good songs for valentines day?

Subject: good songs for valentines day?
From: GUEST,Emmie
Date: 10 Feb 17 - 04:58 PM

Hi Folk, got some recommendations for romantic or funny traditional songs for valentines day?

Subject: RE: good songs for valentines day?
From: oldhippie
Date: 10 Feb 17 - 06:40 PM

funny - Good Enough For Now

Subject: RE: good songs for valentines day?
From: leeneia
Date: 10 Feb 17 - 08:39 PM

My Funny Valentine
True Love (from the movie High Society)
A Very Precious Love (sung by Gene Kelly)
I'll Give to You a Paper of Pins
My White Knight from the Music Man

and for a negative viewpoint

Falling in Love with Love

Subject: RE: good songs for valentines day?
From: FreddyHeadey
Date: 11 Feb 17 - 05:54 AM

No, unless Shakespeare is trad(see the last one below).

For more modern ones ...

I'm Getting Sentimental Over You - Betty Driver
https://open.spotify.com/track/295XP2Fqer90WriOBszWJm

A Fine Spring Morning - Blossom Dearie
https://open.spotify.com/track/089C08TkBfGWFcCVt1obAk

The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face - Peggy Seeger, Ewan MacColl
http://open.spotify.com/track/7z7fty8FffHCOI3zm3R3Ei

I Walk A Little Faster - Blossom Dearie
https://open.spotify.com/track/0NcF2BbMXSclvxDHD7dcIw

Tomorrow Is Saint Valentine's Day (Ophelia, Hamlet) - Elisabeth Karsten
https://open.spotify.com/track/5l5P3amRrXC9uWcMekP3FA




I haven't time today to do all the clickies but they're on this Spotify play list ... mixed with some others I categorised as 'divorce'. They mix together quite nicely ;-)
http://open.spotify.com/user/headey/playlist/443Vgjku0hitrVa3Z03eRE




& if I get time I'll add some others from this thread onto that Spotify list.

Subject: RE: good songs for valentines day?
From: FreddyHeadey
Date: 11 Feb 17 - 06:46 AM

I just noticed this other thread asking for alternatives.
Someone calls them Black Valentines.
thread.cfm?threadid=127211

Subject: RE: good songs for valentines day?
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Feb 17 - 09:07 AM

Lovely suggestions but I mean traditional folk ones, preferably British or appalacian

Subject: RE: good songs for valentines day?
From: Leadfingers
Date: 11 Feb 17 - 09:46 AM

The Forebitter 'Princess Royal' , as I collected it back in the sixties has a first line "On the fourteenth day of February we sailed from the land in the bold Princess Royal bound for Newfoundland"

Subject: RE: good songs for valentines day?
From: GUEST,Mg
Date: 11 Feb 17 - 02:48 PM

Feb 14 important day in newfoundland. Ocean ranger went down. Many received valentines after. Some songs about it.

Subject: RE: good songs for valentines day?
From: JHW
Date: 11 Feb 17 - 03:58 PM

Last Valentine's day, bright Phoebus shone clear,
We had not been a hunting for the space of one year.
I mounted Black Clover, that horse of great fame,
For to hear the horn blow and the words "Tally ho!"

Tally ho! Tally ho!
Hark, Forward! Who says "Tally ho!?"

Subject: RE: good songs for valentines day?
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 12 Feb 17 - 01:10 AM

Hello, Emmie. I've been thinking about your request for 24 hours now.

There just aren't many old songs about true love in the abstract. I would say that there are far more old songs about love gone wrong than about successful loves.

And the songs that are about happy true love tend to be individualized. For example: Annie Laurie. Annie is a certain person and she lives in a certain place - Maxwellton. Other examples:

Rose of Tralee
Rose of Allandale
Bonnie Eloise, the Pride of the Mohawk Vale

See what I mean? I think that generalized love songs which can apply to anybody are a modern phenomenon.

Meanwhile, Valentine's Day is only 3 days away. If you are doing a show, I think your best bet would be to visit your public library and get lyrics, chords and music from books in one step.

One possible source - love songs of Robert Burns, such as "My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose."

Another idea is Tin Pan Alley songs from approx 1890 to 1920. They would be public domain, and you can probably find tunes you know already. such as Bicycle Built for Two, The Band Played On, Smile Awhile, And Let the Rest of the World Go By.

