Songs Your Mother Sang to You

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: celticblues5
Date: 16 Apr 01 - 10:40 PM

Oops - forgot my other favorite -

Down by the meadow in the iddy biddy pool
Swam three little fishies and a momma fishie too
"Swim," said the momma fishie, "Swim if you can,"
So they swam and they swam, right over the dam.

Boop, boop, diddum, daddum, waddum, choo!
Boop, boop, diddum, daddum, waddum, choo!
Boop, boop, diddum, daddum, waddum, choo, and they swam and they swam right over the dam

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: CRANKY YANKEE
Date: 17 Apr 01 - 01:04 AM

My Dad was a great " stride" piano player (Rqgtime-barrelhouse) and he also played a banjo-mandolin that he called his "DROOBLE" (because it went "drooble - drooble") We didn't have a piano but some of my aunts and uncles did. Whenever we visited one, He' liven things up considerably. On Sunday afternoon Dad, his "drooble", my sister and I would sit around and sing songs. When I started playing guitar, it got even better., Dad taught us about harmony so the three of us would sing 3 part harmony. Some of the songs we sang were really funny, like," Dum dum deedle deedle dum dum dum. One verse and chorusfollows,

I I went one night my girl to see,
at the door, her mother greeted me
She's upstairs taking a bath, said she
Dum. dum, deedle, eedle, dum, dum,dum
Then she said, "Oh, daughter fair,"
slip on something and come down stair
She slipped on the top stair and came down bare
dum, dum, deedle, eedle, dum, dum, dum.

(Heck I might as well write the whole song)

II
Then to a funeral we did go,
We followed the hearse with our heads bowed low
We marched around in the ice and snow
Dum, dum, deedle,eedle, dum,dum, dum
Then an awful smell made me raise my head
I found we weren't following the dead,
We were following the garbage wagon insted
Dum, dum, deedle,eedle, dum dum dum.

And then there was ,"Well it looks like rain", AKA "Giddyap I'm goin' home"

I
Well I never was madder had a job on a ladder
carryin' mortar up and down outside.
Took a step I hadn't ought'er fell into a mess of mortar
, well I never was so "mortar- fied"

(refrain) Well, it looks like rain, giddyap, I'm goin' home
" " " " " " " " "

II
Billy bloke, he had a bill goat,
and the billy goat's name was "nell"
Well a mowin' machine took 'is nose off clean,
how did the billy goat smell
(spoken ) TERRIBLE!!
(repeat refrain)

III
Billy Kramer says he's a lion tamer,
over in the animal school.
But Charlie Griever says he's no such neither>BR>, He's a God Damned LION FOOL, (spoken) YESSIR.

(REPEAT REFRAIN)

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: CRANKY YANKEE
Date: 17 Apr 01 - 01:25 AM

My dd had a million of them

My mom never did get into the sunday afternoon song fest, she was usually visiting aunts, uncles, grandma, etc.

One day,I got out of school early (don't remember why).Mom, (obviously) didn't realize that I came in the door, and, while she was vacuuming the living room carpet, she was singing, "BARNACLE BILL THE SAILOR" , and, it was one of the raunchiest verses. I stood in the doorway, shocked and struck dumb. Just as she started to sing another verse, I found my voice and screamed, M O T H E R . She turned and looked at me as if to say,"So What" and went back to vacuuming. This shattered all of my 15 year old illusions about the sanctity of Motherhood, I've never been able to learn that old Pump Chantey.

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: GUEST,SusanGoo
Date: 17 Apr 01 - 04:33 AM

Mom left when I was 3 or so, so Daddy raised me. He couldn't carry a tune, but we didn't have a radio in the old truck, so he sang. I remember

"Skinny marink a dink a dink, Skinny marink a doo I love you (boomp boomp) (he always added that) I love you in the morning and I love you in the night I love you in the evening when the stars are shining bright, Oh, skinny marink a dink a dink, Skinny marink a doo I love YOU!"

