'Naughty' Songs by Famous Folk

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

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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: Don Firth
Date: 25 Sep 09 - 04:48 PM

Well, of course there was Richard Dyer-Bennet's "1601" album on his own label.

He really let it all hang out on that one!

Don Firth

Subject: RE: 'Naughty' Songs by Famous Folk
From: GUEST
Date: 25 Sep 09 - 04:24 PM

From my dear mother, a child's verse sung to me:

Jay-bird, jay-bird, sittin on a rail,
Niddle-noddle went his head, flip went his tail.

And sometimes, when she was feeling "naughty," Mom would say that last line: Niddle-noddle went his head- POOP! went his tail!

Subject: RE: 'Naughty' Songs by Famous Folk
From: topical tom
Date: 25 Sep 09 - 02:22 PM

Refresh.

Subject: RE: 'Naughty' Songs by Famous Folk
From: GUEST,Ray
Date: 24 Sep 09 - 01:31 PM

Ought to mention the two sides of the late Shell Silverstein. On the one hand he wrote many children's stories whilst on the other gems like "Freaker's Ball" and, my personal favourite, "Don't Give a Dose to the One You Love Most"
Ray

Subject: RE: 'Naughty' Songs by Famous Folk
From: Don Firth
Date: 23 Sep 09 - 04:19 PM

Back in the late 1950s, there as a guy who came to the hoots (informal song fests) in Seattle who had a whole head full of raunchy songs, including most of the ones Oscar Brand had recorded. But this guy sang the words that even Oscar Brand backed away from and "prettied up."

At one of these song fests, there was a girl there who kept asking for "fast songs." So we did all kinds of up-tempo stuff, but she still kept asking for "fast songs." Then, Bob Brock walked in. His first song that evening, as I recall, was "John, the Bastard King of England," unbowdlerized version. The girl squealed with glee and said, "That's what I mean! Fast songs!!"

Don Firth

Subject: RE: 'Naughty' Songs by Famous Folk
From: Stringsinger
Date: 23 Sep 09 - 03:44 PM

Tom Lehrer's "Be Prepared" about boy scouts would qualify.

The best I ever saw at the Eistedfodd at Southern Massachusetts University
was the Dirty Songs Workshop with Cliff Haslem, Peter Marston, David Jones and I think Louis Killen was there.

They did fifteen minutes on The Ball of Ballymuire, each verse raunchier than the other.
When the workshop was done, I gazed out into a sea of red faces and laughter.

I'm not comfortable about repeating these verses here. But if they ever do a Dirty Songs
Workshop again, don't miss it.

Frank

Subject: RE: 'Naughty' Songs by Famous Folk
From: topical tom
Date: 23 Sep 09 - 02:58 PM

Don Firth: Sorry about the folk-pas in attributing "When Dalliance was in Flower..." to Oscar Brand when it should have been Ed McCurdy, another of my favourite singer-songwriters. Memo to self:Trust not thy memory...do RESEARCH instead!

Subject: RE: 'Naughty' Songs by Famous Folk
From: Michael
Date: 23 Sep 09 - 01:35 PM

Not forgetting the 'rude' - 'Pee Po Belly Bum Drawers'

By Flanders and Swann

Ma's out, Pa's out, Let's talk rude!
Pee Po Belly Bum Drawers.
Dance round the garden in the nude,
Pee Po Belly Bum Drawers.
Let's write rude words all down our street,
Stick out our tongues at the people we meet,
Let's have an intellectual treat for
Pee Po Belly Bum Drawers.

Sunday again on CBC,
Pee Po Belly Bum Drawers.
And Norman Mailer's coming to tea,
Pee Po Belly Bum Pants!
Alan Ginsberg reads on and on,
But we're having a happening when he's gone,
Come to the party in the John,
Pee Po Belly Bum Drawers.

Disney's planning a double bill,
Pee Po Belly Bum Drawers.
Christopher Robin meets Fanny Hill,
Pooh Bear Belly Bum Drawers.
On stage and screen we all work hard,
Throwing toilet rolls in our own backyard,
Who's afraid of the avent garde?
Pee, Pee, Po, Po, Belly, Belly, Bum, Bum, Pee Po Belly Bum Drawers.

