Lyr Req: A Boy's Song (James Hogg)

Subject: That's the place for Billy and me
From: 2feathers
Date: 05 Sep 01 - 10:56 AM

Woke this morning with pieces of an old childhood song running round in my head. Called Mom in the nursing home. Alas, she can't remember it (although I can hear her voice singing it). She says, maybe it will come back to her. Mom is 99. I hope that door to old songs isn't closing to me! The lyrics I am looking for (with *** for missing parts) are >Where the mowers mow the cleanest >where the hay is thick and greenest >up the river and o'er the lea >that's the place for Billy and me! > >**** there to chase the homeward bee >that's the place for Billy and me!

Subject: Lyr Add: A BOY'S SONG (James Hogg)
From: Matt Woodbury/Mimosa
Date: 05 Sep 01 - 11:20 AM

From a dogpile search for "homeward bee" A Boy's Song

James Hogg. 1770-1835

WHERE the pools are bright and deep,
Where the grey trout lies asleep,
Up the river and over the lea,
That 's the way for Billy and me.

Where the blackbird sings the latest,
Where the hawthorn blooms the sweetest,
Where the nestlings chirp and flee,
That 's the way for Billy and me.

Where the mowers mow the cleanest,
Where the hay lies thick and greenest,
There to track the homeward bee,
That 's the way for Billy and me.

Where the hazel bank is steepest,
Where the shadow falls the deepest,
Where the clustering nuts fall free,
That 's the way for Billy and me.

Why the boys should drive away
Little sweet maidens from the play,
Or love to banter and fight so well,
That 's the thing I never could tell.

But this I know, I love to play
Through the meadow, among the hay;
Up the water and over the lea,
That 's the way for Billy and me.

The Oxford Book of English Verse, HTML edition
Mimosa

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: That's the place for Billy and me
From: 2feathers
Date: 06 Sep 01 - 10:07 AM

Fantastic! Thanks, Mimosa. Imagine my looking for a song that was written before 1835! And Mom sang it to me somewhere between 1926 and 1934. I wonder where she heard it? Even her oldest sister wasn't alive when James Hogg was. And her mother came to the United States in the late 1800's, and driven as most immigrants were to earning bread, I doubt she had time to learn new songs in a new language. Probably Mom learned it in school where there used to be "singig" once a week from a big old book called "Assembly Songs." Now I see your reference to the Oxford Book of English Verse. It was on my poetry bookshelf, with browning pages, picked up by someone for $1 as a second hand book, originally dedicated to "Chris - Xmas 1937." And there it is! Take a look at the lengthy ballad "Kilmeny" which follows it, also by Hogg. I go on too long. Prolix as usual.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: That's the place for Billy and me
From: Daystar
Date: 06 Sep 01 - 05:43 PM

I have not heared this for a long time My dad use to sing it to me when I was little I did not know where it came from He learnt it at school inthe 1930 Sadly he is no longer with us Thanks for bringing it back to mined

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: That's the place for Billy and me
From: Diva
Date: 26 Jan 11 - 07:49 PM

Does anyone know the tune to this?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: That's the place for Billy and me
From: maeve
Date: 26 Jan 11 - 08:00 PM

My question as well, Diva. I made a tune for it years ago.

Maeve

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: That's the place for Billy and me
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 27 Jan 11 - 09:27 AM

thanks, 2feathers and Mimosa, for bringing this charming work to our attention.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: That's the place for Billy and me
From: GUEST,crazy little woman
Date: 27 Jan 11 - 11:01 AM

About the tune: I looked up some info about James Hogg. He was a poet only, and didn't write any tunes. So apparently he wrote this poem and some time later somebody saw it and said, "That would make a pretty song. I'll make up a tune for it." And they did.

This could have happened many, many years after the poem was written.