I sing it to my daughter, along with "Bill Grogan's Goat" and the Billboard song. When I finally learned Christmas carols, I sang them with and to him - Christmas carols all year round. I'd sure love to have him "harmonizing" on "Little Town of Bethelehem" again.

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Apr 01 - 02:44 AM

I can remember "Buffalo Gal" and "Three Little Fishes" and "Can I sleep in your barn tonight, Mr." Also I am a little orphan My mother she is dead My daddy is a poor man and he can't buy no bread

I sit by the window and hear the organ play I seem to see my mother But she is far away.

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Apr 01 - 07:13 PM

Guest, My Mum's version was
oh Jemima, look at your Uncle Jim
He's in the duck pond learning how to swim
First he did the breast stroke, then he did the side
Now he's in the waterswimming against the tide

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: GUEST,2feathers (for Mrs. Duck and for Caitrin)
Date: 18 Apr 01 - 11:09 PM

Hi, Mrs.Duck, My mother also sang the same song and the words go: Hush my babby, my curly headed babby Just rest your head on Mommy's breast while she sings a lullaby, -y -y. Hush my babby, my darling little babby The yellow sun has gone to rest and the stars are in the sky - y - y Does you want the moon to play with? Or the stars to run away with? They's come if you don't cry So lula, lula, lula, lula bye-bye In mommy's arms you're creepin' And soon you'll be a-sleepin' so-o Lula, lula, lula, lula bye.

And Caitrin, here's a bit more of the chorus of "TODAY" Today while the blossoms still cling to the vine, I'll eat your strawberries and drink your sweet wine, a million tomorrows will all pass away, ere I forget all the joy that is mine today." I can hum the intro line, but can't remember another word tonight!

My mom sang all the time. I remember asking for the funny sounding ones like "Jada, jada, jing jing jing" and (can you believe another song with the same silly jada jada wrods?) "In the land of San Domingo, lived a girl called Oh, By Jingo, Ja Da Jada Jada jing, jing, jing. From the fields and from the marshes, came the young and old by goshes, Ja Da, Jada, jada jing,jing jing. They all spoke a diffeent lingo, but they all loved Oh, By Jingo, and every night, they'd sing in the pale moonlight: Oh, By Jingo won't you be our love?, Oh, by jingo be our turtle dove We will build for you a hut You will be our favorite nut We'll raise a lot of little Oh By Gollies And we'll put them in the follies! By jingo said by gosh by gum by gee Oh, by jiminy please don't bother me So the all went away saying oh by gosh by gum by jimminy By Gee You're the only gal for me.

The next verse began Oh, by jingo had a lover He was always undercover Ja Da jada jada jing jing jing.... And then my mind cuts out! Of course, I could ask my mom to sing it now. She is 99 years old, but remembers every song she ever learned - possisbly thousands and thousands of them!

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: DougR
Date: 19 Apr 01 - 01:35 AM

Guest SusanGoo: "Bill Grogan's Goat." I hadn't thought about that song in years until now. I sang in a Barbershop Quartet in college, and that was one of the songs we sang. Thanks for reminding me!

DougR

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: GUEST,JohnB
Date: 19 Apr 01 - 12:44 PM

One song previously mentioned which my mother sang was Oh! Oh! Antonio, although I do not recollect any of the verses. She sang quite a lot of songs. When I came to Canada I left her a cassette recorder. We swapped a few tapes here and there. I still have th one on which she sang about an hours worth of her songs for my kids to listen to. It is a pretty lousy quality recording but worth it's weight in Gold to me now. I will have to go home and dig it out. If you can get your mothers to sing onto tape, do it now, while you can. JohnB

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: NightWing
Date: 19 Apr 01 - 11:53 PM

Mom tells me every now and then that when I was little my favorite song was "Widdecombe Fair"

Tom Pierce, Tom Pierce, lend me your grey mare
All along, down along, out along lee
For I want for to go to Widdecombe Fair
With Bill Brewer, Jan Stewer, Peter Gurney, Peter Davy
Dan'l Widden, Harry Hall, Old Uncle Tom Cobley and all
Old Uncle Tom Cobley and all

For me it was always Mom who sang and played; Dad can't carry a tune in a bucket. I've invited her in here, but she's never showed (so far as I know).

