Chimney Sweep Songs Not Found on Disney

Subject: Chimney Sweep Songs Not Found on Disney
From: GUEST,CapnDan
Date: 18 Sep 00 - 08:47 PM

Hey there all. I'm trying to track down some Chimney Sweep songs (besides, "Sweep. Chimney Sweep" and "Sam Hill"). Does anyone have any good leads towards any good songs?

Dan

Subject: RE: Chimney Sweep Songs Not Found on Disney
From: The Lighthouse
Date: 18 Sep 00 - 10:52 PM

Yeah "Chim Chimerree" that's a great song and............oops Disney - sorry!

Subject: RE: Chimney Sweep Songs Not Found on Disney
From: GUEST,Alex
Date: 18 Sep 00 - 11:23 PM

While you are waiting for the songs - I can give you an old riddle from my childhood.

What can go up a chimney down but cannot go down a chimney up? An umbrella.

Corny, ain't it?

Subject: RE: Chimney Sweep Songs Not Found on Disney
From: Joe Offer
Date: 19 Sep 00 - 12:09 AM

Well, a search for sweep (click) in our database turns up Sam Hall and four others.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Chimney Sweep Songs Not Found on Disney
From: GUEST,Bruce O.
Date: 19 Sep 00 - 12:03 PM

"Sam/Jack Hall" and a few others can be found by searching the Bodley Ballads website on 'chimney'.

Subject: RE: Chimney Sweep Songs Not Found on Disney
From: Allan C.
Date: 19 Sep 00 - 01:32 PM

Not trad, but there was a lovely song called (I think) "The Dancing Bear" by the Mommas and the Papas. It doesn't show up on the albums. I think it was on the flip side of the "Monday, Monday" 45RPM record. Here is part of the song:

I wouldn't want to be a chimney sweep all black from head to foot
From climing in those chimneys and cleaning out that soot
With a broom and a ladder and pail,
The darkened walls I'd scale
And from on high
I'd see the endless sky.

I'd rather be the Gypsy who lives on the outside of town
The one who has the Dancing Bear that dances round and round.
And he lifts his big feet up
And he puts his big feet down
And bows, and twirls and dances round and round

I found I was a cabin boy last night as I did dream
Bound upon a magic ship for a land I'd never seen
(This is where I forget the remainder of the verses.)

Perhaps someone else recalls this song and the rest of the lyrics.

Subject: RE: Chimney Sweep Songs Not Found on Disney
From: GUEST,CapnDan
Date: 19 Sep 00 - 01:33 PM

Bodley Ballads turned up a few answers, though unfortunatly (as usual) there are no melodies available. I'm beginning to think that for the purposes we need them for I may just write some...

It's kind of interesting that for a occupation with so much "romance" attatched to them thet there are less songs out there than one would imagine.

Dan

Subject: RE: Chimney Sweep Songs Not Found on Disney
From: MMario
Date: 19 Sep 00 - 01:40 PM

wow. I hadn't thought of that song in yea...okay - decades.

Now monday monday I remeber clearly...Must have heard the other one when Mom forced us to flip the stack of records.

Subject: RE: Chimney Sweep Songs Not Found on Disney
From: Alice
Date: 19 Sep 00 - 02:20 PM

Allan, wow, I haven't thought of that song in ages. (twins with MMario)

Subject: ADD: Dancing Bear^^
From: Joe Offer
Date: 19 Sep 00 - 02:45 PM

"Dancing Bear" certainly has a haunting melody. I found the lyrics and chords here (click)
-Joe Offer-

---

DANCING BEAR
(John Phillips, 1966)

      Am                    Em                Am                 Em 
  I wouldn't want to be a chimney sweep all black from head to foot 
       Am               C            G                 E 
  From climbing in them chimneys and cleaning out that soot 
         E         Dm         E-Dm      E        Dm      E-Dm 
  With a broom and ladder and pail, the darkened walls I scale, 
      E-Dm     E-Dm    E     (G   F#) Am 
  And far, and high, I see a patch of sky. 
    
