Subject: Cuckoos From: Philippa Date: 13 May 99 - 06:00 PM You may be disappointed to read that I mean birds, not people. I heard the first cuckoos of this year in late April. they may have started a bit later last year, but were calling persistently throughout the merry month of May. This is in the Isle of Skye, Scotland. Oh the cuckoo is a pretty bird She wobbles as she flies And she never hollers 'cuckoo' Till the fourth day of July So -- what is the cuckoo's geographic range of territory in N America and when is the cuckoo's calling season on the other side of the Atlantic. Is there any truth and/or significance to the date given in the song (I know about 1776 and all that, but...) ? |
Subject: RE: Cuckoos From: Mark Roffe Date: 14 May 99 - 12:44 AM Ginny tells me that the Black-billed cuckoo has quite a widespread range E. of the Rockies. It may sing at night, unlike most birds. The Yellow-billed cuckoo has localized ranges in river valleys in the Southwestern US; spotty in CA. Both species winter in S. America, as far south as Argentina, and both species breed in the USA. They come back from S. America March or April through September. They have the same song summer and winter, but they'd first be heard in the USA around March or April. So she's not sure where they'd be first heard in early July, but their summer range extends all the way from Mexico to Southern Canada, so maybe that's where the song is set? The USA only has two of the 132 world species of cuckoo! Mark |
Subject: RE: Cuckoos From: katlaughing Date: 14 May 99 - 01:01 AM Never heard of any in the Rocky Mountains, except my sister's clock:-) |
Subject: RE: Cuckoos From: Mark Roffe Date: 14 May 99 - 01:11 AM And you yerself, kucookat. |
Subject: RE: Cuckoos From: katlaughing Date: 14 May 99 - 01:41 AM Mark, LMAO!!! Does this mean I hafta change my name? I like it! But....I STILL laugh a lot when on here! katcuckooing |
Subject: RE: Cuckoos From: AllisonA(Animaterra) Date: 14 May 99 - 12:48 PM :-( No cuckoos in New England, as far as I know, so when I teach my various "cuckoo" songs I have to explain everything. Our early spring bird song is the big fat robin! |
Subject: RE: Cuckoos From: Philippa Date: 14 May 99 - 01:17 PM Animaterra, Do you even teach them, "Am I the one that she loves best/Or am I just a cuckkoo in another man's nest?"? (shanty - chicken on a Raft) any more ideas re the Fourth of July, can't just be poetic license for the sake of rhyme? |
Subject: RE: Cuckoos From: AllisonA(Animaterra) Date: 14 May 99 - 03:20 PM Ah, Phillipa, our land of the free and home of the brave has certain restrictions on what is appropriate for delicate young minds. They can fry their brains at home with tv and video games, but at school we're limited to "Sumer is i-cumin in" and the first verse of "The cuckoo is a pretty bird", as well as the Cuckoo in Deep Woods from the Carnival of the animals! Oh, and the Elizabethan round "As I Mee Walk'ed". since no cuckoo cucks around here near the 4th of July I can't help you with any significance! Allison |
Subject: RE: Cuckoos From: LEJ Date: 14 May 99 - 03:37 PM Ah," summer is icumen in, lhude sing Cuckoo!" And how did the rest go? |
Subject: RE: Cuckoos From: tomtom Date: 14 May 99 - 04:27 PM If you want to read Greil Marcus go on and on and on and on about that song (making very strange connections all over the place), check out his book Invisible Republic. |
Subject: RE: Cuckoos From: AllisonA(Animaterra) Date: 14 May 99 - 04:36 PM Gosh, Leej, I found it in the DT after typing "icumen" - great little system- ya otta try it some time! *grin grin NOI, etc!* |
Subject: RE: Cuckoos From: Sandy Paton Date: 14 May 99 - 04:53 PM I always preferred the Ezra Pound parody: "winter is a-comin' in, loud sing god damn!" Grumpy |
Subject: RE: Cuckoos From: LEJ Date: 14 May 99 - 05:53 PM Anima- OUCH that smarts...
|
Subject: RE: Cuckoos From: Philippa Date: 15 May 99 - 05:23 AM for LEJ, in partly modernised English: Summer is a comin' in Loudly sing cuckoo Groweth seed and bloweth mead and springeth wood anew. Sing cuckoo, sing cuckoo well sings the cuckoo... Oh cease thee never now a madrigal, a round/anyway it is in the DT as "Sumer is icumen in, but I typed what's in my head rather than look it and the Fourth day of July significance?? |
Subject: Lyr Add: CUCKOO and TO THE CUCKOO / DO 'N CHUTHAIG From: Philippa Date: 16 Jun 99 - 05:50 PM The cuckoos have gone quiet. I'm still trying to find out the reason for the American line about the bird who "never hollers cuckoo Till the fourth day of July", but in the meantime here are two lyrics which have the bird singing in May as they do here in Skye at any rate. 1)You'll see the resemblance to a Simon and Garfunkel song 2) in Scottish Gaelic with translation, from a photocopy which gives no information on what publication it was taken from Cuckoo songs 1) CUCKOO (from Gibson Young, ed."Community Song Book" London, J Curwen & Sons, no date but pre-decimalisation of UK currency)
Cuckoo, Cuckoo, Pray what do you do?