Subject: RE: good songs for valentines day?
From: GUEST
Date: 12 Feb 17 - 06:35 AM

Rabbie Burns was the boy for this!

Subject: RE: good songs for valentines day?
From: GUEST,Peter C
Date: 12 Feb 17 - 07:52 AM

Plaisir d'amour (Martini)

Subject: RE: good songs for valentines day?
From: FreddyHeadey
Date: 12 Feb 17 - 10:06 AM

Emmie, I wonder what you've found? It would be good if you can get back with any you find suitable or adaptable to a traditional style.



~~~~~
I noticed this page with a lot of valentine links
http://kocian.ipnodns.ru/valentine-songs.html#  though I can't get the links to work.
~~~~~~~~
A BBC page with Burns links on love
http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/robertburns/works/themes/love/
& YT clips of some songs https://youtu.be/MmQydPSMoKg 
~~~~~~~~~
Quite a few pages in the vwml http://www.vwml.org/search?qtext=valentine%27s%20day&ts=1486910300078&collectionfilter=... 

Subject: RE: good songs for valentines day?
From: JHW
Date: 12 Feb 17 - 10:59 AM

For a happy ending how about Jock o' Hazeldean

Red, Red, Rose is a good one. Already done it on 25th Jan and its OK for June too.

Subject: RE: good songs for valentines day?
From: GUEST,Peter C
Date: 12 Feb 17 - 12:06 PM

JHW - would also be great for St George's Day on April 23rd (Although as this is a Sunday this year, he may be 'translated' to the Monday)

Subject: RE: good songs for valentines day?
From: OldNicKilby
Date: 13 Feb 17 - 05:51 AM

My favourite is Kathy Cowan's song "If from the deep deep floor of Ocean.   Up to th top roof of the top most sky " " With a bit of luck I will sing it tonight

Subject: RE: good songs for valentines day?
From: GUEST,DTM
Date: 13 Feb 17 - 08:15 AM

On the unwanted receiving end, hows about "Return To Sender"

Subject: Lyr Add: I WISH MY LOVE (from A.L. Lloyd)
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Feb 17 - 08:39 AM

Thanks everyone for suggestions so far. I am going to be teaching a music workshop for students with SEN at Cecil Sharp House this week. I decided to do a valentines theme and had two songs I already knew that I thought I could work with. One was I wish my love was a cherry which is very sultry and yearning. I was aiming to just do two or three verses and have it in a sensory way i.e. have real fruit to taste and a rose to smell etc. Drawing out the sensory aspects of folk songs is great as I think the ideals of courtly love did influence some songs and entwined with that is that wonderful link with nature with such vivid descriptions of birds, plants, etc. I agree though with guest Jenneai that most of the love songs have some fateful twist in them. To link with the food theme I was also thinking of doing do you love an apple and also maybe Angelina Baker. I find this all very interesting though and shall be doing some more searches on the EFDSS database and through my folk songbooks. I agree with Freddy that Robbie Burns did some great love songs. I've been singing green grow the rashes o all weekend and love that particular one.
A.L. Lloyd sings I Wish My Love

I wish my love she was a cherry
A-growing on yon cherry tree
And I myself a bonnie blackbird
How I would peck that sweet cherry

I wish my love she was a red rose
A-growing on yon garden wall
And I myself a drop of dew
How on that red rose I would fall

I wish my love was in a little box
And I myself to carry the key
I'd go in to her whenever I'd a mind
And I'd bear my love good company

I wish my love she was a grey ewe
A-grazing by yonder riverside
And I myself a fine black ram
Oh on that ewe how I would ride

My love, she's bonnie, my love she's canny
And she's well favoured for to see
And the more I think on her my heart is set upon her
And under her apron I fain would be

I wish my love she was a bee-skip
And I myself a bumble-bee
That I might be a lodger within her
For she's sweeter than the honey or the honeycomb tea

(The verse A.L. Lloyd left out:)

I wish my love was a ripe turd
And smoking down in yon dykeside
And I myself was a shitten flea
I'd suck her up before she dried

