Songs about wills

Subject: Songs about wills
From: Mo the caller
Date: 12 Aug 20 - 03:55 AM

I was reminded (because I was using a pudding basis to keep a plastic bag open while I filled it) of a song that was on the wireless 70 or so years ago. The little pudding basin that belonged to Auntie Flo. Not sure when it was written.
This link is to Gracie Fields singing it.

Which set me pondering wills and odd thing left in them.
Other songs
GRANNY'S OLD ARMCHAIR
Frank B Carr (m)anon (l) 1880

as rec by Frank Crumit w Leonard Joy & his Orch
Dec 1929 New York
youtube record

Then of course there is Lord Randall 'what will you leave your mother'

Subject: RE: Songs about wills
From: GUEST,Big Al Whittle
Date: 12 Aug 20 - 04:22 AM

there's the verse out of Hank Williams'   I'llnever get out of this world alive.....

]
A distant uncle passed away and left me quite a batch
And I was living high until that fatal day
A lawyer proved I wasn't born
I was only hatched

Subject: RE: Songs about wills
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 12 Aug 20 - 05:18 AM

Jake Thakray's "Last will and testament".

Robin

Subject: RE: Songs about wills
From: Joe Offer
Date: 12 Aug 20 - 05:40 AM

Joe Holl's Last Will, 1915.

And another: Sir Walter Raleigh's Lamentation

Subject: RE: Songs about wills
From: Susan of DT
Date: 12 Aug 20 - 06:18 AM

Miller's Will 1

Miller's Will 2

Lord Randall
and many more of the Lord Randalls (Child #12)

Subject: RE: Songs about wills
From: Mo the caller
Date: 12 Aug 20 - 06:42 AM

Sorry Susan, those links won't open for me.

A 'non-will' "you needn't think you're getting my fiddle!"

Subject: RE: Songs about wills
From: Long Firm Freddie
Date: 12 Aug 20 - 08:37 AM

Wot Cher! Knocked 'em in the Old Kent Road

Last week down our alley came a toff
Nice old geezer with a nasty cough.
Sees my missus, takes his topper off
In a very gentlemanly way!
"Ma'am" says he, "I 'ave some news to tell,
Your rich uncle Tom of Camberwell,
Popp'd off recent, which it ain't a sell,
Leaving you 'is little donkey shay."

LFF

Subject: RE: Songs about wills
From: Snuffy
Date: 12 Aug 20 - 10:35 AM

My father died the other night,
And left me all his riches
A wooden leg, a feather bed,
And a pair of leather breeches
A coffee pot without a spout,
A jug without a handle,
A guinea pig without a wig,
And half a farthing candle.

As sung in many mummers plays. Tune: Yankee Doodle (or anything else that fits)

Subject: RE: Songs about wills
From: Jos
Date: 12 Aug 20 - 10:46 AM

I wonder if 'My Grandfather's Clock' was included in Grandfather's will. If so, someone inherited a clock that had 'stopped, never to go again'.

Subject: RE: Songs about wills
From: The Sandman
Date: 12 Aug 20 - 05:25 PM

kissing in the dark

Subject: RE: Songs about wills
From: Susan of DT
Date: 12 Aug 20 - 06:24 PM

I'll try again. I used the link maker, below.
Hrumph - the link maker is not working. Those are the titles in the DT, so look them up.

Subject: RE: Songs about wills
From: Susan of DT
Date: 12 Aug 20 - 06:27 PM

Here is one:

MILLER'S WILL

There was an old miller by everyone known
He had three sons was all nigh grown
When he came to die and make his will
He had nothing to give but an old tub* mill

He called up his eldest son
He says, "My son, I'm almost done
And if the mill to you I'd make
Pray tell me how much toll you intend to take?"

"Oh dear father, my name is Heck
And out of each bushel I'll take one peck
And every bushel I do grind
A very fine living at that I'll find"

"You are a fool," the old man said,
"You have not fairly learned my trade
The mill to you I will not give
For never a miller at that can live"

He next called up his second son
He says, "My son, I'm almost done
And if the mill to you I'd make
Pray tell me how much toll you intend to take?"

"Oh dear father, my name is Ralph
And out of each bushel I'd take one half
And every bushel I do grind
A very fine living at that I'll find"

"You are a fool," the old man said,
"You have not fairly learned my trade
The mill to you I will not give
For never a miller at that can live"

He next called up his youngest son
He says, "My son, I'm almost done
And if the mill to you I'd make
Pray tell me how much toll you intend to take?"

