Singing while walking down the street

Subject: RE: Singing while walking down the street
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 30 May 09 - 03:11 AM

For us Feral Folk this is par for the course; my friend Clive, for example, regularly records his superlative singing of traditional songs under an overpass on the tow-path Grand Union Canal in Edinburgh, complete with cylists, dogwalkers & other bemused passers-by. It's the acoustics you see - like me singing up the boat-lake overflow pipes on Fleetwood Beach (check The Great Selkie O' Sule Skerry Here) where I admit there is rather less by the way of human traffic. Even when I'm not recording, I'm singing, especially if the acoustics are good - the piss-reeking stairwells of the Market Carpark in Preston are pretty good - good for Jew's Harps too, a small collection I carry with me everywhere I go. Rachel & I practice our harmonies whilst out walking which is something maybe a little different but in this day and age singing has become a matter of performance rather than pass-time, leading to the sort of self-consciousness that might silence us when we're out and about on our own. Do people sing whilst pottering about in the garden, sowing the Seeds of Love?

Memorably, I once heard a young lady burst into song on the Tyne & Wear Metro as the tram entered Longbenton Station: there's Denton and Kenton - A U Hinney Burd - an' canny Lang Benton - A U A - but she was, I fear, away with the fairies. Needless to say I joined in on the chorus after which she latched onto me for the rest of the day until the effects of the mushrooms she'd been given by friends had worn off. Weird thing was, when I asked her where she'd got the song she said she'd never heard it before, that it was just triggered by the name of the station, which gave me pause to ponder just how deeply embedded these things can be.

Today were off to visit the Viking graves in Heysham, followed on by a jaunt to Morecambe (The Naples of the North according to the postcard on our bathroom wall); now Morecambe is one place one can sing whilst walking down the street and no one will bat an eyelid.

Who'll go to Morecambe? Who'll go to Morecambe?
Who'll go to Morecambe - to Morcambe with me?
I, said the young man in the care of the community,
I'll go to Morecambe, to Morecambe with thee!

Subject: RE: Singing while walking down the street
From: Willa
Date: 30 May 09 - 09:28 AM

How I relate to most of the comments above. Sing to myself but often find I'm doing it in public. Sing in the car, but in these days of car rage sometimes wonder whether other drivers think I'm mouthing off at them!

It's a great joy at workshops and festivals to realise that there are others who think that sort of behaviour is normal.

Subject: RE: Singing while walking down the street
From: Marje
Date: 30 May 09 - 12:28 PM

I often hum to myself in public places but am less inclined to sing properly, except at home where anything goes. My daughters were used to me singing around the house, but once when one of them was having a friend come round after school, she said to me, "Mum, I don't think other people's Mums .. you know... sing around the house like you do..."
In other words "Be quiet and don't embarrass me!"

As for the workmen who sing - we used to have a builder who did odd jobs for us, accompanied by his portable radio. He used to have it playing quite softly but from time to time he would suddenly start bellowing a sort of tuneless backing vocal; "Oh Baby! Ooooh, ahhhh, doop-do-doop!" and so on, which caused us some amusement. We also had a window cleaner who listened to music on headphones and emitted similar sounds as he worked, although we couldn't hear the track he was listening to, and could rarely guess what on earth it was.

Marje

Subject: RE: Singing while walking down the street
From: GUEST,Seamus Kennedy
Date: 30 May 09 - 01:15 PM

I sing, lilt or yodel to myself on the street, AND I whistle a lot.

I was in a supermarket checkout line once whistling Lovesick Blues, and couple behind me complimented me on it and remarked :"You never hear anybody whistling anymore, and everybody used to do it."

So get out there and do it.

Seamus

Subject: RE: Singing while walking down the street
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 31 May 09 - 05:22 AM

I hear people whistling all the time around here; it's the only true truly folk instrument! Mostly improvising too... My grandmother could whistle like Ronnie Ronalde whereas I can barely manage a breathy toot.

Subject: RE: Singing while walking down the street
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 31 May 09 - 06:39 AM

Marje, how tactful of your daughter! Mine used to yelp at me: "Mo-o-om! Don't SING!"

Subject: RE: Singing while walking down the street
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 31 May 09 - 07:21 AM

Alway's singing. If I go shopping I sing to myself pushing trolly's round supermarkets - usually verses of something I'm learning. Used to dance about a lot to, still do a bit...

