Songs about bugs, insects, spiders, snails, worms

Subject: Buggy songs?
From: hotspur
Date: 02 Aug 99 - 11:20 AM

I teach nature, and am looking for songs to incorporate--specifically, songs about insects. The only ones I can think of are La Cucaracha and "I'm a little black bug, sitting in the water..." Any other suggestions would be gratefully accepted.

Worms, snails, spiders, and other "creepy-crawlies" are also welcome.

[Some song titles in this thread have been converted to links by a Mudelf.]

Subject: RE: Buggy songs?
From: Roger the zimmer
Date: 02 Aug 99 - 11:30 AM

Burl Ives' "Ugly Bug Ball"; "Boll Weevil"; Incy Wincey Spider (too twee?); Frank Sinatra & Duke Ellington "Poor Butterfly"; "Fly Me to the Moon!"; "Come Fly with me"; anything by the Beatles (cheap shots!); Ink Spots "Glow Little Glowworm"; "There was an old lady that swallowed a fly"; That well-known football chant: "Earwig O! Earwig O!"

Did you hear the one about the caterpillar looking up at the butterfly? "You'll never get me up in one of those!"

I'll go away now and take my medication but until I come up with some more titles it will keep bugging me! (Silly old bugger).:o)

Subject: RE: Buggy songs?
From: Bert
Date: 02 Aug 99 - 11:34 AM

inchworm

Subject: RE: Buggy songs?
From: Margo
Date: 02 Aug 99 - 11:38 AM

Have you searched the database? If you type in @insect or @bug you'll get a handful of songs. There's a cute one in there called "Cheering the Queen".

Most of the bug songs I can think of are silly. (The old woman who swallowed a fly, I'm gonna eat some worms, etc.) I imagine you're looking for a different genre?

Margarita

Subject: RE: Buggy songs?
From: Arnie Naiman
Date: 02 Aug 99 - 12:58 PM

Ask Rick Fielding to send you THE BLACKFLY SONG (click) - one of the greatest bug folk songs of all.

Link added (I hope I linked to the right one, Arnie).
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Buggy songs?
From: Bert
Date: 02 Aug 99 - 01:07 PM

See Spider Webs Here

Subject: RE: Buggy songs?
From: black walnut
Date: 02 Aug 99 - 03:36 PM

i teach early childhood music (as in preschool). would you mind telling me what age~group you teach? i might be able to come up with a decent list, but it might be way out of line.

~black walnut

Subject: RE: Buggy songs?
From: hotspur
Date: 02 Aug 99 - 06:04 PM

thanks for all the suggestions! My age group are mostly 7-10 year olds, and they LOVE shrieking at anything moving. "Ewww, it's a BUG!" I'm hoping silly OR "serious" (can you have a serious bug song?) songs will help them relax around the critters. There's a lot more of them than there are of us...

Subject: RE: Buggy songs?
From: j0_77
Date: 02 Aug 99 - 06:21 PM

Any one know the complete lyric for

'Old Aunt Kate there's a bug on me, bug on me'

Subject: Lyr Add: BEETLES and THOUSAND LEGGED WORM
From: rich r
Date: 02 Aug 99 - 07:03 PM

BEETLES
Order: Coleoptera
(Tune "Ode To Joy")

Beetles are not dirty bugs
Spiders, scorpions, or slugs
Heroes of the insect realm
They sport winged, burnished helms
They are shining and divine ,
AThey are lovely and just fine
Beetles do not bite or sting
They love almost everything.

THE THOUSAND LEGGED WORM
Class: Myriapoda Subclass: Diplopoda, the millipedes
(Tune: "Polly Wolly Doodle")
"Tell me," said the thousand-legged worm,
"Has anybody seen a leg of mine? For if it can't be found I shall have to squirm around
On the other nine hundred ninety-nine.

Squirm around, squirm around
ON the other nine hundred ninety nine
If it can't be found I shall have to squirm around
On the other nine hundred ninety-nine."