BB,
NightWing

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: gaelicconquest
Date: 03 Jul 01 - 06:45 PM

Can you give the tune to this??I think it is wonderful

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: Snuffy
Date: 03 Jul 01 - 07:42 PM

Widdecombe Fair is in the DT with the tune, but the words Nightwing posted above are more common. (the DT version keeps making the mare male!!)

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: Amos
Date: 03 Jul 01 - 07:59 PM

My ma sang all sorts, mostly learned from her father, including drinking songs (Glorious, Glorious, One Keg o Beer for the Four of Us), "The King of the Cannibal Islands", a couple of very sweet but politically incorrect Rastus lullabies which can be found in the 1900's sheet music available on the web ("I'se a Lil Alabammy Coon" and "Now I'se Gettin' Ol' an' Weary") plus some old standards like "White Wings", "Hush Lil Baby" , "His Eye is On The Sparrow", and a few rousing things like "A Sergeant in the Aaarmy". Don't recall them all now but she taught us to sing along with her and do basic three part harmony which I always appreciated.

A

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: Eluned
Date: 04 Jul 01 - 04:58 AM

I must be the wierd one here. Neither my mother nor my father sang to or with me, while I was a child. However, sometimes my brother, sister and I sang rounds on one of the many long family car-trips - the usual ones for kids - and my sister and I had a radio in our room. Since the first ten years of my life were in the 60's, and we moved to a backwater for several more years where the music was not the "latest", I was fortunate enough to be serenaded by folk-music.
But I think what I remember most vividly of childhood music, and this may seem odd, was sitting outside a door every sunday listening to a neighbor practice on his bagpipes. I think he must have been very good. I really like celtic music.
Eluned

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: mytoycar
Date: 04 Jul 01 - 12:19 PM

I dont think my mother used to sing to use that often, she did a little when me and my brother used to share a room but after that she never bothered

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: Eluned
Date: 05 Jul 01 - 05:50 AM

Hey, prew; Why only when you and your bro shared a room? And do you remember what she sang? Eluned

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: Angie
Date: 05 Jul 01 - 06:34 AM

my dad used to entertain us with tunes like the old lady who swallowed a fly, ally bally and i think i'll go and eat worms. he also told this little poem; little bird with broken wing cannot whistle, cannot sing. what shall we do with the poor little thing....... chop it's stupid head off! my mother sang a lot of barry manilow songs so we kept out of her way.

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: GUEST,A DAM GOOD ALE
Date: 09 Sep 08 - 10:29 PM

MY MOTHER, SANG THIS SONG WITH LOVE AND A PROTECTVE TENDERNESS BEFOR WE WOULD GO TO SLEEP,,, NIW SHE IS DIEING U=IN A NURSING HOME ALONE IN CALIFORNIA,, BUT THE SONG I TAUGHT IT TO MY DAUGHTE AND NOW SHE SINGS IT TO ME SOMETIMES....HERE IT IS--I wont to have it on her headstone:

"Pretty little bluebird, where do you go?
come back, come back, to me...
I go said the bird, as She flew out of sight,
to see if my color, matches the sky...."

"I love you, I love you, go to sleep...go to sleep...
I love you, I love you, go to sleep..."

adam
[e-mail]

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: Tails
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 08:12 AM

I've been searching for this song as long as you have, and at last I have it... not 100% as I remember but close enough

There was a mother monkey.
She lived in a tall gum tree.
She lived with father monkey
just as happy as can be.
They had a little monkey boy.
He was their pride and joy.
Now listen while I tell you bout that little monkey boy!
He was such a little monkey
with such a curly tail
He went out for a walk one day
and fell into a pail.
When mother monkey found him
she cried and cried and cried.
She quickly fished him out again
But, quietly he died!
Now poor old mother monkey she was so very sad,
she'd lost her little monkey boy,
the only one she had.
So putting on her bonnet she hurried to the store
and bought another monkey boy exactly like before.