What gets prizes and wins awards?
Pee Po Belly Bum Drawers.
What did prince Phillip tell the Lords?
Well, never mind that.
At Oxford and Cambridge, and Yale and all,
At Berkely, they really have a ball,
'cos the higher the brow, the harder they fall,
Pee Po Belly Bum Drawers.

Mike

Subject: RE: 'Naughty' Songs by Famous Folk
From: Don Firth
Date: 23 Sep 09 - 12:42 PM

I see others beat me to it, but Oscar Brand wasn't the one who did "When Knighthood Dalliance was in Flower and Maidens Lost Their Heads," it was Ed McCurdy, and there were several records in the series. I believe that McCurdy got most or all of the songs from Thomas D'Urfey's Songs of Wit and Mirth, or Pills to Purge Melancholy.

Oscar Brand had several records of "Bawdy Songs and Backroom Ballads," complete with a songbook with the same name (got it on my bookshelf).

Don Firth

Subject: RE: 'Naughty' Songs by Famous Folk
From: topical tom
Date: 23 Sep 09 - 11:31 AM

Thanks a lot for the pm'ed link,ClaireBear. Good info!

Subject: RE: 'Naughty' Songs by Famous Folk
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 23 Sep 09 - 08:14 AM

Maddy Prior - The Trooper's Nag

Subject: RE: 'Naughty' Songs by Famous Folk
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 23 Sep 09 - 03:53 AM

Perhaps its just my dirty mind.

Subject: RE: 'Naughty' Songs by Famous Folk
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 23 Sep 09 - 03:34 AM

Cyril Tawney wrote an amusing song caled Five Foot Flirt.
I think that it might have started out rude, but, gentleman that he was, he toned it down for his wife and civvy folk.
The verses all end in "Jim kissing you"

My theory.
Cow verse. "Jim stuck in you"
Chicken verse. "Jim having you" (Assuming original "...fox HAD my chickens..")
Church verse. "Jim pumping you"
@displaysong.cfm?SongID=2038

Subject: RE: 'Naughty' Songs by Famous Folk
From: Effsee
Date: 22 Sep 09 - 10:31 PM

Guest of 10.55AM..."Source someone who was present."...
I think you're going to have to justify a little more than that!

Subject: RE: 'Naughty' Songs by Famous Folk
From: ClaireBear
Date: 22 Sep 09 - 07:11 PM

Topical Tom, I just PM'd you a link to Bob Bossin's web site, where there's a sample of "Show Us the Length" long enough to tach you the tune.

Please forgive me for not reading through the thread and finding that Barbara had already posted a link to the lyrics, before doing so myself in my PM.

I'm just always so excited when someone likes a Bob Bossin song, I lose my head...

C

Subject: RE: 'Naughty' Songs by Famous Folk
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 22 Sep 09 - 06:16 PM

I have previously posted here about Vic Gammon's version of the Bastard King of England...

Kitty

Subject: RE: 'Naughty' Songs by Famous Folk
From: topical tom
Date: 22 Sep 09 - 04:59 PM

GUEST,TJ in San Diego: As I read the titles of the songs you mentioned they come back to me.I and a group of friends used to gather at a colleague's home for dinner and we would listen to his large collection of Oscar Brand's bawdy songs. We used to sing a number of them at men's get-togethers back in the day.

Subject: RE: 'Naughty' Songs by Famous Folk
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego
Date: 22 Sep 09 - 04:15 PM

Ref: Oscar Brand

Oscar put out eight albums of "Bawdy Songs and Backroom Ballads" back in the 1950's, I believe. I have heard more than a couple of songs from them in years past. Among the highlights were "The Winnipeg Whore," "The Hermit" and "The Good Ship Venus." "Blinded by the Turds" was another knee-slapper. Some accounts refer to the songs as bowdlerized, many of the originals being too rough even for Oscar.

