Melody Crossover

Subject: Melody Crossover
From: harpmolly
Date: 03 Nov 00 - 05:31 PM

I just heard Niamh Parson's version of "The Water Is Wide", which is quite lovely, and of course my first association was "Carrickfergus." Then it hit me, a few minutes later, that the song "Van Diemen's Land" sung by U2's Edge also shares a lot of elements of the melody. I know this is probably an oft-discussed subject, but I'm interested. What about other songs written more or less recently and set to older melodies? We can skip the really overexposed ones like "Greensleeves/What Child Is This," of course. I'm just curious to hear other people's favorite songs w/common melodies.

I'm also fond of "Lily of the West/Lakes of Ponchartrain."

Molly

Subject: RE: Melody Crossover
From: Ely
Date: 04 Nov 00 - 05:24 PM

Aside from Dylan's use of older tunes/themes/lyric bits, which we've probably discussed ad nauseum [sic] . . .

Some friends used to sing one called "Stay All Night" that used the tune to "Waterbound", with an added chorus. Jean Ritchie wrote "None But One" to the tune of "Nonesuch". There's also a lovely song called "Wild Geese" that goes to "Planxty John Irwin" (I think--I know the tune but I might have mistaken the title), but I don't know who wrote the words.

I've also heard songs borrowing the tunes to "Sweet Betsey from Pike", "Rosin the Bow" (many times), "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (many times), and the tune used for "Sink the Bismarck", which is a march that I've seen with many sets of lyrics, going back at least to the 1860's (although I do not know where it came from or what the original title might have been).

Subject: RE: Melody Crossover
From:
Date: 05 Nov 00 - 08:25 AM

Ely, the tune you're referring to is, I think, the Eighth of January which was used for Battle of New Orleans:

Eighth of January

There are a number of threads on the subject of Sink the Bismark and Battle of New Orleans.