Lyr Req: SIMPLE unaccompanied crowd-pleasers?

Subject: Lyr Req: SIMPLE unaccompanied crowd-pleasers?
From: Deni-C
Date: 16 Mar 03 - 06:41 AM

I saw a 14 year old girl at a singaround teach a bunch of around 100 singers to do a round. it sounded brilliant and was very enjoyable to join in with. Can't remember the name of it, but it was very short. Has anyone got any favourite songs that people can learn quickly? suitable for workshops and folk nights.... We're in the UK. Something from another country would be good.
Thanks
D

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: SIMPLE unaccompanied crowd-pleasers?
From: Willa
Date: 16 Mar 03 - 07:36 AM

Row, row, row your boat gently down the stream.C F C C C F C
merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,life is but a dream.C G C Am F G C

Frere Jacques

Kookaburra sits on an old gum tree

All things shall perish from under the sky.
Music alone shall live, music alone shall live,
Music alone shall live, never to die

Vine and Fig Tree (Shalom Altman)
And every man 'neath his vine and fig tree Em   Am
Shall live in peace and unafraid.          B7   Em
And every man 'neath his vine and fig tree Em   Am
Shall live in peace and unafraid.          B7   Em
And into plough-shares turn their swords, Em   Am
Nations shall learn war no more.          B7   Em
And into plough-shares turn their swords, Em   Am
Nations shall learn war no more.          B7   Em

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: SIMPLE unaccompanied crowd-pleasers?
From: Willa
Date: 16 Mar 03 - 07:46 AM

Deni-c
Click here thread.cfm?threadid=3117 here @displaysong.cfm?SongID=3441 and here thread.cfm?threadid=19956#206273

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: SIMPLE unaccompanied crowd-pleasers?
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 16 Mar 03 - 11:32 AM

Willa: love that 'vine & fig tree'
But, I prefer the Biblical quotation "Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruninghooks into spears"

Nigel

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: SIMPLE unaccompanied crowd-pleasers?
From: wilco
Date: 17 Mar 03 - 09:08 AM

Bright morning star is rising

Working on a Building

I'll Fly Aawy

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: SIMPLE unaccompanied crowd-pleasers?
From: GUEST,Russ
Date: 17 Mar 03 - 09:33 AM

If Jesus songs are approriate, "Anchored in Love" is great. Has a nice verse chorus and harmony chorus.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: SIMPLE unaccompanied crowd-pleasers?
From: Alice
Date: 17 Mar 03 - 09:43 AM

Red Is The Road

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: SIMPLE unaccompanied crowd-pleasers?
From: Steve Benbows protege
Date: 17 Mar 03 - 09:46 AM

Sounds stupid but some of the old songs from scouts and guide units were quite effective. My scout unit was a sea scout unit and the people who ran it were either ex-navy or worked in boat yards. We sang everything from "hullaballo balay" to "My baby has gone down the plug hole" to "He's my brother sylvest." If you have kids yourself in the scouts, guides etc ask what they sing. They are always rounds, usually folk, music hall or naval.
The songs are simple and can therefore be taught to large crowds of people without hassle.
with regards.
pete.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: SIMPLE unaccompanied crowd-pleasers?
From: IanC
Date: 17 Mar 03 - 10:00 AM

Whose pigs are these?

;-)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: SIMPLE unaccompanied crowd-pleasers?
From: Deni-C
Date: 17 Mar 03 - 10:12 AM

Brilliant, thanks all of you. I know a few of those, the others are starngers. I'll hunt them out.

Thanks again.

Vine trees etc... yeah, I like the sound of that one too.

I don't know whose pigs they are Ian, but I'll sound find out....

Cheers
Deni

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: SIMPLE unaccompanied crowd-pleasers?
From: Peterr
Date: 17 Mar 03 - 10:31 AM

Whose pigs are these?
Whose pigs are these?
They are John Pott's
You can 'em by the spots
And we found them in the vicarage garden.


After a few times through, it makes quite an entertaining (and silly) development to go into 'Susannah's a funniful man', though not as a round!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: SIMPLE unaccompanied crowd-pleasers?
From: Little Robyn
Date: 17 Mar 03 - 07:42 PM

"There'll be more joy"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: SIMPLE unaccompanied crowd-pleasers?
From: GUEST,Arjay
Date: 17 Mar 03 - 07:57 PM

Round:
"Mister Bach
wrote sev'ral tunes that go like this,
organ toccatos, fugues, cantatas --
Ya never know which is which!"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: SIMPLE unaccompanied crowd-pleasers?
From: GUEST,ossonflags
Date: 18 Mar 03 - 02:11 PM

Hope these are of some use:

"loyd george Knew my father"

"Sailors fairwell to his horse"

"The table we had was the old barn door"

and of course the all time crowd pleaser :

"The three blind jellyfish "

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: SIMPLE unaccompanied crowd-pleasers?
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 18 Mar 03 - 05:54 PM

"Sounds stupid but some of the old songs from scouts and guide units were quite effective."


