Chords Req: The Oyster Girl

Subject: Chords for the Oyster Girl
From: Mick Lowe
Date: 17 Apr 99 - 07:35 PM

Anyone happen to have these, they have been eluding me for some time and driving me mad. Alas the only version I have of it is by the Paddy Doyles, which I have mentioned in previous threads the quality of which is dire to say the least.
Cheers
Mick

Subject: RE: Chords for the Oyster Girl
From: Mick Lowe
Date: 24 Apr 99 - 07:30 PM

I take it there are no oyster lovers out there...
Cheers
Mick

Subject: RE: Chords for the Oyster Girl
From: Bruce O.
Date: 24 Apr 99 - 11:13 PM

There's a tune for the song in DT. Is that the tune you're after? See also "The Basket of Oysters" in the Irish tune index on my website.

Subject: RE: Chords for the Oyster Girl
From: Mick Lowe
Date: 26 Apr 99 - 08:07 AM

Hi Bruce
I got the lyrics off the DT and am now in search of the chords
Cheers
Mick

Subject: RE: Chords for the Oyster Girl
From: Mick Lowe
Date: 10 May 99 - 08:37 PM

There must be some one who has the chords for this
Cheers
Mick

Subject: RE: Chords for the Oyster Girl
From: SingsIrish Songs
Date: 11 May 99 - 01:24 AM

Mick (ML)

I just purchased 2 new Irish songbooks today...let me check if it is in one...sounds familiar...

Mary Kate (YA)

Subject: RE: Chords for the Oyster Girl
From: SingsIrish Songs
Date: 11 May 99 - 08:13 PM

Drat! I can't figure out where I saw the title! Perhaps it was on a cd instead....so as of right now, I DON'T have the chords...but I'll keep an eye opened!

Me

Subject: RE: Chords for the Oyster Girl
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 12 May 99 - 07:01 PM

G'day Mick,

If you are after chords, does that mean you have a tune or just that you have heard the song, know/have learnt the words and need guitar chords to go with them?

Here in Aussie, I know two versions of a jig tune called The Oyster Girl, a 2-part and a 4-part version and play them as dance music. I also have a set of words for a song of the same name, an edit of two sets of words on broadsides in Dublin. These don't work well with the jig tunes I have and I suspect there is a simpler tune ... and I would like to find it!

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Chords for the Oyster Girl
From: Mick Lowe
Date: 12 May 99 - 08:04 PM

Bob,
The version I have is on an old battered tape of the Paddy Doyles singing/playing it.. The lyrics in the database here are "close". I presume the main reason I can't find it anywhere is because I think it is more an English rather than Irish folk song and hasn't been widely "adopted" yet.
Cheers
Mick

Subject: RE: Chords for the Oyster Girl
From: SingsIrish Songs
Date: 12 May 99 - 08:15 PM

I found a Mudcat mirror site where I am able to view the accompanying music...here's the link if it would help anyone...

OysterGirl

Mick, if you have the music, could you or some of the guys down t'pub help "pick out" the chords??? Just a thought.

Mary Kate

Subject: RE: Chords for the Oyster Girl
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 12 May 99 - 11:41 PM

G'day Mick, Mary and all,

I followed Mary's link and the words there (presumably the same on home DT) are clearly related to those I have. These don't work well to the dance versions of the tune (unless you are a "patter artist" of the old music hall variety) so I guess there must be a somewhat different song tune - as one would expect.

Mick: It is interesting that the historical source documents for the version I put together are both in Dublin - yet they start off "As I was walking down London Street". Where does a good song come from? ...Or live?

Anyway, I will be keen to hear the tune if I can only make Alan of Oz's TextMIDI work on my kludge.

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Chords for the Oyster Girl
From: SingsIrish Songs
Date: 13 May 99 - 03:43 AM

Heh Bob and Mick, Foxleap gave me a link to the jig (with chords) on Foxes' Covert Irish Folk Song page (link given on the Mudcat list of links)--they are different melodies...Oh well, we'll keep turning over every stone til we find it...