THE BUGS MARCHED DOWN THE AISLE
Order: Diptera mosquitoes and blackflies
(Tune: "Battle Hymn of Republic:)

The mosquitoes wore tuxedos and the blackflies wore black ties
The bride she was a spide and the groom he was a snake
They were going to a wedding in my Aunt Lucy's bedding
And she was the wedding cake.

Glory, Glory Hallelujah
You don't feel itchy, Auntie, do ya?
Glory glory hallelujah
The bugs marched down the aisle.

The little honeymooners were nice and cozy in her bloomers
And the guests all took their places in Aunt Lucy's pillowcases
The little beasts had such a feast, the danced and flew and soared
All while Aunt Lucy snored.

Repeat chorus

rich r
^^

Subject: RE: Buggy songs?
From: Dale Rose
Date: 02 Aug 99 - 08:31 PM

I can think of a couple that are done locally, but I sure can't think of the name of either one of them. One is a favorite of mine called the K********** Centipede (about a dancing centipede who gets her legs all twisted up when she tries to figure out just how she is doing it)as done by Deb (Mullins) Carbone, and the other by Dave Smith goes something like this: There ain't no bugs on me, there may be bugs on some of you mugs, but there ain't no bugs on me. My guess is that that one is called There Ain't No Bugs On Me!

I am sorry these are such flimsy clues. I usually do better, but maybe they will put someone else onto the right track. Perhaps Arkie will see this thread and bail me out. He is sure to know.

Oh, I just thought of a couple more! There's Some Little Bug Is Goin' to Get You Some Day by Bradley Kincaid. One of my favorites is The Doodlebug Song, by C E (Charles Ernest) Moody of the Georgia Yellowhammers, a late twenties, early thirties string band. He is perhaps best known as the writer of Drifting Too Far From The Shore and Kneel At The Cross, but there definitely was another side or two to him.

I can find and transcribe that one later ~~ also the Centipede song mentioned above, provided Deb's tape ever surfaces again. (Who is it that comes into my house and hides them anyhow???)

Subject: RE: Buggy songs?
From: rich r
Date: 02 Aug 99 - 10:29 PM

"Some Little Bug Is going To Get You Some Day" isn't really about insects, orother arthropods for that matter. It is really about microbes as in the "flu bug".

rich r

Subject: RE: Buggy songs?
From: CarlZen
Date: 03 Aug 99 - 12:03 AM

There ain't no bugs on me,
There ain't no bugs on me,
There might be bugs on some of you mugs,
There ain't no bugs on me.

Mosquito he fly high,
Mosquito he fly low,
Mosquito fly too close to me,
He ain't gonna fly no more.

There ain't no flies on me,
There ain't no flies on me.
There might be flies on some of you guys,
But there ain't no flies on me.

Juney bug comes in the month of June,
Lightning bug comes in May.
Bed bug comes just any old time,
But they're not gonna stay.

Well little bugs have littler bugs
Up on their backs to bite 'em.
And the littler bugs have still littler bugs,
And so ad infinitum.

(Sung to the tune of "It ain't gonna rain no more", and like the last verse this can go on ad infinitum. i.e. Ain't no lobsters on me...there might be... on some of you mobsters...ad infinitum.) There are other non-bug verses, too. Have fun.)

Subject: RE: Buggy songs?
From: Songster Bob
Date: 03 Aug 99 - 12:56 AM

Margaret MacArthur sings a lovely little song, written, I think, by her husband, called "Bug Squashing Party" (or something close to it). It's about the necessity of doing away with garden pests:

Chorus:

Come on down, let's go out, And have a bug-squashing party tonight... [with other lines which change, depending on the verse which preceded it]

It's on "MacArthur Road," one of my favorites of Margaret's recordings. It's also been sung by Jeff Warner, if I'm not mistaken.

Good song.