Subject: RE: good songs for valentines day?
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Feb 17 - 08:41 AM

Sorry meant to say that its Emmie who wrote the last post

Subject: RE: good songs for valentines day?
From: FreddyHeadey
Date: 14 Feb 17 - 11:18 AM

I agree with Freddy
Well, I added the link but it was Leeneia & a guest that suggested Burns.

Subject: RE: good songs for valentines day?
From: GUEST,Emmie
Date: 14 Feb 17 - 02:17 PM

Well thanks to everyone that mentioned and agreed with Burns being a good one :-)

Subject: RE: good songs for valentines day?
From: FreddyHeadey
Date: 11 Feb 18 - 10:04 PM

refresh.....

Subject: Lyr Add: YOU DON'T BRING ME FLOWERS
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 11 Feb 18 - 10:33 PM

YOU DON'T BRING ME FLOWERS

Chorus

You don't bring me flowers
You don't sing me love songs
You hardly talk to me anymore
When I come through the door at the end of the day

I remember when
You couldn't wait to love me
Used to hate to leave me
Now after lovin' me late at night


When it's good for you, babe
And you're feeling alright

Well, you just roll over
And you turn out the light
And you don't bring me flowers anymore

It used to be so natural (Used to be)
To talk about forever
But used-to-be's don't count anymore
They just lay on the floor 'til we sweep them away

And baby, I remember
All the things you taught to me.

I learned how to laugh
And I learned how to cry

Well I learned how to love
And I learned how to lie

So you'd think I could learn
How to tell you goodbye

You don't bring me flowers anymore

Well, you'd think I could learn
How to tell you goodbye

You don't sing to me

And you don't sing me love songs

You don't bring me flowers anymore

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Neil Diamond • Copyrght © Universal Music Publishing Group, Spirit Music Group

Subject: RE: good songs for valentines day?
From: mg
Date: 12 Feb 18 - 01:36 AM

Ashes of love since val day this year is also ash Wednesday. I think it is a very important date..prob some astrological significance. I plan to mope.

Subject: RE: good songs for valentines day?
From: GUEST,Jerry
Date: 12 Feb 18 - 03:26 AM

I thought The Rose of Allendale was actually about a sailing boat, but then I can’t see how many of the suggestions here relate to the Valentines Day Massacre anyway. No ones even mentioned I Shot theSheriff.

Subject: Lyr Add: LOVE MINUS ZERO / NO LIMIT (Bob Dylan)
From: GUEST,Knockroe
Date: 12 Feb 18 - 10:18 AM

The best one !

"Love Minus Zero / No Limit" Bob Dylan

My love she speaks like silence
Without ideals or violence
She doesn't have to say she's faithful
Yet she's true, like ice, like fire

People carry roses
And make promises by the hours
My love she laughs like the flowers
Valentines can't buy her

In the dime stores and bus stations
People talk of situations
Read books, repeat quotations
Draw conclusions on the wall

Some speak of the future
My love she speaks softly
She knows there's no success like failure
And that failure's no success at all

The cloak and dagger dangles
Madams light the candles
In ceremonies of the horsemen
Even a pawn must hold a grudge

Statues made of match-sticks
Crumble into one another
My love winks, she does not bother
She knows too much to argue or to judge

The bridge at midnight trembles
The country doctor rambles
Bankers' nieces seek perfection
Expecting all the gifts that wise men bring

The wind howls like a hammer
The night blows rainy
My love she's like some raven
At my window with a broken wing

Subject: RE: good songs for valentines day?
From: GUEST,Gordon
Date: 12 Feb 18 - 10:39 AM

Valentine's Day - Steve Earle.

Subject: RE: good songs for valentines day?
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 12 Feb 18 - 11:45 AM

Alice Fredenham on BGT. Well worth watching.

Subject: RE: good songs for valentines day?
From: Mick Lowe
Date: 13 Feb 18 - 02:18 AM

Share the Darkness by the Saw Doctors

Subject: RE: good songs for valentines day?
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Feb 18 - 10:42 AM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hYQB7a_jno

