Origins: All Around My Hat

Subject: Origins? All around my hat
From: pavane
Date: 09 Aug 01 - 04:56 AM

In browsing the Bodleian Ballad library, I have noticed that the only version of 'All around my Hat' was apparently a Cockney parody
All around my hat, I vears a green villow
I was interested to see that the tune was given as The (poor) fisherman's boy. Searching for that, I found two songs, The Poor Fisherman's Boy and The Poor Fisherman's Girl, both of which could be fitted to the tune that I know (as done by Steeleye Span). Does anyone know of a link between the two songs, which don't really seem to have much else in common?

Subject: RE: Origins? All around my hat
From: IanC
Date: 09 Aug 01 - 05:33 AM

Pavane

It's very common for a broadside to use the song of an old song for a newer one (saves the buyer having to learn the tune from the street singer or make one up). See, for example, the earliest broadside versions Black Velvet Band where the tune is given as "Tars of The Blanch". I think that the simple answer to your question about the relationship between the two songs is that they were to the same tune. Period.

If you're interested in looking at the wider issues associated with the origins of this song, there are quite a few earlier threads. However, I don't recall the Green Willow version as being at all popular until Steeleye recorded it. The version I used to know was an older version of this one In Her Hair She Wore a Yellow Ribbon and it might be worth looking for it under that name or a similar one.

Cheers!
Ian

Subject: RE: Origins? All around my hat
From: pavane
Date: 09 Aug 01 - 06:30 AM

Unfortunately, for some reason I wasn't able to search the forum.

The version has obvioulsy been around(!) for a long time. There is a ballad c1670, called
The Willow (or VVillovv!) Green or The distressed lovers complaint
in the Douce collection, which refers to the green willow in similar circumstances:

And cunningly from me is parted
which makes me wear the willow green

The song All around my hat appears on several other Bodleian Ballad library images under the title 'The Green Willow' (sometimes referring to a cap, not hat), but no tune is given in any of them.

There is also a political parody called The Disappointed One, starting with the 'All around my Hat' verse, unfortunately not dated.

Subject: RE: Origins? All around my hat
From: pavane
Date: 09 Aug 01 - 06:54 AM

No relevant songs found on Bodley with either Ribbon or Yellow.

Subject: RE: Origins? All around my hat
From: Peg
Date: 09 Aug 01 - 10:10 AM

one thing I can say, the 'twelve month and a day" thing does seem connected to the old handfasting rites, wherein a couple was allowed to part amicably and without fear of repercussion from the community, if, after a year and a day, their union was not fruitful...

hence the 'year and a day" custom of modern handfastings...

Subject: RE: Origins? All around my hat
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 09 Aug 01 - 02:08 PM

Though interesting and important, the broadside collection at the Bodleian is not the fount of all knowledge, and you will have to look further afield if you want to get anywhere with this kind of exercise.  Beware of becoming too carried away by any one particular resource!

It has been considered that All Around My Hat was a derivative of The Nobleman's Wedding, from which it may indeed have borrowed a verse and a form of its melody; alternatively, the borrowing may have been in the opposite direction.  There are relevant references in numbers 31 and 34 of the Journal of the Folk Song Society (1927 and 1930) which I'll look up tomorrow if I have time.

Peter Kennedy and others, however, would consider it to be a quite separate song.

The set given in Sabine Baring Gould and H. Fleetwood Sheppard's A Garland of Country Song (1895) is from Fleetwood Sheppard himself; he noted:

"This song is given from my own recollection of it sixty years ago, when it was more than popular; it was the delight -the ecstasy of the London street-boy.  I doubt if it ever penetrated far into the country, its vulgarity was too essentially metropolitan.  The hero was a costermonger, his fair love was a pick-pocket, transported for theft. I have modified two or three of the original verses.  There was no real humour in them, and the London dialect of that day is a thing of the past.  It was the charming air which gave popularity to the song.  Chappell supplies the original form, and says it is a Somersetshire tune.  No doubt he is right, but he has no name for it other than The original of All Around My Hat.  I think there is no doubt it was a dance-tune, but the first strain is omitted from the song."

The tune given by Fleetwood Sheppard is the familiar one.

In his notes to the set given in Folk Songs of Britain and Ireland (recorded from Harry Westaway of Belstone in Devonshire, 1951, again a variant of the familiar tune), Peter Kennedy refers to some other versions in print, and again mentions the tune given by Chappell.  Fleetwood Sheppard's reference was to Chappell's Collection of National Airs (1838-40), which I haven't seen; Kennedy however states that it re-appeared in Chappell's Ballad Literature and Popular Music of the Olden Time (1859), as The Budgeon is a Delicate Trade (1725).  Chappell also mentions the tune as having also been used for The Miller of Dee and a number of traditional harvest home songs; the reference to All Around My Hat is not, however, repeated, nor is the reference to Somerset.