Bob Clayton

Subject: RE: Buggy songs?
From: Alan of Australia
Date: 03 Aug 99 - 01:28 AM

G'day,
Any song written by Microsoft.

Cheers,
Alan

Subject: RE: Buggy songs?
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 03 Aug 99 - 01:39 AM

Not only do I sing the Blackfly song, I've been bitten a lot by the little bastards! (In North Ontarioio)
Rick

Subject: RE: Buggy songs?
From: Roger the zimmer
Date: 03 Aug 99 - 03:38 AM

..network problems (mercifully) prevented me from continuing yesterday...
Blue-tailed fly;Lambton Worm;La Tarantella;Come into my parlour said the spider to the fly; Scratch scrathc me back(?)
Less seriously(?) Maggot May (Spinners);Scorpio(n) rising (Jools Holland);Cricket Calypso (Mighty Flea) and one I remember from campfires:
There was a little fly who liked to roam
So he packed his bags and he left his home
He crapped on the butter
And he crapped on the tea
And if I'd been there he'd have crapped on me

Subject: RE: Buggy songs?
From: Roger the zimmer
Date: 03 Aug 99 - 04:06 AM

...BTW What goes 1,999 clump? A Millennium Bug

Don't clap too loud, it's a very old computer!

Subject: RE: Buggy songs?
From: Tiger
Date: 03 Aug 99 - 07:13 AM

One of my favorites - "Never Swat a Fly" - 1930

by DeSylva, Brown & Henderson appeared in 1930 flick "Just Imagine"

Sound clip (McKinney's Cotton Pickers) at:

http://www.redhotjazz.com/songs/cotton/neverswat.ram

Done nicely by Kweskin's jug band in the 60's (Maria Muldaur still sings it).

.....Tiger

Subject: RE: Buggy songs?
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 03 Aug 99 - 08:39 AM

Ahaa! A perfect thread to ask this question. Twenty minutes ago both our cats proudly walked into the house with a creature that was emitting a LOUD sound like a short circuiting wire! The visiting Strobels from Rochester (still half asleep) must have wondered what was blowing up. I watched in awe for ten minutes as they (the cats, not the Strobels) chased the largest bug I've ever seen around the dining room floor. Summoning up huge courage I interceded and crushed the sucker with my shoe (sorry Albert Schweitzer, but this thing was NOT something I wanted to co-habitate with)
I thought it was a June Bug. Do they have two very big wings? Anybody know what it was? If it's just the largest fly (about 2 1/2 inches long) on the planet, I'm moving to Alaska!
Rick

Subject: RE: Buggy songs?
From: Bert
Date: 03 Aug 99 - 09:35 AM

Rick, it was most likely a cicada.

Subject: RE: Buggy songs?
From: Marion
Date: 03 Aug 99 - 03:27 PM

Hotspur, I have composed a song about redworms because I have a vermicompost colony in my apartment and I love them. Some of the vocabulary might be a little over the kids' heads (and over some of the adults' heads too) but if you like I can post the lyrics. It's a basic DGA song, I can give you the chords but I don't know how I would communicate the melody. Let me know if you're interested - I'm a little shy about plunging in with original lyrics on a traditional music site.

Marion

Subject: RE: Buggy songs?
From: Bert
Date: 03 Aug 99 - 03:34 PM

....I love them??? What do you serve with them?

Subject: RE: Buggy songs?
From: Marion
Date: 03 Aug 99 - 04:56 PM

hey Bert...

Close your eyes and open your mouth, okay?

Subject: RE: Buggy songs?
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 03 Aug 99 - 10:46 PM

Thanks Bert.
Rick

Subject: RE: Buggy songs?
From: raredance
Date: 03 Aug 99 - 11:15 PM

You can find a lot of insect songs in the DT by searching for the specific insect, the category @insect is pretty feeble. Things to search for include (and be sure to truncate to pick up the plurals): bee, fly, flies, butterfly, butterflies, grasshopper, cricket, flea, mosquito, caterpillar, maggot, blackfly(flies), tick, bumblebee, bedbug, bug, spider, boll weevil and any others you can think of. Admittedly some of the hits are songs where the particular insect is rather incidental to the song, but there are some other songs that have quite a few insects in them (e.g. versions of Frog Went A-courting). I haven't run all those searches for a couple years so there are certainly more songs added since then.

