Lyr Req: Country Life/Hurrah for the Country Life

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Hurrah for the Country Life
From: Folkiedave
Date: 21 Jan 08 - 04:49 PM

Sheffield City Morris have sung a reggae version for years.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Hurrah for the Country Life
From: GEST
Date: 02 Nov 08 - 06:28 PM

I would be remiss if I failed to add a variant (or two) to this thread. :-)

Here is a variant recorded as Life Of The Country Boy by Ryan's Fancy (A Time Rith Ryan's Fancy ©1979, Boot Records). It has a YouTube video we just added today.

Another variant in our archive was recorded as New-Mown Hay by D'Arcy Broderick.

Both songs have similar lyrics to those in this thread with minor changes by the artists.

GEST Songs of Newfoundland and Labrador

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Hurrah for the Country Life
From: stallion
Date: 02 Nov 08 - 07:06 PM

Malcolm, having stumbled across the thread I must correct your gate - yate its is actually Yat thus the village of Chop Gate is Chop Yat and as my late father used to say shut t' yat.

Subject: Lyr Add: THE OLD TUP
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 03 Nov 08 - 11:22 PM

Google Book Search finds one other song that contains "laylum":


THE OLD TUP

As I was going to Derby upon a market day,
I met the finest tupsie that ever was fed on hay.
    Say laylum, laylum, pitiful laylum lay.

The man that stuck the tupsie was up to the knees in blood.
The man that held the basin was washed away in the flood.
    Say laylum, etc.

And all the women in Derby came begging for his ears,
To make them leather aprons to last for forty years.
    Say laylum, etc.

And all the men in Derby came begging for his eyes,
To kick about in Derby, and take them by surprise.
    Say laylum, etc.

--from "Guising and Mumming in Derbyshire" by S. O. Addy, in "Journal of the Derbyshire Archaeological and Natural History Society," London: Bemrose & Sons Ltd., Vol. XXIX, January, 1907, page 32.

[This is obviously a version of THE DERBY RAM. Other versions have different nonsense words in the refrain:

1. That's a lie, that's a lie, that's a lie, a lie, a lie!

2. Hey ringle dangle, hey ringle day.

3. Hinky dinky, Bob-o-linky.

4. Hie me dingle Darby, to me Darby dingle day.

5. Yea, lads, yea, lads, joyful lay, lay, lay.

6. Failey, failey, lady, fallairy lay.]

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Hurrah for the Country Life
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 04 Nov 08 - 02:19 AM

merrily among their ley land,


Surely Folly Bridge sing ley land, but I have heard it sung in pubs by old timers as merrily all in the dawnin

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Hurrah for the Country Life
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 04 Nov 08 - 02:50 PM

'I like to hear the small birds sing their merry LAY.'
See Roy Palmer's Everyman's Book of English Country Songs p45
Laylum is obviously just one of those mishearings that one gets in oral tradition! I doubt the song is much older than 1890.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Hurrah for the Country Life
From: Snuffy
Date: 04 Nov 08 - 08:01 PM

In spring we sow at the harvest mow.

My interpretation of the line is that it means: "In spring we sow; and at harvest time we mow"

The way it is usually sung seems to imply that in spring there is a "harvest mow" and we sow at it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Country Life/Hurrah for the Country Life
From: Nerd
Date: 04 Sep 12 - 11:33 AM

Just piping in to agree with Steve Gardham, and to add to Mudcat's collective knowledge on this song. The original line seems to have been "sing their merry lay" or "merrily sing their lay."

Steve's evidence was not entirely definitive, because it was based on Roy Palmer's transcription of a revival performance by Derek and Dorothy Elliott, not on a broadside or a source singer. The Elliotts' performance was apparently based on a recording of Kit Jones, a Yorkshire farmer, which I'd love to hear, just to confirm the word "lay." But until I do that, I still consider that text to be a product of professional folk-revival interpreters.

However, I've found an earlier text that is clearly a version of "Country Life," and that has "lay" rather than "laylum." It was published by Gavin Greig in his Folk-Song of the North-East column in the Buchan Observer in around 1911, with the title "The Country Life" (column number CLXIX, for those who want to check it out). He got it from F.R. Brown, an amateur song collector, but gives no other account of who the informant might be. He notes that it sounds to him like it comes from "the south," by which it's unclear if he means the south of Scotland or even further south. His version of the "little birds" verse goes:

I like to hear the little birds
Merrily sing their lay
Hurrah for a life in the country
And a romping in the new-mown hay