The DT file  THE MILLER OF DEE (Jolly Miller),  taken from Chappell, also points out that the tune was later used for Rolling Down to Old Maui (I suspect I've also heard it used for Edmund in the Lowlands).  This is a rather different, minor melody from that given by Sheppard and Kennedy; Chappell however states that the harvest-supper tune was in the major, and particularly cites the set printed in the Rev. John Broadwood and G.A. Dusart's Old English Songs, which may perhaps be closer to the Hat melody.

In an earlier thread,  The Nobleman's Wedding,  Bruce Olson postulated a link between The Willow Green and The Nobleman's Wedding.  Whether there is any direct link between it and All Around My Hat is another matter, of course.  People have been wearing green willows, and doing things for a year and a day, for rather a long time, and what may at first sight appear to indicate a connection may just as easily be no more than a coincidence, particularly where the expression seems to be a commonplace of long standing.

Subject: RE: Origins? All around my hat
From: Mr Red
Date: 09 Aug 01 - 02:18 PM

I came across a reference to "Green Ribbon". It was in the context of Irish Political songs but given the scenario it would have to be a derived version of a well known song.
I too first heard the cockney version, Charles Chiltern is credited with the costermonger version in his book of songs penned originally for a BBC radio series in the 50's. Peter Dawson (opera singer c 30's) sang it but I asssume he was singing an earlier version than the Chiltern arrangement. The chorus is just similar enough to ensure you can't get away with it when the audience only know the Steeleye Span version.

Subject: RE: Origins? All around my hat
From: pavane
Date: 09 Aug 01 - 03:49 PM

Thanks Malcolm. Yes I am aware that there are other sources - I just don't have time to search them all at present. And after next week, I probably won't have facilities at all! I would love to have enough spare time to chase up all the leads of interest, but too busy earning my keep.
Mr Red, the cockney parodies date from the first half of the 19th century.

Subject: RE: Origins? All around my hat
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 10 Aug 01 - 09:35 PM

Strictly speaking, the "cockney parody", so called, is the original All Around My Hat.  There is no record of any earlier song of that title, or containing those verses.  Of course, there are related antecedents.  To continue:

Further enquiry reveals that the tune in Popular Music of the Olden Time referred to by Kennedy as Chappell's "original" tune for All Around My Hat is in fact nothing of the kind.  My paragraph above concerning The Miller of Dee, therefore, is completely irrelevant to this discussion.  Whence the error in Kennedy I have no idea, but the tune Chappell gave in his earlier collection (as Number 90 in National English Airs) is completely different, and unmistakably a variant of the well-known Hat tune.

Chappell's tune was given by Anne Gilchrist in a note to So Selfish Runs the Hare, a song collected by Cecil Sharp from Mr. Jos. Alcock of Sibford Gower, Warwickshire, in 1922 (Journal of the Folk Song Society, Volume 8, issue 31, 1927), which was sung to another variant of the melody.  Mr. Alcock's text and tune are in the DT:  So Selfish Runs the Hare,  though no source is named.

Ms. Gilchrist also pointed out that  Dashing Away With the Smoothing Iron  and The Poor Little Fisher Boy are also sung to variants of the same tune.

The Journal of the Folk Song Society, no. 34, 1930, has a set of The Nobleman's Wedding noted by H.E.D. Hammond from Mrs. Crawford of West Milton, which includes the All Around My Hat verse and is sung to another variant of the same tune.  A. Martin Freeman commented:

"...the occurrence of the All Round My Hat verse in connection with this tune, which belongs to the same group as the five Nobleman's Wedding tunes in the Complete Petrie Collection, all apparantly variants of the same original, opens up a new and interesting question.  Have we here the lost original of the serio-comic All Round My Hat of the 1830s?  ... In the text of All Round My Hat given in Baring Gould's Garland of Country Song, all that is not new belongs to the comic song, so that the source of the one presumably old verse is still unknown.  But compare the line If anyone should ask me the reason why I wear it [i.e. the willow round his hat] with verses 3 and 4 in Mr. Sharp's Appalachian version of The Nobleman's Wedding (The Awful Wedding):

If anyone should ask the reason
Why I put on my strange attire,
I'm crossed in love, that is the reason,
I've lost my only heart's delight.  [?desire]

But I'll put on my strange attire,
And I will wear it for a week or two,
*         *         *         *  
Till I change my old love for the new.

These verses are part of the song the old lover sang to the bride, and are followed by the half-verse:

But how can you lie with your head on another man's pillow
When you have proved your love so late to me?

-which should probably be followed, as in Mr. Hammond's verse 3:

Now for your sweet sake I'll wear a mournful willow
Now and forever I'll wear it [? for thee.]

The question arises- was a willow-wreathed hat the strange attire, and was the All Round My Hat verse -or something like it- the opening verse of the lover's song in certain versions of The Nobleman's Wedding?

Here, Mr. Freeman goes into detail which need not concern us, and resumes:

As to the comic song of the 'thirties... the All Round My Hat verse is merely the chorus of a song sung in the character of a costermonger whose love is far, far away -for the sufficient reason that a cruel judge had sentenced her to seven years' transportation for thieving- the forlorn coster interpolating his ditty at the end of every two lines by crying his vegetable wares.  So the solitary verse is apparantly the sole relic of an earlier song, seized upon, together with its engaging tune, to provide sport in the music-halls and be whistled by every errand-boy, for it became one of the most popular of street-songs a hundred years ago."

