Lyr Req: Porcupine Song

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Porcupine Song
From: Mrrzy
Date: 20 Jul 20 - 05:20 PM

And I never realized no hedgehogs in the new world. Wild! We had one in Abidjan for a few days but it drove our basset hounds crazy so we had to let it go. Cute little ball of soft spikes.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Porcupine Song
From: Mrrzy
Date: 20 Jul 20 - 05:18 PM

So I am not the only one with philosophy rather than velocipedes... Are you sure we have the mondegreen? Vilosophy, the song pronounces.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Porcupine Song
From: GUEST,DCJ
Date: 17 Jul 20 - 07:59 PM

Minnesota Boy Scout Troop 302 variation, circa 1970's:

Icky picky icky picky porc-u-pine,
I can see you sitting in that big Jackpine,
I'll take my shotgun and shoot you down,
Icky picky porcupine.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Porcupine Song
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Apr 20 - 10:04 AM

This is a very old post. Here's what we used to sing -

Icky sticky icky sticky porcupine,
I can see you hiding 'hind that Norway pine,
I get my shotgun and shoot you down,
Icky sticky porcupine.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Porcupine Song
From: GUEST,guest
Date: 09 Apr 19 - 05:03 PM

My friend's father used to sing it like this in a thick Norwegian accent:
Beeky-Seeky, Beeky-Seeky Porcupine,
Now I see you hiding in the Nor-vich pine.
If you don't go a-vay, I vill shoot you down -
Beeky-Seeky Porcupine.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Porcupine Song
From: GUEST,keberoxu
Date: 07 Mar 19 - 02:52 PM

Here in North America,
porcupines have natural predators.
I wonder what the case is in Finland?
Does Finland have what we call 'fishers' ?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Porcupine Song
From: GUEST,Amy
Date: 06 Mar 19 - 01:13 PM

The answer to this question is "piikkisika," the Finnish word for porcupine. It is pronounced "peeka seek a" like others have said.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Porcupine Song
From: GUEST,GUEST
Date: 03 Nov 18 - 10:22 PM

I heard this one when I was a kid. One of my friend's dad was a Boy Scout camp counselor in Minnesota.   He sang it something like:

Icky-sicky, icky-sicky porcupine, (pronounced it por-cun-pine)
I can see you sitting on that big yack(?) pine
I'll get my shotgun and shoot you down.
Icky-sicky, icky-sicky porcupine,

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Porcupine Song
From: GUEST,GUEST
Date: 01 Nov 17 - 11:57 PM

I first heard this around the campfire at our cabin in northern Minnesota over 40 years ago, sung by my father and our neighbor, his oldest friend. Neither of them was Finnish, but these songs do get around. We also occasionally saw porcupines in our neck of the woods, one of which was shot after chewing the cedar siding on the cabin!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Porcupine Song
From: GUEST
Date: 28 Aug 17 - 05:51 AM

Seeka seeka porcupine. I see you hiding in the norwood pine I get my sit gun and shot you down seeka seeka seeka porcupine

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Porcupine Song
From: GUEST
Date: 23 Aug 17 - 03:54 PM

Hi, and yes I've heard it before, but in a different way. My way went, 'Peeka-seeka Peeka-seeka, Porcupine. I see you hiding behind the big Jack Pine. I go get my shot-gun and shoot you dead. Peeka-seeka Porcupine!'. I guess it's a song with many different ways to sing it. I also know you pronounce the words with the S like soot. My grandpa sings this song so I guess I just sing it all the time.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Porcupine Song
From: GUEST
Date: 29 Sep 16 - 12:33 AM

I remember the song and the tune. Can somebody sing it on YouTube? I'd love to hear it again.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Porcupine Song
From: Joe Offer
Date: 14 Aug 16 - 07:15 PM

I thought it unusual that leeneia says she has only the vaguest idea what a porcupine is like. I thought porcupines were common. But then again, maybe not. I recall seeing a porcupine in the wild only once in my life - at Boy Scout camp in Northern Wisconsin in about 1965. I've seen lots in captivity, though.
We don't have hedgehogs in the Americas, and I've never seen one in the wild. Wikipedia says that while they are spiny, they are not related to porcupines (but both are rodents).

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Porcupine Song
From: keberoxu
Date: 14 Aug 16 - 06:38 PM

I had a hard time finding a thread home for this song lyric. It's a hedgehog, not a porcupine. But it didn't really belong on the Terry Pratchett thread series.

It probably is still under copyright, I will try to acknowledge that.