  
    Am                    Em                Am                 Em 
  I'd rather be the gypsy who's camped at the edge of town, 
      Am              C                 G            E 
  The one who has the dancing bear that follows him around. 
         E         Dm       E-Dm       E        Dm       E-Dm 
  And he lifts his big foot up, and he puts his big foot down, 
      E-Dm      E-Dm        E      (G     F#)  Am 
  And bows, and twirls, and dances 'round and 'round. 
    
  
    Am            Em             Am             Em 

  I found I was a cabin boy last night as I did dream. 
  Am           C                G              E 
  Bound upon a magic ship for a land I'd never seen. 
          E        Dm         E-Dm           E          Dm          E-Dm 
  And the moon she filled our sails, and the stars they steered our course 
      E-Dm   E-Dm      E     (G F#) Am 
  And on our bow there was a golden horse. 
    
  
      Am               Em         Am               Em 
  The queen eats sugar candy, the bishop, nuts and cheese. 
      Am          C               G                 E 
  And when I am a grown man, I'll taste just what I please; 
      E     Dm       E-Dm     E         Dm       E-Dm 
  The honey from the bee, the shellfish from the sea, 
      E          Dm     E         Dm     E           (G     F#)  Am 
  The earth, the wind a girl, someone to share these things with me. 
    
  
    Am                    Em                Am                 Em 
  I wouldn't want to be a chimney sweep all black from head to foot 
       Am               Em           Am                Em 
  From climbing in them chimneys and cleaning out that soot. 
      Am            Em          Am                    Em 
  I'd rather be the gypsy who's camped at the edge of town, 
      Am              Em                Am           Em 
  The one who has the dancing bear that follows him around. 
  

JRO

Subject: RE: Chimney Sweep Songs Not Found on Disney
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Sep 00 - 02:54 PM

Traditional versions with tunes of "The chimney-sweeper's wedding" on the Bodley Ballads website are in Huntington and Herrmann's 'Sam Henry's Songs of the People', p. 256, "The Black Chimney Sweeper", and in Edith Fowke's 'Traditional Singers and Songs from Ontario', #26, "Come all you true lovers". For parent versions, going back to 1636, see "Old Maid's complaint" in the Scarce Songs 1 file on my website.

Subject: RE: Chimney Sweep Songs Not Found on Disney
From: GUEST,Bruce O.
Date: 19 Sep 00 - 03:13 PM

Sorry, that last was me.

Not the chimney sweeper version (where he only gets tacked on at the end), but one off the main stem is "Old Maid Song" in DT.

Subject: RE: Chimney Sweep Songs Not Found on Disney
From:
Date: 19 Sep 00 - 05:48 PM

The ultimate chimney sweep song is a poem by William Blake called "The Chimney Sweeper" as put to music by Greg Brown on his collection of Blake poems put to music, called "Songs of Innocence and Experience." Brown's rendition of "The Chimney Sweeper" caused me to pull my car off the road and practically die of pleasure. It's a killer. Anybody out there agree?

Subject: RE: Chimney Sweep Songs Not Found on Disney
From: Mbo
Date: 19 Sep 00 - 05:50 PM

Yeah, if you like poems about little boy chimney sweeps getting stuck in chimneys and dying.

Subject: RE: Chimney Sweep Songs Not Found on Disney
From: Allan C.
Date: 19 Sep 00 - 07:11 PM

Amazing, Joe! Thanks. Nice to know that I was not too far off with the words that I did recall. Now I can put this song back into my repertoire.

Subject: ADD: Chimney Sweeper (Wm. Blake)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 19 Sep 00 - 07:14 PM

Oh, good poem. I wasn't aware of that one.
-Joe Offer-

---

The Chimney Sweeper by William Blake A little black thing among the snow, Crying "'weep! 'weep!" in notes of woe! "Where are thy father and mother, say?" "They are both gone up to the church to pray. "Because I was happy upon the heath, And smiled among the winter's snow, They clothed me in the clothes of death, And taught me to sing the notes of woe. "And because I am happy and dance and sing, They think they have done me no injury, And are gone to praise God and his Priest and King, Who make up a heaven of our misery."