At this point, Mr. Freeman ends by discussing other tune variants, including an untitled tune, no. 119 in Petrie, which is another close relative.  The above is of course largely speculation, though based on what appears to be very reasonable evidence.  It remains to say that the borrowing of tune and verse may perfectly well have been in the opposite direction (more recent authorities might seem to take that view), but here, at least, is food for thought.

See also this previous discussion:  The Nobleman's Wedding

Subject: RE: Origins? All around my hat
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 10 Aug 01 - 10:00 PM

I neglected to add that Ms. Gilchrist quoted two versions of the tune of The Poor Little Fisher Boy; one from Mr. William Wickham of Blackham in Sussex (1907) and one noted by Frank Kidson from his own mother.  Both are very close relatives of the Hat tune.  It occurs to me also that Spencer the Rover is probably another, slightly more distant, member of this tune-family.

Subject: RE: Origins? All around my hat
From: pavane
Date: 11 Aug 01 - 04:47 AM

So it wasn't a parody at all, then, (or maybe it was). Thanks for the info.

Subject: RE: Origins? All around my hat
From: Abby Sale
Date: 23 Oct 02 - 11:43 AM

Malcolm (especially)

I was "always" familiar with this song but never sang it. The Steeleye version was so strong, it drove all previous memory out of my head and the original never returned. (Actually, it doesn't take all that much to do so.) Good as the Steeleye version is, it was never satisfied with the (amalgamated) text.

1) What was the text I "always" had in mind. This would have been one familiar to Cambridge and/or G. Village folkies in the late 50's.

2) What is the "cockney parody" (if you still believe that to be the earliest recorded)? Would that be essentially ALL AROUND MY HAT (I will wear the Green Willow) ?

3) What, if any, old-but-complete & evolved" text is given in Chappell? (Or other early, evolved text.)

4) Is the Chappell tune essentially the same as the well-known one?

Seems silly I can't answer these myself but there you are!

Subject: RE: Origins? All around my hat
From: GUEST,Bill Kennedy
Date: 23 Oct 02 - 12:24 PM

the playwright Sean O'Casey wrote the parody beginning:

'All round my hat is a band of green ribbon o,...'

it's sung by James Kavanagh on Paul Brady's 'Green Crow Caws' release, now on cd as well.

I'll post all the lyrics when I am able.

Subject: RE: Origins? All around my hat
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 23 Oct 02 - 12:35 PM

On Paltalk recently I heard Liz the Squeak sing a wonderful parody, which ran, in part:

All around my fat
I wear a Playtex girdle
I wear it for my true love
Who thinks I'm built that way!

If Liz reads this, would you be so kind as to post it for the DT?

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Origins? All around my hat
From: 53
Date: 23 Oct 02 - 12:36 PM

Under this old hat by Chris Ledeaux.

Subject: RE: Origins? All around my hat
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 23 Oct 02 - 09:41 PM

Abby:

As you know, All Around my Hat as recorded by Steeleye Span was a collation; the tune and first verse came from AAMH, but the rest of the song was lifted from an unrelated piece, Farewell He; probably from versions collected in Hampshire and Dorset in the early years of the 20th century by Dr. Gardiner and the Hammond brothers (I expect I could find chapter and verse if needed).

The other set in the DT, All Around my Hat (I will wear the Green Willow), although it says "recorded by Steeleye Span", is completely different. No source is acknowledged, but it's actually the set recorded by Peter Kennedy from Harry Westaway at Belstone, Devon, in 1951, and published in Kennedy's Folksongs of Britain and Ireland. I'm afraid that I'm too young to know what was being sung round Cambridge in the late '50s!

The parody of the early 19th century can be seen at the Bodleian:

All around my hat I wear a green willow Printed by E. Keys, 7, James-street, Devonport. Firth b.27(536)

All around my hat I'll wear the green willow Printed between 1819 and 1844 by J. Pitts, 6, Great St. Andrew Street, Seven Dials [London]. Harding B 11(38)

If you remove the "cockney" patter and the vegetables, you wind up with something very close to Harry Westaway's set. Whether his descends from the stage song (with the extraneous material removed) or from its (putative) immediate predecessor, I can't say at the moment. I imagine that it could go either way.

I don't think that Chappell quoted a text at all, though as I said I haven't seen his earlier book. Kennedy's reference to The Budgen is a Delicate Trade is, I'm convinced, a mistake. The tune Chappell quoted as "the original of All Around My Hat" (as reprinted in JFSS) is indeed essentially the same as the tune we are familiar with.

I didn't have access to the Roud Index last time this thread came around. I see, though, that he classes The Nobleman's Wedding and All Around My Hat under the same heading (Roud 367, Laws P31); which makes sense. There would be a "missing link", presumably, between the former and the latter. Maybe that's something on the lines of the Westaway set; or maybe his was a descendant of the latter with the veggies and the chat dropped (not unprecedented, after all); I really don't know.