Why should you think that it sounds stupid ? Scout and Guide campfires, and indeed those of other similar organisations, take place in campsites all over the world, week in, week out throughout the camping season. They are one of the most important parts of folk music, with songs being passed on through the oral tradition, and may be the first contact young people have for singing in an informal setting. There is no more satisfying sound than hearing kids walking round singing, for themselves, a song that you had taught them only the night before.

The simplest song I know is sung to the tune of "Pop Goes the Weasel". It is best sung with everyone sitting round in a circle and a conductor standing in the centre.

The lyrics are:

Da de da de da de dum
Da de da de da dum
Da de da de da de dum
Whoop
Da de da dum

On the "Whoop", every one lifts out of their seats.

Once you've been through it a couple of times, find another conductor and split the group into two parts. Sing it through two times with 2nd group starting half a verse after the 1st.

Da de da de da de dum
Da de da de da dum
Da de da de da de dum                      Da de da de da de dum                
Whoop !                                             Da de da de da dum
Da de da dum                                    Da de da de da de dum
                                                          Whoop
Repeat                                               Da de da dum

                                                          Repeat

When they've got the hang of that, find two more conductors and split the group into 4 parts. Sing it through 3 times, each group starting one line apart.


Da de da de da de dum
Da de da de da dum            Da de da de da de dum
Da de da de da de dum       Da de da de da dum         Da de da de da de dum
Whoop!!                               Da de da de da de dum    Da de da de da dum       Da de da de da de dum
Da de da dum                     Whoop!!                            Da de da de da de dum   Da de da de da dum
                                             Da de da dum                Whoop!!                           Da de dad de dad de dum
Repeat x 2                                                                   Da de da dum                Whoop!!
                                             Repeat x 2                                                             Da de da dum
                                                                                     Repeat x 2
                                                                                                                           Repeat x 2

If you get it right, ther should be a "Whoop!!" on every line, travelling around the room. The words may not be very inspired but it's fun if it works.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: SIMPLE unaccompanied crowd-pleasers?
From: Deni-C
Date: 19 Mar 03 - 12:54 AM

This one sounds hysterical.

:-)

D

I dd hear a band once do the Grand Old duke of York, it was very clever.

went something like this. They sang the first verse and then the next time they left out the last word of each line, and the next time left out two words, the next tree and so on, leaving the beats where the words used to be....I think,like this

Oh the grand old Duke of York,
he had ten thousand men,
he marched them up to the top of the hill
and he marched them down again


and when they were up
they were up
and when they were down
they were down
and when they were only halfway up
they were neither up nor down


Sing verse again, then....


and when they were *
they were *
and when they were *
they were *
and when they were only halfway *
they were neither * nor *

etc

long before thy got to the bit where there were only a couple of words in each line the audience fell about and the best thing was they were all, as well as grinning at the band they were laughing with the people next to them.....

:-)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: SIMPLE unaccompanied crowd-pleasers?
From: Blackcatter
Date: 19 Mar 03 - 01:01 AM

Down By the Riverside and other songs that have an easy chorus and a verse structure that has only one line that repeats are great as well. The tunes are often infectious and enourage clapping and moving about.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: SIMPLE unaccompanied crowd-pleasers?
From: Genie
Date: 19 Mar 03 - 03:02 AM

There are a couple of simple Hebrew songs that are fun for groups:

Hineh Ma Tov

Havenu Shalom Aleichim

Shalom Chaverim

Zum Gali Gali

and, of course,

Hava Nagila

I think these are all in Rise Up Singing and probably also somewhere in the DT or forum. If not, it's not hard to find folks who know them. (I can post words if you like.)

Genie

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: SIMPLE unaccompanied crowd-pleasers?
From: Genie
Date: 19 Mar 03 - 03:05 AM

and what's the one that has 3 parts, with one part being:
"Fish and chips and vinegar..."


Then there's "I've Got Sixpence."

And "Down By The Riverside."

