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Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow? From: Noreen Date: 15 Oct 03 - 05:42 AM Accepted, Boab and Wolfgang - just felt it needed noting though. Anyway, that was an aside from he question Peg was asking. Anyone any thoughts? I would say no, sing it straight in this context. Listeners will surely be aware of understated subtexts in songs of this nature. |
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Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow? From: Peg Date: 15 Oct 03 - 10:13 AM Just to clarify for you purists, the conference's title refers to poetry in the English language; this includes Scots (several papers on Burns) and translations... |
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Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow? From: Snuffy Date: 15 Oct 03 - 06:46 PM So Emily Dickinson is an English poet? |
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Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow? From: GUEST,diana Date: 04 Jan 04 - 04:53 AM peg, how was the singin at the banquet? When I heard Dainty davey on the bridge above the Laune, it was sung seriously, sincerely and with a great deal of confidence. There was nothing bawdy about it. It has certainly had a lasting impression on me. I only heard it once but I remembered the tune from over thirty years ago. It has stood the test of time and rings true. All you singers keep singin this one. When sung properly, the exact words don't matter anyway. Diana |
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Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow? From: SINSULL Date: 27 Sep 04 - 07:36 PM refresh |
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Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow? From: GUEST,Polish Boy Date: 15 Nov 04 - 09:45 PM Hey, neat threads. Been singing this song, among many, to my daughter since she was an infant (she's 6 now)and was singing it tonight; she asked me again what a "curly pow" was. Mystery solved; I'll use the "I'm fond of your curly head" version to expalin it to her tomorrow. (Nice to know the "tirliewirlie" bit too; thought it was 'teary-weary'). Have a nice version on an old tape by a group of Scots/Irish/Boston musicians called "Tit for Tat" that has a variant on the last verse: When he was chased by the dragoon That's when I took him in my room I deemed him worthy of my ruin For he's my own dear Dainty Davey Question on the light brigade/Reverend Williamson bit. Was a "light brigade" not a military figure, as in "The charge of the Light Brigade" in the Crimean War? And what does this have to do with the Reverend Williamson? Am not a scholar just a guy in Cleveland who loves all manner of folk music and the stories bhind it. Would love to know. Peace to all. |
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Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow? From: catspaw49 Date: 16 Nov 04 - 08:13 AM Light Brigades were specially trained in night fighting and carried torches into battle. After encountering initial successes against Buddhist Monks they were assigned to battalions fighting against the Curley Pow Warriors in Crimea. On the night of September 15th they devastated the entire Daintey Davey Division, setting fire to their curley pows and sending them running in flaming retreat across the battlefield with the Light Brigade in chase. The "blunder" oft referred to was that the Light Brigade followed too closely. When the flaming Curley Pow Warriors stumbled through an unseen fourth dimensional time warp encountering a future supply dump of the Nazis in WWII, the whole place blew up killing the remaining Daveys but also a goodly number of the Light Brigade as well. I hope this has been helpful and puts an end to this fuckin' thread. Spaw |
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Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow? From: SINSULL Date: 16 Nov 04 - 04:14 PM So "leeze me on your curly pow" means "Please let me extinguish your flaming pubic hair"? Or "let me coat your singed member with butter"? |
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Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow? From: Noreen Date: 16 Nov 04 - 04:53 PM Yeehah! The 'Curly Pow' alarm awakes the Catspaw from his elongate slumbers! |
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Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow? From: Greyeyes Date: 17 Nov 04 - 06:59 AM All we need now is for someone to resurrect a Songcatcher thread, or possibly all 27 of them, and Spaw's happiness will be complete. |
