Another sixties hangover... a-ha-ha, that's no way

Subject: RE: Another sixties hangover... a-ha-ha, that's no way
From: keberoxu
Date: 04 Apr 16 - 05:51 PM

Found it! Merci, Google Books! Katharine Anne Porter, would you believe?

LA NUIT DE LA MARIÉE

OU

MA MÈRE M'A MARIÉE

(Gautier Garguille?)

Ma mère m'a mariée
Au fils d'un avocat
La première nuitée
Qu'avec moi se coucha ...

(CHORUS)
Ah! ah! ah! Ça n' va guère --
Ah! ah! ah! Ça n' va pas!

La première nuitée
Qu'avec moi se coucha,
Il me mordit l'épaule
Et me cassa le bras. (CHORUS)

Il me mordit l'épaule
Et me cassa le bras.
J'appelai la servante:
Jeannette, êtes-vous là? (CHORUS)

J'appelai la servante:
Jeannette, êtes-vous là?
Allez dire à ma mère
Que je suis au trépas! (CHORUS)

Allez dire à ma mère
Que je suis au trépas!
Ma bonne mère arrive
Bien vite à petits pas. (CHORUS)

Ma bonne mère arrive
Bien vite à petits pas.
Courage! courage! ma fille,
Non, vous n'en mourrez pas. (CHORUS)

Courage! courage! ma fille,
Non, vous n'en mourrez pas,
Car si j'en étais morte
Vous ne seriez pas là! (CHORUS)

Car si j'en étais morte
Vous ne seriez pas là!
Si vous en mourrez, belle,
On vous enterrera.          (CHORUS)

Si vous en mourrez, belle,
On vous enterrera,
Et puis sur votre tombe,
En écrit l'on mettra: (CHORUS)

Et puis sur votre tombe,
En écrit l'on mettra:
Ci-gît la seule en France
Qui soit morte de ça! (CHORUS)

Subject: RE: Another sixties hangover... a-ha-ha, that's no way
From: keberoxu
Date: 04 Apr 16 - 05:11 PM

This, too, was in my parents' record collection. Poor Andrew Rowan Summers. His performance is humorous in a way he did not intend, because his diction is SO precious and affected. I can't listen to him singing this without snorting.

Now, it would be interesting to find the original Breton....

Subject: RE: Another sixties hangover...
From: GUEST,Bob Coltman
Date: 05 Sep 05 - 04:38 PM

Originally sung by Andrew Rowan Summers on a Folkways LP -- the source of everyone's version, including Bonnie's.

Not sure who did the translation. It is (Breton?) French, and like many ballads from there is sung with doubled lines.

My mother chose my husband, a lawyer's son was he,
When on the wedding night he came to bed with me,
   Ah-ah-ah, that's no way to, ah-ah-ah, that can't be.

When on the wedding night he came to bed with me,
He bit me on the shoulder, and almost broke my knee ...

He bit... etc.

They had more time in those days, and loved to extend a song. That's a very traditional French singing practice. Some of the French-Canadian and French groups still perform that way, and I think I've even heard La Bottine Souriant double lines like that.

Bob

Subject: RE: Another sixties hangover...
From: GUEST
Date: 03 Sep 05 - 11:56 AM

Thank you Cool Beans - that's exactly it. What a knowledgeable lot you people are on Mudcat - you never cease to amaze me. How did we ever survive before?
Cheers & thanks again
Simon Furey

Subject: RE: Another sixties hangover...
From: Little Robyn
Date: 03 Sep 05 - 04:19 AM

Can't find that one but Bonnie Dobson used to sing it.
Robyn

Subject: RE: Another sixties hangover...
From: Little Robyn
Date: 03 Sep 05 - 03:47 AM

I remember that one - was it on a Nina and Frederik record?
Robyn

Subject: RE: Another sixties hangover...
From: Cool Beans
Date: 02 Sep 05 - 06:02 PM

No, no no. It's "My Mother Chose My Husband."
It's in the Digitrad.

MY MOTHER CHOSE MY HUSBAND

My mother chose my husband;
A lawyer's son was he.
When, on my wedding night,
He came to bed with me,
Ah, ah, ah! That's no way to---
Ah, ah, ah! That can't be!

When, on my wedding night,
He came to bed with me,
He bit me on the shoulder
And almost broke my knee.
Ah, ah, ah! That's no way to---
Ah, ah, ah! That can't be!

He bit me on the shoulder
And almost broke my knee.
I called my waiting woman:
"Come quickly Margery"
Ah, ah, ah! That's no way to---
Ah, ah, ah! That can't be!
(Continue in the same pattern)

"Go tell Mama I'm dying;
Bid her come hastily!"

Came Mama to my bedside
Before I could count three.

"Cheer up, my girl. What ails you
Will never kill", said she."

"If I had died of that child,
God knows where you would be!"

"So if you die, my daughter,
I'll grave you splendidly."

"Then carve upon your headstone
Where everyone can see --"

"The only girl who couldn't
Survive that malady."

@marriage
filename[ MOTHSBND
TUNE FILE: MOTHSBND
CLICK TO PLAY
DS

Subject: RE: Another sixties hangover...
From: artbrooks
Date: 02 Sep 05 - 05:28 PM

"Maids when You're Young, Never Wed an Old Man. Click here.

Subject: Another sixties hangover...
From: GUEST,Simon Furey
Date: 02 Sep 05 - 05:23 PM

I have this earworm fragment running round my head. As far as I remember, it was a saucy song normally sung by women, rather along the lines of "an old man came courting me" but was suggestive rather than explicit, and a good giggle. The bit I remember, which is part of the chorus goes
"a-ha-ha, that's no way to..a-ha-ha, that can't be."
The phraseology sounds American, and I remember it from around 1964, if memory serves. I have the tune in my head to the fragment (hence the earworm) but I can't do the ABC stuff to communicate it.
Any clues as to what the song is, anyone?