Cuckoo, Cuckoo, Pray where do you go?
2) Do'n Chuthaig (to the cuckoo)
Fàilt' orm fèin, a chuthag ghorm,
'S ro-bhinnn leam t'fhuaim 's a' mhadainn Cheit',
Hail to you, Oh blue cuckoo,
|
Subject: Tune Add: CUCKOO and TO THE CUCKOO /DO 'N CHUTHAIG From: alison Date: 17 Jun 99 - 02:51 AM Hi, Thanks to Philippa for the GIFs here are the tunes. The first one has an echo (like the cuckoo), so I played it through twice the first time without the echo, so you can hear the tune, the second time with the echo. slainte alison Cuckoo
MIDI file: CUCKOO.MID Timebase: 480 Name: Cuckoo This program is worth the effort of learning it. To download the March 10 MIDItext 98 software and get instructions on how to use it click here ABC format: X:1
TO THE CUCKOO / DO 'N CHUTHAIG
MIDI file: TOTHEC~1.MID Timebase: 480 Name: To the Cuckoo This program is worth the effort of learning it. To download the March 10 MIDItext 98 software and get instructions on how to use it click here ABC format: X:1
|
Subject: RE: Cuckoos From: Ian Date: 17 Jun 99 - 06:12 AM As a child, I was taught
The cuckoo comes in April As far as songs and tunes about cuckoos are concerned, the ones I like best are "The Cuckoo's Nest" and a lovely tune called "The first of May and the last of June". |
Subject: Lyr Add: THE CUCKOO From: Alice Date: 17 Jun 99 - 10:33 AM This is the way I sing "The Cuckoo", with no 4th of July in it.
Oh, the cuckoo is a pretty bird,
And I see, and I see,
I went walkin o'er the mountain,
And I see ...
Oh, meeting is a pleasure,
And I see...
A thief, he can rob you
And I see...
We don't have cuckoo birds here in Montana. I adapted the version I sing from a tape of anonymous Appalachian singers that a college room mate from Ohio had in 1973. alice in montana |
Subject: Lyr/Tune Add: THE CUCKOO (from Cecil Sharp) From: alison Date: 17 Jun 99 - 09:24 PM Hi, Here's another lovely minor Cuckoo tune, taken from the Cecil Sharp 100 english folksongs book. the words are similar to the one Alice posted.
Oh, the cuckoo is a pretty bird,
MIDI file: CUCKOO1.MID Timebase: 480 Name: THE CUCKOO This program is worth the effort of learning it. To download the March 10 MIDItext 98 software and get instructions on how to use it click here ABC format: X:1
slainte alison |
Subject: RE: Cuckoos From: Philippa Date: 18 Jun 99 - 07:37 AM well, I did hear a cuckoo this morning. I know the song Alison gives above, but I heard the "holler" verse in a very different song with verses about card-playiing. I'm not looking for lyrics, I know a few verses, just wondering about the July date. I'm thinking it's just a rhyme. Good verse from a cuckoo song in the vein of Alison and A;ice's contributions: Oh I can love little and I can love long I can love the old one till a new one comes along I can kiss him and hug him and prove my heart kind Then turn my back on him and likewise my mind. Gaelic poet Uilleam Ros wrote a song about the cuckoo; I must check whether the Gaelic verses I supplied in this thread come from his song. |
Subject: RE: Cuckoos From: Steve Parkes Date: 18 Jun 99 - 10:51 AM Interesting to see you have two more kinds of cuckoo in the US thatn we ahve bluebirds over the white cliffs of Dover! Steve (with an ornithological bent) |
Subject: RE: Cuckoos From: Penny S Date: 18 Jun 99 - 11:34 AM I do remember seeing bluetits, and others of that sort a mile back from said White Cliffs! Penny |
Subject: RE: Cuckoos From: MAG (inactive) Date: 19 Jun 99 - 03:53 PM I learned it the way Alison has it posted, except for the last bit going: And she never sings cuckoo 'til spring of the year. PPM have the July bit; maybe that album gives source? Maybe it has to do when the foundlings in their borrowed nests start singing, so their foster parents know to boot them out? |
Subject: RE: Cuckoos From: The Burren Ranger. Ireland. Date: 20 Jun 99 - 06:01 AM Are there Corncrakesto be heard in the USA? They have become extinct here in western Ireland due to the machine age. Check Andy M Stewart's song'The Echo Mocks The Corncrake'. |