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Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow? From: Reiver 2 Date: 17 Nov 04 - 01:55 PM This thread is really incredible! Reiver 1 and I used to sing a version of this. Lovely melody. I don't remember whose singing we learned it from -- possibly Finbar and Eddie Furey. Reiver 1, though a Liverpudlian by birth was from a Scots family and explained to me that "curly pow" was a reference to a head with curly hair. I always thought that the "dainty" term was just an alliterative expression. I had no idea that in the original the song might have been based on an actual event and real people. I always took it to be just a bawdy ballad. We first learned a badly bowdlerized version which I haven't seen here. Perhaps because it's poorly done (even to the point where Dainty Davie is given as the man's name!): DAINTY DAVIE Once there was a tender maid She was mistress of her trade She fell in wi' a roving blade And his name was Dainty Davie. CHO: Leeze me on thy curly pow Bonnie Davie, dainty Davie Leeze me on thy curly pow He was her Dainty Davie. In through the window brought Weel's the pleasure she might tote The sweetest kiss she ever got Was from her Dainty Davie. CHO: Doon amang her faether's leas E'ee below the cherry trees There he kissed her as he pleased He was her Dainty Davie. CHO: (twa times) Later we found this, obviously earlier, version which we took to be the original. I think now that it wasn't, but at least it makes more sense than the "expurgated" version above. We Reivers always referred to this version as "Dirty Davie." The girl is speaking in this version. I'll only print the verses as the chorus is the same. DAINTY DAVIE Bein' pressed by the Dragooons In my bed he was laid doon Weel, I wat, he was worth his room My ain dear, dainty Davie My mither laid him at my back I trow he lay nae lang at that But turned and in a verra crack Produced a dainty Davie. In the field amang the pease Behin' the hoose and cherry trees Again he won atweesh my thies And, splash, gaed oot his gravy. Had I gowd or had I land It should be a' at his command I'll ne'er forget wha' he pat i' my hand It was a dainty Davie. Reiver 2 |
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Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow? From: Jeri Date: 17 Nov 04 - 01:56 PM Was it the Songcatcher threads, or was it OH BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU ??? (Just wondering) Curley pow, Larry bam, Moe kerthunk... |
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Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow? From: SINSULL Date: 16 Jan 05 - 06:40 PM Justine sang this at the Press Room on Saturday. It provoked some discussion between Barry and Jacqui which Jeri, I think, termed "foreplay". Didn't want any of the new members to miss this one. And, Spaw, a sports channel is advertising a gross beer sucking doll who shouts out numerous neanderthal sayings as he belches and farts. When it is reduced from $44.99 or shows up at a local yard sale I will get same for you. A perfect shelf mate for your singing lobster and bass. Love, SINS |
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Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow? From: catspaw49 Date: 16 Jan 05 - 09:09 PM Dear Lord, Send help. Please. Maybe a nephew this time? Anything. The Vibrating Turkey told me to ask you. And Lord? Be sure they don't have a curley pow, if you know what that is. Thanks Lord. Amen Spaw |
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Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow? From: GUEST,ButterflyJulia Date: 16 Jan 05 - 11:13 PM Burns would often produce a number(6, 7, etc ) of versions of the songs he collected or wrote and some were indeed bawdy and directed towards pals who liked a bit of that with a drink or twa. |
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Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow? From: Gurney Date: 17 Jan 05 - 02:16 AM Thought I'd keep this going, just so that 'spaw could moan some more. 'Lease', according to my old dictionary, means/meant a pasture or to pasture, but 'leath' has four meanings, two of which are 'ease' and 'intermission,' both of which make sense, considering poetic licence and the liklihood that there is some sexual meaning in there. |
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Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow? From: An Pluiméir Ceolmhar Date: 17 Jan 05 - 06:15 AM "But turned and in a verra crack" Shouldn't that be "craic"? ;-) Oops, sorry, wrong thread. |
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Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow? From: GUEST Date: 05 Aug 06 - 03:57 PM |
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Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow? From: GUEST,iewnw Date: 05 May 07 - 03:00 PM Pow means head, either the lump on top of your body or the head of a clan was called a pow |
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Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow? From: Big Phil Date: 05 May 07 - 05:56 PM Curly Pow, pubic area I was always lead to believe. |
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Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow? From: catspaw49 Date: 05 May 07 - 06:48 PM .......awferchrissakes..............Refreshing this dumbass thread to give an answer that has already been given..............and then followed another already given as well..................geeziz......Curly Pow my ass............. Spaw |
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Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow? From: SINSULL Date: 06 May 07 - 12:27 PM Curling iron in hand - here I come, Spaw! I love this thread! |