It's intriguing to me that this earliest text is located so far north in Scotland and that it has subsequently been collected only in Yorkshire. I wonder if it would be traceable to other Scottish sources?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Country Life/Hurrah for the Country Life
From: GUEST,Martina
Date: 12 Jun 14 - 12:58 AM

Appropriate name Nerd, I've been researching old folk songs for decades and it is absolutely incredible how the Scots falsely claim the root of so many, even the venerable Bard Robert Burns plagiarised John Barleycorn, so how anyone can believe that this is Scottish is beyond belief, also there are suggestions that Scarborough Fair originated in Scotland, Good Grief is nothing sacred, long live English folk and God Bless Norma Waterson so good to see you back on the folk.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Country Life/Hurrah for the Country Life
From: GUEST
Date: 12 Jun 14 - 03:41 AM

The answer to leylum of whatever is obvious. It refers to a bird singing while perched on a Leyland tractor. Sorted.

Tradsinger (sent from abroad).

Subject: Origins: Country Life/Hurrah for the Country Life
From: Joe Offer
Date: 11 May 16 - 02:32 AM

The Traditional Ballad Index has two Items for songs with this title, and they're confusing to me:

Country Life (I), The

DESCRIPTION: The singer describes the joy of living and working in the country, reporting "I like to rise when the sun she rises, Early in the morning... And hurrah for the life of the country boy." He describes the work done on the farm in each season
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1976
KEYWORDS: home farming nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, COUNTRYL*
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Country Life (II)" (chorus lyrics)
cf. "A Sweet Country Life" (theme)
cf. "The Brisk and Bonny Lass (The Brisk and Bonny Lad)" (theme)
cf. "The Contented Countryman" (theme)
cf. "I Like to Be There" (form, lyrics)
File: DTcountr

---

Country Life (II), The

DESCRIPTION: "Behold in me a farmer's son so jolly." The singer tells what he likes about farming: fields and flowers, birds singing, "milking the old dun cow," hearing the cock crow early, his Mary, ... "I do not like a city life." "A country life's the best"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (Greig)
KEYWORDS: farming nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber),England(North))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig #169, p. 2, "The Country Life" (1 text)
Palmer-ECS, #20, "The Old Cock Crows" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6297
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Country Life (I)" (chorus lyrics)
cf. "A Sweet Country Life" (theme)
NOTES: The chorus is close to "The Country Life" (I) but this song has no seasonal verses. Each verse of "The Country Life" (I) is a variation on "rambling in the new-mown hay," which appears here only in the chorus. Greig says it "seems to hail from the south." - BS
Last updated in version 3.7
File: Grg169b

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The Ballad Index Copyright 2015 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.

Barbara posted this second song in a thread titled The Old Cock Crows, the only title she and I found for the song.

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Version I refers only to the Digital Tradition lyrics for the song, which I believe are a transcription of the Watersons recording:

COUNTRY LIFE

chorus:
I like to rise when the sun she rises,
early in the morning
And I like to hear them small birds singing,
Merrily upon their layland
And hurrah for the life of a country boy,
And to ramble in the new mowed hay.


1. In spring we sow at the harvest mow
And that is how the seasons round they go
but of all the times choose I may
I'd be rambling through the new mowed hay.

2. In summer when the summer is hot
We sing, and we dance, and we drink a lot
We spend all night in sport and play
And go rambling in the new mown hay

3. In autumn when the oak trees turn
We gather all the wood that's fit to burn
We cut and stash and stow away
And go rambling in the new mown hay

4. In winter when the sky's gray
we hedge and ditch our times away,
but in summer when the sun shines gay,
We go ramblin' through the new mowed hay.

5. Oh Nancy is my darling gay
And she blooms like the flowers every day
But I love her best in the month of May
When we're rambling through the new mown hay

6. I like to hear the Morris dancers
Clash their sticks and drink our ale
I like to hear those bells a-ringing
As we ramble in the new mown hay

Recorded by Watersons - For Pence and Spicy Ale
@English @harmony @chorus
filename[ COUNTRYL
TUNE FILE: COUNTRYL
CLICK TO PLAY
DC & SOF

---

The DT also has a parody from an uncertain source:

COUNTRY BOY (2)
(Cat Fox?, Holly Tannen?)

I hates to rise when the sun she rises
Early in the morning.
I hates to hear them small birds singing
Merrily upon the lyelam
And a pox on the life of a country boy
Who's allergic to the new-mown hay.