Subject: Lyr Add: THE INCONSTANT LOVER From: rich r Date: 23 Jun 99 - 12:26 AM Just to expand on the ornithology aspects of this thread. There are actually 6 members of the Family Cuculidae (Cuckoos) that are known to nest in in the USA. There may be additional North American species from southern Mexico to Panama. There are about 125 species world-wide, most of them tropical. Some of the European cuckoo species are nest parasites that lay their eggs in other birds nests and have the young raised by foster parents. The US ones all build their own nests. We have the cowbird to fill the nest parasite niche. Yellow-billed Cuckoo - this is the most widespread, found from British Columbia to Maine and south into Mexico and also the West Indies. Black-billed Cuckoo - this is an eastern species found from southern Canada to the Gulf of Mexico but east of the Rocky Mountains. Mangrove Cuckoo - restricted to the mangove thickets of coastal southern Florida and the Florida Keys. Smooth-billed Ani - also restricted to southern Florida brush and farmland habitats. Groove-billed Ani - Southern Texas possibly east to Louisiana. Roadrunner (yes it is a ground dwelling cuckoo) - Arid regions of southwestern USA and south into Mexico Back to lyrics, here is a version of "THE INCONSTANT LOVER" from the Frank C Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore.
Cuckoo is a pretty bird, she sings as she flies,
I once loved a fond young man as dear as my life
He fulfilled his promise; He made me his wife.
It's trouble, it's trouble, It's trouble on my mind;
My children are crying, They're crying for bread.
I'll build me a castle on the mountain so high
Young ladies, young ladies, take warning from me;
For the leaves they will wither, the roots they will die.
I'm going to Georgia, I'm going to Rome, note to catters in other countries that Rome is a town in Georgia. rich r |
Subject: RE: Cuckoos From: Felipa Date: 29 Apr 03 - 11:58 PM It's cuckoo time again! |
Subject: RE: Cuckoos From: GUEST,Q Date: 30 Apr 03 - 12:44 AM The Roadrunner of cartoon fame is the state bird of New Mexico. As Richr says, it is ground-dwelling. A picture at: Roadrunner |
Subject: RE: Cuckoos From: Gurney Date: 30 Apr 03 - 02:17 AM I did wonder what was in the birds eggs around Phillipa's way, to make the cuckoo "wobble as she flies." Verses from that song family pop up everywhere. |
Subject: RE: Cuckoos From: GUEST,Philippa Date: 30 Apr 03 - 08:25 AM I presume "wobbles" is a corruption of "warbles" ands what about those songs & tunes called "The Cuckoo's Nest"? |
Subject: RE: Cuckoos From: GUEST,Philippa Date: 30 Apr 03 - 11:17 AM on the other hand, I don't think cuckoos warble as they fly, not like larks. And some birds, such as wagtails, do wobble up and down as they fly. Meanwhile, it is the time when cuckoos drive us cuckoo with their incessant cooing "cuckoo" "Cuach inniu agus cuach amárach, 's óró ghrá mo chroí, 'gus cuach ars eile achan lá go ceann ráithe, Cuach mo londubh buí" (cuckoo today, cuckoo tomorrow, dear love of my heart - and another cuckoo every day for the next quarter, cuckoo my yellow blackbird) |
Subject: RE: Cuckoos From: clueless don Date: 30 Apr 03 - 01:11 PM What I think I remember from my days as an active birder (long past, alas, long past!): Here in the Washington D.C. area the Yellow-Billed Cuckoo is one of the last of the migrating songbirds to come through - late May/early June? If it is similarly late farther along its migration route, that might have given rise to the notion that it "never sings cuckoo 'til the fourth day of July." Or, might the several versions of the song be of European origin? I am not certain that the Yellow-Billed Cuckoo is parasitic - i.e. lays its eggs in other birds' nests. Around here, it is the Brown-Headed Cowbird that exhibits that behavior. I assume that at least some European cuckoos are parasitic. |