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: GUEST,john h
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 11:28 AM

Sung to me by my mother in the 1940s to the well-known tune

we've got some chickens in our back yard,
we feed them on Indian corn,
And some lay eggs and some lay bricks
And some lay nothing at all.

Yankee Doodle, yankee doodle,
I lost the leg o' my drawers;
Yankee doodle, yankee doodle,
Will you lend me yours.

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: Charmion
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 11:38 AM

Ah, memory ...

I learned something like that from my Dad, sung (or the thing that he did that approximated singing) to the pipe tune "Cock o the North":

Chase me, Charlie, chase me, Charlie,
Lost the leg o' me drawers;
If you find it, wash and iron it,
Then you can call it yours.

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 08:47 PM

If Caitrin is still out there this may be of interest. Catherine Mc Kinnon singing "Today"

Today

My mother used to sing me songs of train disasters.

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 04 Jan 09 - 10:28 PM

Didn't see this thread when it first went around as I wasn't a Mudcatter, yet. One thing that struck me immediately. Most of the names of the folks who responded are unfamiliar to me, and I've been on here three or four years. They come and they go.

My mother was the singer in our family. Myt father rarely sang, although he surprised me when he was in his eighties by suddenly launching into Softly and Tenderly (which I'd never heard him or my mother sing.) Mom mostly sang hymns and turn of the century popular songs, with a liberal sprinkling of the current hits of the 40's, which we all sang. Some of the most frequently sung hymns were In the Garden, Jesus Loves Me, The Little Brown Church in the Dell (which I visited once as an adult) and all the Christmas carols. Her tour de force was Stay In Your Own Back Yard, which now is politically incorrect. It was our favorite song because we could identify with the little black child who was taunted by the white kids in the neighborhood. We weren't black but we all knew tormented.
Turn of the century songs were sung throughout our neighborhood around pianos: And the Band Played On, K-K-K-K-Katie, The Man On the Flying Trapeze, A Bicycle Built For Two, In the Good Old Summertime, and on and on.

Those may not have been "the" days my friend, but they'll pass for them.

Jerry

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: GUEST,GUEST
Date: 08 Jul 09 - 10:33 AM

My mom taught this song to me that she learned in school. She was born
in 1923 and was raised in Maine.

Robin dear I love you so.
I really wonder if you know
where the little flowers sleep
hidden deep beneath the snow.

I have waited for your coming Robin dear.
And I hear you singing singing Spring is here.
All the world is fresh and sweet
flowers blossom at your feet.
Life is joyous quite complete
Robin dear.

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Jan 10 - 12:19 AM

Heres a song that used to be sung on the radio of a morning,
Top of the morning dont forget to sing a song , eggs are easy they help the day along,
i dont remember the rest but this wont leave my head, has anyone else heard this and know all of it?

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: Gweltas
Date: 17 Jan 10 - 02:32 AM

When ever we went anywhere further than a couple of miles in a car as kids, my sisters and I used to get very "car sick". Unfortunately , my mother was also a very poor traveller, so all kinds of (mostly ineffective!) travel sickness "remedies" were tried in order to get us to and from various places without spending more time stopped at the side of the road while some kid, or my mother, was being dreadfully sick than actually making any forward progress! It must have been a nightmare for my poor father. My mother finally hit on a mostly effective solution to the problem by encouraging us all to sing !! So, every time we travelled by car, we sang all the way there and all the way back. We sang songs we'd learned in school, songs we'd heard on the radio, songs my mother taught us in an effort to expand the repertoir for long journeys, advertising jingles, hymns, Christmas songs, nursery rhyme songs...in fact anything that COULD be sung !! So to try and list them all now would take forever!! Suffice it to say that we grew out of our car sickness tendencies as time moved on and the singing helped enormously, but my poor mother remained a life long "bad traveller".