Subject: RE: good songs for valentines day?
From: leeneia
Date: 14 Feb 18 - 11:35 AM

Not strictly for Valentine's Day, so look for the thread called Lyric Add: Erg Love song, written by my Dear Husband. It's esp. apt if your true love is a scientist.

Subject: RE: good songs for valentines day?
From: GUEST,kenny
Date: 14 Feb 18 - 02:29 PM

I chose 5 for our "St. Valentine's Day" programme on Aberdeen's community radio station, "SHMU FM", this afternoon :

"Bridget Donoghue" - "Danu" [ singer Ciaran Galvin ]
"Take Her In Your Arms" - Andy M. Stewart, Phil Cunningham & Manus Lunny
"The Islander's Lament" - Robbie O'Connell [ "The Green Fields Of America"]
"My Love Is Like A Red, Red Rose" - Davy Steele
"Irish Molly" - "De Dannan" [ singer Maura O'Connell ]

Subject: RE: good songs for valentines day?
From: FreddyHeadey
Date: 14 Feb 18 - 07:10 PM

leeneia's link Erg Love Song (scientific)

/mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=163617

Subject: Lyr Add: THE ST. VALENTINE'S DAY MASSACRE
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Apr 18 - 11:56 AM

I hope I can be forgiven for posting the lyrics to a song I wrote myself on 19th February 2013:

THE ST. VALENTINE'S DAY MASSACRE

Oh Love it ruins everything, Romance is just so Lame
That is my Philosophy, that Love’s a Silly Game
Drummed into us both Night and Day, from Cradle to the Grave
That from a Life of Loneliness, Love Only can Us Save!

It started with a Roman Saint, who was called Valentine
Who spoke these words to a Roman girl: “Oh Say Will You be Mine?”
But her response is not recorded, we don’t know how she replied
For Val became a Martyr, and in the Coliseum died!

Until the Middle Ages, “Romance” meant an Epic Tale
Then the Troubadours of Provence, who I’d have put in Gaol
With their fancy words of Poetry, they crafted the Love Myth
Which caught on with Lords and Ladies, and all their Kin and Kith!

Not surprisingly the Peasants had much better things to do
To scratch a living from the land, some Savings to Accrue
Love would have been a Luxury, which they could not Afford
For Life was short and Brutish, and Rule was by the Sword!

Then Bloody William Shakespeare, in Romeo and Juliet
Thought the Notion that to die for Love, in our minds he’d set
Oh what a waste of young life, a Notion so Obscene
Though he was called the Bard of Avon, I wish that he had been
(spoken) B-A-R-R-E-D, THAT IS!

In Seventeen and Seventy-four, the German poet Goethe
Caused a Rash of Suicides, with “The Sorrows of Young Werther”
A tale of Unrequited Love, Oh what a load of Fun
Still I suppose for the Samaritans, we all should thank that Hun!

Oh Love’s a form of Madness, said Adler, Jung and Freud
It stops us thinking Rationally, so let’s all Love Avoid
But if your flesh and mind are weak, there is a Certain Cure
Two Years or less of Marriage, will do the Trick for Sure!

Now Romance it is Big Business, with Cards and Flowers and Chocs
None of which are lasting, I wish they would give Socks
But most of all, instead of being February Fourteen
I wish it was the Twenty-ninth, that Valentine’s Day had been!

From Agony Aunts, Relationship Coaches, and Love Gurus
From TV, Books, and the Internet, the “Ten Love Don’t’s and Do's”
We’re bombarded with the concept, “Without Love, Life’s not Complete”
That without a "Significant Other", that Life has got Us Beat!

But the Spiralling Divorce Rate, gives the Lie to all that Tosh
And ten to one your wife’s awarded nearly all your Dosh
So now I live all on my own, my life it is just fine
Actually I’m mad because I got no Valentine!
Actually I’m mad because I got no Valentine!

Subject: RE: good songs for valentines day?
From: GUEST,Knockroe
Date: 21 Jan 19 - 09:58 AM

Love minus zero, no limit. Dylan:

"My love laughs like the flowers
Valentines can't buy her"

Subject: RE: good songs for valentines day?
From: sharyn
Date: 23 Jan 19 - 02:35 PM

Has no one mentioned "Dame Durden?" "'Twas on the morn of Valentine, when all the birds sang sweet..."

Subject: RE: good songs for valentines day?