Subject: RE: Origins? All around my hat
From: Gurney
Date: 24 Oct 02 - 04:44 AM

The erudition and diligence of you guys is extarordinary.
The version of the song that I know is the one collected by Cyril Tawney in his youth. A 'real folk song.' A close variant of the tune is used by Fox and Luckley in that other great song 'Bonny Gateshead Lass.'

Subject: ADD Version: All Round My Hat (parody)
From: GUEST,Richie
Date: 24 Oct 02 - 10:20 AM

ALL ROUND MY HAT

All round my hat I vears a green villow,
All round my hat for a twelvemonth and a day,
If any one should ax't the reason vy I vears it,
Tell them that my true love is far, far away.

'Twas a going of my rounds in the streets I first did meet her.
Oh! I thought she vas a hangel just come down from the sky.
(Spoken.) She'd a nice wegitable countenance; Turnup
nose, Redish cheeks, and Carrotty hair.
And I never heard a voice more louder and more sweeter,
Vhen she cried buy my Primroses, my Primroses come buy!

All round my hat, &c.

Oh! my love she vos fair, and my love she vos kind, too,
And cruel vos the cruel judge vot had my love to try!
For thieving vos a thing she never vos inclined to,
But he sent my love across the seas far away!

All round my hat, &c.

For seven long years my love and I am parted,
For seven long years my love is bound to stay.
Bad luck to that chap vot'd ever be false hearted,
Oh! I'll love my love for ever, though she's far, far away!

All round my hat, &c.

There is some young men is so preciously deceitful,
A coaxing of the young gals they vish to lead astray;
As soon as they deceive 'em so cruelly they leave 'em,
And they never sigh nor sorrows vhen they're far, far away!

All round my hat, &c.

Oh! I bought my love a ring on the very day she started,
Vich I gove her as a token all to remember me;
And vhen she does come back, oh! ve'll never more be parted,
But ve'll marry and be happy, oh, for ever and a day.

All round my hat, &c.

From: Andrews', Printer, 38 Chatham St., N. Y., Dealer in Songs, Games, Toy Books, Motto Verses, &c., Wholesale and Retail. American Memory Collection

Subject: RE: Origins? All around my hat
From: Abby Sale
Date: 24 Oct 02 - 09:57 PM

Thanks, guys. The one I knew was probably ALL AROUND MY HAT (I will wear the Green Willow) or near enough. Seems to be a very stable text. Tunes don't vary much either. I have one from Creighton in Maritime Folk Song (1962) that's also much the same. Thanks for the Cockney sets. I've never seen that before. There's a nice photy of the veggie seller at the Levy song sheets. Printed in NY with a reputed writer and composer but undated. Levy collection, sample 2 (The words are on the other example - a bit more spoken parts than the Am Memory set.)

Maybe I'll finally learn it.

Subject: RE: Origins? All around my hat
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 24 Oct 02 - 10:13 PM

I'd forgotten about the two sets in Creighton. Again, essentially the same texts as the English set I mentioned earlier, either "de-Cockneyfied" or descended from the putative earlier version. It may well be significant that the patter and the vegetables haven't typically turned up in traditional examples, though tradition often has a way of shrugging off unnatural accretions of that sort.

Subject: RE: Origins? All around my hat
From: Nerd
Date: 25 Oct 02 - 12:34 PM

I always thought the Steeleye version was weird because of the manner of collation; in the chorus the narrator promises to be faithful to her lover, and in the verses she vows to dump him. Maddy had no good explanation for this when I interviewed her about it a few years back!

The patriotic "ribbon" versions of this song exist in several forms. One of them features a "tri-coloured ribbon." I once heard a French woman sing the song, attracted by the tricolour reference. Unfortunately she pronounced it as "a tree-coloured rye bun" which was more laughable than anything else...

Subject: RE: Origins? All around my hat
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 25 Oct 02 - 05:59 PM

Nerd, in the chorus she just says he's "far far away". Maybe she didn't want anyone to know she'd been dumped and preferred to go on wearing the green willow? :-)

Subject: RE: Origins? All around my hat
From: Nerd
Date: 25 Oct 02 - 10:01 PM

Good one, skw. But then Maddy was happy to say "it made no sense," and she was the one who collated the text!

Subject: RE: Origins? All around my hat
From: pastorpest
Date: 25 Oct 02 - 11:40 PM

I always liked one of the Creighton melodies for "All Around My Hat." But the lyrics made no sense to me. Andrew Gant in his 1997 compilation "Folk Songs of the British Isles" suggests the original flavour of the song is a lament by a female pickpocket for her lover transported to Australia for theft. Could it be that the song contrasts the faithfulness of two street people in London to the faithlessness of that powerful empire for its own poor? When I sing it I use the lyrics in Gant's book and the melody from Creighton and hear it as a lament.

There is lots of choice with this song: the variations in lyrics and melody seem almost endless.