Subject: RE: Chimney Sweep Songs Not Found on Disney
From: GUEST,Milly K.
Date: 27 Oct 01 - 03:10 AM

I have been looking for all the lyrics from that song for a long time! ("Dancing Bear") Thanks!

Subject: RE: Chimney Sweep Songs Not Found on Disney
From: Mr Red
Date: 27 Oct 01 - 09:23 AM

"clothes of death" - is that a reference to black or the high rate of death by testicular cacner among young men who had been sweeps or chimney sweep's boys? Or both?

Subject: RE: Chimney Sweep Songs Not Found on Disney
From: Allan C.
Date: 27 Oct 01 - 09:30 AM

Mr. Red, I am certain, as with nearly all poetry, it means what you think it means.

Subject: RE: Chimney Sweep Songs Not Found on Disney
From: Allan C.
Date: 27 Oct 01 - 09:39 AM

I should have added, Mr. Red, that your suggestion certainly brings up an interesting possibility.

Subject: RE: Chimney Sweep Songs Not Found on Disney
From: Jacqk
Date: 24 Nov 03 - 11:00 PM

This is an old thread, but someone may look at it sometime.

From page 205 the "Universal Songser" volume 1, book published 1825, and this copy kept at the University of Iowa;

THE CHIMNEY-SWEEPER.

THOUGH late and early I do pad,
   A bawling sweep, soot, ho!
Yet still I am as blithe a lad
   As e'er you'd wish to know:
And when the ladies fine
   I hear cry--take care of the sweep,
Ladies, said I, you need not fear,
   But I'm for them too deep:
      For I gives them a smut
      Off my bag full of soot,
They cry, curse you, mind how you go;
      Dear me, ma'am, says I,
      It was just brushing by,
And I'm off with my--sweep, soot, ho, &c.

And when, disguis'd, I meet the devil,
   I love to have some fun;
A lawyer I mean, the greatest evil
   That thrives beneath the sun;
For sure we both, beyond all doubt,
   Are to the devil a-kin,
The difference is, I'm black without,
   The lawyer black within;
      I gives him a smut
      Off my bag full of soot;
He cries, d--' me, mind how you go;
      Sir, says I, pray
      Do keep out of the way,
And I'm off with my--sweep, soot, ho, &c.

Your flashy folks, drest fine and gay,
   As through the streets I go,
All in an instant clear the way
   At the sound of sweep, soot, ho;
And thus I gammon all the folks,
   I care not, great or small;
I laughs, I sings, I cracks my jokes,
   And something says to all;
      For I gives 'em a smut
      Off my bag full of soot;
They cry, prithee mind how you go;
      O dear, sir, says I,
      It was just brushing by,
And I'm off with my--sweep, soot, ho, &c.

Subject: RE: Chimney Sweep Songs Not Found on Disney
From: Joe Offer
Date: 25 Nov 03 - 12:46 AM

Hi, Jack - any chance the song has a tune you can e-mail to me?
How does the chorus go? Am I missing something after the &c.???
-Joe Offer-
[e-mail]

Subject: RE: Chimney Sweep Songs Not Found on Disney
From: Jacqk
Date: 25 Nov 03 - 12:15 PM

Hi Joe,

Actually I was hoping to stir up other knowlege by posting. Unfortunately there was
no reference song printed with it. I am somewhat mystified that a book of songs
could have sold without the tunes. All I can think is that these may have actually been
common enough known, that the book was simply a reminder of the words.

I tried the midi to the tune of Bow-Wow-Wow for the words (very commonly cited as
a tune for many songs in this book) and it is a fair match:

Bow-wow-
wow...jogshear.mid

I am taking it for granted that the this is the tune "Bow-Wow-Wow", cited in digital
traditions post "Jog Along Till Shearing".

I guess that by "soot, ho &c" the author intended some kind of repeat. If the first
stanza contains that chorus, then perhaps the author means for "...sweep, soot, Ho! /
Yet still I am as blith a lad / As e'er you'd wish to know" to be repeated at the end of
each stanza.