Subject: RE: Singing while walking down the street
From: Bill S from Adelaide
Date: 31 May 09 - 07:26 AM

In Melbourne you need a license to sing in the street but as I have a busking license based on my morris dancing, it allows me not only to sing but to solicit funds to sing somewhere else (over the hills and far way is popular). Incidentally, the rules have changed and there are no group licences any more, each member of the side gets an individual photo license, assuming you pass the audition at Town Hall!
Wassail
Bill

Subject: RE: Singing while walking down the street
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 31 May 09 - 07:27 AM

In fact I remember being accused of being 'Mad' by a grumpy old woman once, for minding my own business dancing to no music (I do that at home too) while wandering down the street. Why is it only kids can do that stuff?

Subject: RE: Singing while walking down the street
From: TonyA
Date: 31 May 09 - 08:36 AM

The same with skipping. Apparently there's a certain age above which you're not supposed to skip in public. But it has practical value as a quicker way to travel than standard walking, so you'd think it would be more common among adults than among children.

Subject: RE: Singing while walking down the street
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 31 May 09 - 10:15 AM

I come from a Germanic family in the gregarious Midwest (Milwaukee) and we sang just about everywhere -- in the car as a family, around the house, at church, in choir, at school, on the street. (I once won a prize for having sung "Henry the Eighth" a record number of times on my way walking to a WOKY event in West Allis.)

After moving to New England, I discovered co-workers didn't want their concentration (or reveries) disturbed by vocalizations, so I stopped singing and cut back on the humming while at work. I've sung loudly on a deserted Gooch's Beach (Kennebunkport, ME) in the rain on Christmas day, scaring only the gulls (herring and Great Black Back...oh, and maybe some big peeps and little peeps). But I found that if one sang on the street, people would cross to the other side and avoid eye contact. Even humming in stores seemed to be frowned upon.

A few years ago when I was being interviewed (as part of the Portsmouth Maritime Folk Festival) by a local reporter who had shown up at the open sing at The Press Room, the reporter waved at the crowd stuffed into the downstairs area all enthusiastically leading songs or at least joining in on the chorus and asked, "Who ARE all these people? How do they know the words?!?" Well, most of them I'd ever seen before at any of our events, and they didn't actually know all the words (although one new sea music enthusiast excitedly sang a song recorded by the Drop Kick Murphys) -- I explained that shantys in particular have choruses that were DESIGNED to be easy to pick up by the crew.

Then I started thinking about it. As a society, we have very few opportunities to sing in public -- singing in the workplace or on the street is frowned upon, singing along at most public performances (save folk) is discouraged. About the only place it's okay is in church (and then carefully scripted). But people LIKE to sing. Sea music especially encourages the audience to join in.

How can we keep from singing?

Linn

Subject: RE: Singing while walking down the street
From: jeddy
Date: 31 May 09 - 12:56 PM

why don't people want to join in with us when we sing where ever we are. i always thought singing was human nature. it helps folk to bond there is nothing better than being in a room full of people singing together.it helps us to come together as a community.

anyone who has a problem with that, i think isn't really worth knowing.
get used to it and join in or get lost.

if we give in to peer pressure to stop, then it will only get worse, to the stage where you can't laugh or smile in public and then everyone would me miserable.

so carry on bring joy to the world as there is nothing better than someone sing or whistling.

Subject: RE: Singing while walking down the street
From: melodeonboy
Date: 31 May 09 - 05:44 PM

I know this is not exactly on topic, but I heard this song performed by Pig's Ear at the Pig's Ear Folk Ale festival this afternoon, and I thought it not only a great song, but quite pertinent to the spirit of this thread.

We Will Sing

Though music be the food of love there's some who'd have us starve,
They say we must not sing or dance in pubs or clubs and bars,
For if there be even two would raise their voices to the sky,
Then all must pay their due, or else the law we do defy!
We will sing, we will sing,
And let all your lawyers come prancing,
They'll never stop us dancing,
Let tradition win the day.
For though fools make their rules,
We will always have our say.
We will sing, we will sing, we will sing!
While on terrace and in stand the fans of sport may chant and sing,
In an ale house now, though more polite 'tis deemed a 'wicked' thing!
But in Church the congregation loudly hymn their maker's name,
So why should we need licence from 'above' to do the same?
Oh! Muse, whose inspiration fills my heart with joy and song,
Please tell me how this stupid law can now decide it's wrong,
That when singers and musicians come together in thy name,
And merry make, then each and every one will bear the blame?
When the party of the first part, joins the party of the third,
In the second party's public house, that's fine, …or so I've heard.
But if we should join in song, along with parties one and three,
Then take my word, what 'ere the law, …a PARTY there will be!
The law's an ass, cantankerous, or so I've oft' been told,
And now it's mighty braying sends a shiver through my soul,
But nonetheless I hereby pledge that music MUST be free,
I won't let uncivil servants make a donkey out of me!
I'm sure in time, that we shall find, this shambles is undone,
Like all other legal nonsense just designed to spoil the fun,
And when we, the English people once more have the final word,
Then English songs in English pubs forever shall be heard!