She had a lovely singing voice, in contrast with my father who couldn't hold a note, much less a tune ! However, he was a wonderful story teller, but the only time he told stories outside of our immediate family was on Hallow Eve, when the neighbouring kids would all gather in to hear his scarey stories ! This often resulted in me having to escort spooked kids back to their houses at the end of the night, 'cos they were too scared to go the short distance home in the dark on their own.

Looking back on the songs my mother used to sing, they were a delightful mixture of traditional Irish songs (in English and Irish), and songs off the radio such as "Mack The Knife", Green Door", "High Hopes", calypsos like "Island in the Sun" and "Stone Cold Dead in De Market", Gilbert and Sullivan light operatic songs, Burl Ives' songs, and even some simple French language songs she'd remembered from her own schooldays.

Thanks for starting this tread, mousethief. It has revived long forgotten but very pleasant memories for me of all those happy car journeys, singing all the way.
Anne XX.

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 17 Jan 10 - 03:02 AM

When I was v small [about 1933-6] my mother [b Hoxton, E London, 1909] would sing me eclectic mix of old music-hall [Two Little Girls In Blue], current pop from then prominent singers [Shirley Temple's Good Ship Lollipop, Gracie Fields' Isle of Capri]; WWi [K K K Katie]; G&S [I Have A Song To Sing-O from Yeomen Of The Guard]. Also whenever the Westminster chimes came on wireless, she would sing along with them 'Poor old Millwall, Can't play football', which she had learned at school, Millwall FC, based near London Docks on Isle Of Dogs, being the local football [soccer] team in her childhood:— I gave this jingle to the Opies in the 70s as they had not previously come across it; not sure if they ever published it anywhere; I still can't hear Big Ben chiming without singing those words in my head.

Like most children I would watch my father (b 1901) shaving. While doing so, he would sing me from side of mouth 'When I am dead don't bury me at all, Just pickle my bones in alcohol, ...'; 'Gaudeamus igitur'; Dibdin's 'Right Little, Tight Little Island'; & loved also to la-la-la the Coldstream Guards regimental march version [which he had marched to in his school cadet days in Hackney Downs, London] of Mozart's Non Piu Andrai from Marriage Of Figaro.

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 17 Jan 10 - 09:07 AM

Wonderful that his beautiful thread has been refreshed so that we newbies can join in. No-one has identified the fragment in the very OP: 'Mama done told me when I was in pigtails, a man is a two-face' [male version, I recall, was 'when I was in kneepants, woman's a two-face']. I remember it was a 40s song called Blues In The Night - hang on while I google: - here I am back: Harold Arlen & Johnny Mercer - who better! - 1941.

Should add that when I lived at my sister's for a bit in 1950s, she once asked me if I would tell my nephews a bedtime story - I replied I'd rather take my guitar up & sing to them; which then became a nightly ritual (It is no longer, as they are now 60 & 57!). They are now both folkies - one of them started Israel's first folk club 30+ years ago, called Jacob's Ladder in Kibbutz Machenayim. Tho he is now living in Devon, the younger one still out there producing tv films. Anyway, their fave songs, I recall from about 1956-7, were Jesse James, Widdecombe Fair, Old Woman Who Swallowed A Fly, Big Rock Candy Mountain, Blue Tail Fly, &, for some reason, the older reminds me (I just called him to check what he remembered as I was typing this), Chevaliers de la Table Ronde ...

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 17 Jan 10 - 09:23 AM

... oh, & Aunt Rhody, Fox Went Out On A Chilly Night, Down In The Valley, Streets Of Laredo ... Something tells me I might just have had a copy of THE BURL IVES SONG BOOK AT THE TIME — LET'S HAVE A LOOK ON MY FOLK BOOKS SHELF — yep, still there, tho falling to pieces a little bit maybe.
[Sorry about caps — not shouting, just clumsy Cap-Locking].

