Fruit harvest songs. Please?

Subject: RE: Fruit harvest songs. Please?
From: Thompson
Date: 09 Nov 18 - 02:44 AM

You put the lime in the coconut, you drink the bowl up…

Subject: RE: Fruit harvest songs. Please?
From: GUEST,Jerry
Date: 09 Nov 18 - 03:29 AM

Surely Deportees is nothing much to do with fruit harvests, but more about immigrant labour and their castigation in society and in the Media in particular. The clue being in the title and the chorus. A message that becomes more relevant day by day around the world.

Subject: RE: Fruit harvest songs. Please?
From: Thompson
Date: 09 Nov 18 - 03:56 AM

But it's about how the First World has stopped partaking in the harvest, has outsourced it to poor migrants, and then treated those migrants with brutal contempt. So very much apposite to the harvest.

Subject: RE: Fruit harvest songs. Please?
From: GUEST,Jerry
Date: 09 Nov 18 - 06:46 AM

All very true, but the fruit harvest is just the context for the real issues about divisions in society and manipulation by the Media.

Now you could use other contexts, such as office cleaning companies, hotel and catering trade, clothing sweat shops, etc. which offer jobs that many consider beneath them and whose workers are treated with contempt for daring to try and make a living that way.

With the Media, we now get stories reported about a dozen unfortunate UK holidaymakers having their vacation plans completed ruined by some pesky natural disaster at their destination, with scant mention of the thousands of local inhabitants that have either died or had their whole lives ruined.

Subject: Lyr Add: IN BERRY PICKIN' TIME (Yellen/Wenrich)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 09 Nov 18 - 09:46 AM

Julia L mentioned this song on 20-Sep. The following lyrics are from the sheet music at Baylor University:

(YOU PICKED ME WHEN I PICKED YOU)
IN BERRY PICKIN' TIME
Words by Jack Yellen, music by Percy Wenrich, ©1917.

1. I saw a berry bush as I was coming home tonight,
And somehow it brought back a bygone day
When you and I went berry picking many years ago
Along a country lane so far away.
How well I do remember: that sweet day when we first met
Has left a picture in my heart I never will forget.

CHORUS: We were picking berries at old aunt Mary’s
When I picked a blushing bride.
As we rode home together, I just wondered whether
I could win you forever if I tried;
And at love’s suggestion, I popped the question
And asked you to be mine.
From your kisses I knew: you picked me when I picked you
In berry pickin’ time.

2. How sweet you looked that day, dressed in a simple gingham gown.
To me you were as lovely as a queen.
From underneath your bonnet peeked a pair of golden curls
And the bluest eyes that I had ever seen.
Your lips were red as berries, but they tasted twice as sweet.
It only took one kiss to make me happiness complete.


Recorded by:
Albert Campbell & Henry Burr (1917)
Johnny Barfield (1941)
Roy Ross & His Blue Ridge Mountain Boys (1968)
Great Big Sea on “Great Big Sea” (1993)
Fiftin Market on “Lost at Sea” (2007)
A band organ arrangement appears on two albums: “Jazz Baby: Music of the Roaring 20’s” and
“Orchestrion Jubilee Vol. 3”

Subject: RE: Fruit harvest songs. Please?
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 09 Nov 18 - 12:25 PM

There are more verses to Guthrie's Pastures of Plenty:

Pastures of Plenty
Woody Guthrie

It's a mighty hard row that my poor hands have hoed
My poor feet have traveled a hot dusty road
Out of your Dust Bowl and westward we rolled
Your deserts were hot and your mountains were cold

I worked in your orchards of peaches and prunes
I slept on the ground in the light of the moon
On the edge of the city you'll see us and then
We come with the dust and we go with the wind

California, Arizona, I harvest your crops
Then up north to Oregon to gather your hops
Dig the beets from the ground
Cut the grapes from the vine
To set on your table the light sparkling wine

Green pastures of plenty from dry desert ground
From the Grand Coulee Dam where the waters run down
Every state in the Union we migrants have been
We come with the dust and we're gone with the wind

It's always we've rambled, that river and I
All along your green valley I will work till I die
My land I'll defend with my life if it be
Cause my pastures of plenty must always be free

Subject: RE: Fruit harvest songs. Please?
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 09 Nov 18 - 12:26 PM

Ahhh sorry... just noticed Henry's link. D'oh

Subject: RE: Fruit harvest songs. Please?
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 09 Nov 18 - 05:28 PM

No need to apologise, Bonnie! It is a great song, and so relevant today;

'Cause my pastures of plenty must always be free'

I've recently seen an exhibition of photographs Dorothea Lange took of the farm workers and the conditions they endured. The most famous is 'Migrant Mother'.

Shocking and moving at the same time.

Subject: RE: Fruit harvest songs. Please?
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 09 Nov 18 - 06:05 PM

At the inauguration of Barack Obama, Pete Seeger, his grandson Tao and Bruce Springsteen sang "This land is your land, this land is my land." Everyone present joined in, but it's impossible to imagine Donald Trump doing so.

In fact, Woody Guthrie encountered Donald Trump's father Fred when he signed a lease for one of Fred's apartments in Brooklyn.

Will Kaufman writes, "Guthrie’s two-year tenancy in one of Fred Trump’s buildings and his relationship with the real estate mogul of New York’s outer boroughs produced some of Guthrie’s most bitter writings, which I discovered on a recent trip to the Woody Guthrie Archives in Tulsa."

Old Man Trump

"Woody Guthrie and Old Man Trump" is the title of Will Kaufman's new show.

