE: Key of R - Bill D???
From: Bill D
Date: 17 Aug 02 - 04:28 PM

Paul M??is that you? are you still there?

give me some feedback...*grin*...

Subject: RE: Key of R - Bill D???
From:
Date: 17 Dec 02 - 06:19 AM

what is the status of a sound file being posted?

I can offer web space to hold it. you'd keep your web page(s) where they are and just include a link to this one file which would be on one of my machines.

I just heard it performed at philcon (pilly sci-fi con) and found a midi that is enough for me to get the singing right (or close enough) but I don't have the skill to re-create the chords from the simple melody notes so I want them in order to play it.

to that end, is there a set of lyrics that includes chords? that would be extremely great.

Subject: RE: Key of R - Bill D???
From: GUEST,Cuilionn
Date: 18 Jan 04 - 02:45 PM

Dear Mudcatters,

Haven't posted for ages, now living on the other side of the country, but I simply MUST post to this thread, as I've been singing "Key of R" for years and know the source. So HERE is the REAL story!

The group, "Women, Women & Song", was based on Vashon Island, near Seattle, Washington. I grew up on the island and heard them (Velvet Neifert, Libby Anthony, & Mary Litchfield Tuel) at several concerts and the open-air stage at our hometown festival every summer. They even performed on a public radio show once or twice. They produced two recordings before the band broke up, but Mary Litchfield Tuel is still songwriting & records an album from time to time.

The way they tell it, the three of them were attending an open mike somewhere in the Seattle area, and, upon hearing a pitch-challenged singer at the microphone, one of them turned to the other two and said, in an angst-ridden voice, "WHAT key is he singing in?!?" And the song, "Key of R", was born... (probably on a cocktail napkin, with help from all three women & later refinements by Mary.)

I've heard them perform the song countless times, and have sung it myself (a cappella) at gatherings in Alaska, Colorado, Maine, and even at a ceilidh on the Isle of Iona, Scotland! I know it a little differently than the DT has it (i.e. starting out, "I'm an earnest young folksinger..." and, yes, it is AMBER waves of grain!), but you have it mostly right, allowing for Folk Process. My only wish is this: could the DT entry be edited to reflect Mary Litchfield Tuel as the REAL author? She's a splendid songwright and deserves all the credit she can get.

Moran Taing/Muckle Thanks,

--yir auld Scots freen & sangster-lass, Cuilionn

Subject: RE: Key of R - Bill D???
From: Barbara
Date: 18 Jan 04 - 02:54 PM

Cuilionn, when I spoke with Mary on the phone a couple years back, I asked about the song, and I thought she said at that point it was by Libby. Are you anyplace where you can talk to her and ask? Also, I was contacted by Faith Petric recently, who was searching for the author (Mary) of "The Way of Sex" because Frankie Armstrong wants to put it on her next album. I passed on the addy and phone # I had from a couple years ago, and so assume they got connected. I enjoyed the WW&S songs much when I heard them at Seattle Folklife years ago, and it's nice to see them surviving and spreading.
Blessings,
Barbara

Subject: RE: Key of R - Bill D???
From: GUEST,Cuilionn
Date: 18 Jan 04 - 03:05 PM

Well. I'll be jiggered... hmm. At least we've narrowed it down to Mary or Libby-- who, by the way, is the most brilliant director of musical theatre productions I've ever seen. I'm trying to track down my old cassette tape of "The Key of R" (title of their second recording) so that I can check the liner notes and we can verify this once and for all. I'll e-mail my mom, back on the island, and see if she can call Mary or find her liner notes quicker than I can! Stay tuned...

--Cuilionn

Subject: RE: Key of R - Bill D???
From: Bill D
Date: 18 Jan 04 - 03:12 PM

durn, Cuilionn! it's good to see you again!...one of those names we all wonder where they went.

anyway....what a thread, huh? It has gone round & round, and by now, with your addition, it is "On Record" as to who was involved and to what degree...*grin* The song is a wonderful little thing, and as you see, it has travelled widely..

(I know that attempts are made to update the DT every year, but that process requires something more complex than just eidting one of these threads...we will see what we can do!)