Some other songs:
Chistine Lavin's "I'm a Fly On A Plane" if you enjoy insects meeting their demise
Dean Stevens' "Ant and Grasshopper" (in the DT)
Malvina Reynolds' "Hello Lady Bug:
"Butterflies" (Theme song of BBC TV series some years ago)
Pete Seeger's "People Are Scratching"
"Metamorphosis" recorded by the Gateway Singers (this has some great lines: "PIty the poor caterpillar, whom nobody loves, no not even me" and the stepped on caterpillar "hideous goo that sticks to your shoe")
Tom Paxton's "Fred" about a dog and a flea
"Ma!, Ma! Where's My Pa?" a political song commissioned by the Republicans (not Irish) for use against Grover Cleveland who had fathered an illegitimate child.
"When I See An Elephant Fly" Walt Disney's Dumbo.

rich r

Subject: RE: Buggy songs?
From: WyoWoman
Date: 03 Aug 99 - 11:45 PM

Rick -- has to be a cicada. My dogs and cat used to love 'em. Not only do you get a nice, crunchy bug to eat, it vibrates in your mouth and makes an amazing noise at the same time. Until, of course, you crunch it really hard, and then it's just not as much fun any more. Cool toy/snack in Petland. It's amazing PetSmart hasn't figured out a way to take 'em commercial!

WW

Subject: RE: Buggy songs?
From: Wolfgang
Date: 04 Aug 99 - 09:12 AM

funny, nobody mentioned Melanie yet, singing "Alexander beetle".

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: Buggy songs?
From: Tiger
Date: 04 Aug 99 - 10:01 AM

"The Black Cavalry" tells of a nasty bunch of fleas.

All 'round me body they formed an arch,
And all 'round me body they played the dead march.
The bloody old major gave me such a nip
That he nearly had taken the use of me hip.

Subject: RE: Buggy songs?
From: Mark Clark
Date: 05 Aug 99 - 09:57 AM

CarlZen,

The New Lost City Ramblers collected and published a version of "There Ain't No Bugs On Me" that included the following verses. They might have been from Charlie Poole but I can't verify that from here.

The night was dark and stormy,
The air was filled with sleet,
The old man joined the Ku Klux,
And Ma she lost her sheet. br>
Billy Sunday was a preacher,
His church was always full,
People came from miles around,
To hear him shoot the bull.

Now a monkey swings by the end of his tail,
And he swings from tree to tree,
There may be monkey in some of you mugs,
But there ain't no monkey in me.


Those are offered in the interest of scholarship, I hope no one is offended.

- Mark

Subject: RE: Buggy songs?
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 05 Aug 99 - 03:27 PM

1. The Lampton Worm

2. I can see a great big spider, creeping up on me/ (something something)/ gonna gobnble me up/gonna gobble me up/I know (rendered I knoooooooooooooooooooow)/cos my mummy said so (several other verses I only half remember).

Subject: RE: Buggy songs?
From: Bert
Date: 05 Aug 99 - 03:47 PM

Little fly upon the wall
ain't you got no clothes at all
Blimey, ain't it cold?

Bert.

Subject: RE: Buggy songs?
From: Bert
Date: 05 Aug 99 - 05:07 PM

Oops! the third line of that little gem just came back from the dark recesses of my forgettory.

So the whole thing goes
Little fly upon the wall
ain't you got no clothes at all?
ain't you even got a shirt?
Blimey, ain't it cold?

Bert.