From: FreddyHeadey
Date: 30 Jan 19 - 03:29 PM

^^^^^^^ Dame Durden

DT
@displaysong.cfm?SongID=1445 

abc
http://abcnotation.com/tunePage?a=back.numachi.com:8000/dtrad/abc_dtrad.tar.gz/abc_dtrad/DAMEDURD/0000

Subject: RE: good songs for valentines day?
From: keberoxu
Date: 09 Feb 19 - 05:33 PM

refresh

Subject: RE: good songs for valentines day?
From: GUEST,Tatterfoal
Date: 10 Feb 19 - 05:40 AM

Once I had a sweetheart.
Come into the garden maud
Matt groves

Subject: RE: good songs for valentines day?
From: FreddyHeadey
Date: 10 Feb 19 - 08:33 PM

Valentine's Day - Ray Cooper(2018)
https://g.co/kgs/Z2q4TA

Subject: RE: good songs for valentines day?
From: GUEST,keberoxu
Date: 10 Feb 19 - 08:42 PM

I think there's a Valentine's Day song by Steve Earle.

Subject: RE: good songs for valentines day?
From: GUEST,Malcolm Storey
Date: 12 Feb 19 - 08:00 AM

The day has been heavily commercialised in recent times but the Aussies have a nasty habit of tagging all things onto a "long weekend".

Don't know if that explains why a number of eateries are offering "Valentine meals" on Friday, 15th February.

Perhaps someone can write a song (not something I would normally advocate) about this particularly cynical practice?

You will guess that myself and the Vice Admiral / Duchess are on our annual missionary journey to try to civilise the invasive natives.

Subject: RE: good songs for valentines day?
From: The Sandman
Date: 12 Feb 19 - 09:58 AM

how about a song about bugsy moran

Subject: RE: good songs for valentines day?
From: saulgoldie
Date: 13 Feb 19 - 11:28 AM

What about...and maybe I skipped past it. But what about songs for Saint Valentine's Day for the person who is NOT half of a couple and does not have any prospects on the horizon? Cause, you know, for some it is not the most welcome of "holidays."

Saul

Subject: RE: good songs for valentines day?
From: topical tom
Date: 13 Feb 19 - 02:02 PM

One of my favorites:https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=give+yourself+to+love+kate+wolf

Subject: RE: good songs for valentines day?
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 13 Feb 19 - 02:54 PM

Lyr Add: THE BANKS OF THE RHINE (Brian O'Rourke)
(Alternative title - "Carnations")

And the man himself. The tune is The Banks of the Lee.

Brian O'Rourke performing his own humorous Irish song 'Carnations'.

Ross

Subject: RE: good songs for valentines day?
From: GUEST,Miranda
Date: 14 Feb 19 - 10:44 AM

The First Time I ever Saw Your Face, Ewan MacColl
Will You Go Lassie Go
Cavan Girl, the Dubliners
Red is the Rose (except for the last part)
I Love a Lassie

I thought I knew a lot that might work but as it turns out a lot of romance related folk songs are really sad or they're weird in some sort of way for valentines.

Anyhow if it works for you, here are the rest I know of:

Fear a Bhata
Loch Lomond
The Bonnie Lass o Fyvie
Maids When You're Young, Never Wed an Old Man
Eriskay Love Lilt
Maire Mhor
Teir Abhaile Riu
Åsmund Frægdegjevar, a Norwegian folk song
Danny Boy
The Rose of Allendale
Mo Li Hua (Jasmine Flower), which I hear a lot at home and is sung in Mandarin. It works within context I guess. Not historically, but if you look at the lyrics it could easily be a romance.

Subject: RE: good songs for valentines day?
From: CupOfTea
Date: 14 Feb 19 - 01:01 PM

My vote would be for "Lass of Glenshee" - a lovely, incredibly NON-typical Scottish song - no rape, no murder, no revenge, no war, no death, just a "I'm going to love you no matter what" carried on through years.

Wild Mountain Thyme, definitely.

Went YIKES when someone mentioned Matty Groves - is there another version that doesn't include adultery and bloody murder????

Joanne in Cleveland

Subject: great song for Valentine's day
From: leeneia
Date: 14 Feb 19 - 01:46 PM

Little Arrows video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRCvTe-BsNc

What fun! And it sounds so much better today than it did on a car radio in 1968.

Subject: RE: great song for Valentine's day
From: topical tom
Date: 14 Feb 19 - 01:52 PM

htt

ps://www.youtube.com/