Subject: RE: Origins? All around my hat
From: JudeL
Date: 26 Oct 02 - 04:37 AM

Uncle Davo, the "All around my Fat" parody is by Lady Penelope and is in Aine's song book.

Subject: ADD Version: All Round Me Hat (Sean O'Casey)
From: GUEST,Bill Kennedy
Date: 12 Nov 02 - 12:57 PM

Sean O'Casey's version as sung on 'The Green Crow Caws', Paul Brady/James(or John?) Kavanagh release. It was originally printed in his 6th volume of autobiography, 'Sunset & Evening Star' 1954

ALL ROUND ME HAT

All round me hat I wear a band of green ribbon O,
Careless of what any lofty mind may say;
If anyone should ask me why, I'll tell them Eire wove it
All round me hat, an' there it's destin'd for to stay.

All that she is or was is woven in that ribbon O,
Her chieftains lyin' low in cloister'd Clonmacnoise today;
Th' bugle-call of Finn that shook the mountain high, the valley low,
Cuchullian's chariot-rush that took th' foemen's breath away.

All that her saints have done, her sinners' gay mortality,
Th' time they stood undaunted up, th' time they slipp'd an' fell;
Th' beauty of the oldher books an' all th' songs her poets sung,
Are woven in the ribbon green, an' woven fair an' well.

All th' Ulsther chiefs defendin' Eire from the Norman Law;
Tone tossin' on the sea, an' damnin' all its din;
Emmet takin' Ireland's hope down with him to a grave unknown,
When people had no peace without or gleam of hope within.

Th' rout of priests who ordhered Irish souls away to hell,
Who saw a Chieftain sent from God in Charles Stewart Parnell;
Larkins' apostolic voice that rang the workers out of sleep,
An' made undaunted fighters from a flock of baain' sheep.

An' them comin' lather when daffodils danc'd in th' sun,
When many were th' whispers that poor Ireland's days were done;
When Pearse an' all his comrades beat a roll upon an Irish drum,
A roll that's beatin' still to bring a rally yet to come.

So all round me hat, I wear a band of green ribbon O,
Zone of our faults, our fights, our love an' laghter gay;
All that Eire is or was is woven in that ribbon O,
An' there it stops till life is dead an' time has ebb'd away.

Subject: RE: Origins? All around my hat
From: GUEST,bentley
Date: 12 Nov 02 - 01:41 PM

A good friend of mine,by the name of Bill Snow,is a Cockney froo& froo.'E sings All araund me 'at as a cockney song which was 'alf-nched by Steeleye Span and made 'em a few bob!When Bill sings it,he wears a flat cap like wot barra boy's used to wear and really puts feeling into it.

Subject: RE: Origins? All around my hat
From: DADGBE
Date: 12 Nov 02 - 02:15 PM

Here's a song learned around 1960 during my miscreant teen years. Seems like it just might be a parody.


Around her hat she wore a yellow ribbon,
She wore it in the spring time and in the month of May,
And if you asked her why the hell she wore it,
She wore it for the soldier who was far, far away.
    Far away, far away,
    She wore it for the soldier who was far, far away.

Around the block she wheeled a baby carriage,
She wheeled it in the spring time and in the month of May.
And if you asked her why the hell she wheeled it,
She wheeled it for the soldier who was far, far away.
    Far away, far away,
    She wheeled it for the soldier who was far far away.

Behind the door her father kept a shotgun,
He kept it in the spring time and in the month of May,
And if you asked him why the hell he kept it,
He kept it for the soldier who was far, far away.
    Far away, far away,
    He kept it for the soldier who was far, far away.

---

DTStudy: She Wore a Yellow Ribbon

Subject: RE: Origins? All around my hat
From: GUEST,Bill Kennedy
Date: 12 Nov 02 - 02:47 PM

that's a parody of the Yellow Ribbon song, made famous as the song of the 7th Cavalry in many a John Wayne/ John Ford western, different tune than the others

Subject: RE: Origins? All around my hat
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 12 Nov 02 - 02:50 PM

DADGBE, see thread 30091: Yellow Ribbon and the version in the DT for more verses and information.

---

Could I suggest that we talk about "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon" in this thread (click)? The two songs are certainly related, but maybe "Yellow Ribbon" deserves a thread of its own and shouldn't be forces to co-exist with "Arund My Hat" and Tony Orlando.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Origins? All around my hat
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 13 Nov 02 - 07:14 AM

All attempts at showing earlier versions of this seem to ignore one of our (Britain's) better writers. In Othello, Desdemona sings about the wearing of the green willow. "Green willow must be my garland".
___________________________________________

DESDEMONA: My mother had a maid call'd Barbary;
She was in love, and he she loved proved mad
And did forsake her. She had a song of "willow";
An old thing 'twas, but it express'd her fortune,
And she died singing it. That song tonight
Will not go from my mind; I have much to do
But to go hang my head all at one side
And sing it like poor Barbary. Prithee, dispatch.

EMILIA: Shall I go fetch your nightgown?

DESDEMONA: No, unpin me here.
This Lodovico is a proper man.