Subject: RE: Buggy songs?
From: CarlZen
Date: 06 Aug 99 - 01:51 AM

Mark - that sounds like it was a reaction to the scopes trial. The town I live in still has a lot of residents who find it necessary to exhort some of those sentiments. Personally, I'm proud of my heritage.

('Love them NLCRers.):-)

Subject: RE: Buggy songs?
From:
Date: 06 Aug 99 - 09:56 PM

Seems like no one mentioned one of my old favourites. High Hopes

Subject: RE: Buggy songs?
From:
Date: 06 Aug 99 - 10:05 PM

Here's a site which has the words. They've got a problem with typos but you'll get the gist of it

High Hopes

Subject: RE: Buggy songs?
From: Susan A-R
Date: 08 Aug 99 - 10:24 PM

How about The ants go marching one by one

The kids in my family also sing

Last night as I lay sleeping
Upon my bedroom wall
The 'skeeters and the bedbugs
Were playin' a game of ball
The score was two to nuthin'
The 'skeeters were ahead
The bedbugs hit a home run
and knocked me out of bed.

The chorus and the rest of the verses have, alas, not much to do with bugs, but it's fun.

Subject: RE: Buggy songs?
From: Dale Rose
Date: 09 Aug 99 - 12:08 AM

Well, I have found the centipede song, The Wee Kirkcudbright Centipede, apparently by Matt McGinn. The Song of the Doodlebug is still among the missing. I have no time at the moment, but within the next day or two I will get around to transcribing Centipede. (I don't care if someone else knows it and beats me to it!)

Subject: Lyr Add: DOODLEBUG SONG (Georgia Yellowhammers)
From: Pete peterson
Date: 09 Aug 99 - 11:10 AM

THE DOODLEBUG SONG

When I was a kid, tell you what I did
To pass the time away
I looked all around until I found
A doodle hole and I'd say--

Doodle, doodle, doodle-- BUG, BUG, BUG
Doodle, doodle, doodle-- BUG, BUG, BUG
That doodlebug come out and looked all around
And doodled back in the ground

What a pleasure for me, in the wild to see
That doodle coming out
I'd gaze on down and in the ground
I'd twist his tail about

I don't know why to the doodle I'd lie
But this is what I'd say
Oh your house is afire and your children are crying
Oh, doodle, come up this way

Now that I'm old I wish I did own
A doodle piece of ground
I'd go out each day and with him I'd stay
And happiness would abound

First 3 verses from the Georgia Yellowhammers, last from Jeff Warner & Jeff Davis. I love this song.

Note: If singing this in schools, add motion! Tell the kids to jump up in the chorus as the D "jumps up" and then "look around" and then sit back down slowly as they doodle back in the ground. Works great, but don't make this the LAST song unless they are about to have Recess as the kids get very excited.

Subject: Lyr Add: THE WEE KIRKCUDBRIGHT CENTIPEDE (McGinn)
From: Dale Rose
Date: 09 Aug 99 - 09:43 PM

As near as I can tell, it is by Matt McGinn of ... Kirkcudbright. Deb Mullins (now Carbone) is the only one I have heard do it, though I saw evidence of several other versions on the internet.


THE WEE KIRKCUDBRIGHT CENTIPEDE
As recorded by Matt McGinn on "The Best of Matt McGinn" (2003)

The wee Kirkcudbright Centipede, she was very sweet.
She was ever so proud of every one of her hundred feet.
Early ev'ry morning, her neighbors came to glance.
She always entertained them with a beautiful little dance.

CHORUS 1: As leg number 94 gave 95 a shunt,
Legs numbers 1 and 2 were twisting out in front.
As legs numbers 9 and 10 were wriggling up the side,
Legs 73 and 4 were doin' the Palais Glide.

