Lyr Add: The Sow Song (Suzanna's a Funicle Man)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Sow Song (Suzanna's a Funicle Man
From: GUEST,Bob Coltman
Date: 05 Feb 05 - 05:10 PM

I imagine a certain generation of Yanks (I include myself) first heard of this song via a 50s recording by Richard Dyer-Bennet, no doubt suffering from folk attrition and perhaps D-B's rewrite for propriety or other reasons. Still, I did learn this from him (along with my first reasonably difficult guitar licks), and it's interesting to speculate where and how he got his variant. This is, verbatim, how the liner notes to the record had it:

LITTLE PIGS

Little pigs lie on the best of straw,
With an oink, snore, oink, snore, oink, she nan little dog. (repeat couplet)

Cho:   Lillie bolay, oh lillie bolay, oh lilly bolay, oh lilly bolay,
            Oh, my daddy's a bonny wee man.
            With an oink, snore, oink, snore, oink, she nan little dog.

Little pigs maketh the best of pork,
With an oink...


That's all there was to it. "Lillie bolay" = Lilliburlet or equavalent, "bonny wee man = "funniful/funicle" man, "she nan little dog" = "shan diddle dong" I guess.

By the way, what's "funicle" mean? Certainly not funicular??? My daddy's an elevated railroad? Oh, my sainted aunt, as Mr. Campion would say. No, I'm not seriously proposing that. Scratch it. (It itches.)

In estatu gaga,   Bob

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Sow Song (Suzanna's a Funicle Man)
From: Lighter
Date: 04 Feb 05 - 06:44 PM

The truth may be out there, but trust no one. I now have Greig-Duncan to hand and, despite what I learned from a reputable website not to named here, the Scottish text begins rather differently from what I said above. Here are the lyrics in full:


1. Our little pigs lies wi' their backs aye bare, bare (grunt) -are,
   Sing dah reeedle ah,
   Oh, my dad was a bonny wee man, man (spoken shrilly) (grunt) -an
   
2. The little pigs lies wi' their tails half cocked, cocked (grunt),
                                                             ocked.
3. Oor old soo maks the finest o' pork, pork (grunt) -ork.

4. Oor old soo maks the finest o' bacon, bacon (grunt), -acon.


This was collected by Dr. James B. Duncan from Mrs. Margaret Gillespie in N.E. Scotland, between 1906 and 1917. It may be the oldest text to record the sound effects.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Sow Song (Suzanna's a Funicle Man)
From: Mrs_Annie
Date: 04 Jan 05 - 10:56 AM

My husband's Dad (unfortunately I never met him) used to sing this song to his kids. He (husband) was surprised and delighted to find it on one of the Topic 'Voice of the People' CDs (can't remember which one). I thought it was 'funny-full' too.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Sow Song (Suzanna's a Funicle Man)
From: Flash Company
Date: 04 Jan 05 - 10:27 AM

I once produced 'There was an old farmer who had a mad cow' during the BSE panic.

FC

Subject: Lyr Add: LITTLE PIGS: A GLEE
From: GUEST,Lighter at work
Date: 04 Jan 05 - 08:58 AM

The Madden copy is close to that posted by MMario, but lacks two stanzas. Published by "John Harkness, Printer, Preston," it dates, to judge from its position, from within a year or two of 1850 (I neglected to note the catalogue number). Here it is anyway, for comparison.

LITTLE PIGS

A GLEE

Our little pigs lie on very good straw,
Straw, straw, shan diddle daw !
             Our little pigs, &c.
Lillipuleri, my dad was a bonnie wee man !

Our little pigs eat the best of pratees,
Pratees, pratees, shan diddle datees !
             Our little pigs, &c.

Our little pigs made the best of bacon,
Bacon, bacon, shan diddle daken !
             Our little pigs, &c.

And there's an end to our little song,
Song, song, dan diddle dong !
             And there's an end, &c.


A "glee," of course, is a part song, sung unaccompanied by three or more voices. One wishes one had the melody for one of these early versions ! If they were sung straight-faced as three- or more part glees with pig noises added - as seems probable - the overall effect must have been hilarious.

The word "Lillipuleri" appears to have been inspired by the well-known "lillibulero," and with a little adjustment the stanzaic words can be fit to the first half of that tune. The refrain is another story, though.

Gwilym, I doubt we have met. I'll PM you when I'm back at my own computer.

Subject: RE: The Sow song
From: Bert
Date: 03 Jan 05 - 01:02 PM

It's on my CD "Plastic Flower Seeds" if anyone's interested./

Subject: RE: The Sow song
From: Tradsinger
Date: 03 Jan 05 - 11:51 AM

Here are the words of the "The Little Pigs":

Oh the little pigs lay in a farmer's yard
(grunt) -ard (splutter) -ard (whistle) -ard and a diderli-ard
Oh the little pigs lay in a farmer's yard
(grunt) -ard (splutter) -ard (whistle) -ard and a diderli-ard
And they go, with a lilligerlie ger lee
Here comes the cannibal man
(grunt) -an (splutter) -an (whistle) -an
Here comes the cannibal man
And they go, with a lilligerlie ger lee
Here comes the cannibal man
(grunt) -an (splutter) -an (whistle) -an
Here comes the cannibal man.

The little pigs lay with their tails turned up -up etc

The little pigs makes the best of pork -ork etc

The old sow learns the young 'uns to grunt - unt etc

And now that I have sung you my song -ong etc
I hopes I haven't detained yer too long - one etc

I don't know anything more about it apart from the fact that it was given to me by the late Bob Arnold of Asthall, Oxfordshire.

By the way 'Lighter at work' - who are you really and do I know you?!

Gwilym

Subject: RE: The Sow song
From: Big Jim from Jackson
Date: 03 Jan 05 - 10:43 AM

Australian John Williamson has a great version of this song on his albums "J.W.'s Family Album No. 1" and "For Aussie Kids". All the grunts, whistles, etc. He doesn't use all the verses in some of the above posts, but it's a great version, none the less.

Subject: RE: The Sow song
From: GUEST,Lighter at work
Date: 03 Jan 05 - 10:42 AM

Tradsinger, if you'll post your Jamaica version I'll post the one from the Madden collection.

Collectors may have ignored the song because some versions contained the word "arse" and/or because it was too trivial,too hard to notate, and sounded like a music hall piece anyway!

Subject: Lyr Add: LITTLE PIGS
From: MMario
Date: 03 Jan 05 - 10:09 AM

LITTLE PIGS

Little pigs lie on the best of straw
    straw, straw, shan diddle daw
Little pigs lie on the best of straw
    straw, straw, shan diddle daw
Lillepirluri My Dad was a boony wee man

Our Little pigs eat the best of potatoes
    praties, praties, shan diddle daties (etc.)

The old sow taught the yung'uns to grunt
    grunt, grunt, shan diddle brunt (etc)

Our little pigs make the best of bacon
    bacon, bacon, shand didlle dacon (etc)

Our sow's got the hooping cough
    cough, cough, shan diddle boff (etc)

Now here's and end to our go(o)d song
    song, song, shan diddle dong (etc)

Subject: RE: The Sow song
From: Tradsinger
Date: 03 Jan 05 - 10:00 AM

Chaps - ignore my last. I have just spotted the enlarge icon on the Bodleian page and can now read the broadside. Cool! Many thanks and a Happy New Year.

Incidentally, Steve Roud's index notes the song as only having been collected 25 times, and 8 of those entries are from my collecting! Is this a case of a song being ignored by folksong collectors as being too common to note or even not worthy of being noted? Cecil Sharp never made a note of it, but I guess it was around in his day. I have in manscript a version called "The Little Pigs" with the note "Sung by Sgt Wilcox, no 66 coy, R.G.A.. in Jamaica between 1909 and 1912" which is well before the Albert Richardson recording, so it was in oral tradition pre-1928. The chorus of this version has the line "Here comes the cannibal man" - spooky!