I hate larks and I hate thrushes
I hate birds of every size
And when they start their bloody song
I want to poke them in their little eyes

In winter when the sky is grey
We sit and watch TV all day
But in summer when the sky is gay
We sit and watch TV all day
from singing of Lani Herrmann

@parody @country
filename[ CNTRYBY2
TUNE FILE: COUNTRYL
CLICK TO PLAY
RG

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Country Life/Hurrah for the Country Life
From: GUEST,Tor
Date: 24 May 20 - 10:12 AM

I found this definition for the word Lay in OED:
2 (old use) a poem that was written to be sung, usually telling a story

This makes meaning to the use of lay in the lyrics

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Country Life/Hurrah for the Country Life
From: GUEST,Starship
Date: 24 May 20 - 10:47 AM

In regard to Country Life (1) there is a good rendition by Folly Bridge at

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=le7wU48Ktq0

Lyrics also.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Country Life/Hurrah for the Country Life
From: GUEST,Starship
Date: 24 May 20 - 10:55 AM

Page 25 is worth a look--and maybe the link would be of use to a Morris group somewhere.

https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/6199541/hunters-moon-morris-perth-morris-men

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Country Life/Hurrah for the Country Life
From: Reinhard
Date: 24 May 20 - 12:13 PM

Thank you for that, Starship! Your posting caused me to find Folly Bridge's beautiful live performance of Country Life on Graham Metcalfe's 70th birthday in 2015.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Country Life/Hurrah for the Country Life
From: GeoffLawes
Date: 24 May 20 - 05:14 PM


Here sung by The Watersons on Youtube


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IT3pporiNFI

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Country Life/Hurrah for the Country Life
From: Daniel Kelly
Date: 06 Jun 21 - 09:07 AM

Hoping to revive this thread to find out if Chris Conder every found out where this song came from?

I've spent a few hours trawling the Bodleian Ballad database also historical journals and newspapers from England but have come up totally blank.

This song seems to have emerged fully formed from Mick Taylor of Wensleydale. Is it possible this is a Waterson creation?

Is the tune common?

I 100% don't by the claim of a link to Henry Linn's music hall song 'eggs for breakfast', there is almost nothing in common between the two.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Country Life/Hurrah for the Country Life
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 06 Jun 21 - 09:57 AM

See Nerd's post 4 Sept 2012.

Here is the song as printed by Greig..
If you want my opinion this is very likely the original Music Hall song. It has similarities with many pieces of the 1890s, early 1900s.

Behold in me a farmer's son so jolly,
I like the fields so green;
I like to ramble in the country,
Where the pretty little flowers are seen.
I like to ramble in the country,
And as I follow the plough,
I like to get up early in the morning,
And go milking the old dun cow.

Chorus:
I like to hear the old cock crow,
Early in the morning;
I like to ramble through the bright green fields;
Just as the day is dawning;
I like to hear the little birds
Merrily sing their lay;-
Hurrah for a life in the country,
And a romping in the new-mown hay.

I like the life of a farmer,
I like to live on a farm;
I do not like a city life,
For a country life has charm;
I like to see the maids in the dairy
Making the butter and cheese,
And like my Mary to tell me
Of her love beneath the trees.

How nice on a Sunday evening,
When the bells ring for the church,
How nice to see both young and old,
Gathered round that rustic porch.
I like to hear the skylark singing,
As the sun sets in the west5;
Of all the lives a man can live,
A country life's the best.

'From Mr F. R. Brown I have received a varied budget.....he encloses one or two booklets of songs, with a number of leaflet reprints of songs which he is himself gathering and contributing to the press. From these we select the following lilt of country life, which seems to hail from the south.'

Checking with Kilgarriff we find in the repertoire of one Ben Albert (1876-1925) the following titles 'Country Life' and 'Hurray for a country life'. If Albert was in his 20s when he performed it we should say about 1900, the song would not appear on many broadsides as there were few broadside printers left then, but as Greig tells us (and I have got a collection, unindexed I'm afraid) the song was in a little booklet. These were published with just the words and composer/publisher details in great numbers in the early 1900s.

I haven't time but a useful exercise would be to compare the Mick Taylor and the Kit Jones versions with this.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Country Life/Hurrah for the Country Life
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 06 Jun 21 - 10:00 AM

I might add that many MH songs from this period (Daisy Bell) for instance are still sung today and are well known, but normally just a chorus sung as part of a medley. It would seem that the likes of Mick Taylor remembered the chorus and expanded on its theme.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Country Life/Hurrah for the Country Life
From: Daniel Kelly
Date: 07 Jun 21 - 08:19 AM

Many thanks Steve, I missed that post from 'Nerd' in my scrolling. Seems clear that this is Mick Taylor's flawed recollection of what he probably heard in person, or re-sung by someone else, from Ben Albert.

Will updated the notes on my recording to reflect this.