Subject: RE: Cuckoos From: GUEST,Peter from Essex Date: 30 Apr 03 - 06:11 PM The only cuckoo with a range across all of Europe is Cuculus canorus which is parasitic and is the cuckoo of the songs. My field guide is only for identification so I don't know about Clamator glandarius which is found around the Mediteranian. |
Subject: Lyr Add: THE CUCKOO From: Joe_F Date: 30 Apr 03 - 08:04 PM I can't remember where I learned this version: The cuckoo is a pretty bird, He sings as he flies. He brings us glad tidings, And he tells us no lies. He sucks all sweet flowers To make his voice clear, And he never sings cuckoo Till the spring of the year. Come all you young women, Take a warning from me: Never hang your affections On a green growing tree, For the leaves they will wither And the branches will die. If I am forsaken, I know not for why. If I am forsaken, I'll not be forsworn, And he's surely mistaken If he thinks that I'll mourn. I'll get myself up in Some right high degree, And pass as light by him As he can by me. Johnny's on the water -- He may sink or he may swim. If he can do without me, I can do without him. Johnny is a young man -- Still younger am I, And he often has told me That he'll wed me or die. The cuckoo, he's a pretty bird.... What does "be forsworn" mean in this context? Be shunned by men in general? The OED says it can also mean "perjure oneself", but the application of that here is unclear. I find that stanza very beautiful even tho obscure in that place. |
Subject: RE: Cuckoos From: Uncle_DaveO Date: 30 Apr 03 - 08:11 PM I like the winter version of the cuckoo song: Winter is icumen in Lhude sing pen-guin! Dave Oesterreich |
Subject: RE: Cuckoos From: Gurney Date: 01 May 03 - 02:36 AM In 'Ban Claudy' "She sucks the small birds eggs, to make her voice clear" which is factual. I wonder if the song has been made more presentable for the queasy. Phillipa, are you trolling? That's a song usually sung by the men, and the cuckoo's nest is not a birds nest. |
Subject: RE: Cuckoos From: The Shambles Date: 01 May 03 - 04:32 AM Having been lucky enough to see and find nesting Mountain Bluebirds in the US, I would willingly trade all our European Cuckoos, to have them flying over our and rainbows and white cliffs. We do sometimes get the odd lost American Cuckoo here. |
Subject: RE: Cuckoos From: GUEST,JTT Date: 19 Jun 03 - 06:05 AM I've wondered about this too. I was asking a friend in Wicklow, and she said that she'd always heard (like Ian): The cuckoo comes in April She sings her song in May In the middle of June She changes her tune And in August she flies away. Sexism, of course, it's the males singing plaintively to advertise themselves to possible mates that give the cuck-oo, cuck-oo clock-sounding call. In Ireland, the cuckoos arrive, flying north, tanned and relaxed, in April, and in May begin to sing for a mate; they pair up in June, and lay their eggs in someone else's nest (normally choosing the nest of the same species of bird that raised themselves), and by September they've headed south again, along with the swallows, corncrakes and so on. (By the way, I understand that drought in the Sahel is one of the reasons for the corncrake's near extinction, as well as the use of mechanical harvesting which chops the heads off the young birds as they cringe in their nests amid the long grasses.) But what I can't find out is *where* the cuckoos go when they fly south from Ireland. Anyone know? And by the same token, are there any birds that migrate from Ireland to Crete? |
Subject: Lyr Add: CUCKOO SONG (Kipling, Bellamy) From: Dave Bryant Date: 19 Jun 03 - 06:42 AM No one seems to have mentioned Kipling's "Cuckoo Song" which has been set to music by Peter Ballamy. Incidently "Heffle Cuckoo Fair" is actually "Heathfield (Sussex) Cuckoo Fair".