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Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow? From: Jim Lad Date: 06 May 07 - 01:14 PM At the risk of raising the ire of Catspaw; Curly pow, unfortunately, does refer to a hairy region, further south than the forehead and the version which the original poster was referring to was by The Flying Column back in the early seventies. Light Ragade, as I'm sure someone has by now pointed out is actually "Life Brigade". It's a good wee song apart from the disguised reference to the hairy region. I would tend to explain that it means Hairy Chest if asked but so far, no-one has. |
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Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow? From: GUEST Date: 06 May 07 - 03:40 PM Curly pow, curly head, 'nuff said. |
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Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow? From: Effsee Date: 06 May 07 - 07:57 PM Quite right Guest. Pow, AKA poll, as in tax. Head, Curly hair, nothing to do with hairy regions further south! |
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Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow? From: Jim Lad Date: 06 May 07 - 08:13 PM So we're all agreed then? |
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Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow? From: Gurney Date: 06 May 07 - 09:36 PM Don't hold your breath whilst you are waiting for agreement here, Jim. |
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Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow? From: SINSULL Date: 07 May 07 - 09:14 PM This almost dropped off the bottom... |
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Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow? From: Linda Mattson Date: 12 May 07 - 10:19 PM Sorry I didn't discover this thread seven long years ago. -Linda |
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Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow? From: GUEST,mairin Date: 11 Jul 07 - 10:26 PM sorry to revive it again but it has been asked what dainty might mean.. when my mother took out her giant dictonary( i think from around 1800s) dainty meant dear and sweet. althouggh i had never before this thread realised the naughtier connotations, that is what i would like to hold true. i think i like the love song version bettter, splashin' gravy sounds rather nasty to me. |
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Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow? From: Steve Shaw Date: 12 Jul 07 - 10:40 AM To us little lads in Lancashire streets in the 50s, pow meant haircut. |
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Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow? From: fumblefingers Date: 13 Jul 07 - 01:55 AM curly pow = curly hair on the head, or so my old English literature teacher told our class 40+ years ago. Any other definition is nonsense. |
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Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow? From: GUEST,Bass and viol Date: 05 Oct 07 - 12:55 PM At a party, someone requested this song, and we heard a similar lyric to what is in this thread. I am not a folkie, and I had never heard it before. I'd like to learn it, has anyone got a lead sheet for me? Also, I read a history that says the fiddle refered to in the lyrics was a double entendre, but see no fiddle mentioned in the lyrics in any of these threads. Anyone have a lyric like that?I was actually very dissappointed to learn this is a dirty song, it was so lovely, I assumed it was a lullaby. Refreshed! |
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Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow? From: catspaw49 Date: 05 Oct 07 - 01:54 PM You don't want to learn it. Go learn something else.
We have a ton of other songs around on this site....well over 10,000 as a matter of fact. Why not just skip this turkey? We have a bezillion variants on Barbara Allen if you like. And you want lullabyes? Yeah, we got 'em filling the diaper pail. Just screw Davey and his daintiness AND his curly pow!!!! |
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Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow? From: SINSULL Date: 05 Oct 07 - 02:14 PM LOL I too love Dainty Davie and am always pleased when someone refreshes this thread. Read it ALL THE WAY THROUGH and then ask as many questions as you like. heh heh Welcome! SINS |
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Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow? From: Peace Date: 05 Oct 07 - 02:15 PM A curly pow is a--sorry, be right back |
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Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow? From: Jim Lad Date: 05 Oct 07 - 09:57 PM So what's a Pow Wow then? |
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Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow? From: SINSULL Date: 05 Oct 07 - 10:21 PM A very impressive Curly Pow. |
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Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow? From: catspaw49 Date: 05 Oct 07 - 10:42 PM Keep it up Sins and I'll send you some more skunks to live under your shed! That's what you get for getting such enjoyment about this simpleshit thread! Spaw |
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Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow? From: SINSULL Date: 05 Oct 07 - 11:05 PM HMMMMM Maybe I will name the skunk Dainty Davey. Although I will keep his curly pow at a distance from now on. Not funny, Spaw. I stink; Seamus stinks; the yard stinks; the house stinks. More garlic than skunk. And I hate garlic. SIGH! |
