Lyr Add: The Ups and Downs

Subject: Lyr Add: THE UPS AND DOWNS (Suffolk)
From: Snuffy
Date: 23 Sep 00 - 09:26 AM

In the DT is the text of a version recorded by Steeleye Span, and Malcolm Douglas has recently sent a midi of that tune to the Mudcat Midi pages. Here is another version collected in Suffolk in the 1980's.

THE UPS AND DOWNS

As I was a walkin' through Happisburgh* side by side
'Twas there I spied a fair young maid, her garter coming untied
I then made it my busy-ness,
And unto her I did say
"Oh, your garter is coming untied, fair maid,"
Singing whangs fol-a-riddle-i-ay

"Oh, thank you Sir, Oh, thank you Sir, Oh, thank you Sir", cried she
"'Tis if you've no objection, will you tie it up for me?"
"Oh yes, my fair young maiden,
If you'll come to yonder tree"
And we both rolled over together, my boys
Singing whangs fol-a-riddle-i-ay

And when we got to yonder tree, the grass grew very high
'Twas there I laid that fair maid down, her garter for to tie
And whilst I was a-tying,
Such a lovely sight I did see
And we both rolled over together, my boys
Singing whangs fol-a-riddle-i-ay

"Oh, now you've had your will on me, pray tell to me your name
Likewise your occupation and whence from whither thee came"
"My name is Jack the Rover,
From Dublin I did'st came
But I live alongside of the Ups and Downs,
You'll never see me again.

*Happisburgh is on the Norfolk coast, and is pronounced Hazeboro'. (Aylesbury in the other version is usually pronounced more like Azeboree - coincidence?)
From Songs sung in Suffolk, Vol 3. Veteran Tapes VT103. (Field recordings 1985-87 by John Howson). Sung by Gordon Woods of Framsden, Suffolk.

@bawdy @love @seduction @sex
VRH

MIDI file: UPSNDOWN.MID

Timebase: 480

Tempo: 130 (461538 microsec/crotchet)
Key: E
TimeSig: 6/8 36 8
Name: The Ups and Downs
Text: S:sung by Gordon Woods at Framsden, Suffolk
Start
0000 1 59 127 0239 0 59 000 0001 1 64 127 0719 0 64 000 0001 1 64 090 0479 0 64 000 0001 1 66 090 0239 0 66 000 0001 1 64 127 0719 0 64 000 0001 1 59 090 0479 0 59 000 0001 1 59 090 0239 0 59 000 0001 1 64 127 0479 0 64 000 0001 1 64 090 0239 0 64 000 0001 1 66 090 0479 0 66 000 0001 1 71 090 0239 0 71 000 0001 1 68 127 1199 0 68 000 0001 1 68 090 0239 0 68 000 0001 1 68 127 0479 0 68 000 0001 1 71 090 0239 0 71 000 0001 1 69 090 0479 0 69 000 0001 1 68 090 0239 0 68 000 0001 1 66 127 0479 0 66 000 0001 1 68 090 0239 0 68 000 0001 1 66 090 0479 0 66 000 0001 1 64 090 0239 0 64 000 0001 1 63 127 0479 0 63 000 0001 1 66 090 0239 0 66 000 0001 1 64 090 0239 0 64 000 0001 1 63 120 0239 0 63 000 0001 1 61 090 0239 0 61 000 0001 1 59 127 1199 0 59 000 0001 1 71 090 0239 0 71 000 0001 1 71 127 0479 0 71 000 0001 1 71 090 0239 0 71 000 0001 1 68 090 0479 0 68 000 0001 1 64 090 0239 0 64 000 0001 1 61 127 0239 0 61 000 0001 1 69 090 0479 0 69 000 0001 1 69 090 0479 0 69 000 0001 1 69 090 0239 0 69 000 0001 1 71 127 0479 0 71 000 0001 1 71 090 0239 0 71 000 0001 1 68 090 0239 0 68 000 0001 1 64 120 0239 0 64 000 0001 1 61 090 0239 0 61 000 0001 1 59 127 0719 0 59 000 0001 1 68 090 0479 0 68 000 0001 1 66 090 0239 0 66 000 0001 1 64 127 0239 0 64 000 0001 1 64 090 0239 0 64 000 0001 1 64 090 0239 0 64 000 0001 1 64 090 0239 0 64 000 0001 1 63 120 0239 0 63 000 0001 1 61 090 0239 0 61 000 0001 1 59 127 0479 0 59 000 0001 1 57 090 0239 0 57 000 0001 1 56 090 0479 0 56 000 0001 1 59 090 0119 0 59 000 0001 1 59 090 0119 0 59 000 0001 1 64 127 0479 0 64 000 0001 1 64 090 0119 0 64 000 0001 1 64 090 0119 0 64 000 0001 1 63 090 0239 0 63 000 0001 1 64 120 0239 0 64 000 0001 1 66 090 0239 0 66 000 0001 1 64 127 1199 0 64 000
End

This program is worth the effort of learning it.

To download the March 10 MIDItext 98 software and get instructions on how to use it click here

ABC format:

X:1
T:The Ups and Downs
M:6/8
L:1/8
Q:100
S:sung by Gordon Woods at Framsden, Suffolk
D:Songs Sung In Suffolk, Vol 3. Veteran VT103
K:E
B,|
E3 E2F|E3 B,2B,|E2E F2B|G3-G2G|
G2B A2G|F2G F2E|D2F EDC|B,3-B,2B|
B2B G2E|CA2 A2A|B2B (GE)C|B,3 G2F|
EEE EDC|B,2A, G,2B,/B,/|E2E/E/ DEF|E3-E2||

Wassail! V

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Ups and Downs
From: IanC
Date: 06 Nov 02 - 09:03 AM

This song appears more often as "The Aylesbury Girl". However, in D'Urfey's "Pills to Purge Melancholy" Volume 5 (1720) page 179, it's called "As I Came From Tottyngham" (i.e. Tottenham).