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: Charmion
Date: 17 Jan 10 - 10:52 AM

My mother used to sing at the table. Our favourites were Tom Lehrer's "Irish Ballad" and a wonderful but unfortunately no longer funny ditty called "It's Sister Jenny's Turn to Throw the Bomb". Childrena are such bloody-minded little beasts.

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: mousethief
Date: 18 Jan 10 - 01:41 AM

No-one has identified the fragment in the very OP: 'Mama done told me when I was in pigtails, a man is a two-face' [male version, I recall, was 'when I was in kneepants, woman's a two-face']. I remember it was a 40s song called Blues In The Night - hang on while I google: - here I am back: Harold Arlen & Johnny Mercer - who better! - 1941.

I just heard a remake of this on the local jazz station! It was by Eva Cassidy, who apparently passed away in 1996.

O..O
=o=

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: Snuffy
Date: 18 Jan 10 - 08:39 AM

I learned 'Poor old Millwall, Can't play football' in 1954 or 55, but not from my mother. From other kids as we queued to go into Sunday School at Hazel Grove, Cheshire (nowhere near Millwall!)

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 18 Jan 10 - 09:15 AM

Snuffy - Thank you so much — only time I have come across it anywhere else; even the Opies didn't know it, as I said. & it was local to my mother's district about 1915 - 20. Where had it been between then & 50s in Cheshire! really fascinated!

- Michael

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 18 Jan 10 - 02:06 PM

loads of stuff... she is always singing...

I remember from very little 3 - 5 years old.

TURN AROUND
(Malvina Reynolds, Alan Greene and Harry Belafonte)

THREE LITTLE FISHES
(Saxie Dowell)

WITCHES ON BROOMSTICKS
(Lillian Mohr)

And of course

TAMMY'S IN LOVE
(Jay Livingston and Ray Evans)

And why shouldn't she since she named me after the character in the film.

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: GUEST,Neil
Date: 23 Feb 10 - 09:18 AM

There was a mother monkey who lived in a big tall tree
There was a daddy monkey, as happy as can be
They had a baby monkey, he was their joy and pride
Now listen while I tell you, the baby monkey died

He was such a tiny monkey, who had such a curly tail
and walking in the woods one day he fell into a pail
his mother when she found him, she cried and cried and cried
and then she fished him out again and quietly he died

pause

Now putting on her bonnet she ran to the shops so fast
and bought another monkey boy exactly like the last

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: SuperKrone
Date: 23 Feb 10 - 12:22 PM

From my Father's mother (who had her last child in 1914): Stephen Foster "Skeeters am a humming in the honeysuckle vine, sleep Kentucky Baby" "Don't know what they call him, but he's mighty like a rose", "I dream of Jeanie with the light brown hair", and "Das Lorilei", in English and German.

From my Mother's older sister (second generation Czech immigrants): "The Blueskirt Waltz", "Annie goes to the cabbage patch", and "Johnie Verbeck", who made cats and dogs into sausages, until he was accidetly made into sausage himself,

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 23 Feb 10 - 12:35 PM

Sorry ~ someone trying to put me down on another message-board site remarked that "MtheGM's pedantry is legendary": meant as a put-down, I think, but I took it as a great compliment ~

all this as prelim to saying, "Sorry SuperKrone; but 'DIE LorElei'."

Hasty exit...

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: SuperKrone
Date: 23 Feb 10 - 02:38 PM

MtheGM: No need to say sorry--- I never saw it in writing, and don't know German. I doubt if my Granma Collett knew the language either. I suspect she just knew this one song, sort of like lots of people know a few Frech songs, but not French.

