lyrics that work with different melodies

Subject: lyrics that work with different melodies
From: The Hiker
Date: 12 Apr 02 - 08:00 PM

The lyrics of one of the best known Irish Rebel songs Sean South of Garryowen can be sung exactly with the melody of that great loyalist ballad The Sash. (Much to the annoyence of our Orange brethren) Is anyone aware of any similar songs with interchangeable lyrics and melodies

Subject: RE: lyrics that work with different melodies
From: catspaw49
Date: 12 Apr 02 - 08:02 PM

Sure...the classic is Amazing Grace to the tune of the theme from Gilligan's Island...........and of course the inverse too!

Spaw

Subject: RE: lyrics that work with different melodies
From: MMario
Date: 12 Apr 02 - 08:16 PM

and 'House of the Rising Sun' to either of the above - and vice-versa twice.

Subject: RE: lyrics that work with different melodies
From: Joe Offer
Date: 12 Apr 02 - 08:45 PM

Try Tom Paxton's "Marvelous Toy" to the tune of "The Griesly Bride."
Truly spooky.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: lyrics that work with different melodies
From: hobbitwoman
Date: 12 Apr 02 - 08:50 PM

Danny Boy - Londonderry Air

If You Were To Wake Up - Farther Along

Silkie - I Come and Stand at Every Door

Annie

Subject: RE: lyrics that work with different melodies
From: Jeri
Date: 12 Apr 02 - 08:51 PM

Also see this thread.

You can sing Kilkelly to the tune for Rolling Down to Old Maui if you change Maui to 3/4 time. Try it.

Subject: RE: lyrics that work with different melodies
From:
Date: 12 Apr 02 - 09:47 PM

Hobbitwoman, Danny Boy IS sung to the tune of Londonderry Air. Are you saying you normally sing it to a different tune? If so, which one?

Subject: RE: lyrics that work with different melodies
From: Genie
Date: 12 Apr 02 - 10:00 PM

The Tramp On the Street works with the tune to Farther Along, so presumably, the reverse would be true.

You can switch This Land Is Your Land and You Are My Sunshine with only minor tweaking here and there to make the meter fit.

Puff, the Magic Dragon and Onward, Christian Soldiers switch really well.

Subject: RE: lyrics that work with different melodies
From:
Date: 12 Apr 02 - 11:06 PM

For literary types: pretty much all of Emily Dickinson's poetry can be sung to "The Yellow Rose of Texas" or "The Ballad of Gilligan's Isle." Trouble is, you do it once and you've ruined the poems forever. But a lot of them sound really good to "Amazing Grace."

Subject: RE: lyrics that work with different melodies
From: Robin2
Date: 12 Apr 02 - 11:25 PM

for fun try singing The Who's "Pinball Wizard" to Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues"

Robin

Subject: RE: lyrics that work with different melodies
From: Celtic Soul
Date: 12 Apr 02 - 11:58 PM

There's a band from Texas named "The Corsairs" that does sea shanty's and nautical music. On one of their CD's, they do about 15 different tunes with the words from Amazing Grace...things you wouldn't expect. I'll have to give it a listen again soon, and let you know which ones. Too funny! :D

Subject: RE: lyrics that work with different melodies
From: Jon Bartlett
Date: 13 Apr 02 - 02:07 AM

My favourite: "The Wild Colonial Boy" to "Ghost Riders in the Sky" but I can also recommend (to those of you who like a good bellow) "Clementine" to "Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah" (you may know it as "... Great Redeemer").

Subject: RE: lyrics that work with different melodies
From: C-flat
Date: 13 Apr 02 - 04:04 AM

David Bowie's old hit "Life on mars" has the same chords as Sinatra's "My way"

Subject: RE: lyrics that work with different melodies
From: catspaw49
Date: 13 Apr 02 - 09:15 AM

GENIE.....And with the same minor amount of tweaking, you can also sing "Darlin' Pal of Mine" along with TLIYL and YAMS!!!

In an effort to piss off all the James Taylor fans, it is a fact that you can sing any JT song to the tune of "Fire and Rain."

Spaw (not running too fast since JT fans are virtually catatonic anyway)

Subject: RE: lyrics that work with different melodies
From: MMario
Date: 13 Apr 02 - 12:59 PM

Seamus Kennedy does a 'salute to the Armed forces' that is pretty much all the various Armed Service Humns set to different tunes. Hilarious!

Subject: RE: lyrics that work with different melodies
From: Genie
Date: 13 Apr 02 - 01:20 PM

another thread on this topic

Subject: RE: lyrics that work with different melodies
From: Genie
Date: 13 Apr 02 - 01:47 PM

Another one hereSwitching lyrics and melodies.

I know I mentioned it in one of these other threads, but a beautiful "switch" [from Garrison Keillor's high school days] is this:

Tune: Hernando's Hideaway

Praise God
from whom
all blessings flow.
Praise Him,
all crea-
tures here below.
Praise him
Above,
Ye heav'nly hosts.
Praise fa-
ther, son and
Holy Ghost! Olé!

