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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: what became of the monk? (Animal Fair) From: GUEST,Carol Date: 15 Feb 08 - 05:52 PM Oh My Goodness! I've taught this song to my godchildren (now 8 and 7). I remember from my parents as: I went to the animal fair The birds and the bees were there The great baboon by the light of the moon Was combing his golden hair. The monkey fell out of his bunk (boom) And slid down the elephant's trunk (wheeee) The elephant sneezed (achoo) and fell on his knees, And what became of the monkey monkey monkey monkey... They still love it and have to sit on my lap facing me so they can fall through my knees with the "monkey fell out of his bunk" - but it's a bit of a struggle now as my godson is so heavy! Still it brings back such wonderful memories. Thank you for making my day Carol |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: what became of the monk? (Animal Fair) From: GUEST,RLE Date: 18 Jan 09 - 07:58 PM I had the 78 RPM record as a kid in the 50's, too. I probably still have it, in storage. It was sung by Arthur Godfrey. I think he got rid of the monkey getting drunk because it was for children. The version I recall is: I went to the Animal Fair; The birds and the beasts were there. The big baboon, by the light of the moon, Was combing his auburn hair. You ought to have seen the monk, He sat on the elephant's trunk. The elephant sneezed, and fell on his knees, And what became of the monk, the monk, the monk, the monk, the monk, The monk, the monk, the monk, And what became of the monk? On the flip side was The Bull-dog. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: what became of the monk? (Animal Fair) From: Nigel Parsons Date: 19 Jan 09 - 04:03 AM Further to the version I posted back in December '03, and adjusting it slightly (memory was NOT perfect) the following is how it appears in "The Scout Song Book" published by "The Boy Scouts Association" 25 Buckingham Palace Road London S.W.1 (second edition published 1954) The Animal Fair I went to the Animal Fair The birds and the beasts were there, The gay baboon by the light of the moon Was combing his auburn hair; The monkey fell out of his bunk Slid down the elephant's trunk, The Elephant sneezed and fell on his knees, And that was the end of the monkey monkey monkey, Monkey, monkey, monkey, monkey ... Scout traditional Complete with stave notation for the melody line (C Maj in 6/8 time) |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: what became of the monk? (Animal Fair) From: GUEST,A Nonny Mouse Date: 08 Jul 09 - 02:31 PM Fascinating that this thread has been going for almost eleven years! Anyway, I remember a version from an old 45rpm vinyl record, called I think "3,4,5 Nursery Course", and the words used in that version were: The Animals went to the fair, The birds and the beasts were there, The old baboon by the light of the moon, Was combing his golden hair. The monk(ey) fell out of his bunk, Right onto the Elephant's trunk, The elephant sneezed and fell on his knees, And what became of the monkey, monkey, monkey, monkey..... Then one of the kids said: "Now let's sing it again, and I'll sing monkey all the time!" Whereupon they repeated the song again, but one girl sang "monkey, monkey, monkey, monkey" all the time in the background. How interesting :-) |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: what became of the monk? (Animal Fair From: GUEST,Bob k Date: 26 Nov 09 - 08:31 PM We had men's quartet (barber shop style) back i9n the '40s when I was in high school and the version I sorta remember went like this: The animals had a fair The birds and beasts were there The big baboon by the light of the moon Combed his auburn hair The monkey he got drunk And climbed up the elephant's trunk The elephant sneezed And fell on his knees And that was the last of the monk, the monk, the monk etc |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: what became of the monk? (Animal Fair) From: GUEST,My version Date: 06 Jan 10 - 03:04 PM I went to the animal fair, The birds and the beasts were there, The big baboon by the light of the moon Was combing his auburn hair. The monkey bumped the skunk, And sat on the elephant's trunk; The elephant sneezed and fell to his knees, And that was the end of the monk! The monk!!! |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: what became of the monk? (Animal Fair) From: Richard Mellish Date: 06 Jan 10 - 05:40 PM I note that in a few versions it's the gay baboon. The version that my mother used to sing to me when I was a nipper (1950-ish) had a fairy baboon -- who however was combing her golden hair. That version ended with "What became of the monkey, monkey, monk". Richard |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: what became of the monk? (Animal Fair) From: GUEST,A Guy Who Remembers... Date: 10 Jan 10 - 08:57 PM I had this song on a casette tape when I was little; it also included (if I remember correctly) "Daisy", so it must've been a collection of public domain songs. What I heard went like this: I went to the animal fair, The birds and the beasts were there; The big baboon, by the light of the moon, Was combing his auburn hair... You ought to've seen the monk; He sat on the elephant's trunk, The elephant sneezed, and sat on his knees, And that was the end of the monk! The monk! The monk! The monk! I wish I knew who wrote the song. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: what became of the monk? (Animal Fair) From: GUEST Date: 15 Jan 10 - 10:46 AM Anyone Have the music for this as in series of notes sheet music style. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: what became of the monk? (Animal Fair) From: goatfell Date: 16 Jan 10 - 06:54 AM squish |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: what became of the monk? (Animal Fair) From: GUEST,Lucy, Taplas editor Date: 19 Feb 10 - 07:36 AM "Another favourite was Here we sit like birds in the wilderness Birds in the wilderness Birds in the wilderness Here we sit like birds in the wilderness Down in Alabama" I can remember other verses to that one being "Spuds in the billycan" "Wasps in the marmalade" "Bees in a honey pot" But can't find any other reference to the song. Anyone else remember it? I can remember singing it in third year juniors, the equivalent of Year Five now I believe. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: what became of the monk? (Animal Fair) From: GUEST,Birds in the wildreness Date: 29 Mar 10 - 05:41 AM I learnt this song as "Down In Demarara" the other verses about wasps in marmalade are clearly a later addition as in the previous version, this stanza served as the chorus. More info here http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=30683 |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: what became of the monk? (Animal Fair) From: GUEST,alice Date: 18 Apr 11 - 02:17 PM My grandfather, who was born in 1896 used to sing this to me - one line was different tho - "the monkey, he got drunk, he stepped on an elephant's truck" |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: what became of the monk? (Animal Fair) From: Genie Date: 19 Apr 11 - 12:38 AM It seems pretty obvious to me that substitutions of "The monkey fell out of his bunk" or "The monkey bumped the skunk" for "The Monkey, he got drunk" are "politically correct" lines meant for the consumption of girl/boy Scouts, school kids, and the like. Kind of like "Take Me Home, Country Roads" has been incorporated into many contemporary school music books with lines like "Misty haze of moonlight" substituted for "Misty taste of moonshine ... ". Or like, when I was a young'un, our school/church groups on bus rides would sing "Ninety-nine bottles of pop on the wall, ninety-nine bottles of pop. If one of those bottles should happen to fall, ninety-eight bottles of pop on the wall ... ". |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: what became of the monk? (Animal Fair) From: GUEST,Bob Coltman Date: 28 Apr 11 - 01:39 PM The following seems like a pop-song attempt to extend the basic lyric, but it's quite old. Found in Wehman's Songster #7, which was published probably in the mid-1880s. That would make it roughly contemporary with Thomas Talley's printed version. Found at http://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/songster/07-the-antmals-fair.htm Now listen to my lay, I'll do my best to please you, The song I'm going to give is a popular kind of thing, I had a dream, and It did seem to me so very queer, The birds and beasts they had a fair, and I was overseer. Chorus. "Twas at the animals' fair, all birds and beasts were there, The gay baboon, by the light of the moon, he combed his auburn hair, The monkey he got drunk, and fell on the elephant's trunk; The elephant sneezed and fell on his knees, now how was that for the monk? The jay-bird played the flute, the muskrat took the fiddle, The Tom-cat he did prompt, as he tuned his light guitar, The alligator hugged the bull-dog's wife, the bear got up his dander, The camel smashed the fox In the eye, and thumped the nose of the gander. The bear began to cry, the crocodile wiped his eye, The fox he took a walk with the goose, the spider eloped with the fly, Says the 'skeeter to the flea, "This is no place for me," The horse-fly stung the tiger's nose, and the lion swallowed the bee. The rabbit passed the beans, the squirrel passed potatoes, There was fish-balls made of mud, and cobblestone succotash, There was nice green peas from button-ball trees, grape soup and peanut salad, The pig he cried, "Root hog, or die!" and the bull In chorus bellowed. It soon began to rain, and the fair to an end it came, The jackass kissed the elephant's wife, I heard her laugh quite plain The grasshopper jumped up quick, and the kangaroo he did kick, He threw a flip flap up against the fence, and scraped his shins with a brick. