Eddystone Light & Parodies

Subject: Eddystone Light parody
From: Suffet
Date: 04 Aug 02 - 12:43 PM

The Keeper of the Eddystone Light is goofy enough as is, but it also easily lends itself to parody. The Keeper of the Asteroid Light, for example, was published in Sing Out! many years ago. Here's another parody, one for which I can find no information. Does anyone know the author or anything else about it? I learned it from the singing of Mitch Kessler at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York, around 1963-1964, but I am unable to locate him now.

--- Steve


^^ THE LEADER OF THE GENERAL STRIKE

Tune: The Keeper of the Eddystone Light (traditional)
New words: anonymous(?)

Me father was the leader of the General Strike,
He slept with a Trotskyite one fine night.
From this union there came three:
A Stalinist, an anarchist, and the other was me.
Yo-ho-ho, for all you're worth,
You'll do a little time in Leavenworth!

One night while I was drunk with a pal,
Humming the Internationale,
A voice from the far left gave me a hail,
And there was me mother out on bail.
Yo-ho-ho, for all you're worth,
You'll do a little time in Leavenworth!

"Oh, what has become of my children three?"
Me mother she did ask of me.
"One for Russia has set sail,
And the other is rotting in a federal jail."
Yo-ho-ho, for all you're worth,
You'll do a little time in Leavenworth!

Then the Red Star flashed in her unkempt hair,
When I looked again, me mother wasn't there.
Then a voice came echoing out of the night:
"Oh, the Fascists take the leader of the General Strike!"
Yo-ho-ho, for all you're worth,
You'll do a little time in Leavenworth!

Subject: RE: Eddystone Light parody
From: Charley Noble
Date: 04 Aug 02 - 01:35 PM

Hmmmm.I thought I'd heard 'em all! This one's not in my copy of BIG RED SONGBOOK, where I thought I'd find it. It definitely has the ring of being composed by someone who grew up singing in a radical family. Thanks for posting this, Steve.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Eddystone Light parody
From: GUEST,John Hernandez
Date: 05 Aug 02 - 08:27 AM

Great parody! I've never seen it before, either. It seems like something the late Dave Van Ronk would have sung. Maybe he had a hand in its creation?

Subject: RE: Eddystone Light parody
From: EBarnacle1
Date: 05 Aug 02 - 11:28 AM

The original song itself may be a parody of earlier material which has since disappeared. One of the good things about it is that it localizes easily for those of us who live and work near water.

"Then pollution stank in her phosphorescent hair..."

Subject: RE: Eddystone Light parody
From: Amos
Date: 05 Aug 02 - 01:17 PM

It sure reeks of the 20's-30's, probably New York area at a wild guess. I'd never heard it before either. Thanks!

A

Subject: Lyr Add: THE EDDYSTONE LIGHT (modernised version)
From: HuwG
Date: 23 Jun 03 - 01:34 PM

THE EDDYSTONE LIGHT is in the Digitrad, but I have heard it sung, brilliantly, with the words modernised as below:



My father was the keeper of the Eddystone light
And he slept with a mermaid one fine night
From this union there came children three
A porpoise and a haddock, and the other was me!

CHORUS
Yo ho ho, the wind blows free,
Oh for the life on the rolling sea!

As I was trimming the lamp one night
I saw a silver gleam in in the pale moonlight
A voice on the starboard shouted "Ahoy!"
And there was my mother, a-sitting on a buoy.

Ch

My mother then she asked of me,
"Oh, where are the rest of my children three ?"
"Well, one's in the Circus as a talking fish
The other was served with peas and chips."

Ch

Then the phosphorous flashed in her seaweed hair.
I looked again, and my mother wasn't there
But her voice came echoing back from the night
"Bo**ocks to the keeper of the Eddystone Light!"

Ch (twice)

Subject: Lyr.Add: Eddystone Light (2)
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 12 Jan 04 - 09:25 PM

Here's another version, substantially different both in words and tune. From Norfolk.

EDDYSTONE LIGHT 2

My father was the keeper of the Eddystone Light
He married a mer-my-aid one night!
Out of this match came children three
Two was fishes and the other was me.

CHO:
Jolly stories, jolly told
When the wind blows bleak and the nights is co-old
No such life can be led on the shore
As is 'ad on the rocks by the ocean's ro-ahr!

When I was but a boyish chip
They put me in charge of the old light ship
I trimmed all the lamps, and I filled 'em with oil
And I played Seven Up according to 'oyle

CHO
Jolly stories, etc.

One night as I was a trimmin' of the glim
Singing a verse from the evenin' 'ymn
I see by the light of the binnacle lamp
My kind old father, lookin' jolly and damp
And a voice from the starboard shouted Ahoy!
And there was me grandmother, sittin' on a buoy.
(Meanin' a buoy for ships what syle
And not a boy what's a juvy-nyle myle!)

CHO
Jolly stories, etc.

From the singing of Wallace House, Folkways FP 823, 1952
DRO

Subject: RE: Is Mudcat serving a purpose?
From: GUEST,lefthandedwitch
Date: 07 Aug 09 - 03:43 PM

Since the porpoise is mentioned first and the pogy/porgy is mentioned second, I think it can safely be assumed that the porpoise was the "talking fish" and the pogy was served on a chafing dish.
I am, of course, referring to the song "The Eddystone Light," which my uncle Ralph regales us with at every family reunion and which he sang at my mother's committal service in 1999.