:-)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Ups and Downs
From: GUEST
Date: 06 Nov 02 - 09:55 AM

It originally appeared in 'Choyce Drollery', 1656, without tune direction. The 'Pills' tune is "London is a fine town"

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Ups and Downs
From: IanC
Date: 06 Nov 02 - 10:05 AM

Thanks, Bruce.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Ups and Downs
From: Richard Mellish
Date: 08 Jul 14 - 11:14 AM

I used to sing a version of this but am now unsure what words I would prefer to sing near the end.

Some versions have "I live alongside of the Ups and Downs" or "I live at the side of the Ups and Downs"; others have "I live at the sign of the Ups and Downs". I have read/heard somewhere that "The Ups and Downs" was the nickname of a regiment whose number looks the same upside down. 69?

If it is "at the side"/"alongside" that would imply that he follows the regiment for some purpose. If it's "at the sign" that would presumably refer to a pub named for the regiment.

Anyone have any light to shed?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Ups and Downs
From: michaelr
Date: 08 Jul 14 - 06:37 PM

I've always assumed that "the Ups and Downs" was sexual innuendo.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Ups and Downs
From: Anglo
Date: 09 Jul 14 - 12:50 AM

I've always assumed it was a pub (from "sign").

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Ups and Downs
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 09 Jul 14 - 01:44 AM

"The 69th (South Lincolnshire) Regiment of Foot ... The regiment's nickname "The Ups and Downs" may come from its number, which reads the same upside down". Wikipedia

Presumably he is telling her, either that he is a soldier in the 69th, or that there is a pub where he puts up named after it.

~M~

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Ups and Downs
From: Lighter
Date: 09 Jul 14 - 08:01 AM

A soldier wouldn't live at "the sign of" anything, unless it was a joke, i.e., a nonexistent tavern whose sign presumably features   people "doing it."

What's more, the crafty bastard is giving her a fake address.

It would be interesting to know how the ballad sheet phrases it.

Till then, I'm with Anglo and michaelr.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Ups and Downs
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 09 Jul 14 - 08:16 AM

He might: some soldiers would be billeted at local pubs, rather than having to live in barracks.

~M~

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Ups and Downs
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 09 Jul 14 - 10:36 AM

Though I have generally heard it "live alongside of the Ups & Downs", which I have taken to be a declaration that he was a serving soldier in that particular regiment.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Ups and Downs
From: Lighter
Date: 09 Jul 14 - 10:48 AM

I doubt that being billeted by the unit at a local inn still would put him "along side of" it in any natural use of language.

No text says, "I live at the sign - and, by the way, along side - of the Ups and Downs." It's one or the other.

(He might have said, "I live along o' the Ups and Downs." That, of course, would be different. But he doesn't.)

And if the inn has a false name, it isn't real, and he doesn't have to be a soldier of the "Ups and Downs" or any other regiment. Conceivably he's just a bloke who lives nearby.

James Reeves (of "Foggy, Foggy Dew" fame) seems to have connected the song to the "69th" back in 1958.

Because it's fun to believe (adds corroborating detail, wot?), it seems never to have been challenged.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Ups and Downs
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 09 Jul 14 - 11:13 AM

No, you are confused Lighter. My first post was to explain the 'sign of' version' the second as to what the 'alongside' might mean. Both seem to make perfect sense within their own contexts. The Ups & Downs as the nickname of the 69th is confirmed quite widely; in wikipedia, e.g.

69th (South Lincolnshire) Regiment of Foot
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
69th Regiment of Foot
Active         1756-1881 (amalgamated 1881)
Country         Great Britain, United Kingdom
Type         Infantry
Nickname         The Ups and Downs

The 69th (South Lincolnshire) Regiment of Foot was an infantry regiment of the British Army, formed in 1758 and amalgamated into The Welsh Regiment in 1881. ...

The regiment's nickname "The Ups and Downs" may come from its number, which reads the same upside down.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Ups and Downs
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 09 Jul 14 - 03:00 PM

In support of my contention of 0816 AM, note following from online Oxford Dictionary:-

BILLET verb (billets, billeting, billeted)

Lodge (soldiers) in a particular place, especially a civilian's house or other nonmilitary facility:
"he didn't belong to the regiment billeted at the hotel"

More example sentences

    "For much of European history barracks were the exception rather than the rule, and soldiers were billeted in civilian lodgings or public houses."

~M~

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Ups and Downs
From: Lighter
Date: 09 Jul 14 - 03:18 PM

The billeting of soldiers in inns and elsewhere is not in dispute. Nor is the regimental nickname.

But the relevance of either to the song in question remains unsupported by fact or textual evidence.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Ups and Downs
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 09 Jul 14 - 03:24 PM

"The billeting of soldiers in inns and elsewhere is not in dispute", eh?

Yes it is -- look again at your post of 0801 am, where you state dogmatically that a soldier wouldn't live "at the sign of' anything.

So what do you think he means then, Lighter: either by living "alongside of" or "at the sign of"? I mean, why introduce the phrase into the song at all if it is to have no referent?

~M~