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: what became of the monk? (Animal Fair) From: GUEST,Marisa Date: 20 Oct 11 - 12:25 AM I am from the US and I had a small "golden book" called Animal Fair that had this song in it and at the end of the book it had a sheet music that went along with the song. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: what became of the monk? (Animal Fair) From: GUEST,Indira Date: 24 Sep 12 - 06:00 AM My husband and I were watching the TV show called "Monk" the other day, and for some reason, the last line of the song, "And what became of the monk, the monk, the monk, the monk" came to mind. At the time I couldn't remember the rest of the song (or even the title), but I told my husband that the line was from a song that my mother used to sing to me when I was a young child (in the '50s in Minnesota). My husband (who grew up in California in the 50s, like the originator of this thread!), had NEVER heard the song before. He seemed to think I was just making it up on the spot! So while it's a song with a LONG history, apparently not everyone of that generation has heard of it! The next day I remembered some of the rest of the words of the song, and then I finally Googled to find out the rest of the lyrics. It has been fun reading everybody's comments on this website!! |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: what became of the monk? (Animal Fair) From: GUEST Date: 24 Aug 16 - 12:10 AM Mother added a verse: I went to the Animal Fair and OH what a crowd was there! The whiffle-ma-poof with snaggely toof (tooth) and Dizzy, the Dancing Bear. I saw a pink giraffe, but the thing that made them laugh Was when Mr. Monk bought the elephant's trunk For a dollar and a half (a half - a half - a half) |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: what became of the monk? (Animal Fair) From: Senoufou Date: 24 Aug 16 - 03:59 AM We sang this in the Brownies (early fifties) The monkey (NOT a monk!) didn't get drunk, that wouldn't have been PC for Brownies to sing. He fell out of his bunk. We were split into two sides, and when the first side finished the verse, they just kept repeating the word 'monkey,monkey monkey..' while the others sang. We adored that bit. I can't imagine what a blooming MONK would be doing there! |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: what became of the monk? (Animal Fair) From: GUEST,Jim Leahy Date: 12 Jan 23 - 06:16 PM I'm amazed no one has mentioned the Jesse Fuller version here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-ku7GxWyXc |
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Subject: ADD Version: Animal Fair (from Tex Ritter) From: Joe Offer Date: 13 Jan 23 - 01:18 AM I really like the Tex Ritter version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1q3EmqLX7GE ANIMAL FAIR (from the singing of Tex Ritter) I went to the animal fair, The birds and the beasts were there, The big baboon by the light of the moon, Was combing his auburn hair, The monkey lit some punks, And burned the elephant's trunk, The elephant sneezed and fell on his knees, And that was the end of the monk, The monk, the monk, the monk, the monk, the monk, the monk. I went to the animal fair, The birds and the beasts were there, A Kangaroo from Kalamazoo, Sat down in a rocking chair, The monkey sat ker-plunk, Right on the elephant's trunk, The elephant coughed and fell in the trough, And that was the end of the monk, The monk, the monk, the monk, the monk, the monk, the monk. I went to the animal show, Where all of the animals go, A tall giraffe was making me laugh, A' yellin' look out below, The monkey pulled a chunk, Of hair from the elephant's trunk, The elephant snored, fell down on the floor, And that was the end of the monk, The monk, the monk, the monk, the monk, the monk, the monk. I went to the animal park, And the beasts from Noah's ark, Had gathered all and were havin' a ball, One day when the moon was dark, They met in a forest place, And drank pink lemonade, They laughed and talked and hooted and squawked, And here is the sound they made, They made, they made, they made, they made, they made, they made. (Animal Noises) I went to the animal zoo, To call on a gnu I knew, For the gnu I knew was new, And knew all the news on the avenue, The gnu said how do you do, And I said how are you, The gnu said, Eww I got the flu, Ka-choo, Ka-choo, Ka-choo, Ka-choo, Ka-choo, Ka-choo, Ka-choo. |
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Subject: RE: Origins: what became of the monk? (Animal Fair) From: Richard Mellish Date: 13 Jan 23 - 04:28 AM I suggest that They met in a forest place, should be They met in a forest glade, to rhyme with And drank pink lemonade |
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