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 23 Feb 10 - 03:10 PM

Many thanks, SuperKrone. Did you notice a quite recent thread about Die Lorelei and supposed similarities of its tune to the song in Cabaret, Tomorrow belongs To Me. Tho I pointed out that the cabaret song even more resembles Rout Of the Blues. In vase you missed it, I will refresh that thread,

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 23 Feb 10 - 03:19 PM

I think I put this on a lullaby thread somewhere. Our family lullaby going back 4 generations or so is related to an earlier fragment here which I haven't yet identified.
It is in two parts to 2 tunes so may have been part of a medley.
First bit is a remnant of a 19thc broadside 'The Soldier's Poor Little Boy'

Early pearly snow on the ground
The wind was bitter and cold,
When a poor little beggar boy out in the snow,
Came up to a rich lady's door.

the lady sat in the window so high
And loudly she did call,
Come in, come in, you poor little boy
And you shall have a warm.

Spoken--And this is the story he told
(What follows is related to the bit back up the thread and is sung to 'Home Sweet Home')

I am a poor little beggar boy
My mother she is dead
My father is a drunkard
And will not give me bread.

I sit beside the window
to hear the organ play,
god bless my dear old mother
Who's dead and far away.

Apart from that my mother sang us 'Still I love him', 'I wish I was single again', 'Toora loora loora', 'Any umberellas', Three little fishies', 'Go to sleep my baby' and lots lots more.
You can hear her singing 'Still I love him' and 'Early pearly' on the Yorkshire Garland Website www.yorkshirefolksong.net There's also a longer version of 'Early pearly' on there.

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: GUEST,Dave Thomas Indianapolis
Date: 17 Jun 10 - 02:17 PM

O by jingle had a lover,
he was always undercover
do de dodedodedolu um bop um bop um bop.

They all sang a different lingo
but they all loved o by jingle
so every night they would sing by the pale blue night
oh by de by gee by gosh by gum by jew by giminy
please dont bother me

so they all went away singing
ob gosh by gum by jingle your the only girl for me.

Second verse:

From the fields and from the marshes..........??

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: Tannywheeler
Date: 17 Jun 10 - 10:10 PM

Oi! A list like you wouldn't believe.
Ballads: 2 versions of The 4 Marys, Barbra Ellen, Omy Wise, Poor Ellen Smith, Pretty Polly, Lord Bateman, Frankie & Johnny, as a partial list.
Rounds: Dona Nobis Pacem, O Wie Wohl ist Mir am Abends, a French one about a cat getting the cream, White Coral Bells, On Yonder Hill There Stands a Maiden, again a partial list.
Other Stuff: I Ride An Old Paint, Hush Little Baby(...Mocking Bird), Go To Sleepy Little Baby(2 versions),Santa Clause Blues, Go Down Ol' Hannah, What Month Was Jesus Born In, No Room at the Inn, & at 1 point she began singing parts of Tam Lin, another partial list.
She loved Danny Kaye & sometimes got to see him in clubs in NYC. She sometimes sang fragments of his material as she remembered them. Not the cleaned-up versions from his movies...Many years ago, as the crow flies, she would come visit us in So. Austin when tmy kids were little & she'd do Anatole of Paris. We were all mesmerized...Tw

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: LadyJean
Date: 18 Jun 10 - 12:30 AM

Dad used to sing to me "Your Feets Too Big". And: "Lord Jeffrey Amherst was a soldier of the king, and he didn't like Indians not much. He fought all the Indians that ever he could see, and he looked around for more when he was through." Which is odd, because dad was sympathetc towards Native Americans, and he went to Princeton.

Mom knew every show tune ever written, not to metnion a fair chunk of Harry Lauder's songs.

And then there were here collection of naughty songs. I sang "Sister Lucy Had a Low Necked Dress, There's No Hiding Place Down There" to another catter. While I was at it, I recorded a couple of others, including "Around a corner, and under a tree, a sergeant major, made love to me." Mom sang the unexpurgated version of "Bell Bottom Trousers" and the sanitized version of "Gay Caballero from Rio Janero" (Which I think is funnier than the dirty one.) I ended my recording session with JohnEdward by singing an old favorite of Mom's, "Oh Dear What Can the Matter Be 3 Old Ladies Were Locked In a Lavatory". After I sang about Harriet Bender (Who came in to fix a suspender (( garter in British)) which flew up and hit her feminine gender.) he paused, briefly and said, "She taught you that?!"
Yeah, she did.

