'Naughty' Songs by Famous Folk

Subject: RE: 'Naughty' Songs by Famous Folk
From: BobKnight
Date: 11 Mar 11 - 07:12 AM

I uses to sing a country song called, "Why Don't We Get Drunk And Screw," which I learned from a guy called J.B Morrison, from Nashville.

Subject: RE: 'Naughty' Songs by Famous Folk
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 11 Mar 11 - 07:21 AM

Martin Carthy's version of the traditional ' Bonny Black Hare ' is pretty good,

I took out me ramrod and me bullets likwise,
I said wrap your legs round me and dig in with your heels,
For the closer we get love, the better it feels.

Dave H

Subject: RE: 'Naughty' Songs by Famous Folk
From: GUEST,DrugCrazed
Date: 11 Mar 11 - 07:39 AM

One that I know of (but never heard the tune) was Barnacle Bill the Sailor. I believe there's one verse with the maiden asking "What would you do if I locked the door?" to which Barnacle Bill replies with "I'll smash off the lock with my long hard cock".

Ahh, the clean mouths of sailors. Makes you happy doesn't it?

Subject: RE: 'Naughty' Songs by Famous Folk
From: Leadfingers
Date: 11 Mar 11 - 02:20 PM

Oscar Brand's Bawdy Songs Goes to College was actually released in UK - I do a couple of the songs on it myself !

Subject: RE: 'Naughty' Songs by Famous Folk
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 11 Mar 11 - 02:56 PM

Not a song - a story about the traditional singer Aunt Molly Jackson - wonder if anyone can verify it?
Alan Lomax heard that she knew a number of bawdy/bordering on the obscene Jack Tales, which she would never tell in public, and refused to allow to be recorded. When she was visiting his home one summer he set up a recorder under a table with the microphone hidden behind an air-conditioning grille, switched on the recorder and left it running.
Worked fine for a few minutes until another guest switched the air-conditioning on.
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: 'Naughty' Songs by Famous Folk
From: Jack Campin
Date: 11 Mar 11 - 04:47 PM

I once saw a copy of a biography of Kathleen Ferrier that had a photocopy of one of her letters (typed and signed) inside it. She quoted this limerick:

There was a young lady of Nantes
Who was tres joli et piquante.
But her hole was so small
It was no good at all
Except for la plume de ma tante.

I've heard from other sources that Ferrier was fond of bawdy stuff. I wonder if there are any clandestine recordings of her singing it?

Subject: RE: 'Naughty' Songs by Famous Folk
From: BrooklynJay
Date: 11 Mar 11 - 05:02 PM

In response to GUEST,DrugCrazed:

There have been several discussions of Barnacle Bill the Sailor; click here for one of them. Two versions of the song are in the DT, though only one would qualify as bawdy.

Jay

Subject: RE: 'Naughty' Songs by Famous Folk
From: GUEST,Ebor_Fiddler
Date: 11 Mar 11 - 05:17 PM

And there was the version rcorded by Bix Beiderbecke and friends (I can't remember the name they used THIS time!). Qv.

Subject: RE: 'Naughty' Songs by Famous Folk
From: JohnH
Date: 11 Mar 11 - 06:06 PM

Just find "Pills to Purge Melancholy" (D'Urfey, 1721)

Subject: RE: 'Naughty' Songs by Famous Folk
From: Charley Noble
Date: 11 Mar 11 - 08:09 PM

Richard Dyer-Bennet sort of cleared the air with his "Mark Twain's 1601" recording, available again from Smithsonian Folkways. In addition to the bawdy recitation of "1601" there are these bawdy songs:

Old Joe Clark
The Old She-Crab
The Tailor's Boy
The Eer-i-e Canal
There was a Friar in Our Town
The Gathering of the Clan

Now not all the bawdy verses of "The Gathering of the Clan" were recorded. That would have filled up several CD's.

However, at least one reviewer was quite flabbergasted that Dyer-Bennet would recite and sing such vile stuff!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble