Origins: 'your misfortune'

Subject: RE: Origins: 'your misfortune'
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Dec 13 - 08:46 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxVOF0H3VtI

Movie of that name with the song innit. From 1937, right in the middle of the Great Beef Expansion down south of the boarder who was found to have expired with gaseous wind conturbatulaion in his gut. The boom itself was heard all the way to Chicago and the aftershocks in Tallahassee. Dave the Blast himself was never heard from again, poor boy, but of, yes.

Not folk history but it coulda been!

Subject: RE: Origins: 'your misfortune'
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 13 Dec 13 - 07:53 PM

Although I find myself singing the verses of the two songs together, the direct connection is with "the Irish (probably) song, "The Old Man Rocking the Cradle." I doubt if we can trace back from that song with any certainty; I haven't seen any lyrics that fit.

I will agree that I have made a quantum leap from "The Happy Stranger" to "Git Along, Little Dogies," even though the meter is similar, and both begin "As I was...."

Subject: RE: Origins: 'your misfortune'
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 13 Dec 13 - 04:18 PM

I can sing the verses to the same tune.

The chorus to "Git Along...." doesn't fit, but the verses fit nicely.

As I walked out one morning for pleasure,....

As I was walking one morning in Spring,....

Subject: RE: Origins: 'your misfortune'
From: Lighter
Date: 13 Dec 13 - 03:47 PM

Q, I see no resemblance between the dogie song and the texts of "The Happy Stranger" at the Bodleian site.

Subject: RE: Origins: 'your misfortune'
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 13 Dec 13 - 03:27 PM

The song is a parody on the late 18th and 19th C song, "The Happy Stranger," several broadsheets in the Bodleian Collection.
In that some, misfortune is mentioned, but not in the form "It's your misfortune..."

Subject: RE: Origins: 'your misfortune'
From: Tug the Cox
Date: 13 Dec 13 - 01:21 PM

It's Your Misfortune and None of My Own" is also a Western novel by Stephen Bly (ISBN 0-89107-797-9).

Front cover of "It's Your Misfortune and None of My Own", 1993 edition.

"It's Your Misfortune and None of My Own": A New History of the American West is a history of the American West. The book's title comes from the lyrics to the traditional cowboy ballad Git Along Little Dogies. The 684 page history was written by Richard White and first published by the University of Oklahoma Press in 1991. It covers the history of the West from the Spanish conquest in the 16th century to the presidency of Ronald Reagan.

Subject: RE: Origins: 'your misfortune'
From: Lighter
Date: 13 Dec 13 - 11:26 AM

Not a direct connection, but it reminds me of the old expression, "It's your funeral." That is, "your concern, your problem, your stupid preference."

Subject: Origins: 'your misfortune'
From: GUEST,Goose Gander
Date: 13 Dec 13 - 02:11 AM

the phrase "It's your misfortune, and none of my own" appears in the cowboy song Git Along Little Doggies. my question: is this phrase original to this song, or does it have an earlier lineage?