Lyr Req: The Nodding Song (Burns)

Subject: the nodding song
From: Maelgwyn (inactive)
Date: 09 Feb 99 - 05:29 PM

Does anyone have the lyrics to 'The Nodding Song' by Robert Burns?

Subject: Lyr Add: GUDEEN TO YOU KIMMER
From: Bruce O.
Date: 09 Feb 99 - 07:43 PM

[Scots Musical Museum, #523]

GUDEEN TO YOU KIMMER.
Corrected by Robert Burns.

Gudeen to you kimmer
And how do you do?
Hiccup, quo' kimmer,
The better that I'm fou.
[Chorus]
We're a' noddin, nid nid noddin
we're a' noddin at our house at hame,
We're a' noddin nid nid noddin
we're a' niddin at our house at hame.

Kate sits i' the neuk,
Suppin hen broo;
Deil tak Kate
An' she be na noddin too!
[Cho:]

How's 'a wi' you, Kimmer,
And how do ye fare?
A pint o' the best o't,
And twa pints mair.
[Cho:]

How's a' wi' you, kimmer,
And how do ye thrive;
How mony bairns hae ye?
Quo' kimmer, I hae five.
[Cho:]

Are they a' Johny's?
Eh! atweel no:
Twa o' them were gotten
When Johny was awa.
[Cho:]

Cats like milk
And dogs like broo;
Lads like lasses well,
And lasses lads too.
[Cho:]

C. K. Sharpe in 'Additional Illustrations to SMM' (#260) said "I never heard the country people sing more of the song than this:

Hoo are ye kimmer,
An' hoo doe ye thrive?
Hoo mony bairns hae ye?
Kimmer, I hae five.

An' we're a noddin;
Nid, nid, noddin;
An' we're a noddin
At our house at hame.

Are they a' Johnnie's bairns?
Na, kimmer, na!
For three o' them were gotten
Whan Johnnie was awa!
An' we're a', &c.

Cats like milk,
And dogs like broo;
Lads like lasses,
And lasses lads too.
An' we're, &c.

Subject: Tune Add: GUDEEN TO YOU KIMMER
From: Bruce O.
Date: 09 Feb 99 - 08:06 PM

I've heard this sung to a different tune, but I can't recall where.

X:1
T:Gudeen to you kimmer
S:SMM #523
Q:120
L:1/8
M:2/4
K:D mixolydian
D|G G/ B/ d/ d/ z/ d/|e/f/ g/ e/ d2|G/ G/ z/B/ d/ d/ z/ d/|\
e/ f/ g/ e/ d2||\
"Chorus"B B B (A/G/)|A A A (G/A/)|B B {c/}B/ A/ G/|\
(A/G/) A/ B/ G2|B B {c/}B (A/G/)|A A {B/}A (G/A/)|\
B B {c/}B A/ G/| (A/G/) A/ B/ G||]

Subject: RE: the nodding song
From: Maelgwyn (inactive)
Date: 09 Feb 99 - 09:12 PM

In the version i heard, at the end of the last line of the chorus they said something that sounded like 'geddy'. Anyone know what that was?

Subject: RE: the nodding song
From: Cuilionn
Date: 09 Feb 99 - 10:42 PM

I'm thinkin' th' bit what soonds like "geddy" micht actually be th' wairds "Guid E'en" said quickly, as if th' singer wis curtly dismissin' (yet wi' a wink) th' possibility o' singin' anither verse. I'll hae tae dredge up th' recordin' I hae an' see if it matches yourn.

--Cuilionn

Subject: RE: the nodding song
From: Maelgwyn (inactive)
Date: 11 Feb 99 - 10:55 PM

Thank you. :)

Subject: Lyr Add: O, WE'RE A' NODDIN AT OUR HOUSE AT HAME
From: Bruce O.
Date: 11 Feb 99 - 11:35 PM

In 'The Universal Songster', I, p. 208, 1828, is the text from 'The Scots Musical Museum' ("Original Words", but no mention of Burns) followed by the following worthless curiosity:

O, WE'RE A' NODDIN AT OUR HOUSE AT HAME
(As altered, and sung in London, &c.)

