Looking for great fun/funny rounds

Subject: RE: Looking for great fun/funny rounds
From: Grab
Date: 30 May 06 - 07:55 AM

Animaterra, Artisan did that "Nero's expedition" round at their workshops. For anyone who's not heard it, the rhythm is something else - there's big pauses (for a very precise, and odd, number of beats) between lines.

Another one that Artisan do is "Freedom Train".

This old freedom train's been such a long time coming
Ain't nobody can't afford to miss so climb on while it's running
Gimme that freedom,
Gimme that freedom
Gimme that freedom freedom freedom
Chikachik

Done right, the "Chickachik"s come one after another to give a continuous train noise.

Graham.

Subject: RE: Looking for great fun/funny rounds
From: GUEST,Kristin
Date: 02 Oct 07 - 11:47 PM

The way I learned "Freedom Train" in choir was

This old freedom train is such a long time in a comin
There ain't no one can't afford it
So you'd better climb aboard it
Gimme that fre-edom
Gimme that fre-edom
Gimme that freedom freedom freedom
CH-CH (sounds like a train)

Every syllable is spoken directly on the beat until you get to the fre-dom part.

Subject: RE: Looking for great fun/funny rounds
From: Mike Miller
Date: 03 Oct 07 - 12:06 AM

Joe F has made a swell suggestion but that song is more fun to do if you add some movement. It goes, thusly.

Why shouldn't my goose

Sing as well as thy goose

When I paid for my GOOSE

Twice as much as thine.

On that last GOOSE, we jump up and say it as though we were being "goosed". Watching a slew of seated singers rising and falling like fans doing "The Wave".

Subject: RE: Looking for great fun/funny rounds
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 03 Oct 07 - 12:38 AM

In an early post on this thread, iancarterb noted a two-line round from the Washington Dept. of Agriculture, and said he thought Tom Hunter had written the tune. He quoted one of the two lines: "Apple maggot quarantine area."

He was partly right. The whole song is:

Apple maggot quarantine area
Do not transport home-grown fruit

and the tune is mine. Though it's an honor to have someone think it's one of Tom's. The song is in Linda Allen's collection "Washington Songs and Lore"...but she got the last note wrong!

I can't do ABC, but the tune goes something like this:
1-3 | 2-4 | 3-2-1 | 2-1-8 |
1 5 | 5-5 | 5 1 | 2_

There are a lot of my favorite rounds in this thread. I've learned many of my favorites from Lani Herrmann, like these:

Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bea-ear
Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair
Fuzzy Wuzzy wasn't
(then it repeats, of course)

We welcome in the morning
We welcome in the day

1, 3, 5, 8,
7, 6, 5, 4,
3, 5, 2, 3, 4, sharp, 5
And the 8 is the same as the 1
But an octave apart
Try to sing it by heart

Good night, good night
Time sends a warning call
Sweet rest descend to all
Time, time sends a warning call
Sweet rest, sweet rest descend to all

And an incomparable one by Moondog:

Nero's expedition up the Nile
Failed
Because the water hyacinths
Had clogged the river
Denying Nero's vessels passage
Through the Sudd of Nubia

Thanks, Lani!

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: Looking for great fun/funny rounds
From: GUEST,Fantum
Date: 03 Oct 07 - 07:51 AM

Another verse to Michael Finnegan

I know a man named Michael Finnegan
He grows whiskers on his chinnegan
Cuts them off but they grow in again
Poor old Michael Finnegan
Begin again

I know a man named Michael Finnegan
He grew fat and he grew thin again
Then he died and had to begin again
Poor old Michael Finnegan
Begin again

Subject: RE: Looking for great fun/funny rounds
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 03 Oct 07 - 11:45 AM

Here's one I learned at an early-music workshop. It is a lament on the topic of life on the east coast of America.

Four long hours of driving.
One short dip in the ocean.
Miserere nobis.

I will send Joe a MIDI so you can play it here. Its tonality is very archaic. First I will play the round, then do it again with two parts.

---

Click to play

Subject: RE: Looking for great fun/funny rounds
From: Anne Lister
Date: 03 Oct 07 - 04:13 PM

Back to Frere Jacques ... another two sets of words:

Water melons, water melons
How they drip, how they drip
Up and down your elbow, up and down your elbow
Spit the pip (spit) Spit the pip (spit)

And of coure the immortal
Father Christmas, Father Christmas
He got stuck, he got stuck
Climbing down the chimney, climbing down the chimney
What bad luck, what bad luck.