Tell it to the locked-up trees,
March has searched and April tried --
When your heart is young and gay |
Subject: RE: Cuckoos From: GUEST,Q Date: 19 Jun 03 - 01:09 PM Joe_F, a nice version. "Forsworn" here means- I'm not tied down; if he scarpers, I won't mourn. So much of the poem is about not caring if "he" goes, that is is obvious that the gal does care very much. Forswear, "to swear, to vow to bring about." An old sense of the word, also in the OED. Still used locally in the States, and I am sure in UK as well. "Never hang your affections on a green-growing tree"- this idea of hanging the heart, affections, etc. on a tree appears in several songs. Must be a very old saying. |
Subject: RE: Cuckoos From: GUEST Date: 19 Jun 03 - 06:45 PM See Lomax's "Folk Songs of North America," in which "The Cuckoo" and "The Fourth Day of July" are placed on facing pages. Essentially same song, different attitude. The earlier "Cuckoo" has the bird never singing until April. If memory serves, Lomax's notes suggest "Fourth Day..." came along at the time when banjos were becoming more available in rural America. It seems it was just a case of the boys having fun with an old song and they probably didn't caring exactly when the cuckoo sang. |
Subject: RE: Cuckoos From: GUEST,JTT Date: 20 Jun 03 - 03:03 PM Surely forsworn normally has to do with swearing (or promising) falsely? |
Subject: RE: Cuckoos From: MMario Date: 20 Jun 03 - 03:08 PM They migrate to somewhere in Africa. (That's about all they know) |
Subject: RE: Cuckoos From: GUEST,Philippa Date: 06 Apr 15 - 10:24 PM |
Subject: RE: Cuckoos From: GUEST,Philippa Date: 06 Apr 15 - 10:38 PM I looked today for online lyrics of the cuckoo song which I quoted a verse from on June 19, 1999 - verse 3 in the lyrics below. If you think 1999 is long ago, I learned this song in the 1960s. I'm surprised this version isnt already on Mudcat, as far as I can find at the moment - it was via Mudcat search for various lines of the song that I found this old thread. What I found on other sites is attributed to Ronnie Gilbert (recorded with the Weavers). Is she in any sense the author of this version, which you can see is related to some other cuckoo songs on this thread, and is especially close to a A walkin and a talkin The cuckoo is a pretty bird, she sings as she flies She brings us the tidings and tells us no lies She feeds on the pretty flowers in the spring of the year And sings of my false love in a voice true and clear A-walkin' and a-talkin', a-walkin' goes I To meet my false lover and hear him deny But if I'm forsaken, I have not foresworned And he surely mistaken to think I shall mourn For I can love little and I can love long And I can love a sweetheart 'til a new one comes along I can hug him, I can kiss him and prove my heart kind And turn my back on him and likewise my mind A-walkin' and a-talkin', a-walkin' goes I To meet with my true love, we'll meet by and by To walk and talk together it's all my delight To walk and talk together from evening till night --- This is very close to lyrics I have but the last lines I sing for verse 1 are "She drinks the spring waters for to make her voice clear, When her nest she is building then summer is near" and there are a few other minor differences. Did Jean Ritchie record this song too? I sometimes sing the false hearted lover is worse than a thief verses but I dont know if they were in the song the way I first heard it. The song is made up of floating verses. (her nest she is building?! stealing more like it) |
Subject: RE: Cuckoos From: GUEST,Philippa Date: 06 Apr 15 - 10:44 PM Judy Collins sang: The dove she is a pretty bird, she sings as she flies She brings us glad tidings and tells us no lies She drinks the spring waters to make her voice clear When her nest she is building and summer is near Come all you young fellows take warning by me Don't go for a soldier, don't join no army For the dove she will leave you, the raven will come And death will come marching at the beat of a drum Come all you pretty fair maids, come walk in the sun And don't let your young man ever carry a gun For the gun, it will scare her, and she'll fly away And then there'll be weeping by night and by day. The dove she is a pretty bird, she sings as she flies She brings us glad tidings and tells us no lies She drinks the spring waters to make her voice clear When her nest she is building and summer is near |
Subject: RE: Cuckoos From: GUEST,Philippa Date: 06 Apr 15 - 10:55 PM Joe F's version at the end of this cuckoo thread http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=5102#3549076 thread.cfm?threadid=5102#3549076 is also similar to A Walkin' and a' Talkin' and again I'm familiar with the "take a warning by me" verses being part of the song. |
Subject: RE: Cuckoos From: maeve Date: 07 Apr 15 - 07:49 AM Jean Ritchie's "The Cuckoo" Jean Ritchie- lovely acapella version Jean Ritchie- "The Cuckoo" different version 1952 Yellow-billed and Black billed cuckoos breed both in Maine (where we live) and New Hampshire, (Where Allison lives). Yellow-billed: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Yellow-billed_Cuckoo/lifehistory "Yellow-billed Cuckoos sometimes lay their eggs in other birds' nests—although they don't do this nearly as often as the Common Cuckoo of Eurasia, which made the behavior famous. When outbreaks of cicadas, tent caterpillars, gypsy moths, and other prey create an abundant food supply, Yellow-billed Cuckoos sometimes lay eggs in nests of other cuckoos as well as in those of American Robins, Gray Catbirds, and Wood Thrushes. " Black-billed: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Black-billed_Cuckoo/lifehistory "Like its Old World relatives, the Black-billed Cuckoo is known occasionally to lay eggs in the nest of other bird species... Black-billed Cuckoos occasionally eat eggs of other birds." |
Share Thread: |
Subject: | Help |
From: | |
Preview Automatic Linebreaks Make a link ("blue clicky") |