"Oh dear father, I am your son
I'll take three pecks and leave just one
And if a good living at that I do lack
I'll take the other and swear to the sack"

"You are my son," the old man said,
"For you have fairly learned my trade
The mill is yours," the old man cried,
And he closed up his eyes and died

DT #348
Laws Q21
@work @mill @aging @family
note: "tub" mill must be grist mill
collected by Sharp from Ida Banks in Burnsville NC in 1918
filename[ MILLWILL
SOF

Here is the relevant part of Lord Randall, also found in several other ballads:

Oh, what will you leave your brother, Lord Randal my son?
Oh, what will you leave your brother, my handsome young man?
My horse and the saddle, mother, make my bed soon,
For I'm sick to my heart and I fain would lie down.

What will you leave your sister, Lord Randal, my son?
What will you leave your sister, my handsome young man?
My gold box and rings, mother, make my bed soon,
For I'm sick to my heart and I fain would lie down.

What will you leave your true love, Lord Randal, my son?
What will you leave your true love, my handsome young man?
The tow and the halter to hang on yon tree
And let her hang there for the poisoning of me.

Subject: RE: Songs about wills
From: JennieG
Date: 12 Aug 20 - 08:47 PM

"Darling, go home" - sung by many people, Harry Belafonte, Miriam Makeba - has a verse "Darling, go ohome, the will's to be read"......."What's that you said"......"I said the will's to be read".

Anyone else remember it?

Subject: RE: Songs about wills
From: Mo the caller
Date: 13 Aug 20 - 04:28 AM

Susan, I did look for them in the DT, but search said No Results.
There seem to be several missing recently that I would have expected to find there.

Subject: RE: Songs about wills
From: JHW
Date: 13 Aug 20 - 05:23 AM

General Google search often finds things that Mudsearch misses. (other search engines are available)

Subject: RE: Songs about wills
From: Howard Kaplan
Date: 13 Aug 20 - 01:11 PM

In an unusual sense of the term "Aesop fable", one concerns a will. The fable is not attributed to Aesop, but he appears in it as a character. It is found in book IV of Phaedrus, who translated Aesop into Latin verse in the first century CE. I found it under the title “The Riddle of a Will” in the 1964 Penguin edition of Fables of Aesop, translated by S. A. Handford.

I adapted the story as a song called "Weaver of Wool". The riddle concerns the following bequest:
   What kind of lawyer would draft such a will?
   Father was not himself; father was ill.
   "Give to each child however well blessed
   One equal share that cannot be possessed."

You can find links to the music and lyrics here.

Subject: RE: Songs about wills
From: Richard Mellish
Date: 13 Aug 20 - 05:22 PM

The link maker gets confused when trying to make a link to a page within Mudcat.

To make Susan's links work:
Copy link location.
Paste into address bar.
You will see that mudcat.org/ is duplicated.
Delete one copy.
Then hit Return.

Subject: RE: Songs about wills
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 15 Aug 20 - 12:03 PM

Oh, island in the sun
Willed to me by my father's hand
All my days I will sing in praise
Of your forest, waters, your shining sand

The title song from Harry Belafonte's 1957 movie 'Island In The Sun'.

Subject: RE: Songs about wills
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 15 Aug 20 - 12:07 PM

The Farmer's Boy

And when the lad became a man,
The good old farmer died,
And left the lad the farm he had,
And his daughter for his bride.
The lad that was, the farm now has,
Oft smiles, and thinks with joy
Of the lucky day he came that way,
To be a farmer's boy.

Subject: RE: Songs about wills
From: allanwill
Date: 15 Aug 20 - 09:22 PM

Aussie author Kathie Lette wrote "where there's a will, I wanna be in it"

Allan

Subject: RE: Songs about wills
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 16 Aug 20 - 04:49 AM

My Will is easy to decide
For there is nothing to divide
My kin don't need to fuss and moan—
"Moss does not cling to rolling stone"

My body? — Oh! — If I could choose
I would to ashes it reduce
And let the merry breezes blow
My dust to where some flowers grow

Perhaps some fading flower then
Would come to life and bloom again.
This is my Last and Final Will.—
Good Luck to All of you
                         Joe Hill

We watch as seasons come and go
But hard times always stay, we know.
A hundred years long you've been gone,
Your song, Joe Hill, still carries on.

Codicil by Henry Peacock 2015

Subject: RE: Songs about wills
From: Mrrzy
Date: 16 Aug 20 - 08:24 AM

There's a little white house I had bought for our own
Where I dreamed we'd be happy, you and I [or by and by]
Dear, I leave it to you
For I know you'll be true
Till we meet at that golden gate, good-bye

From one of the train wreck songs.

