Lyric Deconstruction: Kelligrew's Soiree

Subject: RE: Lyric Deconstruction: Kelligrews Soiree
From: GUEST,Henry C
Date: 09 Nov 09 - 12:01 AM

the Head is the Toilet (Nautical Term) "on the Head " means on the toilet and therefore not watching the young lady.

Subject: RE: Lyric Deconstruction: Kelligrews Soiree
From: meself
Date: 09 Nov 09 - 01:00 AM

Imaginative - but "on the head" meaning a certain part of the dance makes more sense to me.

Subject: RE: Lyric Deconstruction: Kelligrews Soiree
From: GUEST
Date: 01 May 11 - 10:24 PM

Crackie is a small Newfoundland dog. Can't imagine their teeth as a party treat!

Subject: RE: Lyric Deconstruction: Kelligrews Soiree
From: GUEST
Date: 01 May 11 - 10:48 PM

When I last worked in 1965 for a year 'all around the circle' on the 'Rock' it was long past the 'ard times' before 1949 confederation but many grand fellows I worked in woods with were in their 60's and remembered well. I visited most out-ports and got used to pretty basic (but good) food, sometimes living on nothing but 'fish and brewis' (the correct spelling) and pork fat biscuits for weeks. Thus I can relate to most of the foods in the song (except teeth of a small Newfie dog called a Crackie and turpentine?). The language is good English as spoken several hundred years ago. English has constantly morphed in Britain as in Germany and other countries but remained frozen in time in Newfoundland. The British engineers could not understand the locals but I could. Think of Shakespearean English. I learned all the local songs and shipped home 100 pounds of dry 'sot cod' I paid 15 cents a pound for right off the 'flakes'. I have so many fond memories of the 'Rock' and the 'Newfie Bullet', which I had lived for months on. John www.ul705.com/homepage

Subject: RE: Lyric Deconstruction: Kelligrews Soiree
From: michaelr
Date: 02 May 11 - 02:01 AM

It occurs to me to wonder whether any of us would actually sing this song, or others like it ("The Night before Larry was Stretched" comes to mind) that are so specific to a place, time or dialect as to be unlikely to be comprehended by today's audiences.

I can't imagine myself trying to put this song across. Can you?

Subject: RE: Lyric Deconstruction: Kelligrews Soiree
From: Charley Noble
Date: 02 May 11 - 07:22 AM

I'm not sure but I certainly found it fascinating to listen to in my younger day, primarily because of its rich work play and its energy.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyric Deconstruction: Kelligrews Soiree
From: Artful Codger
Date: 02 May 11 - 11:58 AM

The essence of the song came across to me even as a child completely unfamiliar with the regional terms. If people really care what everything means, at least now there's Google and Mudcat. So, yes, I would (and do) actually sing this song now; "modern audiences" can appreciate it just as much as in decades past--if this sort of music appeals to them at all. Great tune, fun words, lots of local color; what's not to like? Admittedly, not all such songs age as well.

Subject: RE: Lyric Deconstruction: Kelligrew's Soiree
From: GUEST,crackie's teeth
Date: 28 Aug 11 - 06:59 PM

Have always been curious about this, among other things, in this most charming song). Though everyone knows about the crackie dogs, their teeth as a party treat is too far out for me. Could it be a very hard candy dangerous to teeth? Especially in the 'ard times' when there was a lot of tooth decay from lack of tooth brushes, paste and Crosby's sweet molasses was eaten abundantly. Or a very hard biscuit? (But I can't imagine anyone eating brewis right out of the bag.) Takes a Newf of venerable age to answer that. The charming old gents I worked with all around the circle in early 1960s are most regrettably long gone now. As to 'Nancy Cronan and her granny on the head' these old cocks were mariners and 'head' to them was a toilet (or outhouse version of such). That fits the rest of the ridiculous picture. It was a great pleasure working on the Rock with them and they gave (main-lander) me their Crosby's song books and I sang them all (mostly in simple jig-time) and can still sing Kelligrews from memory today at the drop of a hat. - John - www.ul705.com/homepage - [e-mail]

Subject: RE: Lyric Deconstruction: Kelligrew's Soiree
From: meself
Date: 28 Aug 11 - 07:46 PM

I perform this song frequently and have done so all my performing life - never occurred to me, that I might not be 'putting it across' ....

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I'm not sure when why anyone would insist that the 'head' here is the toilet, when a thoroughly plausible explanation of 'the head' as a part of the dance has been offered above. Makes far more sense, even in a song full of nonsense.

Subject: RE: Lyric Deconstruction: Kelligrew's Soiree
From: ollaimh
Date: 29 Aug 11 - 02:18 PM

my grandmother made a hard candy she called crackie's teeth(which does mean chicken's teeth), they were triangular like some animal teeth.

i alwys thought it was birch wine, which was a local name for birch beer, and tar twine i recall being another candy. a hard toffee made from i don't know what but probably mollassas.

the cuff for apple jam was a pastry stuffed with apple jam.

can't hold a snuff box was still used when i was a kid for can't compare to, or no where near as good as.

and dumplin's boiled in a sheet again a recall ole grand ma making dumplings on top of a big pot of stew and good they were, but to keep them from soaking into the stew she used a sheet, probably linen so it wouldn't affect the stew, but it could have been some kind of gauze--i haven't met anyone who boils dumplin's on top of stew for years--real good on a cold winter evening.

basically a kind of steamed bread , not unlike the chinese steamed buns. local cooking used the few ingreduents they had to best effect. if you had butter for them they were great hot, or you soaked them into the stew if the stew was rather wattery. this streached the food a long way. when i was a kid most housed ad a big pot of stew simmering away all day, to use up all the left overs. usually fish and potatoes were the basis. "spuds and brews", sometimes cabbage turnipe and onions, and even occasionally beef or mutton--before the nova scotia mutton industry was wiped out by frozen imports.

in the old days fish and mutton(in slaughtering season) were almost free, especially for poor families with lots of kids. if you went down to the warf with a bucket when the fish boats came in, the fishermen would fill your bucket for free--if you were a local and had a family, and were poor. they'd give you the fish they couldn't get top dollar for from the buyers but it was good food nonethe less.

they say the coastal people in nova scotia and new foundland did better in the depression than most because they had fish, fish and more fish

Subject: RE: Lyric Deconstruction: Kelligrew's Soiree
From: GUEST,Capt. Craig
Date: 11 Jul 13 - 12:37 PM

I can't believe that this thread has gone on for over 10 years and no one from Kelligrews straightened this lot out about "The Head!" There is a flat piece of land in Kelligrews that juts out into Conception bay and would you believe it's called Cronin's Head and would you believe that parties and picnics were held there? It's not too far from Betsy Snook's old place either. Now,this is irony, The Head is a sewage treatment plant today!