Subject: Lyr Add: WITH KITTY PICKING BERRIES (Fred White)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 09 Nov 18 - 07:52 PM

Another one mentioned by Julia L on 20-Sep; from the sheet music at the Library of Congress:


WITH KITTY PICKING BERRIES
Words and music by Fred White ©1873.

1. The morning sun shone bright and warm
  in golden autumn weather
When, with our baskets on our arms,
  we wandered forth together.
The air was full of music sweet
  of mockingbirds and thrushes.
The dew was glist’ning at our feet
  and on the berry bushes.

CHORUS: Her eyes they were divinely blue,
  her lips like two ripe cherries.
On golden wings the moments flew
  with Kitty picking berries.

2. We sit beneath the chestnut tree
  among the crimson clover.
She said she loved no one but me,
  her darling and her lover.
Then tightly o’er the field she trips,
  her motions like a fairy’s.
I stole the cherries from her lips
  while we were picking berries.

3. Like little mice, her pretty feet
  stole out beneath her kirtle,
Above her curls a chaplet sweet
  of woodbine, rose and myrtle.
The fragrant honeysuckle buds
  were opening sweet and pretty,
But the sweetest flow’r in the woods
  was my own darling Kitty.

Subject: Lyr Add: WHERE WE WENT PICKING BERRIES (F Howard)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 09 Nov 18 - 08:23 PM

From the sheet music images at the Hathi Trust:


WHERE WE WENT PICKING BERRIES
Words and music by Frank Howard, ©1868.

1. Tho’ many years have since rolled by,
  Quite well do I remember
The day that Rosa May and I
  Went berrying together.
With voice as gentle as a dove,
  With blushes like ripe cherries,
That day she promised me her love
  As we were picking berries.
Although the drooping bushes hung
  Inviting full and plenty,
When it came time for going home
  Our baskets were quite empty.

CHORUS: As slow the seasons come and go, to me there is no summer,
But oft I hear upon the breeze a sweet and soft-toned murmur.
It is the voice of Rosa May; she’s now with angel fairies.
Up there the promise will be kept she gave while picking berries.

2. When berry season came again,
  To marry we intended.
It came, but brought me grief and pain;
  The dream of joy was ended.
Alone I climb the mountainside
  O’erlooking rill and meadow,
While by my side my promised bride
  Seems flitting like a shadow;
But there she sleeps so sweet and still,
  O’ershaded by wild cherries,
Upon the side of that old hill
  Where we went picking berries.

Subject: RE: Fruit harvest songs. Please?
From: GUEST,Cori
Date: 09 Nov 18 - 10:37 PM

When (and if) the rich bastards finally succeed in stopping all migrant labor and killing off all poor people they will wonder where their cheap help went.

Subject: RE: Fruit harvest songs. Please?
From: GUEST,Erich
Date: 10 Nov 18 - 02:37 AM

The Harvest Gypsies sung by Jimmy Aldridge & Sid Goldsmith (written by Boo Hewerdine)

Subject: RE: Fruit harvest songs. Please?
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 11 Nov 18 - 06:11 PM

Johnny Cash's song PICKIN' TIME is actually about picking cotton, but you could easily alter it to make it about any kind of fruit.

Subject: RE: Fruit harvest songs. Please?
From: Jack Campin
Date: 11 Nov 18 - 06:30 PM

No mention of the Banana Boat Song yet?

Subject: RE: Fruit harvest songs. Please?
From: GUEST,Jerry
Date: 12 Nov 18 - 11:10 AM

Nor, Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree (with that Newton boy).

Subject: Lyr Add: THE PEACH PICKER'S SONG (John Dengate)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 12 Nov 18 - 03:04 PM

Tangledwood mentioned this earlier. I found this at the website of the Bush Music Club of Australia. The chords are there, too, along with the notated melody line.


THE PEACH PICKER’S SONG
John Dengate [he credits his father Norm for the chorus]

CHORUS: On with your pulling shirts and get the peaches in,
There’s twenty to the half case and forty to the gin.
We’ll take ‘em down to Ermington and stick ‘em on the barge,
Half ripes and mediums and extra bloody large.

1. Well the boat goes down the river and it comes to the quay,
The agents swarm upon it to extricate their fee,
But we don’t get a penny it’s a dirty damn shame,
Just a bill for dumping charges, orcharding’s the game.

2. Down to the timber and harness up old Jack,
We’ll get the ploughing finished while the fruit season’s slack.
It’s only single furrow and I’m telling you the worst,
We’ll descend on Parramatta with a man-sized thirst.

3. We’ve got to beat the codlin moth so get the bag and lime.
The grog in Parramatta will have to bide its time.
We’re trying to scratch a living; we’re trying to make a crust
From a row of mangey fruit trees standing in the dust.

Subject: RE: Fruit harvest songs. Please?
From: Bob the Postman
Date: 13 Nov 18 - 03:52 PM

Katey Morey is a song about picking plums. Ted Ashlaw recorded a version—there was a thread about a CD compilation of Ashlaw’s recordings on November 6, 2018. I always thought the last line should go: “Every time she smiles at me I think about her plumming.”

Subject: RE: Fruit harvest songs. Please?
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 14 Nov 18 - 08:03 AM

Un, deux, trois, nous irons au bois

Un, deux, trois
Nous irons au bois
Quatre, cinq, six
Cueillir des cerises
Sept, huit, neuf
Dans un panier neuf
Dix, onze, douze
Elles seront toutes rouges

One, two, three, won't you come with me

One, two, three
Won't you come with me
Four, five, six
Cherries we will pick
Seven, eight, nine
They'll be yours and mine
Ten, eleven, twelve
We'll eat them ourselves