I still have his album of sea shanties, put out during the same era.

Subject: RE: 'Naughty' Songs by Famous Folk
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 22 Sep 09 - 03:59 PM

"Eskimo Nell" does have a suggestion only of Robert Service, which seems intnetional, but it doesn't have the more expansive nature of his work and it doesn't scan as well. With the shorter lines it makes sense that it would be a song, and I can imagine Noel Coward coming up with it.

I have the Daliance collection, a four record set recorded by Ed McCurdy. He doesn't pull any punches, there are no asterisks or coughs or bells rung to hide the real words.

SRS

Subject: RE: 'Naughty' Songs by Famous Folk
From: moongoddess
Date: 22 Sep 09 - 11:29 AM

"Let's Talk Dirty in Hawaiian" by John Prine. And this is my favorite, "The Husband With No Courage In Him".

Subject: RE: 'Naughty' Songs by Famous Folk
From: GUEST
Date: 22 Sep 09 - 10:55 AM

"Eskimo Nell" was written by Noel Coward and first performed with him at the piano at a "Sods Opera" onboard HMS Gambia when she was stationed out in the West Indies - the audience reaction considering the mans reputation was described as being "Thunderstruck" - Source someone who was present.

Subject: RE: 'Naughty' Songs by Famous Folk
From: Beer
Date: 22 Sep 09 - 10:47 AM

Taken from the site I posted above.

"This is a folk poem with no known author, but commonly considered to be in the style of Robert Service the writer best known for his writings of the Canadian North, in particular of his poem "The Shooting of Dan McGrew".[2] As with all traditional poems/songs, there is variation to the texts. It appeared in bawdy song books compiled by university students in South Africa in the 1940s, so it is at least sixty years old. Nell has been the subject of serious research and differences of interpretation have been recorded".

Adrien

Subject: RE: 'Naughty' Songs by Famous Folk
From: meself
Date: 22 Sep 09 - 10:41 AM

By the way, have we forgotten that Robert Service was Scottish?

Having said that - I would want to see more evidence before I concluded Service wrote Eskimo Nell.

Subject: RE: 'Naughty' Songs by Famous Folk
From: MARINER
Date: 22 Sep 09 - 04:41 AM

Yeah I guess you're right Effsee, it must have been Cameron .Got that Wanton Muse mentioned above too. I will have to dig 'em out and have a listen .

Subject: RE: 'Naughty' Songs by Famous Folk
From: Effsee
Date: 21 Sep 09 - 11:10 PM

Mariner, Isla St.Clair would have just been a bairn in the '60s!

Subject: RE: 'Naughty' Songs by Famous Folk
From: topical tom
Date: 21 Sep 09 - 10:53 PM

Interesting. The rhythm and rhyme seem quite close to "The Shooting of Dan Macgrew" and "The Cremation of Sam Macgee" by Robert service, the poet of the Yukon.

Subject: RE: 'Naughty' Songs by Famous Folk
From: Beer
Date: 21 Sep 09 - 09:07 PM

Interesting what is said here about Eskimo Nell.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ballad_of_Eskimo_Nell


Beer (adrien)

Subject: RE: 'Naughty' Songs by Famous Folk
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 21 Sep 09 - 08:27 PM

Plenty in Robert Burns' "Merry Muses" including "Nine inches will please a lady" and the bawdy version of "John Anderson, My Jo".

And lots of songs with "double entendres" in them, such as "Twanky Dillo" (as sung by the Watersons)and "The Banks of Red Roses". Very symbolic musical instruments!

Subject: RE: 'Naughty' Songs by Famous Folk
From: Joe_F
Date: 21 Sep 09 - 08:01 PM

Mention of the CPR (Canadian Pacific Railroad) in "Eskimo Nell" suggests Canadian origin.

Subject: RE: 'Naughty' Songs by Famous Folk
From: brezhnev
Date: 21 Sep 09 - 11:05 AM

There's Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger's The Wanton Muse - songs all about 'the joys and pleasures attendant on the consummation of the body's appetite'.