Subject: RE: Singing while walking down the street
From: Tangledwood
Date: 31 May 09 - 05:45 PM

It's very inconsiderate to sing or whistle in public - how would anybody be able to hear their mobile phones?

Subject: RE: Singing while walking down the street
From: Commander Crabbe
Date: 01 Jun 09 - 07:37 PM

I burst into song often during the day. I'm even prone to do so at work on Monday mornings just to p**s the miserable buggers off!

CC

Subject: RE: Singing while walking down the street
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego
Date: 01 Jun 09 - 07:49 PM

For three years, we had a young lad in our offices who was playing guitar and singing wherever opportunity lay in the evening. He was a rather large and engaging fellow and a bit brash. Daily, as he went from place to place in the building, he would sing - NOT sotto voce - snippets of songs, with occasional departures into what sounded like scat singing, but may have been mumbling. IT DROVE MOST OF US STARK RAVING MAD! His ego overcame all objections.

I often sing in the car or at home, in the shower, etc. I would never inflict my vocalizing on an unsuspecting general public as I walked through a supermarket or office building as this fellow did.
Our man is now back home on the east coast (US) and accosting a new crowd. By the way, he is not without talent - just a bit insensitive.

Subject: RE: Singing while walking down the street
From: jeddy
Date: 01 Jun 09 - 08:56 PM

well TJ, why did you not ask him to sing something you all knew?
then you could have all joined in. not sure how much work you would have got done but at least you would have had fun trying.

Subject: RE: Singing while walking down the street
From: GUEST,booklynrose
Date: 01 Jun 09 - 11:49 PM

Here in New York, when I sing while I walk down the street, people don't pay any attention at all. I think it is part of "mind your own business," probably a way to get along with all the people who don't know one another.

Subject: RE: Singing while walking down the street
From: paula t
Date: 02 Jun 09 - 02:00 PM

When the girls were little, we often sang quite loudly while walking along the street. We also skipped in time or danced (especially to "Lets Go Fly a Kite" from Mary Poppins - Sarah's favourite).I loved it.
We still sing very loudly in the car. Great fun!

Subject: RE: Singing while walking down the street
From: Artful Codger
Date: 02 Jun 09 - 05:33 PM

Ugh, I hate it when people launch into "sing-along" songs, because they're (by definition) only the tired muck that most people know. Now, if they'd sing a less familiar song with a good rousing chorus...

(My hackles also raise when performers sing oldies but only sing the familiar choruses. It's such a cheat to the listeners.)

Subject: RE: Singing while walking down the street
From: TonyA
Date: 02 Jun 09 - 09:59 PM

From the song I'm learning today:

"People in cars let the radio do the talking.
But I always find that I'm singin' when I'm walking."

-- The Old Trail by Steve Gillette & Charles John Quarto

Subject: RE: Singing while walking down the street
From: Ron Davies
Date: 03 Jun 09 - 10:05 PM

It's great so many Mudcatters sing walking down the street, in the office etc.   I also agree with those who believe that non-Mudcatters mostly don't.

What I find intriguing is that even some people who seem passionately interested in vocal music still don't sing when they're not at rehearsal or concert. A friend of mine in the Choral Arts society here (we usually sing in the Kennedy Center--so it's a serious group--said that while he was away on vacation for 5 weeks, he did not sing at all--not even in the shower, he said.

I can't imagine even one day without singing.

I sing all the way to the subway and back every workday. It's 4 long songs or 5 short songs to the subway. And going to the subway I sing according to the weather. If it good weather I sing C & W. Misty or rain--Irish. Real blustery--sea songs.   Unless there is something I'm trying to learn--then I sing that. People probably think I have some sort of Bluetooth or something. Lots of people on the street do listen to their i-Pods, etc.

I really look forward to cold and windy weather so I can belt out   "Once more we sail with a northerly gale through the ice and wind and rain" while climbing a steep hill on the way to the subway.   And when I sing "Rolling Home" (John Tams) I may sing the verse about; "The frost is on the hedgerow/ The icy winds do blow..." several times on the hill until I get a real good gust of wind blowing at me.