O, we're a' noddin, nid, nid nodding,
O we're a' noddin at our house at hame.

When the dame's asleep, and the gude man's fu',
When lads love lasses, and lasses love so true,
Kate sits i' the neuk, and her Jo sits by,
And the moon shines bright as the love in her eye.
    And they're a' noddin, &c.

And how d'ye kimmer? and how d'ye, dear?
How long hae ye loved me?—a twalmonth or near;
I ha' lov'd ye a twalmonth, dearer than life,
And e're a day aulder, I'se mak' ye my wife.
    And be aye noddin, &c.

And how d'ye kimmer? and how d'ye thrive?
O' siller and goud I ha plenty to wive;
Gie's your hand then, my Jo,—O, na, na, na,
My hand it was promised to Willie far awa!
    And we're a' noddin, &c.

Subject: RE: the nodding song
From: Ranks
Date: 19 Jun 01 - 04:46 AM

I was desperately looking for those lyrics inthe whole f...... Internet.

And what die I learn, alway search Mudcat first

Subject: RE: the nodding song
From: GUEST,Kate
Date: 18 Jan 05 - 03:39 PM

The title is "Gudeen to you kimmer"

Gudeen to you kimmer
And how do you do?
Hiccup, quo' kimmer,
The better that I'm fou.

Chorus:
We're a' noddin, nid nid nodding,
We're a' nodding at our house at hame,
We're a' noddin, nid nid nodding,
We're a' nodding at our house at hame.

Kate sits i' the neuk,
Suppin hen-broo;
Deil tak Kate
An' she be na noddin too!

How's a' wi' you, kimmer
And how do ye fare?
A pint o' the best o't,
And twa pints mair.

How's a' wi' you, kimmer,
And how do ye thrive;
How mony bairns hae ye?
Quo' kimmer, I hae five.

Are they a' Johny's?
Eh! atweel no:
Twa o' them were gotten
When Johny was awa.

Cats like milk
And dogs like broo;
Lads like lasses weel,
And lasses lads too.


from Burns: Poems and Songs, ed. by James Kinsley

Subject: RE: the nodding song
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 18 Jan 05 - 03:49 PM

Well, yes. That's exactly the same as the text quoted by the late Bruce Olson earlier in this old thread.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Nodding Song (Burns)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 28 Mar 09 - 01:15 PM

I am struck by the similarity, in metrical structure, if not in tune, between O, WE'RE A' NODDIN AT OUR HOUSE AT HAME (in all its variations):

O, we're a' noddin, nid, nid, nodding,
O we're a' noddin at our house at hame.

--and WE'RE ALL DODGING:

For we're all dodgin', dodge, dodge, dodgin',
Yes, we're all dodgin' our way through the world.

Can anyone tell me whether there's a similarity in tunes? (Being a non-musician, I am relatively handicapped in this area.)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Nodding Song (Burns)
From: Jim McLean
Date: 29 Mar 09 - 10:33 AM

Jim, do you know where I can hear the melody for the Dodger song? I know Aaron Copeland composed a version, also known as the Capaign song, and by the look of the words of the Dodger, it definitely appears to have the same structure as We're a' Noddin', which I recorded with Nigel Denver in 1966, and found in Johnson's Scots Musical Museum #523.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Nodding Song (Burns)
From: curmudgeon
Date: 29 Mar 09 - 11:25 AM

Subject: RE: Origins: The Dodger Song
From: curmudgeon - PM
Date: 29 Mar 09 - 09:49 AM

The two tunes are so similar that it's most likely the Dodger derived from Noddin' in a slightly different form.

The Dodger is on the Weavers Carnegie Hall Reunion LP. I first heard Noddin' on Riverside LP of Burns Songs by Betty Sanders, a singer I had not heard of before or since - Tom