Jack

Subject: RE: Chimney Sweep Songs Not Found on Disney
From:
Date: 25 Nov 03 - 01:41 PM

In case it has not been mentioned yet, Sweep Chimney Sweep is a Copper Family song, and it has a great tune

Subject: RE: Chimney Sweep Songs Not Found on Disney
From: greg stephens
Date: 25 Nov 03 - 02:57 PM

Has anyone mentioned "Willie the Weeper" in this thread, I havent noticed it on a quick read-through?

Subject: RE: Chimney Sweep Songs Not Found on Disney
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 25 Nov 03 - 08:27 PM

Poor Nell and the Chimney Sweep, also about the besting of a lawyer, who done the poor girl wrong - 14 verses, no chorus, collected by Sharp (number 221)from Captain Lewis of Minehead, 18 August 1905....

Subject: RE: Chimney Sweep Songs Not Found on Disney
From: GUEST,Jacqued
Date: 26 Nov 03 - 07:11 AM

A Dave & Evardson song from CD Crosby Road (e.mail [e-mail]) is most definitely not al la Disney:

I'LL BE UP YOUR FLUE NEXT WEEK

Now the place where I'm in lodgings it's got a smoky flue,
It smokes right through the kitchen, I don't know what to do.
My landlady she said to me my flue you'll have to sweep,
But I'm very busy now with another old flue,
I'll be up her flue next week.

I'll be up her flue next week, I'll be up her flue next week,
I'm very busy now with another old flue,
When your brush gets warm well you can't sweep two.
In my line of business it's very hard to speak,
When I get another brush I'll be coming with a rush,
I'll be up her flue next week.

It's up a thousand chimneys my brush I've had to prod,
And many a lady's marvelled at my antics with my rod.
I always keep 'em satisfied with a flush upon their cheek,
So give me a call, I'll sweep for you all, I'll be up your flue next week.

I'll be up your flue next week, I'll be up your flue next week,
So give me a call, I'll sweep for you all, my brush is large but my fees are small.
I'm ever so efficient with a beautiful technique,
I'll take things steady and I'll come when you're ready, I'll be up your flue next week.

While looking through the paper at the matrimonial part,
I saw a great big advert, it really made me start.
It said apply at number ten, Tottenham Court, West Ham.,
There's a pretty little widow with a thousand quid,
And she wants a nice young man.

I'll be up her flue next week, I'll be up her flue next week,
A pretty little widow with a thousand quid, I don't care if she's a thousand kids.
If she wants a husband to tickle her so to speak,
Well swelp my feather, I'll tickle her forever, I'll be up her flue next week.

Now our old Tom is a fine old Tom, he's the best around for miles,
And our old Tom met your old Tom whilst strolling on the tiles.
And our old Tom told your old Tom of a female cat he knew,
A pretty little pussy from the Isle of Man and our old Tom said Meou!

I'll be up her flue next week, I'll be up her flue next week,
A pretty little pussy from the Isle of Man, I'll teach her the dance of the eye-can-can.
Tell her that I'll meet her down Pussy Morgan Street,
I'm not very fussy and I'm looking for a pussy, I'll be up her flue next week.

I'll be up her flue next week, I'll be up her flue next week,
A pretty little pussy from the Isle of Man, I'll teach her the dance of the eye-can-can.
Tell her that I'll meet her down Pussy Morgan Street,
I'm not very fussy and I'm looking for a pussy, I'll be up - her - flue - next - w-e-e-e-k.

Subject: RE: Chimney Sweep Songs Not Found on Disney
From: GUEST,Ms McQueen
Date: 26 Aug 10 - 06:51 PM

There is an entire children's opera by Benjamin Britten called "The Little Sweep" that has some really cool songs. Ten years after you asked, but still...

Subject: RE: Chimney Sweep Songs Not Found on Disney
From: GUEST,LDT
Date: 27 Aug 10 - 03:22 AM

I supose your looking for songs really. But I know a tune called sweeps hornpipe.