Lyr add/req: Rumpsy bumpsy tooralee

Subject: Lyr add/req: Rumpsy bumpsy tooralee
From: Wolfgang
Date: 07 May 04 - 07:23 AM

I know this song from Mike Waterson's singing on the 'Mighty River of Song' compilation CDs.

It is the same song basically as the Carter family's Wop she 'ad it-io that is already in the DT. However it is so different that I do not understand all even with the DT lyrics for comparison. This below is my attempt at a transcription, full of errors and missing bits/lines. I'd be glad for any corrections.


RUMPSY BUMPSY TOORALEE (TUMBLED AND CUT ME BUM)

First time I went to courting why, I didn't do too well.
Anny Mick was skinny malink and (mine were?) Tommy Bell.
Why, her father catched me courting her and after me he run
and he says if I catch thee with her again I shall whack thee round the bum...

Chorus: ...psy tooralee me titty falloora lee me,
rumpsy bumpsy diddledee umpsy rumpsy tooralee.

So me and the lass while we chitting and chatting we thought about a plan
and I got meself a ladder it were twenty rungs and ten.
I put it up at her window sill and says now me love I've come
and then me foot slipped through the window and I tumbled and cut me bum...

So they took me to the surgery that been so very near
well, she say, whatever have you done, I says I've cut me rear.
Well she says you've cut your ____ I ______ _______ it was done
I says me foot slipped through the window and I tumbled and cut me bum...

So she took me into the doctor there I told me case
while he looked so very gloom while he stared me in the face.
Well, he thought I was making a fool of him a fool of him by gum
but he made a far bigger fool of me when he turpentined me bum...

So they took me home in a wheelbarrow that I didn't care
for as we tumbled down the street the people at me stared
and all the kidsformed chorus and after me they run
shouting here comes a man with his leg in a sling and he's only got half a bum...

Funny courting gone wrong songs are found all over Europe. A (Platt/Low)German example is Trina, kumm mal vör de Döör

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: Lyr add/req: Rumpsy bumpsy tooralee
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 07 May 04 - 12:47 PM

That would be the Copper family, of southern England, rather than the Carter family of the southern Appalachian U.S.! :-)

~ Becky in Tucson

Subject: RE: Lyr add/req: Rumpsy bumpsy tooralee
From: Wolfgang
Date: 08 May 04 - 08:48 AM

My God, my second stupid mistake on that day. Thanks Becky, you're right, of course.

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: Lyr add/req: Rumpsy bumpsy tooralee
From: Wolfgang
Date: 08 May 04 - 09:10 AM

Reinhard on his Waterson's site (formerly Garry's site) has an idea what the missing line in verse 3 might be (without being too confident):

Well, she says, "You've cut your [ache?], lad, however was it done?"

Wolfgang (still looking for improvements)

Subject: RE: Lyr add/req: Rumpsy bumpsy tooralee
From: Tracey Dragonsfriend
Date: 08 May 04 - 01:05 PM

Sounds to me, with an English ear, as though the [ache?] above would sensibly be "arse"... probably giving a line like :
Well, she says, you've cut your arse, whatever have you done?
or
Well, she says, you've cut your arse, however was it done?

Cheers
Tracey

Subject: RE: Lyr add/req: Rumpsy bumpsy tooralee
From: Wolfgang
Date: 09 May 04 - 04:34 AM

Tracey,

Hmm, perhaps but a transliteration sounds to me rather like 'eggs' making 'cut your eggs, lad...' (axe)

Now the word 'eggs' (in verbatim translation) would make a perfect sense in German, but I have never seen that use in English yet.

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: Lyr add/req: Rumpsy bumpsy tooralee
From: Reinhard
Date: 09 May 04 - 03:44 PM

Well, what I wrote as 'ache' rather sounds like the pronounciation of the letter 'h' to me. 'ache' is just the word most similar to this that came to my mind.   Logically 'arse' would be better, of course, as Tracey already suggested but I don't hear this from Mike's singing.

Cheers,
Reinhard

Subject: RE: Lyr add/req: Rumpsy bumpsy tooralee
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 10 May 04 - 11:24 PM

The running joke in this song is that the singer always avoids saying "bum"—the expected word according to the rhyme scheme—by instead singing the nonsense chorus, "Bumpsy toralee...."

The way it's printed at Reinhard Zierke's Watersons page makes this a bit more clear:

Why, her father catched me courting her and after me he run
And he says, "If I catch thee with her again I shall whack thee round the ..."
Bumpsy tooralee me titty falloora lee me,
Rumpsy bumpsy diddledee umpsy rumpsy tooralee.

There are many other songs that use the same device, e.g. the kids' song Miss Susie [or Lucy] Had a Steamboat.

Wouldn't it spoil the joke to use the even stronger word "arse" elsewhere in the same song? (At least it seems stronger to me; what would a native British-English speaker say?)