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Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow? From: GUEST,leeneia Date: 06 Oct 07 - 12:37 AM 'So what's a Pow Wow then?' Jim Lad, a pow wow is a get-together of Native Americans. It usually features dancing, drumming, food and other festive activities. To get an idea of what one is like, Google 'pow wow image.' |
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Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow? From: GUEST,crazy little woman Date: 06 Oct 07 - 01:12 AM It's sad what propaganda will do to a sweet love story. David Williamson was a preacher and covenanter, a denomination that was cruelly repressed by the English authorities. He was fleeing a passel of soldiers (no doubt a bunch of thugs) when he came upon the house called Cherrytrees. (You don't suppose the soldiers were going to ask him for some ID, urge him to respect curfews, and let him be on his way, do you?) As it happened, the window into which he shot belonged to the daughter of the house. Now,if you have ever read the fiction of P.G. Wodehouse, you know that when a man slips into a bedroom at night, he is bound to knock over a table covered with china dogs or to step on a cat's tail. This is precisely what the Rev. Williamson did. He collided with a bunch of tirly-whirlies (knicknacks), and they o'd. (Went over.) Bertie Wooster would tell you that it happens every time. The daughter of the house looked upon his curly hair and his small but no-doubt-manly form, and saw that it was good. She did not want the soldiers to break his limbs or fracture his skull, so she hid him. In time she married him. As for all that stuff about her being unmarried and pregnant (how likely is that?) and Williamson having five or six wives - remember all that was in an account by his his enemy and persecutor. It behooved him to make Williamson look bad. As for 'leeze me on', it is a corruption of 'lief is me,' as mentioned already. the 'me' here is dative, so the phrase simply means dear is to me your curly head. Hurray for love! |
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Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow? From: GUEST,leeneia Date: 06 Oct 07 - 01:20 AM http://www.emusic.com/album/10931/10931240.html lets you hear Navajo music as it might be heard at a pow wow. It's different. |
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Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow? From: Jim Lad Date: 06 Oct 07 - 04:23 AM "Have Hope" Haunts! |
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Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow? From: GUEST,Young Buchan Date: 29 Oct 07 - 08:57 AM OK, I've solved this one: there is a sign in British Sign Language in which the pointed forefinger of each hand passes simultaneously over the signer's head from front to back. It is used to indicate a total failure to understand what is being said. It is often glossed as 'that went right over my head', but among the Deaf it is pronounced (and I don't have time to explain how a sign can be pronounced - you'll just have to take my word) POW! Simple then. Deaf person turned up to early song session with interpreter. Someone started to sing Dainty Davey. Interpreter tried to translate 'Leaze me on your curly...', but then realized it made no sense and went POW! And so it passed into the Tradition. Well, that's my story. |
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Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow? From: GUEST,Neil D Date: 29 Oct 07 - 11:00 AM I always thought it was: 'Fleas be on thy girlie Spaw' ;o) |
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Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow? From: GUEST Date: 29 Oct 07 - 05:05 PM Spaw has crabs??????????????? |
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Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow? From: GUEST Date: 01 Dec 07 - 09:31 PM Who could possibly resist? Like the song but love the never-ending-thread. Sorry Catspaw, but as they say in "brawd suthren" SHEET FAR! |
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Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow? From: SINSULL Date: 02 Dec 07 - 09:16 AM I love this thread... |
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Subject: RE: Dainty Davey: What's a curly pow? From: GUEST,Degsy Date: 14 Dec 07 - 04:40 PM I sang Dainty Davie at a party recently and jaws dropped. It has that affect on people here in Ireland I have noticed (the song, not my singing). Luke Kelly brought it here I think, with many other Scottish folk songs that Irish people think are Irish, and I sing his version (2 in the dbase - the CURLY POW version so you know I'm still on thread) and I am just amazed that having read the whole thread that he wasn't mentioned once, so I just thought I'd mention him, if thats ok with you Mr. Spaw. Luke sang it very straight and I have to agree with a previous poster that it is such a beautiful song that it seems a shame that it has such bawdy variations. I'd much rather be thinking CURLY NAPPER than CURLY MINGE when I'm singing it. Oh gawd, I don't know if I will ever be able to keep a straight face again. |
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