LE HÉRISSON

[lyrics: Madeleine Ley(1901-1981), from Belgium]    [music, for girl's voices, by Francis Poulenc]

Quand papa trouve un hérisson
Il la porte a la maison
On lui donne du lait tiè
Dans la fond d'une assiette

Il ne veut pas se dérouler lors qu'il entend parler
Mais si nous quittons la cuisine
Il montre sa tête maligne

Et si je me tais un instant
Je l'entends boire doucement

© Madeleine Ley Paris: Stock, 1930

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Porcupine Song
From: Cool Beans
Date: 14 May 16 - 01:00 PM

I've recorded "Holly the Hedgehog."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8WSnCkevT8

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Porcupine Song
From: GUEST
Date: 14 May 16 - 09:50 AM

I grew up in Northern Wisconsin and my grandparents would sing it to us as kids. My dad taught it to my kids when they were were 4-5 years old. The version we learned was:
Peek-a-seek-a, Peek-a-seek-a, porcupine
What are you doing in that northern pine
I'll get my shoot-gun and shoot you in the behind!
Peek-a-seek-a, Peek-a-seek-a, porcupine

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Porcupine Song
From: GUEST,Tolkupois
Date: 13 May 16 - 10:15 PM

Piiika-Sikka, Piiika-Sikka, por-cue-pine! I see you, behind that norrr-vay pine! I take my sot gun and soot you down! Piiika-sikka, por-cue-pine!
That's how I recall it being sung.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Porcupine Song
From: GUEST
Date: 08 Jul 15 - 01:46 PM

My grandfather (born in Finland, raised in U.P. of Michigan, used to sing me the song

"Piikkisika Pikkisika, porcupine
I can see you hiding in the Nothern Pine.
If you don't come out, I'll shoot you down
"Piikkisika Pikkisika, porcupine

of course in his thick Finnish accent it sounded more like "I'll suit you town"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Porcupine Song
From: Cool Beans
Date: 20 Mar 14 - 01:32 PM

Nigel Parsons, thanks for "Holly the Hedgehog." I'd never heard of it, instantly fell in love with it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Porcupine Song
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 19 Mar 14 - 11:38 AM

Reading these posts made me realize that I have the vaguest idea of what a porcupine is like. So I found a youtube video of one. It's most interesting. And I thought my cat was a talker!

You'll have to copy and paste. I couldn't get my computer to make a link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGz8jcbJjRw

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Porcupine Song
From: GUEST,b'fo
Date: 18 Mar 14 - 01:57 PM

Yea, I remember this song. My grandpa used to sing it all the time!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Porcupine Song
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Aug 13 - 10:37 PM

Louise, "Piikkisika" is the word you are missing, and it means Porcupine in Finnish. Pronounced "Peek-e-seek-a"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Porcupine Song
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Aug 13 - 10:35 PM

"Piikkisika, piikkisika porcupine
Hiding way up there beneat' da nor'dern pine
I take-a my shotgun and shoot-a him down
Piikkisika porcupine"

This is a song my great-grandfather and father sang; we are located in the UP of Michigan. My understanding is that it is a finnish song made popular in our area by the finnish immigrants who worked as loggers. Piikkisika means porcupine in finnish.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Porcupine Song
From: JWB
Date: 14 Jun 13 - 10:11 PM

In the Finnish-American community in Oxford County, Maine, the pikki sikka song was known, as well. Very similar lyrics to Guest C's 6/10/13 post. The tune, which I still have in my head, is rather like a Gay Nineties ditty.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Porcupine Song
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 14 Jun 13 - 02:39 PM

There's another thread that ought to be linked to this one: Lyr Req: In de Vinter Time (from Carl Sandburg)

Subject: Lyr Add: IN DE VINTER TIME (from Carl Sandburg)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 14 Jun 13 - 02:32 PM

From The American Songbag by Carl Sandburg (New York: Harcourt, Brace & Company, 1927), page 334:

IN DE VINTER TIME

This is sung by superincumbent cucumbers in Iowa and elsewhere. We have it from students and faculty members of Cornell College. The tempo is mazurka and came with Polish and Czeko-Slovak emigration to the Corn Belt.

Lively. Tempo di mazurka - Arr. A. G. W.

In de vinter, in de vintortime,
Ven de vin' blows on de vindow-pane.
An' de vimmen, in de vaud'vil
Ride de velocipede in de vestibule,
All, vimmens! Ah, mens!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Porcupine Song
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Jun 13 - 07:02 PM

speak about the song.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Porcupine Song
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Jun 13 - 07:02 PM

"I will try to do this as phonetically as possible.
This is a Finnglish song my dad used to sing
to me about the porcupine when I was a little
girl. Maybe others know it, or know how to
spell it.
Pikki sikka, pikki sikka, porcanpine
Yersi bouda, yersi bouda, allatime
Porcanpine.