I still have the sound file I made trying to approximate the tune, but I could sure do it better...**IF** anyone still wants it, I will upload it somewhere convenient temporarily. (I believe it is close enough to what Dick & Corrine brought me originally that it reflects what was written)

Cuilionn..is there any 'official' recording of this anywhere?

Subject: RE: Key of R - Bill D???
From: Bill D
Date: 18 Jan 04 - 03:15 PM

wow...the speed of the WWW is way ahead of me! I look forward to more info!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Key of R - Bill D???
From: GUEST,Cuilionn
Date: 19 Jan 04 - 06:24 PM

Well, folks, here's the DEFINITIVE word: Barbara's right, I'm wrong, and I'm munching happily on a drumstick of fresh-caught & well-roasted crow...

Mary Litchfield Tuel, past member of the group "Women, Women & Song", sent the following to me via e-mail:

"Libbie (or as she prefers to be known professionally, Elizabeth W.
Anthony) wrote the Key of R and I told her at the time it was a work of comic genius and it still is and I still think so but it never hurts for other people to tell her so. It has been passed around quite a bit, and I have heard it attributed to me, but I didn't write it, Libbie did, and it would grieve us both for people to get that wrong..."

Mary also states that, although the album containing "The Key of R" is out of print, their first album, "I Won't Wait to Be Happy" has been remastered as a CD. It's another great collection of songs, from the wise and whimsical to the jolly & hilarious. If you'd like to order it, you can reach Mary by e-mail: [e-mail].

So, the authorship question is solved... but I'm still looking for my old cassette of "The Key of R" so I can give you Mudcatters the "official" version. (Not that it's much different from what you've got, just that it might be nice for comparison's sake.) I know it's around here SOMEwhere... just obscured by all the Scots & Scots Gaelic recordings that have piled up around it.

An Beannachd Oirbh/Blessings,

--Cuilionn

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Key of R - Bill D???
From: GUEST,Cuilionn
Date: 23 Jan 04 - 12:05 AM

Don't know if folks had a chance to read this before it went to the bottom of the heap, so...

refresh!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Key of R - Bill D???
From: katlaughing
Date: 26 Jan 04 - 12:34 PM

Cuilionn, it's great to see you here, again!! You've been missed.

kat

Subject: DT Correction: Key of R (Elizabeth W. Anthony)
From: GUEST,Cuilionn
Date: 26 Jan 04 - 11:10 PM

Couldn't find my "Key of R" tape--must have lent it out--but I found a cassette tape I recorded off the radio back in 1988 or 1989, when "Women, Women & Song" were featured on a local show. I copied down the lyrics from that, and I'll post 'em here as well as posting one o' them there "LYR ADD" threads. Note that these original lyrics have a few significant differences from the lyrics currently available in the DT. Here you go:

THE KEY OF R
Copyright (1988?) Elizabeth W. Anthony (of "Women, Women & Song")
[Title track of WW&S's second album]

I'm an earnest young folksinger and I travel far and near
And I sing about the pain of life and other things I hold dear
And when I sing about the agony that I endure
I always sing in my favorite key; I sing in the key of "R"
        
CHORUS:        Oh, the key of R... is a wondrous key
                That nobody else sings in but me
                And some folks think I'm sharp or flat
                But the key of R... just sounds like that!

I sing about my mama, and how her life was hard
She had twelve kids and worked in the mines and rendered her own lard
She milked the goats and sewed our clothes and lots of things like that
And when I sing about her, I sing in the key of "R-flat."
        [CHORUS:        Oh, the key of R-flat is a wondrous key...]

I had a dear old hound dog; his name--of course--was Blue
And we growed up together when the world was fresh and new
But oh, my friends, that ol' dog died, and no dog could be finer
And when I sing about Ol' Blue, I sing in the key of "R-flat-minor"
        [CHORUS:        Oh, the key of R-flat-minor is a wondrous key...]

And oh, I love America, the land where I was born
Her purple mountains, amber waves of grain and fields of corn
The oceans and the deserts are a little part of heaven
When I sing about this land of mine, I sing in the key of "R-flat-minor-seventh."
        [CHORUS:        Oh, the key of R-flat-minor-seventh is a wondrous key...]