Gwilym

Subject: RE: The Sow song
From: GUEST,MCP
Date: 03 Jan 05 - 09:56 AM

When you get to the page, what you see is a small version of the sheet. At the top left of the display you'll see a plus (+) sign on a blue button. If you click that you'll get the large version of the sheet, which you can read easily.

Mick

Subject: RE: The Sow song
From: Tradsinger
Date: 03 Jan 05 - 09:45 AM

Thanks to Malcolm Douglas and 'Lighter at work' I have now found the broadside (the one headed 'Knocking at Door') but the writing is too small to read, and when I save it and enlarge it, it is still illegible. There just aren't enough pixels in the world. Hate to be a bore, but what I am still doing wrong?

Gwilym

Subject: RE: The Sow song
From: erinmaidin
Date: 03 Jan 05 - 09:03 AM

<--smiling broadly
My uncle Nocky used to disgust my mother, thoroughly , by singing this song to us children. I remember the joy I felt when I heard him singing it to my daughter. Uncle Nockye had spent his life being a merchant marine and we (the kids) found him absolutely charming!
Thanks for the memory

Subject: RE: The Sow song
From: GUEST,Lighter at work
Date: 03 Jan 05 - 08:23 AM

It's there. Enter "little pigs" in the browse field, browse, then click on the link.

Subject: RE: The Sow song
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 03 Jan 05 - 08:22 AM

Use the "browse index" option, not the "search", and you'll find them. Interesting to see that puzzling line given as "my dad was a bonny wee man."

Subject: RE: The Sow song
From: Tradsinger
Date: 03 Jan 05 - 04:01 AM

Reply to Kitty Herga. Yes I do have a recording of Ken singing it. He was kind enough to come along to my CD launch and sing it there, so I now have his rendering on video. Ken learnt it from a local traveller, Wisdom Smith, whom I never met, but I did record a lot of songs from Wisdom's son Wiggy. However, Wiggy never sang the Galloway Man.

Reply to Lighter - I searched the Bodleian Ballad site for little pigs but couldn't find it. Suggestions?

Gwilym

Subject: RE: The Sow song
From: Lighter
Date: 02 Jan 05 - 10:30 PM

There are broadside copies in the Madden Collection at Cambridge and (on-line)at the Bodelian Ballad site: search the latter for "Little Pigs."

None of the broadside versions indicates sound effects, unfortunately.

Vol. 8 of the Greig-Duncan Collection, p. 196, offers a Scottish version collected nearly a century ago, beginning, "Little Pigs Sit with their Backs All Bare."

The earliest allusion to the song I know of occurs in Tobias Smollett's "Peregrine Pickle," ch. 56 (1751), concerning "that celebrated English ditty, the burthen of which begins with, The pigs they lie with their arses bare."

Subject: RE: The Sow song
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 02 Jan 05 - 07:10 PM

Tradsinger - so presumably you have a recording of Ken Langsbury singing it?

Kitty

Subject: Lyr Add: THE GALLOWAY MAN (from Wisdom Smith)
From: Tradsinger
Date: 02 Jan 05 - 09:31 AM

This is sometimes referred to as the grunting-farting-whistling song. I have recorded several singers in Gloucestershire who could sing it, usually based on the Albert Richardson 1928 recording above. There is a recording on "All Brought up on Cider" on the Folktrax catalogue (Peter Kennedy). It's a version I recorded from the late Bill Cooper of Witcombe, Gloucestershire, in the 1970s. There was also a good but different version called the Galloway Man from the Smith family of Gloucestershire travellers - the notes from the MT Band of Gold CD say:

The Galloway Man (sung by Wisdom Smith) (Roud 1737)
(Recorded by Mike Yates at the Cat and Fiddle pub, Whaddon Road, Cheltenham, in 1970)

See once on a farm they grabs 'n ol' sow
(grunt)-ow, (fart)-ow, (whistle)-idle-y-dow
With a-lee, with a-lyre, with a-lee an' me poor go round
We poor the bouncing Galloway man
(grunt)-an, (fart)-an, (whistle)
Over the bouncing Galloway man

See, this old pig larned the young'uns to grunt
(grunt)-unt, (fart)-unt, (whistle)-idle-y-dunt ...