Her neighbor, Jenny Longlegs, with jealousy was mad.
She went out and bought herself a pencil and a pad.
She came a month of mornings and made a careful note
Of every step the centipede made and this is what she wrote: CHORUS 1

Arrumed[=armed] with exact notation, young Jenny Longlegs tried
To dance just like the centipede; she failed and nearly cried.
She grabbed ahold of the centipede; she says: "Now have a look,
And tell me how you do these steps I've written in my book." CHORUS 1

Said the centipede: "Do I do that?" She tried to demonstrate.
She'd never thought on the thing before; she got into a terrible state.
Her hundred legs were twisted; she got tied up in a tangle.
She fractured 7 shinbones, 14 kneecaps, and an ankle.

CHORUS 2: As legs numbers 1 and 2 were tied with 3 and 4,
Legs numbers 5 and 6 were trampled on the floor.
Leg number 15 was attacked by number 10.
97 and 98 will never dance again.

The wee Kirkcudbright Centipede, she suffered terrible pain.
And some of us were very surprised she ever danced again;
But now she tells her neighbors, ev'ryone that calls to see,
"Never try an explanation of what comes natur'lly!" CHORUS 1

---

A printed version submitted by Jack Campin. This version matches the Matt McGinn recording almost exactly.
Jack says: "This is how it is in the book "McGinn of the Calton". I also have the single-sheet publication (which will doubtless be different) but can't find it right now.

The Palais Glide is a standard dance in the Scottish repertoire - goes to a 6/8 march (which the song is) and like most Scottish dances it's a geometric exercise I cannot get my head round."

THE WEE KIRKCUDBRIGHT CENTIPEDE
(Matt McGinn)

The Wee Kirkcudbright Centipede
She was very sweet,
She was ever so proud of every
One of her hundred feet.
Early every morning,
Her neighbours came to glance,
She always entertained them
With a beautiful little dance.

CHORUS
As leg number ninety four
Gave ninety five a shunt,
Legs number one and two
Were twistin' out in front,
As legs numbers nine and ten
Were wriggling up the side,
Legs seventy three and four
Were doing the Palais Glide.

Her neighbour Jenny Longlegs
With jealousy was mad
She went out and bought herself
A pencil and a pad.
She came a month of tnornings
And made a careful note
Of every step the centipede made
And this is what she wrote.

Armed with exact notation,
Young Jenny Longlegs tried
To dance just like the centipede,
She failed and nearly cried,
She grabbed a hold of the centipede,
She says, 'Now have a look
And tell me how you do these steps
I've written in my book?'

Said the centipede, 'Do I do that?'
And she tried to demonstrate,
She'd never thought on the thing before
She got into a terrible state,
Her hundred legs were twisted,
She got tied up in a fankle,
She fractured seven shinbones
Fourteen kneecaps and an ankle.

As legs number one and two
Were tied to three and four,
Legs number five and six
Were trampled on the floor,
Leg number fifteen        
Was attacked by number ten,
Ninety seven and ninety eight
Will never dance again.

The Wee Kirkcudbright Centipede,
She suffered terrible pain,
And some of us were very surprised
She ever danced again,
But now she tells her neighbours
Every one that calls to see,
Never try an explanation
Of what comes naturally.

Matt McGinn Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAFqFAWwteA

Subject: Lyr Add: COUSIN CATERPILLAR^^^
From: HaHa
Date: 10 Aug 99 - 06:10 PM

"COUSIN CATERPILLAR" by Mike Heron:

My cousin has great changes coming:
One day he'll wake with... wings.
My cousin has great changes coming:
One day he'll wake with... wings.

Do-da do-da-di do-da-di do-da,
Do-da do-da-di do-da-di do-da-di do-da-di do-da-di do-da.

Cousin Caterpillar, seven pairs of legs for you.
Cousin Caterpillar, can you tell me what they do?

Well all that I can say
Is that they seem to help some way
To pull my little body along.
...To pull my little body along.

Well first I didn't know their use
But worrying you only lose,
So I said I love you and I love what you do:
Come on, do your thing.