EMILIA: A very handsome man.

DESDEMONA: He speaks well.

EMILIA: I know a lady in Venice would have walked barefoot to
Palestine for a touch of his nether lip.

DESDEMONA [Sings.]:
"The poor soul sat sighing by a sycamore tree,
Sing all a green willow;
Her hand on her bosom, her head on her knee,
Sing willow, willow, willow.
The fresh streams ran by her, and murmur'd her moans,
Sing willow, willow, willow;
Her salt tears fell from her, and soften'd the stones--"

Lay by these--

[Sings.] "Sing willow, willow, willow--"

Prithee, hie thee; he'll come anon--
[Sings.]

"Sing all a green willow must be my garland.
Let nobody blame him; his scorn I approve--"

Nay, that's not next. Hark, who is't that knocks?

EMILIA: It's the wind.

DESDEMONA [Sings.]:
"I call'd my love false love; but what said he then?
Sing willow, willow, willow.
If I court moe women, you'll couch with moe men--"
______________________________________________

This seems also to be a fore-runner of Gilbert & Sullivan,
"On a tree by a river a little tom tit
Sang "Willow, tit willow, tit willow""

Nigel

Subject: Lyr Add: WILLOW TIT WILLOW (Gilbert & Sullivan)
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 13 Nov 02 - 07:37 AM

A quick check of the DT doesn't turn up "Tit Willow", so I'm posting it now.
_____________________________________________-

TIT WILLOW
(W S Gilbert & A Sullivan)

On a tree by a river a little tom-tit
Sang "Willow, titwillow, titwillow!"
And I said to him, "Dicky-bird, why do you sit
Singing 'Willow, titwillow, titwillow'?"
"Is it weakness of intellect, birdie?" I cried,
"Or a rather tough worm in your little inside?"
With a shake of his poor little head, he replied,
"Oh, willow, titwillow, titwillow!"

He slapped at his chest, as he sat on that bough,
Singing "Willow, titwillow, titwillow!"
And a cold perspiration bespangled his brow,
Oh, willow, titwillow, titwillow!
He sobbed and he sighed, and a gurgle he gave,
Then he plunged himself into the billowy wave,
And an echo arose from the suicide's grave--
"Oh, willow, titwillow, titwillow!"

Now I feel just as sure as I'm sure that my name
Isn't Willow, titwillow, titwillow,
That 'twas blighted affection that made him exclaim
"Oh, willow, titwillow, titwillow!"
And if you remain callous and obdurate, I
Shall perish as he did, and you will know why,
Though I probably shall not exclaim as I die,
"Oh, willow, titwillow, titwillow!"

Notes: From "The Mikado" sung by Ko-Ko to Katisha.
There are similarities here to the song sung by Desdemona in Othello Act IV Scene III, which also appears to be an early variant of "All Around My Hat", in that it mentions the wearing of a green willow garland.
NP

Subject: Lyr Add:THE THREE COLOURED RIBBON (O Cearnaigh)
From: Declan
Date: 18 Dec 02 - 08:59 AM

There were some references to this song on an earlier thread. I found these words in a songbook called Amhranleabhar Ogra Eireann, first published in Dublin in 1950 by Ogra Eireann, an organisation set up by the Irish Christian Brothers to promote the Irish language and culture in general (and republican politics, if the words of the songs in this book are anything to judge by) among their pupils. These words are from the 5th edition Pub. 1964.

The lyrics are credited to Peadar O Cearnaigh or Peadar Kearney who was an uncle of the Behan family (Brendan, Dominic et al) who also wrote other songs with a republican theme including the Soldiers Song (the irish national anthem) and Down By Anna Liffey.

There is no reference to the tune other than that the music is available from Waltons (A well known Dublin music shop and publisher), but having heard it sung its a close relation to the air sung by Maddy Prior and Co although sung much more slowly.

I have no date for when the song was written except the reference to Easter Monday seems to suggest it was later than 1916.

THE THREE COLOURED RIBBON
(Lyrics by Peadar O Cearnaigh)

I had a true love if ever a girl had one,
I had a true love a brave lad was he,
And one fine Easter Monday, with his gallant comrades.
He started away for to make Ireland Free.

                  Chorus

All round my hat I wear a three coloured ribbon.*
All round my hat until death comes to me,
And if anybody's asking why I'm wearing that ribbon
It's all for my true love I Near more shall see.

His bandolier round him, his bright bayonet shining.
His short service rifle a beauty to see,
There was joy in his eyes, though he left me repining,
And started away for to make Ireland free.

In praying and watching the dark days past over.
The roar of the guns brought no message to me;
I prayed for old Ireland, I prayed for my lover.
That he might be safe and old Ireland be free.

The struggle was ended, they brought me the story.
The last whispered message he sent unto me:
"I was true to my land, love; I fought for her glory,
And gave up my life for to make Ireland Free.

*These are he words as published but I've only ever heard it sung as
"All around my hat I wear a tri-coloured Ribbon-O
All around my hat until death comes to me.
And if anybody asks me just why I do wear it,
It's all for my true love I ne'er more will see."
which fits in better with the air I know although Kearney may have had a slightly different air in mind ?