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: Neighmond
Date: 18 Jun 10 - 05:03 AM

This came along at a good time-my Ma will be gone a year on the 17th of July.

Mammie sang "you are My Sunshine" and a little old gospel. I think she sang us "Shine on Harvest Moon" once or twice.

My Grannie used to sing "A Bushel and a peck" (and a hug around the neck)

Dad had one:

Well, I knew an old bum and he had a wooden leg,
and he never had tobacco so he always had to beg
'nother old bum, just as sly as any fox,
and he always had tobacco in hos old tobacco box!
Says the first old bum, "Won't you let me have a chew?"
Says the second old bum "Be damnded (darned) if you do!
If you save all your money and you save all your rocks
You'd always have tobacco in your old tobacco box!"

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: LadyJean
Date: 19 Jun 10 - 12:37 AM

And Dad sang; This is the way the ladies ride (Bounce the child on knees sedately) ladies ride ladies ride. This is the way the ladies ride, so early in the morning.
This is the way the gentlemen ride (Bounce the child less sedately on knees.)
This is the way the farmer boy rides. (Slide the child from side to side on knees, since the farmer boy can't sit a horse.)
This is the way the robbers ride. (Bounce rapidly, since, as a young lady of 4 told me once, the robbers are riding fast to get away from the police.)
The tune is This is the Way We Wash Our Clothes.

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You - So close!
From: GUEST,grew up with this song - it goes EXACTLY as
Date: 25 Jun 10 - 12:53 PM

There once was a mother monkey
who lived in a tall tall tree
She lived with daddy monkey as happy as can be
They had a little monkey boy who was their joy an pride
Now listen and I'll tell you, how Tommy monkey died

He was such a tiny monkey, with such a curly tail
He went out for a walk one day and fell into a pail

When mother monkey saw him, she cried and cried and cried
She tried to fetch him out again but quietly he died

Now poor old mother monkey, she was so very sad
She had lost her monkey boy, the only one she had

So putting on her bonnet. she ran to the shops so fast
And bought another monkey boy exactly like the last!

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: GUEST,Liz
Date: 14 Sep 10 - 01:47 PM

this is to Sarah the flute I sing the monkey song at the nursery I work in along with lots of old ones and the children all love it probably because he DIED

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 15 Sep 10 - 04:38 AM

What are little girls made of?
What are little girls made of?
Sugar and Spice and everything nice,
That's what little girls are made of.

What are little boys made of?
What are little boys made of?
Snips and snails and puppy dogs tails,
That's what little boys are made of.

What are ladies made of?
What are ladies made of?
Silk and laces and sweet pretty faces,
That's what ladies are made of.

I don't remember if there is any more to this song but she would sing this to me all the time. A song that was popular in our house was Maurice Chavalier's 'Thank Heaven for Little Girls' which my aunt would sing to me when she took turns to take me up to bed to give my mum a rest.
Songs like 'This is the way the ladies ride, and Ride a Cock Horse' was regularly listened to on a children's radio program 'Listen with Mother' I never missed one. The narrator would ask if we were all sitting comfortably, and began with a story and sure enough we were sat cross legged and ready. The innocence of that time!

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: Desi C
Date: 15 Sep 10 - 08:00 AM

it was my Gran who I remember singing to me, she was a multi instrumental Trad Irish player. But she loved old American songs, 'Tom Dooley' was a fav and 'How Much Is That Doggie' 'Campdown Races' 'Old Folks at Home' and an Irish song I do now myself 'The Spinning wheel' Great Memories

Subject: RE: Songs Your Mother Sang to You
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 15 Sep 10 - 08:11 AM

Hi Ho Silver Lining ?

100