Subject: RE: 'Naughty' Songs by Famous Folk
From: MARINER
Date: 21 Sep 09 - 10:57 AM

If memory serves me well, i think there was an album out in the 60's called "Songs of Love ,Lust and loose living". One of the artists featured thereon was Tony Britton.There was also an Isla on it, Can't remember if it was Cameron or StClair.Still have the album but it's stacked somewhere behind about a thousand others, so is not easy to get me hands on it.

Subject: RE: 'Naughty' Songs by Famous Folk
From: Acorn4
Date: 21 Sep 09 - 09:12 AM

And of course the Who "Squeeze Box" - a mighty chart hit!

Subject: RE: 'Naughty' Songs by Famous Folk
From: Old Vermin
Date: 21 Sep 09 - 08:53 AM

"the hole in the middle refuses to piddle" surely

Subject: RE: 'Naughty' Songs by Famous Folk
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 21 Sep 09 - 05:13 AM

I think the attribution to Service only obtains Over There: over here it is always regarded as a sort of British take on the Wild West mytheme. Its usages appear redolent of British rather than American English usage — e.g I may be wrong, but I think the word 'piddle', as a noun for the act of urinating, which occurs in line 3 of Eskimo Nell, is not as much used in USA as in UK... I am sure I could adduce other such instances if I had the text before me; but alas I no longer possess a copy. [In fact I find on checking that the DT version gives 'one-string fiddle' at that point: but surely 'he bends in the middle for want of a piddle' is far superior as description of what happens as a man ages to 'bends in the middle like a one-string fiddle' -- far be it from me to suggest that any traditional artefact should lack variations in its versions — but surely 'want of a piddle' here is a much BETTER version than 'one-string fiddle' &, as I aver, far more likely to be an English English usage?]

Subject: RE: 'Naughty' Songs by Famous Folk
From: Barbara
Date: 20 Sep 09 - 04:45 PM

Aaaaa, you Brits just like to take credit for everything...

I had most often heard it attributed to R. Service and it seems to me well in keeping with his style, but anything that obscene is probably not going to have the author or authors leaping up and saying "Me! Me! I wrote it, yes I did."
And as others have said, it certainly could be a parody in the style of Service.

But apart from the obscenity factor, I fail to see how the humor (or humour) in Eskimo Nell is that different from say, the Cremation of Sam McGee.
Blessings
Barbara

Subject: RE: 'Naughty' Songs by Famous Folk
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 20 Sep 09 - 01:24 PM

I always took Eskimo Nell to be, as you suggest, a parody or pastiche of the sort of thing Robert Service wrote so earnestly; & probably by an Englishman rather than American. R Service doesn't come across in his work as a very humorous sort of man, of the sort who would wish to pastiche his own work. Still & all, you never know: there was the time when Graham Greene kept winning New Statesman literary competition 2nd prizes with parodies of his own novels.   — I still like my Coward·&·Caribou theory Though.

Subject: RE: 'Naughty' Songs by Famous Folk
From: Steve Howlett
Date: 20 Sep 09 - 12:46 PM

I thought Eskimo Nell was by Robert Service, who also wrote The Shooting (or Ballad) of Dan McGrew, and The Cremation of Sam McGee. It's certainly in the same style, but could be a competent pastiche.

Subject: RE: 'Naughty' Songs by Famous Folk
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 20 Sep 09 - 11:52 AM

I have heard Eskimo Nell attributed to both A P Herbert & Noel Coward. I think Coward quite likely, actually: remember "Even cariboux lie about and snooze" in 'Mad Dogs & Englishmen'; & cf Deadwood Dick having to be content with "A moose or two, a caribou, A bison cow or a crow; But Deadwood Dick was King of the Prick, And he found it fucking slow". Coward perhaps had a penchant for 'caribou' as a rhyme-word.