See, three little pigs went into the straw ...

See three little pigs 'ad six months in gaol
One one to the t'other he don't give a suller [bugger]
So long as they gettin' the best o' swill ...

I suspect that the song is much older than the 1928 recording. Can anyone out there enlighten us?

Gwilym

Subject: RE: The Sow song
From: GUEST,Razz
Date: 02 Jan 05 - 08:24 AM

Ken Dodd can do it!

Subject: RE: The Sow song
From: breezy
Date: 22 Feb 04 - 07:54 AM

Aha!

Subject: RE: The Sow song
From: GUEST,Jim Ward
Date: 22 Feb 04 - 03:24 AM

Listening to my 1928 Zonophone 78 of Albert Richardson (from Sussex)he definiteley sings "Suzanna's a funny-full man.

Subject: RE: The Sow song
From: Celtaddict
Date: 22 Feb 04 - 01:36 AM

So, what is a funicle man?

Subject: RE: The Sow song
From: breezy
Date: 21 Feb 04 - 04:15 PM

Geoff Hudd of Padstow, retired Barclays bank manager can do it, every time I sees him I insist.

It requires great skill which only comes with years of practice,

Thanks Bert

BTW can you perform it?, I think it would be a fun project to record those who can, I know I cant!!

Subject: RE: The Sow song
From:
Date: 21 Feb 04 - 02:09 PM

Hi where can i download this old song?

Subject: Lyr Add: SUZANNA'S A FUNICLE MAN
From: Bert Hansell
Date: 08 May 97 - 02:41 PM

Here is another version of the Sow song; which is a farrowing song from Somerset. I learned this with the title 'Suzanna's a funicle man'.

In the dark ages of folk before the sixties revival (which started in the fifties) The torch of folk music in England was carried by a group of well to do, elderly ladies.

Every year they held (and still do) a folk festival at the Royal Albert Hall.
One year, in the forties I think, legend has it that a group of singers from Somerset performed this song and the ladies were most upset. Not recognizing it as a TRUE folk song, they thought that the group were making fun of folk music.

It is worth spending a little effort perfecting the great sound effects.

Enjoy,
Bert.

SUZANNA'S A FUNICLE MAN

The was an old farmer who had an old sow
(grunt) ow (whistle) ow (PFTHTTT) idle-e-dow
Suzanna's a funicle man

CHORUS: Sing lassy go rings below
Suzanna's a funicle man
(grunt) an (whistle) an (PFTHTTT) idle-e-dan
Suzanna's a funicle man

Now this old sow had nine little pigs
(grunt) ig (whistle) ig (PFTHTTT) idle-e-dig
Suzanna's a funicle man. CHORUS

These nine little pigs, they got out of their sty
(grunt) i (whistle) i (PFTHTTT) idle-e-di
Suzanna's a funicle man. CHORUS

They went in thefield and they ate all the beets
(grunt) eet (whistle) eet (PFTHTTT) idle-e-deet
Suzanna's a funicle man. CHORUS

They got in the barn and they ate all the corn
(grunt) orn (whistle) orn (PFTHTTT) idle-e-dorn
Suzanna's a funicle man. CHORUS

These nine little pigs, grew big and grew fat
(grunt) at (whistle) at (PFTHTTT) idle-e-dat
Suzanna's a funicle man. CHORUS

That's the end of this little song
(grunt) ong (whistle) ong (PFTHTTT) idle-e-dong
Suzanna's a funicle man. CHORUS