Lyr Req: Lang a Growin'

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Lang a Growin'
From: Taconicus
Date: 01 Sep 09 - 09:51 AM

His version is closest to "Bonny Boy," though there are differences. However, absent any interest I shan't bother posting it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Lang a Growin'
From: Susan of DT
Date: 29 Aug 09 - 08:13 AM

Taconicus

Look at the six versions attached above and decide whether yours is different enough to warrant posting.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Lang a Growin'
From: Taconicus
Date: 28 Aug 09 - 09:24 PM

I have the lyrics for "Lang a-Growing" as sung by Liam Clancy. Should I post them here, or in "The Trees They Do Grow High" thread referenced above, or elsewhere, or not needed?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Lang a Growin'
From: Abby Sale
Date: 10 Sep 00 - 11:56 AM

Dave et al: It was MacColl on, as Guest wrote, The Riverside/Washington set (1956-60), on the 9th disk, Non-Child ballads. One of the real prides of my records and certainly the best-produced Child set ever. Well-researched notes by Goldstein & excellent glossary by MacColl. How I got started learning Scottish language and balladry.

No, none of these, and no Riverside at all have been reproduced. It's a brilliant storehouse of trad song - just sitting somewere. The Folkways E&S PB set is good but cheaply produced, aborted a little way in (3 records only) and with many typos & limitations. Only MacColl sang - it was just too huge a project for then, 1961. I don't think Topic ran more than a single record.

The Dransfields were the first I heard to but the sex ("sport and play") verse in and they very reasonably said that without that one the whole thing makes a lot less sense and gives the boy nothing at all to relieve the tragedy - at least he now gets an afternoon of sex with "an older woman." I then added that in to MacColl's version, myself.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Lang a Growin'
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 09 Sep 00 - 09:34 PM

Dave, the 'English and Scottish Popular Ballads' were published by Topic in England and should, I think, still be available. There is a Topic website, but I haven't got the address handy. Can't think where I put it!

Lorna Campbell has also recorded the Scottish version, on an LP called 'The Singing Campbells' (1965). Some of their LPs have been reissued as CDs. I don't know about this one.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Lang a Growin'
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 09 Sep 00 - 04:02 PM

You might be interested to know that the version of this non-Child ballad that Joan Baez recorded came from James Atwood of Vermont, collected and published by Helen Sturgis, and slightly modified (inadvertently) by me when I recorded it for Elektra in 1959. The notes in her "Ballad Book" and on her record jacket don't even mention that it's an American version she is singing.

Sandy

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Lang a Growin'
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 09 Sep 00 - 01:05 PM

I don't suppose Riverside or Washington label records are still available???? I'd give a pretty penny for a decent set of the McColl-Lloyd "English and Scottish Popular Ballads".

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Lang a Growin'
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 09 Sep 00 - 06:42 AM

There are detailed cross-references to other discussions in the Forum and other versions, both here and elsewhere on the web, of this song-family in this thread:  The Trees They Do Grow High

Malcolm

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Lang a Growin'
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 09 Sep 00 - 03:56 AM

Lizzie Higgins of Aberdeen, Scotland, daughter of the great Jeannie Robertson, sings a good version of this on my Ballads and Songs of Tradition CD, but it's not the MacColl version. I recorded Lizzie in 1958 in Aberdeen.

Sandy

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Lang a Growin'
From: GUEST,Bruce O.
Date: 09 Sep 00 - 02:41 AM

See the other "Lang a growing" thread (not "The trees they grow so high" thread, for the source of Burns' "Lady Mary Ann".

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Lang a Growin'
From: john c
Date: 09 Sep 00 - 01:39 AM

Gordeanna McCulloch sings this beautifully on her "In Freenship´s Name" album. Recommended!! But I still prefer Gill Bowman singing it on "City Love" - an excellent album by any standards.
J.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Lang a Growin'
From: GUEST
Date: 08 Sep 00 - 10:22 PM

See the refreshed 'The trees they grow so high" thread. MacColl-Lloyd's Child ballads was Riverside then Washington label, but the song here was on the supplemental 9th disk, on non-Child ballads.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Lang a Growin'
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 08 Sep 00 - 10:10 PM

This ballad is also frequently referred to as "The Trees They Grow High", from the first line of the first verse. I've sung it for many years--about forty, in fact--from the singing of either Ewan McColl or A.L. Lloyd (can't remember which of them sang this song) in a set of LPs they did called "The English and Scottish Popular Ballads". I would have sworn, from memory, that this was issued by Folkways, but Smithsonian-Folkways has only a set of CDs with that title including songs sung by Ewan McColl, no A.L. Lloyd.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Lang a Growin'
From: GUEST,Mongo
Date: 08 Sep 00 - 09:16 PM

Bless you, but I will confess, none of these actually use the phrase "lang a growin'". Does anyone know the path this song has taken through the ages as well as the archives here? (as I know not the mysterious workings of the headaches of DB entries of folk lyrics... :)

One would be inclined to think that Burns' version (Lady Mary Ann) is the original, and "Bonny Boy" would be the much more generic version (a little lighter on the imagery, a little more storylike), and overall is a pretty darn close second for the versions I'd heard before, but I'm curious where the phrase "long 'agrowin" was either added by Misters MaColl and Dylan, or omitted.

Any clues for an amateur musicologist?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Lang a Growin'
From: Susan of DT
Date: 08 Sep 00 - 07:21 PM

there are 3 versions in the database:
Bonny Boy
Lady Mary Ann
Daily Growing. We gave this song a DT # of 307, which shows how important we think it is - the first 305 are Child #s. You can search for #307, but we did not number the Lady Mary Ann. Look for a common phrase - like [young but]

Subject: Lang a Growin'
From: GUEST,Mongo
Date: 08 Sep 00 - 07:01 PM

I can't believe this gem wasn't in the archives already...

Can anyone help me with the Lyrics to "Lang a growin'".

I had a recording of Ewan MacColl doing this at the Monterey Folk festival back in the 50's or 60's, and it appears it has since been recorded by Bob Dylan, the Corres, and Gill Bowman, but alas, no lyrics....

Help?