Mick, FYI I've set up posts other places to see if there are any bites...so far nothing. Perhaps the books I requested from the library may have something...Do you know how "old or recent" a song it is? More from me later...

Take care

Mary

Subject: RE: Chords for the Oyster Girl
From: Art Thieme
Date: 13 May 99 - 05:59 PM

I came in here thinking this thread was about an aquatic side-show attraction from Ringling Bros., Barnum & Bailey. No such luck!

Art

Subject: RE: Chords for the Oyster Girl
From: Mick Lowe
Date: 13 May 99 - 07:34 PM

Hi Art
No such luck indeed.. The Oyster Girl is a simple folk tune about shagging .. I don't suppose Barnum & Bailey featured that... (LOL)
Mary I know you'll keep looking.. as for the guys at t'pub, they've been busy with other things.. namely Eric has come up with a recording of Roads of Kildare, so await the next tape with bated breath, providing I've learnt it by then.
Bob, a very good question as to where "a good song comes from".. for the majority I have no qualms in saying.. stolen from somewhere else.. (ask George Harrison if you don't believe me)..
Mick

Subject: RE: Chords for the Oyster Girl
From: SingsIrish Songs
Date: 13 May 99 - 07:48 PM

Mick,

I will await the next tape for Roads of Kildare...it is one song (of many) I want us to do as a duet..."Meet me tonight by the campfire, come with me over the hill...."

Mary

Subject: RE: Chords for the Oyster Girl
From: Brian Peters
Date: 18 May 99 - 02:58 PM

Mick,

I've been singing "Oyster Girl" for 18 years now, God help me, though both melody and words are different from those in SingsIrishsongs' link. My version was collected in 1971 from George Dunn, a singer from Staffordshire, England, and appears in "Songs of the Midlands" ed. Roy Palmer, which I suspect is now out of print. Phil Tanner the great singer from Gower, South Wales (whose repertoire was essentially English) also sang a version. I had thought the tune was pretty standard - if you sing the same tune I do, and pitch it in the key of G, the chords would be as follows (change chord on word after chord symbol):

As (G) I was a-walking down (D) fair London street

A (D) pretty little oyster girl I (G) chanced for to (D) meet

And (G) in to her basket so (C) nimbly I did (G) peep

For to (C) see if she (G) had any (D) oysters

Any help?

Brian

PS: Does shagging actually take place? I sing "we hadn't been inside the room for half an hour you see, before she'd picked my pocket and all of my money". I'd call that the early stages of foreplay......

Subject: RE: Chords for the Oyster Girl
From: Mick Lowe
Date: 18 May 99 - 09:19 PM

Hi Brian
I should really have said the prospect/desire/hope for.. a shagging...
especially the line " I sell them three a penny, but I'll give you one for free"
This particular ditty aside, which I have now cobbled together the chords from the various sources (and thanks to all) I am much taken by your reference to the publication "Songs of the Midlands".. living as I do in Leicestershire..not having come across it.. and more so by you mentioning the Gower Pennisular which is by far and away the most beautiful part of the British Isles...
Phil Tanner is also a new name to me. I am thankful to this wonderful site and all I have learnt over the past 12 months.
Mick

Subject: RE: Chords for the Oyster Girl
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 19 May 99 - 03:32 AM

G'day all,

I was going to come back and say that I went home muttering about the tune in DT (too many bars (clearly transcibed by a guitarist!) ... and not either of the tunes I know) and my darling wife reminded me that I had a good version on a Brian Peters CD.

Sure enough - a good version ... and another (good) tune!

Anyway, in the maentime, Brian himself tells you so ... well, he doesn't tell you how good he is, sso there is some value to my posting! I must work at Brian's version ... very little relationship to the (presumably dance tune) versions I already know. I'll go mad working on this one ... the basic tune is a fine robust tune and not too hard, but all those lovely things Brian does in between verses!!!

BTW: Brian - when will we see you back in the Antipodes? If they offer you another gig at the Australian National Folk Festival, with a master class beforehand, I will be first in line for tickets. I did not know what I was missing by not attending the last one, a couple of years back.

Your treatment of button accordion is mind-boggling!

Regards,

Bob Bolton