Subject: RE: lyrics that work with different melodies
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 13 Apr 02 - 02:11 PM

Kevin Barry and The Sash are interchangeable too - even have the same chord structure, so you could do it as a duet with the two tunes as countermelodies. Go on, I dare you...

Subject: RE: lyrics that work with different melodies
From: Genie
Date: 13 Apr 02 - 02:25 PM

Speaking of countermelodies--which is another word for "partner songs," I'm linking to that thread, to see if you folks have some to contribute. I'm not sure a lot of people were familiar with the term "partner songs," and I couldn't think of the word "countermelodies" at the time I named the thread.

Genie

Subject: RE: lyrics that work with different melodies
From: technission
Date: 13 Apr 02 - 05:57 PM

OK, now - *silently* sing yourself the following little verse -
To the tune of "House Of The Rising Sun"
Or "Amazing Grace"
Or "Little Town Of Bethlehem"

An earlier thread-It mentions this
But I'll repeat it here
How "Little Town-Of Bethlehem"
Can be sung to "Rising Sun"

LOL all around. And if you're not a music maker yourself, there is a fine recording of "...Bethlehem" to "Rising Sun" done by "Bob Rivers & Twisted Radio" on the disc "I Am Santa Claus", Atlantic Records.

If you can handle a bit of Christmas irreverence, this is an album that also has "Walkin' 'Round in Women's Underwear" (tune:Winter Wonderland); "I Came Upon A Roadkill Deer"; "Teddy The Red-Nosed Senator"; and many other side-splitters. "Manger 6" is spoken to the Motel 6 "Tom Bodette" advertising melody in background, and the album wraps up on the dark-humor side with "O Christmas Tree" where the traditional "Tannenbaum" melody is accompanied by tuned (well, probably sampled and re-processed) chainsaws and the sound effects of trees being felled. Standard disclaimer: I don't even own stock in Atlantic Records nor did I write any of the songs/ music on this album but if you have disposable income for topical/ limited-use humorous musical satire this is a great one to go buy!

Subject: RE: lyrics that work with different melodies
From: Genie
Date: 14 Apr 02 - 04:46 AM

"Amazing Grace" to the tune of "House Of The Rising Sun" is often mentioned as a gag, but I recently heard a gospel/soul group do it that way as a serious number and it sounded great!

Genie

Subject: RE: lyrics that work with different melodies
From: GUEST,LynnT
Date: 14 Apr 02 - 04:52 AM

The DC-area group Clam Chowder does a wonderful version of the medieval Deo Gratias Anglia to the tune of the Banana Boat Song. They sing one verse straight first --

Our King went forth to Normandy
With faith and might of chivalrie
Therefore England doth call and crie
Deo Gratias Anglia

before the tenor breaks out into Belafonte's

Deo!
De-e-e-oh!
Deo gratias Anglia

The calypso rhythms start, and it all goes downhill from there.

In Sacred Harp music, there's the concept of Common Meter -- 4/4 time with a particular line length. Anything in CM, such as Amazing Grace, can be sung to the tune of anything else in CM, such as O Little Town of Bethlehem, or House of the Rising Sun, or Yellow Rose, or many more.

LynnT

Subject: RE: lyrics that work with different melodies
From: Mrs.Duck
Date: 14 Apr 02 - 11:51 AM

Spancil Hill to Ghost Riders in the Sky

Subject: RE: lyrics that work with different melodies
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 27 Aug 03 - 08:18 PM

refresh

Subject: RE: lyrics that work with different melodies
From: JJ
Date: 28 Aug 03 - 08:27 AM

Robert Frost's poem which begins, "Whose woods these are I think I know..." fits nicely to Gordon Lightfoot's, "Early Morning Rain."

Subject: RE: lyrics that work with different melodies
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 28 Aug 03 - 11:21 AM

Do Virgins Taste Better, originally (as far as I know)sung to the tune of The Irish Washerwoman, fits nicely with Sweet Betsy From Pike (also known as Villikens and His Dinah), which is the way I sing it.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: lyrics that work with different melodies
From: GUEST,Marta
Date: 28 Aug 03 - 02:23 PM

Matt McGinn used to sing the words of Kevin Barry to the tune of the Sash, as McGrath pointed out above. Of course this was a deliberate way of dealing with bigots asking for one song or the other. It is also a nice way of using the fine tunes which many orange songs are made up of, without using their sentiments.

Subject: RE: lyrics that work with different melodies
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 28 Aug 03 - 03:00 PM

I do "Purple Haze" to the tune of the theme from "Green Acres".

Subject: RE: lyrics that work with different melodies
From: Trevor
Date: 29 Aug 03 - 04:05 AM

We're regularly asked at gigs "Do you know 'Wild Rover'?" or "Can you do 'Streets of London'?"

Solution's obvious!

Subject: RE: lyrics that work with different melodies
From: Nerd
Date: 29 Aug 03 - 09:25 AM

We used to do Clementine to the tune of Beethoven's ninth symphony. Pretty cool when you come to the "Oh My Darling" part!