But most, I sing of lost loves--and I seem to lose them all
The lovers that have left me would fill a union hall
And the pain of unrequited love just never seems to finish
And when I sing about it, I sing in the key of "R-flat-minor-seventh-diminished."
        [CHORUS:        Oh, the key of R-flat-minor-seventh-diminished is a wondrous key...]
                
And now my song is over, and I hope you sang along
Keepin' in mind that the notes we sang were never, never wrong
And though we faked for rhythm and we had to stretch for rhyme
We sang in the very best key of all; we sang in the key of "Rbm7dim with a dominant ninth."
        [CHORUS:        Oh, the key of Rbm7dim with a dominant 9th is a wondrous key...]

---

(Lyrics transcribed from a tape of a live radio performance c.1988-1989. The song may also be found on a recording called, oddly enough, "The Key of R", by the group, "Women, Women & Song.")

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Key of R - Bill D???
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Jan 04 - 11:18 PM

And the correct ...answere came for LaughKating

Sell Done!!!!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Key of R
From: Joe Offer
Date: 27 Jan 04 - 01:59 AM

Hi, Cuilionn - I deleted your extra "Add" thread and harvested the lyrics. It's best to answer requests in the request thread - we're pretty good at picking up corrections, but duplicate lyrics submissions tend to confuse things.
Click here to play our MIDI of the song - is it correct?
Thanks a lot for posting the lyrics.
E-mail me if you need help resetting your Mudcat cookie or password.
-Joe Offer-
[e-mail]

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Key of R
From: GUEST,Mary Litchfield Tuel
Date: 24 Apr 05 - 02:25 AM

Well, this is what I get for surfing the net late at night. Glad you finally got the authorship and the lyrics straight. The way we used to do it was with Libbie playing guitar and me playing mandolin (the only song on which I have played mandolin, ever, in my life). Libbie made up the chords as she wrote the song, and I made up mandolin chords that seemed to go with the guitar chords. Glad the song is still out there being sung. Libbie just directed a local production of The Sound of Music here on Vashon Island - it has one more weekend to run.
If you want to know anything more about Women, Women & Song - drop me a line. Obviously I have nothing else to do.
Mary Litchfield Tuel

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Key of R
From: Joe Offer
Date: 24 Apr 05 - 02:36 AM

Hi, Mary - I hope you'll drop by more often. I've had a lot of fun singing "Key of R," even if I never did get the tune right. Hope you don't mind that I resorted to making up my own tune.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Key of R
From: GUEST,Tom Rawson
Date: 10 Dec 06 - 04:31 PM

Hello Key of R aficionados!
I have recorded Key of R. It's on my new CD, "Where the Coho Flash Silver". Libbie Anthony attended the Vashon CD release party last week.
If you'd like a copy of the new CD, go to my web site,
http://www.tomrawson.com/
for ordering info.
Disclaimer: I use a capo on the 2nd fret, so it's actually in the key of S.
--Tom Rawson
Seattle WA

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Key of R
From: Bill D
Date: 10 Dec 06 - 06:10 PM

*big smile*...well, Thanks, Tom! It's a fine song, and it gets pried out me several times a year here in the Wash DC area.

(Can't use the "Key of S" line, 'cause I do it on the *autoharp*...which has it own humorous vagaries due to my inability to 'do' more than 3 of those chords)

I guess I'll have to get that CD!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Key of R
From: MartinRyan
Date: 10 Dec 06 - 06:35 PM

Hmmm... Wonder if I could do a little Irish adaptation on this one? Reckon you transponders owe us a few, anyway!

Regards

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Key of R
From: GUEST
Date: 12 Dec 06 - 12:11 AM

Yo Bill! That's very impressive to play 'R' on the autoharp! I'm waiting for someone to try it on the hurdy-gurdy. --Tom

Subject: Lyr Req: The key of R
From: Mr Happy
Date: 03 Feb 10 - 10:01 AM

I've heard this fab song recently, anyone have the words, please?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The key of R
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 03 Feb 10 - 10:11 AM

The Key Of R - DT and Lyr Req: Key of R (Elizabeth W. Anthony) - thread and Key of R midi - Mudcat Midis

Mick

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The key of R
From: Leadfingers
Date: 03 Feb 10 - 10:14 AM

Key of Aaarrgh OUGHT to be a West Country song !