Subject: RE: 'Naughty' Songs by Famous Folk
From: GUEST,Arthur Stiffy
Date: 20 Sep 09 - 11:51 AM

2 or 3 Relatively well known R'n'B and Soul names
on this notorious compilation CD;

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002C659EM/ref=dm_sp_alb/177-0273771-1294749?ie=UTF8&qid=1253461500&sr=8-5

Subject: RE: 'Naughty' Songs by Famous Folk
From: Joe_F
Date: 20 Sep 09 - 11:37 AM

I have heard two rumors of respectable authorship of bawdy songs: That Kipling wrote "The Bastard King of England" (extremely unlikely, IMO), and that Ogden Nash wrote "The Four Bastards" (absolutely true; it was published under his name by a reputable publisher).

Subject: RE: 'Naughty' Songs by Famous Folk
From: GUEST,Arthur Stiffy
Date: 20 Sep 09 - 11:17 AM

Donovan's puerile scatological songs;
eg. "Intergalactive laxative" which is a low point on his otherwise excellent
early 70's comeback LP "Cosmic Wheels"

Subject: RE: 'Naughty' Songs by Famous Folk
From: topical tom
Date: 20 Sep 09 - 11:00 AM

Indeed, Oscar Brand's performance of bawdy songs is legendary. Unfortunately, I have none of his records and the only album title I recall is "When Knighthood was in Flower and Maidens lost their Heads"!

Subject: RE: 'Naughty' Songs by Famous Folk
From: kendall
Date: 20 Sep 09 - 06:52 AM

Oscar Brand recorded a whole album of naughty sea songs.

Subject: RE: 'Naughty' Songs by Famous Folk
From: banjoman
Date: 20 Sep 09 - 06:15 AM

Debbie McClatchy recorded "You were only F***ing while I was making Love" Its a pretty ggod song although when I met her at Sidmouth some years ago she almost denied it. I have the LP on which its recorded

Subject: RE: 'Naughty' Songs by Famous Folk
From: topical tom
Date: 20 Sep 09 - 12:50 AM

Omigawd! Is my face red! Thanks, Barbara! In fairness to me,though, had the supersearch been UP(so to speak) then it would have been easier to find. DOWN is not so visible. ME? I was not the only one interested in the...,,,oh, never mind! LOL!

Subject: RE: 'Naughty' Songs by Famous Folk
From: Barbara
Date: 19 Sep 09 - 05:54 PM

Actually, tom, "Show Us the Length..." is right here in the forum. The only hard (so to speak) parts of finding it are 1. the supersearch is down and 2. you had the wrong word in the title -- it's "us" not "me"
Check here: Show Us the Length of Your Cock

Come on now, you think Mudcat wouldn't have something like that???
Blessings,
Barbara

Subject: RE: 'Naughty' Songs by Famous Folk
From: Gurney
Date: 19 Sep 09 - 05:11 PM

Cilla Black recorded 'When I was a Little Wolf Cub and You Were a Brownie.'

Subject: RE: 'Naughty' Songs by Famous Folk
From: Little Robyn
Date: 19 Sep 09 - 03:53 PM

Woody Guthrie wrote 'Relativity' with a slightly naughty chorus which was modified to 'I can go round and round' but I believe Woody originally wrote 'I can go in and out', an action that can cause you to have relatives - like children.
Robyn

Subject: RE: 'Naughty' Songs by Famous Folk
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 Sep 09 - 03:47 PM

There are tons of bawdy songs out there, this is nothing new, and of course, sexy topics span the arts around the world. It isn't unusual if modern performers add to the genre.

Off the top of my head, on the Traveling Wilburys album there is Dylan's "Dirty World."

SRS

Subject: 'Naughty' Songs by Famous Folk
From: topical tom
Date: 19 Sep 09 - 03:29 PM

It's almost interesting and intriguing to me to hear a "naughty" song written and/or sung by a well-known, established folksinger.As an example, I would mention the song "Never Wed an old Man" sung by (among many others) Pete Seeger.Pete also sang "Show me the Length of Your Cock" to which I have never been able to find the lyrics or tune.It is a caustic comment on sexism in the beauty pageant field.Okay, come all you naughty songsters...It's your turn!Please post all lyrics when possible.