Lyr/Tune Req: 'When I'm single, single I'm free...

Subject: The Flowing Bowl: single I'm free
From: Philippa
Date: 04 Aug 99 - 08:30 AM

a verse appearing in Michael McLaverty's "Truth in the Night", a novel set in Rathlin Island. More verses and a tune, anyone?:
The Flowing Bowl

No nor anyone it may control
Keep me from the flowing bowl.
When I'm single, single I'm free
Love, love, love will never conquer me

Subject: RE: single I'm free
From: Wotcha
Date: 04 Aug 99 - 11:54 AM

Could it be a subtle parody of "Fathom the bowl?" which has similar themes -- booze, and a bad marriage.

cheers Alhamdalla, Brian

Subject: Flowing Bowl
From: Joe Offer
Date: 05 Aug 99 - 03:03 AM

Would it be really dense of me to ask what a "flowing bowl" is?
Please answer gently....
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: single I'm free
From: Brakn
Date: 05 Aug 99 - 03:42 AM

I've got the words of one called "Come Landlord Fill The Flowing Bowl". I don't think it's the one you want but I'll post it up if you need it.

Mick Bracken

Subject: Flowing Bowls
From: Joe Offer
Date: 05 Aug 99 - 04:09 AM

Hi, Mick - I think the one you speak of is in the database as THREE JOLLY COACHMEN. this one is different - and this thread is a spinoff from the Musical Novels thread.
I notice that the database has many songs that speak of "flowing bowls," so I'm sure this is a term true folkies should know. As one who has worked in building maintenance, it makes me think of plugged-up toilets, but I don't think that's what the term means.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: single I'm free
From: Brakn
Date: 05 Aug 99 - 04:18 AM

You're right Joe, I didn't look.
The flowing bowl I would think is a bowl full of good cheer or beer

Mick Bracken

Subject: RE: single I'm free
From: Wotcha
Date: 05 Aug 99 - 02:56 PM

The "flowing bowl" appears in the contect of a grog bowl in many songs of the sea: take "Fathom the Bowl" and " Warlike Seamen" as examples.

"Me wife she is the devil, she is black as the coal, Give me the punch ladle, I'll fathom the bowl ..."

cheers, Brian

Subject: RE: single I'm free
From: Philippa
Date: 15 Aug 99 - 07:06 PM

to return to the original request...

Subject: RE: single I'm free
From:
Date: 15 Aug 99 - 10:00 PM

So if there was enough beer or grog in the bowl, Joe could STILL be right about the plugged up toilet, no?

Subject: RE: single I'm free
From: Roger the zimmer
Date: 16 Aug 99 - 05:50 AM

overflowing is the context, Joe, I never fill 'em that full in case of spillage.
Bartender to man with the shakes (English, plays the kazoo):
Do you drink much?
Roger (for it is he):No, I spill most of it!
Drum roll, clash of cymbals, fall of curtain, hail of missiles, exit stage door with blanket over head into fast getaway car.

Subject: RE: single I'm free
From: GeorgeH
Date: 16 Aug 99 - 12:06 PM

To add to what's been said . .

References to "flowing bowl" generally mean it's flowing free . . (at someone else's expense . .)

G.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Tune Req: 'When I'm single, single I'm free...
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 21 Nov 08 - 09:05 AM

Replying to the original question: I found the following verses that contain some similar phrases and sentiment. I will quote them in context:

  There were other songs, not imported—some of such rough
candor, that, before being sung in hearing of modern ears polite,
they would need such fumigating and expurgation, that their
clearness and continuity would be lost. That such were tolerated
at the time is not condemnatory of a community where
sturdy manhood was the rule and effeminacy the exception. I
recall a few verses of a song, not of this class, and yet in ethics
rather befitting a minstrel show. Two verses are specimens of
several others, depicting female ante-marital shortcomings; the
creation lords, of course being uncriticised; man being composer
and singer. The title of the song my memory has
mislaid.
"Nancy, she was my first lover,
  She was young and handsome, too,
But, in time, I did discover
  She'd the making of a shrew.
No, no, no. That ne'er shall be!
Women ne'er shall conquer me;
Conquer me, nor me control
Nor keep me from the flowing bowl.
"Next came Kitty, trim and winsome
  She was nicely dowered, too,
She was the one I fain would marry,
  But she proved herself untrue.
Oh, no, no. That ne'er shall be!
Women ne'er shall conquer me;
Conquer me, nor me control
Nor keep me from the flowing bowl."
The favorite singer of this was a Horsham man, who always
sang with more feeling after a visit to the "Yellow Ball." That
he was a married man, and that he was first conquered and then
controlled by his mate, goes without saying.

--from The Kenderdines of America by Thaddeus Stevens Kenderdine (Doylestown, PA: Doylestown Publishing Company, 1901).

Subject: RE: Lyr/Tune Req: 'When I'm single, single I'm free...
From: GUEST,Chuck Elhart
Date: 11 Dec 10 - 03:59 PM

Bingo! That was the song lyrics I was searching for.
          My grandmother used to sing it to me when I
          was a kid. I think there were three women mentioned
          altogether in the song. The only one I could remember
          was Nancy. The "flowing bowl" I always understood
          to be pipe smoke. My grandma was born in 1885.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Tune Req: 'When I'm single, single I'm free...
From: GUEST,Katie
Date: 21 Dec 23 - 05:27 AM

I’m sure by now you may have heard the Mary Wallopers version “Love Will Never Conquer Me”! It might be bring some memories and it’s a fantastic version!

Subject: RE: Lyr/Tune Req: 'When I'm single, single I'm free...
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 21 Dec 23 - 02:02 PM

Years ago I went to a house concert where a husband and wife who were retired Navy and still lived on a boat said that in the olden days (prob 1700's) a pub sold a mix of liquors from a punch bowl with fruit in it. To fathom the bowl is to dip the ladle to the bottom and retrieve some fruit for the drinker. The couple may have been named Nash.

I guess a flowing bowl is providing lots of ladlefuls, because normally you wouldn't want any liquor flowing out of the bowl to be wasted.* I remember this scrap of a song from that night:

There's a whole world of pleasure in England's control.
Give me the punch ladle; we'll fathom the bowl.
We'll fathom the bowl [2x]
Give me the punch ladle; we'll fathom the bowl.

It had a good tune to it.

*Spellcheck doesn't like "ladlefuls". Get over yourself, Spellcheck. Humans are the only animals that invent new words.