A rough translation would be, I think:
Piney pig, piney pig, porcupine
Chews wood, chews wood, all the time
Porcupine. "

I found that on a message board at

http://www.pasty.com/discus/messages/713/1118.html

There are a few other posts that

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Porcupine Song
From: GUEST,Guest C
Date: 10 Jun 13 - 02:40 AM

I remember the song as well. However, I remember the lyrics being something like:

Peek-and seek-a porcupine,
Peek-and seek-a porcupine,
What cha doin hiding in an old growth pine?
I'll get my shotgun and shoot you down.
Peek-and seek-a porcupine,
Peek-and seek-a porcupine.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Porcupine Song
From: Joe_F
Date: 14 Feb 13 - 08:41 PM

"Write philosophy" is a wonderful mondegreen for "ride velocipedes". %^)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Porcupine Song
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 14 Feb 13 - 04:29 AM

Not to be confused with Holly the hedgehog

Cheers!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Porcupine Song
From: GUEST,James
Date: 13 Feb 13 - 11:30 PM

Peek-a seek-a peek-a seek-a porcupine
I can see you hiding in the Norrrrway pine
I take my shoot gun and shoot you down
BANG!
peek-a seek-a porcupine



I don't know if there are other verses, but my father sang this
to us when we were kids as well here in Northern Minnesota

Subject: it vas vinter in the valley green
From: GUEST,Guest - LE
Date: 14 Nov 12 - 01:12 PM

I learned this version Michigan in the 60's at summer camp . . . I think it still has a few more lines. Does anyone know them?

It vas vinter in the valleygreen and the vind blew against the vindowpane
The vomen in the vaudeville wrote philosophy in the vestibule.
Copenhagen was taken hoorah hoorah
Copenhagen vas taken hoorah hoorah
And all the shtrange people stood up in the shteeple and shpit on the people below
Aah, aah, vomen
Aah, aah men
Acht deliber august September October
No vonder ve are sober ve and got no beer
My little brother Heindrich by the vindow stood
Inside, outlooking
He saw a tree there standing
He leaned the vindow out
He fell the vindow out
His head upon the rocks there lay
Peach-less.
He died he did
He died of broken rib he did
He died he did he died of broken rib.
We're the boys from bowling green
Bowling green
Bowling green
We're the boys from bowling green,
Boooys, don't bowl on the green
The green is for the king
The king is for the queen
The queen is for the prince.
Prince what prince?
Finger prints, nah
Foot prints, nah
Here Prince!
The moral of our story is to be able to distinguish the difference between asthma
Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh
And passion
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Porcupine Song
From: GUEST
Date: 08 Jun 12 - 09:28 PM

My father used to sing me to sleep with this song. His grandfather sang it to him. We lived in Michigans UP and it's sung with a Finnish accent. "peeka-seeka peeka-seeka porcupine" :) I googled this wondering if anyone else knew of this tune

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Porcupine Song
From: ClaireBear
Date: 28 Jan 11 - 06:13 PM

Mrrzy (8 years too late), I believe it's "rode velocipedes in the vestibule" not "wrote philosophy on the vestibules" -- but that's a great mondegreen!

C

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Porcupine Song
From: GUEST,Patrick
Date: 28 Jan 11 - 04:59 PM

This is a very old thread, BUT...

When I was a kid, we used to sing "Itsy Bitsy Porcupine" to the tune of Beautiful Ohio, and it went something like this:

Itsy Bitsy, Itsy Bitsy Porcupine,
What you doing way up in a Northern Pine?
I'll take my shotgun and shoot you down,
Itsy Bitsy, Itsy Bitsy Porcupine.

Subject: RE: Porcupine Song
From: Mrrzy
Date: 12 Jul 02 - 03:44 PM

Also by same friend, the large dark aardvark song. I'll check the trad...

Subject: RE: Porcupine Song
From: Mrrzy
Date: 12 Jul 02 - 10:24 AM

Not this one, but I remember It vas vinter in the valley green and the vind blew 'gainst the vindowpanes and the vomen in the vaudeville wrote philosophy on the vestibule... My little brother Heinrich by the window stood inside outlooking he saw a tree there standing and on the tree a peach there hanging. He leaned the window out - he FELL the window out - his head upon the rocks there lay. Peachless. and so on. Also in fake Swedish. Very entertaining ditty from a friend from Michigan.

Subject: RE: Porcupine Song
From: MMario
Date: 12 Jul 02 - 10:15 AM

refresh

Subject: Porcupine Song
From: GUEST,Louise
Date: 11 Jul 02 - 06:24 PM

Anyone know the words to an old Minnesota lumberjack song sung to "Beautiful Ohio"?

[something,something,something]little porcupine, I can see you hiding in dat Norvay pine. I get my sot-gun, and den I soot you down, [something] little porcupine.

My father used to sing this to me, playing his Swedish accent. Anybody remember hearing this?

Louise