Do-da do-da-di do-da-di do-da,
Do-da do-da-di do-da-di do-da-di do-da-di do-da-di do-da.

Cousin Caterpillar, white and silky threads for you.
Cousin Caterpillar, can you tell me what they do?

Well all that I can say
Is that they seem to help some way
To pull my little body along.
...To pull my little body along.

Well first I didn't know their use
But worrying you only lose,
So I said I love you and I love what you do:
Come on, do your thing.

Do-da do-da-di do-da-di do-da,
Do-da do-da-di do-da-di do-da-di do-da-di do-da-di do-da.

My cousin, as you see,
Takes his changes easily.
O happy we,
Could we take each change so easily.

Then all that we could say
Is that it would seem to help some way
To pull our little bodies along.
...To pull our little bodies along.

Well first we wouldn't know their use
But worrying we'd only lose,
So we say I love you and I love what you do:
Come on, do your thing.

Do-da do-da-di do-da-di do-da,
Do-da do-da-di do-da-di do-da-di do-da-di do-da-di do-da.

My cousin has great changes coming:
One day he'll wake with... wings.
My cousin has great changes coming:
One day he'll wake with... wings.

[The Incredible String Band: The Big Huge, 1968]
^^

Subject: RE: Buggy songs?
From: Bill D
Date: 10 Aug 99 - 06:31 PM

"I objurgate the centipede
A bug we do not really need
At sleepy time he beats a path
Straight to bedroom, or the bath
You always wallop where he's not
Or if he is, he makes a spot"

Ogden Nash..(no tune, but what the heck)

Subject: RE: Buggy songs?
From: GUEST,mukraken
Date: 14 Apr 04 - 01:52 AM

The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out,
The worms play pinocle on your snout...

Subject: RE: Buggy songs?
From: GUEST,MIke
Date: 27 Mar 07 - 12:01 PM

Little fly upon the wall
Aint you got no clothes at all?
Not even a pair of jim jams?
Blimey, aint you cold?

Subject: RE: Buggy songs?
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 28 Mar 07 - 04:51 AM

Jerry Garcia and David Grismans ' Aint No Bugs On Me '

There may be bugs on some of you mugs,

But there aint no bugs on me.

Subject: RE: Buggy songs?
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 28 Mar 07 - 07:42 AM

Guess I missed this thread the first time around.

By the way, in our circle is entomologist Alan Eaton who is always looking for buggy songs to sing.

Has anyone mention "The Blackfly Song" ?

Then there's Richard Johnson's "Plum Island National Anthem" with many mentions of greenhead flies.

And on Jeff Warner's CD is "Yucky Bugs" (Bug Squishing Party).

Linn

Subject: RE: Buggy songs?
From: Jack Campin
Date: 28 Mar 07 - 08:40 AM

Matt McGinn was from Glasgow. Another of his pieces (a recitation rather than a song) is "The Big Effen Bee".

And another recitation is Burns's "To a Louse".

There are surely lots of Caribbean songs about Anancy the spider goddess? Azizi, is that something you know about?

Subject: RE: Buggy songs?
From: Azizi
Date: 28 Mar 07 - 09:11 PM

Yes, I know some Anansi the spider stories, but I don't know that
I know any of the songs that traditionally wwere {are} sung with those stories. I've read that many of the traditional Jamaican and other Caribbean social folk songs came from Anansi stories. But I don't know which songs these are. And I doubt if any of these songs are {were}about 'bugs'. Rather, they probably are {were} about some aspect of that particular story.

**

But since you introduced the subject, I'd like to share some information about Anansi:

The word "anansi" {pronounced ah-NAH-see} means 'spider' in Twi, an Akan language {Ghana, and Côte d'Ivoire, West Africa}. The Ashanti {Asante} are a relatively well known division of the Akan ethnic group.