---

Thread #56061   Message #874472
Posted By: Fiolar
25-Jan-03 - 05:26 AM
Thread Name: Origins: All around my hat (Steeleye Span)
Subject: RE: Origins: All around my hat (Steeleye Span)

Sabine: As far as I am aware the Steeleye Span song is based on "The Tri-Coloured Ribbon" which was written by Peadar Kearney who also wrote among other items the Irish National Anthem (The Soldiers' Song). Hope that helps.

Subject: Lyr Add: THE GREEN RIBBON
From: nutty
Date: 02 Feb 05 - 04:37 PM

As a matter of interest I've just come across another version of ALL AROUND MY HAT which I feel should be added to the rest.
Written by Katharine Tynan (1861-1931) and published in 'Irish Poems' in 1913 by Sidgwick and Jackson Ltd of London.

I'm not sure where it might fit in the grand scheme of things but I feel that it warrents inclusion.

THE GREEN RIBBON

All aound my hat I will wear the green ribbon,O
All round my hat for a year and a day
And if anyone asks me why I do wear it
I'll say that my true love is far, far away

For green is the colour of the weeping willow,O
And green is the colour for her that is true
Tell my love if he come not I die of my sorrow,O
And shall sleep deep forgetting the pangs that I knew

I shall say,"My sweet mother, make my bride-clothes ready,O"
I shall say, "Little sister, weep not for me
But clothe me in silver like a beauteous lady,O
And hide not my face lest he come and see."

Six gentle knights to the grave will carry me
The maids shall strew violets my face above
They will say "She was constant" and weep as they bury me
Saying "Here is a true maid who died for love"

O what have I to do with life and with living,O
If he should come not I shall not know
I shall sleep on so sweetly, done with care ad grieving,O
Alone in my bride-bed the moulds below

List, ye grave pilgrims, who journey to Walsingham
Say if you meet him that his love lies sick-
Sore sick of loving and will soon be dying,O
If he would save her that he travel quick

All around my hat now I wear the green ribbon,O
So have I worn it a year and above
Say if he come not he will find me sleeping,O
With a stone at my head that I died for love.

Subject: RE: Origins? All around my hat
From: Tradsinger
Date: 02 Feb 05 - 06:14 PM

At school we used to sing "Around her leg she wore a yellow garter" which I believe was a WWII version about an airman. I first heard "All around my hat" as a song in 3/4 time,before Steeleye Span recorded it so I guess Steeleye took the tune and arranged it to 4/4. They also took the words of a completely different song "Fair thee well, cold winter" to put to the tune, so theirs is a hybrid version. Not the best thing they have done, but the most remembered and requested (after Guadete).

Subject: RE: Origins? All around my hat
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 02 Feb 05 - 06:52 PM

In Seamus De Burca's book about Peader Kearney "The Soldier's Song", the first two verses and chorus of "The Three-coloured Ribbon" are printed as Declan had it (except that it has "to set Ireland free"), with a dedication of the song "To Eva" (Kearney's wife); and it's subtitled as "Easter Week Ballad". There's no indication of when he wrote it, but I would think it's likely it would have ben while he was interned in Ballykinlar, after the Rising.

Subject: Lyr Add: ALL AROUND MY HAT (from Bodleian)
From: nutty
Date: 08 Aug 06 - 09:14 AM

While browsing on the Bodleian Library site, I found this more complete version of ALL AROUND MY HAT. I've taken the cockney bits out (which make it seem like a parody) and am impressed by the song that's left.

ALL AROUND MY HAT (from Bodleian)

CHORUS: All around my hat, I will wear the green willow,
All around my hat, for a twelvemonth and a day;
And if anyone should ask it the reason why I wears it,
Tell them that my true love is far, far away.

'Twas going on my rounds in the streets I did first meet her.
I thought she was an angel just come down from the sky.
I never heard a voice more louder and more sweeter,
When she cried, "Buy my primroses, my primroses come and buy."

My love she was fair and my love she was kind, too,
And cruel was the judge that had my love to try,
For thieving was a thing that she never was inclined to,
But he sent my love across the seas so far, far away.

For seven long years, my love and I are parted.
For seven long years, my love is bound to stay.
Bad luck to the chap that would ever be false hearted!
I'll love my love for ever though she's far, far away.

There are some young men so preciously deceitful,
A-coaxing of the young girls they wish to lead astray.
As soon as they deceive them, so cruelly they leave them,
And they never sigh or sorrow when they're far, far away.

I bought my love a ring on the very day she started,
Which I gave her as a token all to remember me;
And when she does come back, we'll never more be parted,
But marry and be happy, for ever and a day.

