Lyr Req: Go Shrew (Graham & Eileen Pratt)

Subject: Lyr Req: Go Shrewn Graham & Eileen Pratt
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 30 May 11 - 03:24 PM

I once found the lyrics to Women Women (aka Go Shrew or Go Shrewn or Go Shrewd) on line and thought I copied them to my lyrics folder. Sadly not there now.

Anyone have these lyrics?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Go Shrewn Graham & Eileen Pratt
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 30 May 11 - 03:33 PM

what I have deciphered from listening


Some be merry and some be mad
Some be busy and some be bad
Some be wild and by St Jad

chorus
Yet all may be no so
Though some be loon (or lewd) & some be shrewn (or shrewd)
Go shrew wherever you go

Some be ?? and some be sad
And some be tame understand
Some will eat bread from a man's hand

chorus

Some be angry can't tell wherefore
Some be scorning evermore
Some will tusk it like a boar

chorus

Some can wister and some can sigh
Some can flatter and some can lie
Some can set the mouth all awry

chorus

Some ?? like an ape
Some can neither play nor jape
Some of them be awful shape

chorus

Some of them be true at love
Beneath the girdle but not above
Some will tarry and some will rove

chorus

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Go Shrewn Graham & Eileen Pratt
From: YorkshireYankee
Date: 31 May 11 - 11:28 AM

Hi VTam,

I'm in Graham Pratt's choir (Sheffield Folk Chorale), so when I saw your post(s), I e-mailed him.

Here is his response:
This is a set of 15th C (?) lyrics set to a tune by our friend, Paul Dickinson.
We put it on our first vinyl, "Clear Air of the Day" (Cottage). Paul accompanies us on the LP on this track.

Here are the corrected lyrics - changes in brackets:-

Some be merry and some be (s)ad
Some be busy and some be bad
Some be wild and by (St Chad)

chorus
Yet all (they be not) so
(For) some be (lewd) & some be (shrewd)
Go shrew wherever you go

Some be (wise) and some be (fond)
Some be tame (I) understand
Some will eat bread from a man's hand

chorus

Some be (wrath &) can't tell wherefore
Some be scorning evermore
Some (be tusked) like a boar

chorus

Some can wister and some can sigh
Some can flatter and some can lie
Some can set the mouth all awry

chorus

Some (be snouted) like an ape
Some can neither play nor jape
Some of them be (of well) shape

chorus

Some of them be true at love
Beneath the girdle but not above
Some will tarry and some will rove

chorus
------
Can't remember if the order of verses is as we did them - but that doesn't matter...

Hope that helps.

===============

Cheers,

YY (a fellow transplanted Yank; I suppose I could have called myself Michigan Vik(ki)....) ;-)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Go Shrewn Graham & Eileen Pratt
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 03 Jun 11 - 07:56 AM

That song might be in The Penguin Book of Satirical Verse, by Edward Lucie-Smith, 1967. At least, that book comes up when I do a search in Google Books using phrases from the song, but Google doesn't let me see the text.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Go Shrew (Graham & Eileen Pratt)
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 08 Jun 11 - 02:14 AM

Thank you both. Sorry so late in responding. Been busy like crazy. "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."

Yorkshire Yankee - Lucky you, getting to sing with the Pratts. They are my folk ideal, perhaps because they are really my first exposure to trad folk. PM me if you want to swap transplant stories. :0)