Anybody else can do the same, including you or me. So don't wait for somebody to give you 'the' tune because you might never get it. Make up a tune, sing the song, and bring a little beauty into your t world.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: That's the place for Billy and me
From: maeve
Date: 27 Jan 11 - 11:03 AM

I had made a tune for it years ago, as I said. It would be interesting to hear any other tunes, however.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: That's the place for Billy and me
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 27 Jan 11 - 11:30 AM

James Hogg was Scott's friend, known as The Ettrick Shepherd, whose mother Margaret Hogg so famously accused Scott of having "broken the charm now and they'll never be sung mair" when he included some of her songs in his ballad collections.

~Michael~

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: That's the place for Billy and me
From: maeve
Date: 27 Jan 11 - 11:42 AM

Thanks, Michael. That's helpful to know.

Maeve

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Boy's Song (James Hogg)
From: 2feathers
Date: 21 Sep 11 - 01:42 PM

Thanks to Matt Woodbury/Mimosa. Those are the words, all of them!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Boy's Song (James Hogg)
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 21 Sep 11 - 03:54 PM

Does anyone remember this poem in a reading book for primary schools. The first book was an orange one, it went

Sing! Mother sing!

Pat sings to mother.
Mother sings to Pat,

The second book was a green one and features wolf cubs on one page and the third book was blue. The top book - book 4 was red. Perhaps I've got the second or third books mixed up.

I remeber my Dad saying this was a poem he was very fond of.

Ready for Reading - something like that.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Boy's Song (James Hogg)
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Jan 18 - 06:10 PM

I learned a musical setting of A Boy's Song by James Hogg from the Radio Programme "Singing Together" which was broadcast weekly by the BBC for schools. The class would listen to the program and be taught songs. The BBC provided illustrated booklets containing the songs for the year (or the term). I will have learned the song sometime, roughly, between 1947 and 1951 when I was at Primary School.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Boy's Song (James Hogg)
From: Gallus Moll
Date: 31 Jan 18 - 05:17 PM

James Hogg wrote book(s)too -- somewhere in my house I have Confessions of a ***** Sinner (not rude word, just canny remember part of title!)
I am trying to remember if there was a Burns connection (I have a rotten memory!) - Think when Burns did his tour of the borders perhaps their paths crossed? - Don't quote me - I am sure someone knows the truth of the matter!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Boy's Song (James Hogg)
From: Gutcher
Date: 01 Feb 18 - 02:40 AM

Hello G.M.
Hoggs own title for the story was--"The Private Memoirs And Confessions Of A Fanatic". The modern title being "Confessions of a Justified Sinner".
His complete works, in two large volumes, mid? 19th.C., and not for the visually challenged, are vol.1, stories and vol.2, poetry and songs.
Who but I could mislay these works which, from memory, measure app. 11ins.x 8ins.x 2ins each.
Again, from memory, Burns and Hogg never met.
Hogg usually composed his songs to given tunes and mentioned the name of the tune under the song title. When I manage to dig out the said volumes I will check if "A Boy"s Song" has a given tune.
The stories are all well worth reading.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Boy's Song (James Hogg)
From: Gallus Moll
Date: 01 Feb 18 - 01:47 PM

Now i'll have to try to find mine - think I have one volume, blue cover - - -- !!!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Boy's Song (James Hogg)
From: Gallus Moll
Date: 01 Feb 18 - 03:24 PM

right, found - not the one I was looking for!

Volume 1 of The Ettrick Shepherd's Tales.

Oh well - - nae doot the ither yin will turn up bye an' bye - - -

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Boy's Song (James Hogg)
From: GUEST,Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 01 Feb 18 - 05:46 PM

Hogg's collected poetry specifies no tune for the poem.

I can't find anything for it in EFDSS indexes, Levy or Historic American Sheet Music.

The BL Catalogue however lists 8 settings of it: 1910, 1919, 1924, 1925(2), 1927, 1936 and 1960.

Mick

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Boy's Song (James Hogg)
From: Gutcher
Date: 02 Feb 18 - 07:18 AM

Hogg never met Burns--in his autobiograph he states-"The first time I heard of Burns was in 1797, the year after his death, when I met a boy on the hill who recited Tam o Shanter"

Correct Mick--no tune name given.