And back to the Goose ... if you have a big enough group of people, it works in 16 parts. As in "Why shouldn't/why shouldn't/why shouldn't" as starting points. If you jump up and down on the high "goose" then it looks wonderful.

Subject: RE: Looking for great fun/funny rounds
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 03 Oct 07 - 11:53 PM

Elephants (The Force of Habit---Round)
A.E. Housman, Johan Franco

A tail behind, a trunk in front complete the usual elephant
The tail in front, the trunk behind is what you very seldom find.
If you for specimens should hunt with trunks behind and tails in front
That hunt will occupy you long, the force of habit is so strong.

Here Lies a Woman (Round)
Hilton

[1] Here lies a woman. Who can deny it?
    She died in peace tho' lived unquiet.

[2] Her husband prays if o'er her grave you walk
    You would tread soft, you would tread

[3] Soft, for if she wakes, for if she wakes
    She'll talk, tread soft, for if she wakes, she'll talk.

Miss Smith

(1) Oh Miss Smith, Oh do be careful. Do not heed that wolf. His
          honey dripping
(2) Words, Miss Smith, will break your tender heart! He
(3) Says you're sweet, he says you're pretty, says he'll never
          kiss another girl. But if he does, he'll still be true
          to you, the mean deceiver.

Mister Bach

(1) Mister Bach wrote several tunes just like this.
(2) Organ sonatas, fugues, cantatas, I never know which is which.


Perfect Woman

No perfect woman lives, so poor a thing is life
How can a perfect man obtain a perfect wife?
No perfect woman lives. And yet
So rich a thing is life that every perfect man can get
A perfect woman for his wife, a perfect woman for his wife.



All in digiTrad (with tunes)

Subject: RE: Looking for great fun/funny rounds
From: Joe Offer
Date: 04 Oct 07 - 02:08 AM

Leeneia sent me a MIDI for posting, and I have obediently posted it. The tune sounds like Gregorian chant to me, something I learned fro Sister John Bosco in fifth grade, when I had a schoolboy crush on her. Nice tune, Leeneia.
-Joe-

---

Four long hours of driving. One short dip in the ocean. Miserere nobis. Click to play (the Latin means "have mercy on us")

Subject: RE: Looking for great fun/funny rounds
From: Saro
Date: 04 Oct 07 - 03:03 AM

I wrote this one a while ago

"Early to bed and early to rise
Makes you wealthy, makes you wise.
I would rather be foolish and poor
And stay in bed a little while more."

Saro

Subject: RE: Looking for great fun/funny rounds
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 04 Oct 07 - 06:43 AM

Quick and easy to learn:

>big>Loudly brays the donkey

At the break of day

If you do not feed him

This is what he'll say

Haaaa,He Haaaa Heeeee Haaaa, Heee Haww, He Haw, He Haw.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Subject: Old Woman
From: GUEST,Bakequery
Date: 27 Jul 08 - 08:50 AM

Old Woman Old Woman
Do you you want to marry me?
2x
Speak a little louder sir
I'm rather hard of hearing
2x

There are other verses which I can not remember right now.

Subject: RE: Looking for great fun/funny rounds
From: GUEST,doc
Date: 21 Feb 09 - 04:36 PM

The verses from the Artful Codger remind me of a song we learned at camp when I was 10, but not as a round:

The frog he am a queer bird,
He ain't got no tail almost hardly,
When he run he yump,
When he yump he sit down
Cause he ain't got no tail almost hardly.

Subject: RE: Looking for great fun/funny rounds
From: GUEST,Dante Ferrara
Date: 22 Mar 09 - 02:03 PM

I've recorded many on my new CD 'Bazimakoo'. Though huge fun, they are mainly for adults

Subject: RE: Looking for great fun/funny rounds
From: GUEST,Heather
Date: 27 Jul 11 - 06:53 PM

Does anyone know the tune for this one?


Happy days to all those that we love
Happy days to all those that love us
Happy days to all those that love them that love those that love them that love those that love us.

Subject: RE: Looking for great fun/funny rounds
From: GUEST,sola
Date: 05 Aug 11 - 06:40 PM

I recall:
guys: Old woman, old woman, will you do my washing?
girls answer: Speak a little louder, sir--I'm very hard of hearing.
guys : Old woman, old woman, will you do (my cleaning?)?
girls: same answer--(or a little hard of hearing>?)
guys: s?t like come and sit with me...
girls: ...I'm slightly hard of hearing
guys: Old woman, old woman, will you...marry me?
girls: (I will marry you?) I hear you very clearly.