Then there is the poem riddle about how to fulfill their father's will about leaving 17 horses to the three sons such that the eldest gets half, the middle one gets a third, and the youngest a ninth. Someone has probably put that one to music.

Subject: RE: Songs about wills
From: Mrrzy
Date: 16 Aug 20 - 08:26 AM

My father left me both house and land
And servants many at my command
At my commandment they ne'er shall be
I'll forsake them all and go with thee

-Cynthia Gooding's Queen of Hearts

There are lots of these, Kirk.

Subject: RE: Songs about wills
From: JHW
Date: 19 Aug 20 - 06:02 AM

At later Cleethorpes Festivals we had a sing in Willy's Bar and songs involving or including a Willy in name or form were encouraged.
(nearest I could get to Wills)

Subject: RE: Songs about wills
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 19 Aug 20 - 07:06 AM

Crikey, what a subject on the day of my sister's funeral.

Subject: RE: Songs about wills
From: rich-joy
Date: 20 Aug 20 - 04:09 AM

I can relate to Jos's post on 12 Aug re "My Grandfather's Clock".
In 2014 when my late Beloved was being cremated, the clock above the back door at our house was stopped at the exact time of his passing.
Then a few years ago, the clock in our office (where I spend much of my time, on the 'puter), did the same thing.
My Beloved was, amongst other skills, a watch-and-clock maker!!

Rich-Joy :)

Subject: RE: LYR ADD: Creamsleeves by The Twilighters
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 20 Aug 20 - 08:24 AM

https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=22972#929498

1965 LP copy of "The Twiliters in Concert" (RCA Camden 117) has this song on it (the only version I ever knew) and it is credited to : "Maguire, Ferris and White", i.e. The Twiliters!!

Other songs are labelled "ARR. maguire, ferris and white", so I have no reason to doubt this info - well, that and the fact that they are West Aussie boys!!! (yes, my birthplace!!)

They were around in the early 60s, very entertaining, popular also in Sydney and made two albums (that I know of - and both of which I have) and their names were :
Jim Maguire (think he may be a psychologist or something now),
Greg Ferris (deceased) and
Kerry White (not sure about him).
Hans Stampfer was an earlier original member too, when my eldest Bro in Perth knew them in the late 50s/early 60s, probably hanging out in a "Coffee Lounge" called "The Quitapena?" ...

Murray Jennings - the WA folkie / ABC announcer / and bloke wot writ the sleeve notes - would be able to clear up any confusion - if anyone knew where he was!!??


Lyr Add: CREAMSLEEVES (parody of GREENSLEEVES)
From: Sandra in Sydney - PM
Date: 10 Apr 03 - 11:23 AM

As sung by the late & great Dave Alexander of Sydney - a mountain of a man "who will be remembered wherever songs are sung in unaccompanied chorus & harmony" The CD was compiled from recordings made in many places & times.

The liner notes of his memorial CD (put together by his friends from a mess of papers he left) says author is Anon.
"1962 in a coffee shop in Newtown - ah memories - The New World Trio (from a reccording Dave made of his "lighter" songs in 1997 for Anthony Woolcott)"

..............................
Creamsleeves   -

Oh Grandma died and in her will
She left me her love and her doctor's bill
A full set of notes on the use of the Pill
And a little machine that played Greensleeves.

I had an idea and quick as a wink
I bought an old van and I painted it pink
With a freezer that came from an ice-skating rink
And it only worked when I played Greensleeves.

My product was good, soon I owned a fleet
My vans went tinkling down every street
The jingle of money was oh so sweet
I'll bet the Pied Piper played Greensleeves.

Greensleeves when the roosters crow
The grocer's body swings to and fro
He was condemned, he had to go
For throttling a man who sang Greensleeves.

Last week they shot my best ice-cream man
Today they blew up my nineteenth van
For the shopkeepers formed their own Klu Klux Klan
And the robes that they wear all have Greensleeves.

Then the army came and they took all my vans
To send to the jungles of Vietnam
Australia's the envy of Uncle Sam
'Cause the Yanks don't have tanks that play Greensleeves.

But the army's got problems I'm telling you
They can sell pink tanks when the war is through
But what the hell will they ever do
With a million machines that play Greensleeves?

Subject: RE: Songs about wills
From: Mrrzy
Date: 21 Aug 20 - 10:33 AM

I am reminded of the running joke in that one Weavers concert.

I gave thee this and gave thee that and yetst thou wouldst not love me..

Subject: RE: Songs about wills
From: Mrrzy
Date: 21 Aug 20 - 10:36 AM

Oh yeah and why are so very many murders and deaths perpetrated by, or happen to, respectively, Willies, in ballads?

Gives me the willies just thinking about it.