Printers: Keys, E. (Devonport); Stone, R. (Exeter)
Date: [s.a.]
Imprint: Printed and sold ... by E. Keys, 7, James-street, Devonport. Sold also by R. Stone, 10, on the New Bridge, Exeter
Illus. Ballads on sheet: 2
Copies: Firth b.27(536)
Ballads: 1. All around my hat I wear a green willow ("All round my hat I vear a green villow ...")
To the tune of: The fisherman's boy
Subject: Street traders
Note: Verse and prose

ALL AROUND MY HAT

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: All around my hat
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 09 Aug 06 - 04:22 AM

All around my hat, I will wear the green willow,
All around my hat, for twelve month and a day,
And if anybody asks me, the reason why I'm wearing it,


It's my bloody willow and it's my bloody hat.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: All around my hat
From: nutty
Date: 09 Aug 06 - 04:44 AM

Sorry eric, there have been numerous threads of that ilk.

Subject: RE: Origins? All around my hat
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 23 Aug 08 - 08:48 PM

Does anyone know an earlier printing than the copy at the Bodleian, dated aprox. 1819-1844?

This so-called 'Cockney' version appeared in "Marsh's Selection, or Singing for the Million," 1854, and was printed by Auner & Johnson as well as Andrews (Richie post, where the lyrics are given). The song seems to have been popular in North America in the 1850s.

The earliest printed copy of the song (I vears a green villow), dated c. 1819-1844, was printed by Pitts, London (Harding B11(38)).

Subject: RE: Origins? All around my hat
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 23 Aug 08 - 09:07 PM

Another, c. 1813-1838, the same lyrics, also at the Bodleian.

Subject: RE: Origins? All around my hat
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 23 Aug 08 - 09:54 PM

For more detail (which I didn't know about back when this old thread was new; some of my comments made here in '01 and '02 were therefore misleading or wrong), see notes to 'The Nobleman's Wedding' in the revised edition of  Marrow Bones. Most of the missing links were supplied by Steve Gardham.

Ansell and Valentine's costermonger song 'All Around My Hat' (c.1834) wasn't made from whole cloth, of course. It was a parody of 'Green Willow' (and other titles) for which see  Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads:

[The] Green Willow / William & Phebe

This itself, though in that form not much older than the parody, was partly made up of recycled older material.

Subject: RE: Origins? All around my hat
From: GUEST,Ralphie
Date: 24 Aug 08 - 12:16 AM

Malcolm. (and others)

Thanks for all the research.
Maybe (Slight drift here) we should consider the origins of the song you've just mentioned.
"When this old thread was new!"

Now, where did I put my coat?

Subject: RE: Origins? All around my hat
From: GUEST,beachcomber
Date: 24 Aug 08 - 09:04 AM

McGrath of Harlow, I believe that Peadar Kearney was interned in Frongoch after the 1916 Rising as was my wife's Gt.Grandfather Luke Kennedy (To whom there is reference in the biography of Kearney by DeBurca ). Perhaps it was then that his version of the song "All around my Hat" was penned ? The book was published, I understand, in 1957. How did you come by it ?

Subject: RE: Origins? All around my hat
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 24 Aug 08 - 04:47 PM

Malcolm made a reference to Gilchrist linking the tune of the burlesque versions to 'The Poor Little Fisherman's Boy' near the beginning of this thread. I have a note stating that at least one of the broadsides designates 'Poor Little Fisherman's Boy' as the tune it should be sung to. Presumably then 'PLFB' predates the burlesque version at least. If required I can check my copies of the broadsides and find which ones give the tune designation but I have 21 versions just of the burlesque.

Subject: RE: Origins? All around my hat
From: pavane
Date: 25 Aug 08 - 01:56 AM

I actually mentioned PLFB in the first post of the thread. I am glad to see there has been some progress on this song, anyway.

Subject: RE: Origins? All around my hat
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 25 Aug 08 - 04:58 PM

There is a version of PLFB in Kidson's English Peasant Songs p102 and the tune is AAMH. Broadsides of PLFB were printed by the same printers as the burlesque

Subject: RE: Origins? All around my hat
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 26 Aug 08 - 03:43 PM

I first learned 'All Around My Hat' from a Peter Bellamy record: 'Fair England's Shore', XTRA 1075, 1968. I'm guessing, but I assume that this pre-dates the Steeleye span version by several years. I recall that the Steeleye Span version came as no surprise to me (very similar tune and words) and I always assumed that they had learned it from Mr B.

Bellamy's sleeve notes don't add much to the discussion, but for the record they are quoted below:

" All Around my Hat: I have known for so long that I have forgotten where I originally acquired it. I found several versions in the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library at Cecil Sharp House, many of which had a very long and confusing story line. I decided to stick with this clear and simple form."

It's years since I played the record (not sure if my record deck still works!) and the song is long lost from my repertoire (probably just as well - I wouldn't want anyone thinking that I had learned a song from Steeleye Span!).

Subject: RE: Origins: All around My Hat
From: GUEST
Date: 12 Nov 08 - 04:31 PM

Its was an old Irish rebel song brought to England by Irish navvies it the early 1800s.

Subject: RE: Origins: All around My Hat
From: MartinRyan
Date: 12 Nov 08 - 04:58 PM

GUEST

'Fraid not - read the earlier postings to see the song's origins.

Regards