Absurdities in songs - any examples?

Subject: RE: Absurdities in songs - any examples?
From: Snuffy
Date: 03 Dec 13 - 09:30 AM

In the Flying Fish Sailor version of Blow the Man Down, the narrator tells us how he treated the policeman:

So I smashed in his face, and I stove in his jaw;
Says he "My young feller, you're breaking the law"

After that sort of assault, I'd be amazed if he could manage to say anything intelligible.

Subject: RE: Absurdities in songs - any examples?
From: GUEST,John from "Elsie`s Band"
Date: 03 Dec 13 - 10:27 AM

From our version of "Cutaway Mike":-


"Little Mike, he was born about six in the morning.
Himself and his mother were there at the time"
,..........
...........

Subject: RE: Absurdities in songs - any examples?
From: Bill D
Date: 03 Dec 13 - 11:04 AM

Oh, "Cutaway Mike" goes on & on! (I know only one source on an old LP)

"He once took a trip to his grandfather's tower
Who lived about 600 miles out of town.
Got there in an hour and lifted the tower
Returned home again with a church in his lap.

He once made a contract with baker and butcher
For all they could bake and for all they could kill.
A whole batch of bread he consumed for his dinner,
Then stuck a cow's tail in the hole of his tooth."
---------------------------------------------------

Then there is Bob Beer's "PYTHAGORUS AND CANTANKORUS" which you can listen to here... of which he says:"This is a musical abstract. I would describe it as being in blank verse, with no meter, no ending, and no meaning. Of course, I wrote it with; absolutely no effort."

Subject: RE: Absurdities in songs - any examples?
From: GUEST,John from "Elsie` Band"
Date: 03 Dec 13 - 11:16 AM

Bill D.

It is on our Cd entitled "Cutaway Mike" and it contains your verses.

John

Subject: RE: Absurdities in songs - any examples?
From: GUEST,kendall
Date: 03 Dec 13 - 12:44 PM

It was midnight on the ocean, not a streetcar was in sight,
I stepped into drug store to get myself a light,
The man behind the counter was a woman old and grey,
She used to peddle donuts on the road to Mandalay.

Aint we crazy, aint we crazy, we sing just to pass the time away,
Aint we crazy, aint we crazy, we sing this little song all night today.

Subject: RE: Absurdities in songs - any examples?
From: GUEST,kendall
Date: 03 Dec 13 - 12:47 PM

I stood by the water so green and so think,I stirred at the scum with an old withered stick,
When there rose from the depths of that limpid lagoon,
The luminous body of Mrs. Ravoon.

Subject: RE: Absurdities in songs - any examples?
From: Bill D
Date: 03 Dec 13 - 02:25 PM

*grin* ...is that 'absurd', Kendall?... or merely ghoulish ?

We both sing the whole thing, and it's sometimes hard to tell if the audience considers it absurd.

Subject: RE: Absurdities in songs - any examples?
From: GUEST
Date: 03 Dec 13 - 07:58 PM

@Kendall 22 Nov 13 - 07:31 PM
A ship at anchor will always have left itself searoom before anchoring, which will still be there when weighing: there's time enough to weigh anchor and then set sail, particularly as the only thing making way on the ship at that point is the current. Many ships could be worked by a mere fistful of very exhausted men, which is how the prize crew system worked. And if you haven't left yourself searoom, either don't sail until the tide, currents and winds change, or crab your way out using sprung anchors and boats - which isn't what the song describes.
Sheets and halyards will normally be secured so they can be left to their own devices at that point. If it's really necessary to use the wind, a minimum sail can be set first, but the same applies.

Subject: RE: Absurdities in songs - any examples?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 04 Dec 13 - 02:39 AM

as Derek Brimstone pointed out

He rode east and he rode west....

cos he was an idiot

Subject: RE: Absurdities in songs - any examples?
From: kendall
Date: 04 Dec 13 - 08:32 AM

Guest, I've been a sailor all my adult life so I know all that. It just struck me as poorly worded.

If it takes all hands, that must be one humongous anchor! The picture that come to mind was a full rigged ship, Barque or even a Brigantine.

Subject: RE: Absurdities in songs - any examples?
From: Tradsinger
Date: 04 Dec 13 - 10:09 AM

An Appalachian version of The Wife of Usher's Well starts:

There was a woman and she lived alone
And babies she had three

How...?

Subject: RE: Absurdities in songs - any examples?
From: GUEST,Guestibus
Date: 04 Dec 13 - 03:50 PM

One that I can't unhear is in "The Town I Loved So Well" - 'There was music there, in the Derry air' or as I always hear it, 'derriere'.

Subject: RE: Absurdities in songs - any examples?
From: BobKnight
Date: 04 Dec 13 - 09:54 PM

Somewhere in the sixties (I think) some idiot added another verse to Tramps And Hawkers, with a line that reads, "I've helped the Buckie trawlers pull the herring ower the side." A bit difficult since trawlers don't fish for herring. The net trawls along the bottom collecting "white" fish, while herring are suface feeders, (Pelagic fish) caught by drifters.