Lyr Req: Casn't Kill Cooch (Adge Cutler)

Subject: Lyr req: Casn't Kill Cooch
From:
Date: 21 Aug 98 - 09:21 AM

Can anyone provide the lyrics to Casn't Kill Cooch? The tune is pleasant but I can't quite make out the words. What does it mean?

Subject: RE: Lyr req: Casn't Kill Cooch
From: pattyClink
Date: 13 Sep 02 - 11:01 AM

I just heard this song and was sure the answer would be in the DT and forum. But so far, only the question is here. Anybody have a clue?

Subject: Lyr Add: CASN'T KILL COOCH
From: Sorcha
Date: 13 Sep 02 - 11:09 AM

CASN'T KILL COOCH
from: http://www.makem.com/lyrics/lyricpage/casntkillcooch.php

Now brave boys I'm touching on sixty, but I'm very spry
And you can't find a man that has tried his luck more times than I
For years I've looked around for a woman with a few spare pound
I know I can find her and I'll tell thee why

CHORUS: Oh the casn't kill cooch will never die
No, the casn't kill cooch, no matter just how much they try
When things go wrong boys, don't curse nor fret
Call the casn't kill cooch and I'll get there yet

Well once I were courtin' a pretty little girl up on Ark Tree Hill
Not just because her father had a farm and a cider mill
But one day he says "John, they got to hurry on"
For his love of his little brown jug was more than the love of his Jill

Ah, then there were Janey from Oakton Janey what a girl was she
Fine fat legs like a couple of branches on a chestnut tree
But it were just the same, she said "I know his game
I know what I'm after and he hasn't got any"

Well now brave boys, my story has ended and I know it's true
Sun is shining and he's gotta make hay while the sun shines through
Every dog must have his day, but I hope you won't forget
While there's life there's hoping and there's life in the old dog yet

Subject: RE: Lyr req: Casn't Kill Cooch
From: GUEST,guest
Date: 13 Sep 02 - 12:50 PM

Words and music by Adge Cutler. Tommy Makem made it popular (on Shanachie Records).
Meaning? Not a clue.

Subject: RE: Lyr req: Casn't Kill Cooch
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 13 Sep 02 - 02:22 PM

Cooch or couch as it should be, is couch grass, pronounced cooch. It's that sort of tough, clumpy grass that sends out runners that root and grows more grass that sends out runners that root ad infinitum or until you reach the concrete. Then it will try it's damndest to grow up through that! No matter how you try to kill it, uproot it, dig it in, or generally dispose of it, it won't

Casn't is a contraction of 'cannot' peculiar to the south of England, esp. Somerset and Dorset. As in; 'you cannot kill couch grass'.

It is used here to denote a tough, indestructible person, someone who no matter what life throws at them, will bounce right back and carry on. He's spent all his life looking for a rich woman, or a woman with assets he can use (such as the cider mill) and although he's pushing 60 years of age, he's still hopeful he'll find the right woman.

Sounds like a few people here actually, mentioning no names.....

LTS

Subject: RE: Lyr req: Casn't Kill Cooch
From: Crane Driver
Date: 13 Sep 02 - 02:23 PM

Cooch, or Couch, grass is a very persistent weed. "Thee casn't kill cooch" is Somerset dialect for "You can't kill cooch", meaning that no matter what you do to it, the roots persist and it springs back. Read the words in that light, it should make sense.

Andrew

Subject: RE: Lyr req: Casn't Kill Cooch
From: Crane Driver
Date: 13 Sep 02 - 02:27 PM

Thanks, Liz. "Chips that pass in the night", and all that

Andrew

Subject: RE: Lyr req: Casn't Kill Cooch
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 13 Sep 02 - 02:42 PM

Someone mention chips??

I thought it was ships that pass on the right!

Tommy Makem has done a lot to make Adge's songs popular, it must be coming up to 20 years since I last heard some of them....

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~gunning/ajcutler.html

is a great site for all things Wurzelly, if a JoeClone could oblibe with a clicky, I'd be grateful!

LTS

Subject: RE: Lyr req: Casn't Kill Cooch
From: GUEST,guest
Date: 13 Sep 02 - 02:53 PM

Couch, or cooch grass is persistent and troublesome in North America as well. Didn't make the connection to the song title! Both common names are also used in North America.
The grass is native to Europe but has been spread to Australia, as well as North Africa and America.

Subject: RE: Lyr req: Casn't Kill Cooch
From: Verna
Date: 13 Sep 02 - 04:01 PM

everything said above is correct. I know cos I was there (when it was written that is)

Subject: RE: Lyr req: Casn't Kill Cooch
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 14 Sep 02 - 01:33 AM

When what was written, the song or the explanations?

Actually there is a way of killing couch. First take a few cats. Train cats to piss on the couch grass. Couch grass will shrivel away to nothing within 3 months.

LTS

Subject: RE: Lyr req: Casn't Kill Cooch
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 14 Sep 02 - 02:15 AM

Click here for Wurzels

That's what Spaw said to do to get a blicky. It probably won't work because I did it.

LTS

Subject: RE: Lyr req: Casn't Kill Cooch
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 14 Sep 02 - 02:16 AM

Well bugger I!

Spaw, you're fantastic!!

LTS

Subject: RE: Lyr req: Casn't Kill Cooch
From: pattyClink
Date: 16 Sep 02 - 10:22 AM

Sorry I let the thread slip away before saying Thank You! for all the input, Cats! The song makes some sense now; I may never see 'cooch'underfoot, but the stubborn persistence of kudzu and boxhedge must be similar.

Subject: RE: Lyr req: Casn't Kill Cooch
From: Gurney
Date: 17 Sep 02 - 06:51 AM

Liz, you are right. And wrong. the grass will die, but only in a circle about 8 inches across, and around that is a ring of super-fertilised grass. I've seen it done, unfortunately. Outside my dining-room.

Where can we get a video of you training your cats? It will be easy to recognise you by the torn-out hair.

I've been in NZ for 27 years, and I can remember 'Casn't Kill Couch' from the Ampersand Folk Club, in Barwell. Cheers, Chris.

Subject: RE: Lyr req: Casn't Kill Cooch
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 17 Sep 02 - 04:20 PM

Well the cats have been using the (once) grassy patch under the buddlea for months now, and guess what? Not a blade of grass nor any other green and living thing except slugs with a slightly surprised expression having spent the night trying to shag a cat turd. That was an image I could have lived without, but that's what the slug was doing... had its little tentacle thing out and everything!

LTS

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Casn't Kill Cooch
From: GUEST,lyehole boy
Date: 16 Dec 13 - 09:09 AM

Ark tree hill should be Harptree Hill,and Oakton Janey should be Upton Cheyney. Both villages not too distance from Nailsea home of Adge Cutler and the Wurzels

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Casn't Kill Cooch (Adge Cutler)
From: GUEST
Date: 28 Aug 21 - 11:26 AM

Quite right, except Adge was from Pensford. Many of his songs were recorded live at the Royal Oak, Nailsea. Also "thee casn't" is a contraction of thou canst not. Thees (pronounced with a final s not z sound so not like these)is "thou hast" (ie. you [singular] have. The above lyrics render it "he's" which makes no sense at all. The same mistake has been made in the lyrics accompanying the Youtube recording of Thees got'n where thees cassn' back'n hass'n.