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The key of R
From: Mr Happy
Date: 03 Feb 10 - 10:17 AM

Thanks

I searched the title first & it wasn't found

Maybe I spelt 'R' wrong?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFAxlvdWMFI

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Key of R (Elizabeth W. Anthony)
From: Mr Happy
Date: 03 Feb 10 - 10:25 AM

Joe,

Just seen you on You Tube, brill!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The key of R
From: Bill D
Date: 03 Feb 10 - 12:28 PM

I ought to beat on Joe to get him to pound the real, correct, original tune (*grin*) into his head,(the Mudcat midi tune is pretty close) but I suppose the folk process being what it is, it's a hopeless idea.

It's fun, no matter which tune.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Key of R (Elizabeth W. Anthony)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 03 Feb 10 - 05:01 PM

Aw, gee, Bill, I'm glad you've almost come to the point of tolerance. I really tried to learn the song the right way, but it just didn't come (mostly because I didn't have a recorded or printed source to learn from). There's a YouTube recording of somebody else singing the song here (click) - is that closer to the original tune?

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Key of R (Elizabeth W. Anthony)
From: Bill D
Date: 03 Feb 10 - 05:16 PM

hmmm...in some places, he gets closer, and in some places he just wings it. He doesn't even do it the same in each verse. Of course, he is 'making it his own' by changing a few words to reflect his banjo references. I wonder where he picked it up?

(When Dick Hamlet brought it the Getaway, he had recently gotten it directly from the source, and I recorded him.)

I repeat...the Mudcat midi is pretty close, allowing for the limits on 'phrasing' and emphasis.

I have neglected to actually order that CD mentioned above, but I'll bet IT is close to the original!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Key of R (Elizabeth W. Anthony)
From: Bill D
Date: 03 Feb 10 - 05:25 PM

Oh! I am now listening to an MP3 of a radio program that Tom Rawson was interviewed on, and it says he does Key of R on it.

http://www.tomrawson.com/songs/KOHOinterview.mp3

(This posted before I actually hear it....so I'll say more later! *grin*)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Key of R (Elizabeth W. Anthony)
From: Bill D
Date: 03 Feb 10 - 05:39 PM

Well.....gee...it's still a bit different tune than I remember. I'll never know for sure unless I hear Libby Anthony do it, I guess.

To me, he rushed it a bit and didn't allow it to creep up on you,,,*grin*...and maybe his CD is different, and maybe he does it slower with a crowd 'watching'.

Whatever, it's fun and says a lot about taking music seriously.

(I see that *I* have morphed a couple of the words. I'll listen to me and see if I need to 'adjust' them.)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Key of R (Elizabeth W. Anthony)
From: Bill D
Date: 03 Feb 10 - 05:43 PM

(I will admit that I think a lot of songs are 'rushed'... pace is a really important part of delivery)

and...100

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Key of R (Elizabeth W. Anthony)
From: Cuilionn
Date: 04 Feb 10 - 10:19 AM

Nope... just listened to Tom. While I applaud him for crediting the original composer accurately, his tune varies somewhat from the original. Also, a goodly part of the comedy of the original was the intentional halting awkward out-of-keyness of it. The first time I saw it performed by Women, Women & Song, I believe Mary actually untuned her instrument to perform it. (Think of a struggling new player of mandolin or guitar, with those slight pauses while they try to get their fingers, with only occasional success, into the proper places.) This song should never sound too smooth or polished!

By the way, I think the song can work out great when sung a capella. You can veer even more widely with pacing and out-of-keyness and sound just as awful as possible, without that pesky guitar shackling you to the tyranny of standard pitch.

--Cuilionn

P.S. If you think "The Key of R" is brilliant, I wish you could hear the Gershwin parody they did about the challenges of Northwest gardening: "The Rhapsody We Blew."