Subject: DT Correction: The Asteroid Light
From: Bill D
Date: 07 Aug 09 - 04:19 PM

The Asteroid Light (from the DT and other places...corrected & punctuated a bit.)

(GCCG) C - - - / F G C - : / /

My father was the keeper of the asteroid light,
And he slept with a Martian one fine night.
From this union there came three.
Two were mutants and the other was me.

    G G / G C

    Yo ho ho, the jets run free
    Oh for the life at the speed of C

One night as we were sailing toward the moon,
Singing the well known spaceman's tune
A voice came echoing out of the void
And there sat my mother on her as-teroid.

    CHORUS

"What has become of my children three?"
My mother then she asked of me
"One is on exhibit in a zoo on Venus
The other keeps a telepathic link between us."

    CHORUS

Then the deuterons flashed in her hydrogen hair
And I looked again and my mother wasn't there
But she telepathed angrily out of the night
"To Hell with the keeper of the asteroid light!"

    CHORUS

Subject: RE: Eddystone Light & Parodies
From: Arkie
Date: 07 Aug 09 - 05:37 PM

Somewhere, sometime ago, I read that the Eddystone Light that was sung by Burl Ives and others was a cleaned up version of an older bawdy song. Wish I could be more specific and provide the bawdy lyrics but I have never actually seen them.

Subject: RE: Eddystone Light & Parodies
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 08 Aug 09 - 03:53 PM

See thread 'The Man at the Nore' at the top of the list above. The original was a clean song written and sung by the famous Arthur Lloyd in 1866, he who also did 'Married to a Mermaid' at about the same period.

Subject: RE: Eddystone Light & Parodies
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 12 Jan 13 - 08:05 PM

Sheet music (anon.) was issued in 1866, at the time the song was sung by Arthur Lloyd.
Not listed in Michael Kilgarriff as one of Lloyd's songs.

Subject: RE: Eddystone Light & Parodies
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 12 Jan 13 - 08:28 PM

Cannot find a contemporary statement that this was an Arthur Lloyd song.

Not listed as an Arthur Lloyd song in http://www.arthurlloyd.co.uk/Songs1.htm

http://www.arthurlloyd.co.uk/ArthurLloydBiography.htm

http://www.arthurlloyd.co.uk/ (The base of the Arthur Lloyd website).

Subject: RE: Eddystone Light & Parodies
From: beeliner
Date: 13 Jan 13 - 12:36 AM

"My father was the keeper of the London Zoo,
One night he raped a kangaroo.

From this union there came three,
Two had pockets and the other was me."

Strange that no one posted this one previously - don't know if there are additional verses.

Subject: RE: Eddystone Light & Parodies
From: beeliner
Date: 13 Jan 13 - 01:19 AM

OOps, just noticed, it's posted on a separate thread, with several more verses.

Subject: RE: Eddystone Light & Parodies
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 13 Jan 13 - 09:38 AM

Hmmm. Intersting. The problem with coming back to a thread 4 years old is you forget where you got your info from. I've checked my Lloyd sheet lists on the back of various sheet music and it's not listed there, even on the 2 copies of Married to a Mermaid I have. The thread I referred to in my previous post seems to have disappeared from the top of the list. It was certainly printed on broadsides by Sanderson, Such and Fortey at about that time, but that doesn't tell us much. Where did you find the anonymous sheet? I have a vague recollection I got the info from one of those books on Music Hall but which one escapes me now.

I don't think they have the full Lloyd repertoire on the website just as we don't know the full extent of Harry Clifton's, and Kilgarriff is hardly comprehensive, nor does it claim to be. I'll have a quick look through some of my books on Music Hall.

Subject: RE: Eddystone Light & Parodies
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 14 Jan 13 - 07:36 PM

Let us know what you come up with.

The anon. sheet- I was referring to the 1866 sheet music, which apparently lacks author data (Not seen).

Subject: RE: Eddystone Light & Parodies
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 15 Jan 13 - 10:23 AM

Plenty on Arthur Lloyd in the half dozen books I've got but no comprehensive listing of repertoire, and they only mention half a dozen of his more famous pieces. The other possibility is that I've seen it on another thread somewhere.

Subject: RE: Eddystone Light & Parodies
From: cnd
Date: 12 Feb 21 - 02:15 PM

I was just listening to the Weaver's rendition of Eddystone Light (which I have on Vanguard RS-50-2031, 40 Great Folk Songs) and noticed their instrumental introduction was the same as the introduction to Mother Rackett's. Is there any correlation between the two songs, or did any other groups do this?

Subject: RE: Eddystone Light & Parodies
From: Felipa
Date: 06 Jun 21 - 12:10 PM

"The Eddystone Lighthouse is a lighthouse that is located on the dangerous Eddystone Rocks, 9 statute miles (14 km) south of Rame Head in Cornwall, England." Wikipedia

I wasn't familiar with the parodies, great crack.
I first heard this song on a record when I was about 10-11 years old. I think the singer was Ed McCurdy. I came to this discussion thread looking for information about the song's origins and there is some useful information in the later messages.