When I leave work, I always sing "Bury Me Not On the Lone Prairie"--the version Joe Hickerson does. 9 1/2 verses, and it gets me from my office to the subway.

For the past couple of weeks I sang "Road to Mandalay", getting ready for the party celebrating my stepfather's 95th birthday--since it's one of his favorite songs.   Problem is folk circles--and I--like the tune Peter Bellamy used. But the rest of the world seems to like the Oley Speaks tune--the one Peter Dawson used for his famous recording.   It was not easy trying to suppress the Bellamy tune in order to learn the other one--took quite a few mornings.   And Dawson only did 2 verses. I was determined to do all 6--but I had to have a chorus the other partygoers could sing.   The poem suffered. But I did it at the party--all 6 verses-- and it was well appreciated.   The other one I sang those mornings-- getting ready for the party-- was "As Time Goes By", especially the verse, from 1931,--what most people know is just the chorus.

I also sing in the stairwells at work, since the acoustics are so good--never take the elevator. As well as when I walk around the building.   I don't sing loud in the building except in the stairwell.

A friend of mine and I have written and sung quite a few parodies for retirements etc. And I get asked to do "Monster Mash" every year, and sing "Blue Christmas" for a Christmas party. After hours I once sang "Goodnight Sweetheart" and "Under the Boardwalk" for a woman who wanted to hear them. Some other people in the office sing bits of songs--but don't seem to sing entire songs. As long as your singing doesn't prevent your co-workers from doing their work, seems to me anybody should be able to sing in the office.   Helluva lot better than radios.

Subject: RE: Singing while walking down the street
From: GUEST
Date: 03 Dec 19 - 12:21 PM

I thought I'd post this question here. I'm looking for the appropriate word to describe a sort of singing, singing while walking down the street, but it's not actual singing. Sort of "hum-dee-dum-dee-dum." There's no actual melody. Many of us do it almost subconciously while walking. Does anyone know what this is called?

Subject: RE: Singing while walking down the street
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 03 Dec 19 - 01:36 PM

When I lived in a city small enough that I could walk to work in forty minutes I wore a walkman and sang along..gregorian chant, the Beatles John Prine, loads of stuff. Often I would forget the walkman or the battery would run out, but I would sing the songs anyway. I would sing through out the days at work . My students would sometimes Join in and we'd have a laugh before serious work began.
The walk on the way back home at the end of the day was always done to more joyful music, irish fiddle tunes, Scottish jigs and reels..I seemed to arrive home in seconds rather than minutes.
I still sing a lot, especially whilst pottering in the garden. The joys of music are grand, aren't they.

Subject: RE: Singing while walking down the street
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 03 Dec 19 - 01:51 PM

I saw the opening poster once.

There she was, just walking down the street
Singing do-wah-diddy-diddy-dum-diddy-do...

Subject: RE: Singing while walking down the street
From: GUEST,keberoxu
Date: 03 Dec 19 - 01:51 PM

How to answer GUEST's question?
Could you call it mouth music??

Subject: RE: Singing while walking down the street
From: GUEST,Mind the Mess
Date: 03 Dec 19 - 02:52 PM

How about "scambling" (a portmanteau word formed from "scat" and "ambling")?

Subject: RE: Singing while walking down the street
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Dec 19 - 02:14 PM

Thanks for the replies. So far I haven't seen any that capture what I'm looking for. Scat has a jazz implication. And I'd like the word to be instantly recognizable, i.e. "ah, that's it.

Subject: RE: Singing while walking down the street
From: GUEST,Grumpy Old Git
Date: 04 Dec 19 - 02:35 PM

Iv'e always sung to myself while walking down the street, and will continue to do it. What I don't understand is why some people walk down the street with their arms folded. What's that all about then?

Subject: RE: Singing while walking down the street
From: GUEST,Mind the Mess
Date: 05 Dec 19 - 01:35 PM

'Ey, keeps the silverware from falling out, don't it.

Subject: RE: Singing while walking down the street
From: Mo the caller
Date: 05 Dec 19 - 03:13 PM

Our postwoman sings round the village as she delivers mail. And I hear her talking to my cat as she comes up the path and past my window.
I certainly sing at the sink, if I'm not catching up on recorded radio programmes. One tune merges into another.

Subject: RE: Singing while walking down the street
From: GUEST
Date: 07 Dec 19 - 01:26 AM

The arms folded refer to an invisible bag of groceries being held by the folded arms.