I was looking this up to see if anyone else had all the words. I learned it in the 4th grade (1956 ot 7) in Nancy, France--Am. school

Subject: RE: Looking for great fun/funny rounds
From: GUEST
Date: 23 Aug 13 - 01:31 PM

To stop the train
In cases of emergency
just pull down the chain
pull down the chain
penalty for each inproper use
five pounds

Subject: RE: Looking for great fun/funny rounds
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Sep 13 - 05:38 PM

another one to Frere Jacques
Harry Potter
Harry Potter
Where's he gone?
Where's he gone?
Run off with Hermione
Run off with Hermione
Poor old Ron
Poor old Ron


And one we did at school :

Said Aristotle unto Plato
"Have another sweet potato"
Said Plato unto Aristotle
"Thank you, I prefer the bottle."

Subject: RE: Looking for great fun/funny rounds
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 10 Sep 13 - 10:27 AM

The music of some of those rounds is neither well known nor easy to find. Would posters please attach ABC representations (as for example I did in this thread) or stable links to sheet music etc.? If it is in the DT, either a link or the exact title would be welcome. TIA.

Don't bother with good ol' Jacques and his brothers, though.

Subject: RE: Looking for great fun/funny rounds
From: Artful Codger
Date: 10 Sep 13 - 02:41 PM

For the ABC-uninitiated (most readers?): I can help prepare ABCs and MIDIs for those who can make a scan of a score or record their singing to an MP3. Similarly, if you send me a MIDI, I can put it in Joe's repository and post a link here, along with an ABC transcription. PM me to make arrangements; include your email address.

Subject: RE: Looking for great fun/funny rounds
From: Bettynh
Date: 10 Sep 13 - 03:41 PM

Bill Harley sings this, but I doubt that he wrote it:

Black socks, they never get dirty,
The longer you wear them the stronger they get.
Sometimes I think I should wash them,
But something inside me says No, no, not yet.
Not yet, not yet, not yet...

Here's a junior high chorus singing it.

Subject: RE: Looking for great fun/funny rounds
From: Bettynh
Date: 10 Sep 13 - 04:22 PM

Christine Lavin and the Mistletones are credited with the Tacobel Canon:


OGuac-a-mo-le, guac-a-mo-le, guac-a-mo-le, guac-a-mo-le

Taco salad taco salad taco salad taco salad
Taco salad taco salad taco salad taco salad

Fajita! Fajita! Fajita! Fajita! Fajita! Fajita! Fajita! Fajita!

Lots of cheese and some sour cream
some lettuce salsa don't forget the
refried beans

Lots of cheese and some sour cream
some lettuce salsa don't forget the
refried beans

Hot really hot add a little jalapeno
make it hot really hot add a little jalapeno
make it hot really hot add a little jalapeno
make it hot really hot add a little jalapeno make it

Hot really hot add a little jalapeno
make it hot really hot add a little jalapeno
make it hot really hot add a little jalapeno
make it hot really hot add a little jalapeno make it


This is a well-done version.

Subject: RE: Looking for great fun/funny rounds
From: Bettynh
Date: 10 Sep 13 - 04:28 PM

From Joanne Hammil,

A Question of Tempo

When I'm under pressure I get speedy and tense up and then
ironically I don't get as much done as I could if I would slow
Down, breathe deep, stay centered and calm -I
Try, but I can't! I'm thinking of adding a relaxation class into my schedule so
I can be more steady even though I'm adding more... ('cause...)

ending:
More, more, more, more, more, more, more!

Listen here

Subject: RE: Looking for great fun/funny rounds
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 11 Sep 13 - 01:25 AM

A DT search for the keyword "round" will give some worthwhile results. Many with tunes. I'm fond of "Miss Smith", "Liszt and Bach" and "Smetana"

Subject: RE: Looking for great fun/funny rounds
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Sep 13 - 05:24 PM

Developing the Tudor Catch, another hundred years later Purcell took it further into Catch rounds which were in and of themselves quite innocuous. But when the music was added, pauses in the parts aligned with the lead lines to produce an obscene result as the melody line switched leads. Now, I'm not suggesting you do something that extreme, but the idea might really work for kids if it's just a tad naughty.

And for those of you looking for the music-hall monologues, they're almost all here.

Subject: RE: Looking for great fun/funny rounds
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Jan 16 - 01:07 PM

Anyone know which "Great Tom" bell the catch "Well Rung Tom" refers to? I had assumed the bell at Christchurch, Oxford, but there is also one in St. Paul's Cathedral and a few others dotted around England.