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: SIMPLE unaccompanied crowd-pleasers?
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 19 Mar 03 - 04:13 AM

Don't chuck your muck in our dustbin, our dustbin, our dustbin
Don't chuck your muck in our dustbin, our dustbin's full

Fish and chips and vinegar, vinegar, vinegar
Fish and chips and vinegar, pepper, pepper, pepper, salt

1 bottle of pop, 2 bottle(s) of pop, 3 bottle(s) of pop, 4 bottle(s) of pop
1 bottle of pop, 2 bottle(s) of pop, 3 bottle(s) of pop, POP!

The first part is to the tune of "Ach Du Lieber Augustin" ("Augustin" vaguely = "our dustbin")...the tune to the other two parts should be available somewhere! Interestingly, parts 1 and 2 appear to be British and part 3 is clearly American.

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: SIMPLE unaccompanied crowd-pleasers?
From: Schantieman
Date: 19 Mar 03 - 05:10 AM

We sang this 3-parter as Cubs in the sixties and I was still singing it as a District Venture Scout Leader in the eighties. The words were slightly different:

You can't put your muck in our dustbin....

Pepper pepper pepper pot

The last part went:

One bottle pop, two bottle pop, three bottle pop, four bottle pop,
Five bottle pop, six bottle pop, seven seven bottle pop.

And then there was the goat dance!

:-)

Steve

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: SIMPLE unaccompanied crowd-pleasers?
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 19 Mar 03 - 05:13 AM

You Can't put your muck in our dustbin was posted here.
As mentioned by Mark above, there are variations. The "One bottle of pop" bit I remember as
"One bottle o' beer, two bottle o' beer, three bottle o' beer, four
One bottle o' beer, two bottle o' beer, three bottle o' beer, four"

However, the use of 'Pop bottle' would not make it an American invention. The sale of carbonated drinks and beer in the UK was done in 'Pop' bottles in the 19th century. The earliest of these bottles was in the form of a blown glass bottle with an enlarged chamber for the neck. In this chamber was lodged a marble (glass alley) which pressure kept jammed against the top of the neck. A hard jolt to the base of the bottle would dislodge the alley allowing pressure out, and the drink could be poured. Few of these bottles survive as children broke them for the alley, or they were re-cycled (and then broken). For an example of one of these bottles see Here (scroll down)
The other common 'pop' container used by many lemonade (US = soda) manufacturers involved a bottle with a hinged top secured by a wire. When opened initially the bottle would 'pop'. (similar bottles are in use today for certain lager brands such as Grolsch).Grolsch bottle

Nigel

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: SIMPLE unaccompanied crowd-pleasers?
From: Schantieman
Date: 19 Mar 03 - 05:34 AM

Well, OK then, if you insist.

The Goat Dance

Campfire leader holds hands to head with one finger outstretched in imitation of goat's horns. Sings:

Tomorrow we'll all have kippers (or sausages) for tea
Kippers for tea
Kippers for tea
Tomorrow we'll all have kippers for tea
Kippers for tea tomorrow.

Then stops facing the first victim (choose someone likely to be a willing participant at first). Victim follows leader's actions, one at a time. These are something like:

Bow three times
Paw the ground three times with a foot
Jump up & down three times
(all the while with horns on head)

Then turn round and leader dances off, followed by victim, singing the while, to find another victim and repeat the process.

Then turn round again and first victim becomes the leader. Continue thus till everyone's in the conga, someone falls in the campfire or you all get sick of it. All good clean fun!    When the current leader does the recruiting of the next victim, the other dancers can have a rest!

Have fun

S

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: SIMPLE unaccompanied crowd-pleasers?
From: Genie
Date: 19 Mar 03 - 11:50 AM

How to do a campfire 'pipe organ;:

3/4 time
As the song leader, you get one group started as tubas, doing a low pitch "oom-pa-pa, oom-pa-pa...".
Next, get another group started as piccolos, going "oomp-tweet-tweet, oomp-tweet-tweet, ,,," in the soprano range.
Next, start a third group doing a mid-range instrument like a fiddle ("oomp-zing-zing") or bagpipe ("oomp-nyeer-nyeer") -- or use both of these, making it a four part orchestra.

When everyone gets going in full stride on their back-up instruments, you (by yourself or with a couple of accomplices) start up the melody ("Ach! Du Lieber Augustine!" works really well) by holding your nose and 'singing' it like this:
"Nyow nyow nyow nyow nyow nyow nyow
Nyow nyow nyow, nyow nyow nyow
Nyow nyow nyow nyow nyow nyow nyow
Nyow nyow nyow nyow."

If you can keep your back up musicians from breaking up laughing, it really does sound like a pretty good pipe organ simulation.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: SIMPLE unaccompanied crowd-pleasers?
From: Genie
Date: 19 Mar 03 - 11:51 AM

Oh, I forgot. One of the back up instruments goes "oom-kicki-kicki, oom-kicki-kicki, ... ."