"Aunt Nancy" is an Americanized version {South Carolina} of the name Anansi. Quoting from Wikipedia, other versions of this name are:

Other names
Anancy (Jamaica, Grenada)
Anancyi
Ananse
Hanansi
Compé Anansi
Kweku Anansi (Akan)
Nansi
Mr. John

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

-snip-

[Mr. John]??

Anyway...

Re: the name 'Kweku Ananse', I've seen "Kwaku Ananse" used much more than "Kweku Ananse" [ah-NAH-say]. This translates as "Wednesday Spider", as "Kwaku" {"Kweku"} is an Akan day name for 'male born on Wednesday". It would be interesting to know more about characteristics were {are} associated with the Wednesday spirit {soul} and why Ananse was said to be "born" on that particular day.

Anansi is a male trickster figure. He is usually portrayed as a spider man. I've read that Anansi was the source for the comic book character "Spiderman", but I'm not sure if this can be verified.

In many spider stories, Anansi is protrayed as a lazy, cunning man. But there's more to the spider than what meets the eye.

Imo, the esoteric symbol of the spider web provides a clue to a deeper meaning for the spider in Akan culture {and other cultures}. The importance of the spider symbol in culture is also revealed by the fact that the spider is said to be the owner of all the Sky God {Onyame's} stories {meaning the Sky God gave them to him after he completed several specific tasks}.

I've read that Anansi the spider is important because he symbolizes how even a small, relatively helpless person can overcome someone bigger than himself {herself} by using his {or her} mind. I think this one layer of the meaning of the spider. A deeper meaning may be that the spider and the spider web symbolize the fact that we are all interconnected.

For more online information on Anansi, click:

http://jamaicans.com/culture/anansi/anancy_intro.shtlm

and

http://geocities.com/shandycan/culture_notes.com

and

http://jamaicans.com/culture/anansi/index.shtml

For information on Akan day names, click:

http://theearthcenter.com./ffarchivesdento.html

Subject: RE: Buggy songs?
From: Charley Noble
Date: 29 Mar 07 - 02:40 PM

I love molasses, good ol' country sorghum;
I eats it in the winter and the fall;
Summer it gets so full of flies
It resembles raisin pies --
That's the way I likes it best of all!

Then there's this one if you like the blues:

Words and music by Julius Lester
© 1965 Hyperson Music Publishers

Cockroach Blues

Lord, I wouldn't mind roaches
If they would help me pay my rent;
I said I wouldn't mind roaches
If they would help me pay my rent,
But you know a roach said to me, "You better move,
I want one of them luxury apartments."

I bought a spray last night
And I sprayed all over the house...(as above)
I got up this morning,
Roaches thanked me for killing a mouse.

Now I wish I had a penny
For every roach I've seen...(as above)
Nobody in this world
Would have to work again.

There were some roaches on the stove,
They were standing around in a crowd...(as above)
I walked over to 'em;
Roaches turned around and yelled "Freedom now!"

Warm regards,
Landlady's Daughter

Subject: RE: Buggy songs?
From: Vixen
Date: 29 Mar 07 - 03:36 PM

How about the following from Hugh Blumenfeld?

Hugh's Website


THE SNAIL

I am the snail
I don't move fast
But if you look again
I won't be where you found me last

I am the snail
pale as a memory
I am the roaring in the labyrinth
beside the sea

I am a helmet on a shoe
I am the secret smell of you
I am the voices in your ear
that call your name year after year

I am patience
I am proportion
I am progress without fortune...

And if I love,
who would know
Even for a slow lover I am slow


And if I dream
how could you dream it
All your flash of inspiration
only chars the spirit

In a world of salt
in a world of glass
I have spent a whole night
climbing up a blade of grass

I am the snail
I will get where I'm going
I am the speed your hair
and nails are growing

I am the snail
Because I move, all of creation's moving
I know that it's a minor point
but it's still worth proving



© 1997 Hugh Blumenfeld/Hydrogen Jukebox Music (ASCAP)

Hugh - guitar & vocal
Mark - string bass