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: SIMPLE unaccompanied crowd-pleasers?
From: the lemonade lady
Date: 19 Mar 03 - 01:21 PM

Schantieman: That accounts for a lot!

#8-D

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: SIMPLE unaccompanied crowd-pleasers?
From: Mr Red
Date: 19 Mar 03 - 07:53 PM

Old Barbed Wire, Ilkley Moor ba 'T'at, Molly Malone.

AND there is one that everyone joins-in on when I sing it - especially if there is a fresh fruit juicer present. Shropshire Lemonade.
d8^]

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: SIMPLE unaccompanied crowd-pleasers?
From: Alice
Date: 19 Mar 03 - 08:46 PM

sheeesh.... I just noticed that I wrote "road" instead of "Rose"!

I'll try that again:

Red Is The Rose

There is a round that I think is in Rise Up Singing called
"Black Stockings".

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: SIMPLE unaccompanied crowd-pleasers?
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 19 Mar 03 - 11:42 PM

Schantieman, you're right, I learned it with 5...6...7...pop.

Never knew they had "pop" in the UK. Carbonated beverages are generally "soda" in the Eastern US, "pop" in the Midwest and West...though there are many local variations. (For example, in Boston, it's "tonic".)

And did I understand you correctly--is "lemonade" now the generic British term for carbonated beverages? If not, what is?   Here, lemonade is a non-carbonated beverage made from water, sugar, and lemon juice. Or, as is more likely these days...

Water, High Fructose Corn Syrup and/or Sugar, Citric Acid, Sodium Citrate, Sodium Benzoate and Potassium Sorbate (To Preserve Freshness), Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C), Glycerol Ester Of Wood Rosin, Natural Flavor, Yellow 5, Ascorbyl Palmitate (Preserves Freshness)

(from the label of "Country Time Lemonade" -- Country Time is a registered trademark of Kraft General Foods, Inc., White Plains, NY, in case you were wondering. And I found that on the Web...I NEVER buy the stuff!)

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: SIMPLE unaccompanied crowd-pleasers?
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 20 Mar 03 - 03:41 AM

Lemonade (UK) is the normally term for carbonated water with sugar and some lemon flavouring (although you do hear of 'orange lemonade').The sales of carbonated drinks which would be considered 'Pop' include Lemonade, Orangeade, Limeade etc, also Cola, Dandelion and Burdock, American Cream Soda, Ginger Beer and numerous others.
Soft, non carbonated, drinks are generally referred to as 'juices' or 'squashes'(nothing to do with gourd plants). The difference being (in most cases) that anything labelled 'Juice' is at a drinkable concentration, whereas anything labelled 'Squash' requires dilution (usually about 1:5 squash:water but the label says 'according to taste'). I have known visiting Americans claim they were surprised by the overpowering taste of some of our fruit drinks.
In either case, juice or squash, it is well worth reading the labels, as there are varying degress of sugar added, both for taste and for preservation. And there is a distinct difference between 'Sugar Free' & 'No added sugar'. (the latter implies that sugar contained in the fruit itself has not been extracted)

Nigel

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: SIMPLE unaccompanied crowd-pleasers?
From: Steve Benbows protege
Date: 21 Mar 03 - 08:14 AM

The "Unlucky duck" should be in the D.T. if it isn't p.m me and i will send you the words. That is a good song!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: SIMPLE unaccompanied crowd-pleasers?
From: Deni-C
Date: 29 Jul 03 - 04:09 AM

Great stuff, thanks everyone. We just had a workshop leader teaching african chants. Very enjoyable, a good laugh struggling with the words, which were a lot easier to learn by ear than by reading them.

Cheers
Deni

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: SIMPLE unaccompanied crowd-pleasers?
From:
Date: 29 Jul 04 - 06:38 PM

Mister Bach wrote several tunes just like this, organ sonatas, fugues and cantatas, I never know which is which

In the same songbook, there were at least two songs about other composers, each in the appropriate style. Does anyone know them?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: SIMPLE unaccompanied crowd-pleasers?
From: pavane
Date: 31 Jul 04 - 07:47 AM

If you want to turn tunes into rounds, my program HARMONY provides this facility.

You can take any melody, and hear how it sounds as a round in 2 or 3 parts, with the number of bars offest as a parameter.

Some tunes sound fine, others sound terrible. I haven't yet worked out a formula for checking what will work. It obviously depends on the chord structure, but I think there are other factors as well.