Same tunes

10 Jul 14 - 05:14 PM (#3641027)
Subject: Same tunes
From: Dave the Gnome

Just to post different songs with the same tune. I will start with

The carnival is over

and

Stenka Razin

I enjoyed both :-)

Cheers

DtG

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10 Jul 14 - 05:36 PM (#3641033)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: Nigel Parsons

The fact it is the same tune is unsurprising. Per 'Wiki' on "The carnival is over":
The main tune is taken from a Russian folk song about Stenka Razin known as "Iz-za ostrova na strezhen" or "Volga, Volga mat' rodnaya". The song became popular in Russia as early as 1890s.[4] It was performed by the Osipov State Russian Folk Orchestra (balalaikas and domras) during their 1967 tour of Australia. The tune is also used in a Dutch hymn "Vol Verwachting Blijf Ik Uitzien", and a Dutch nursery rhyme "Aan de Oever van de Rotte".

Tom Springfield adapted the melody from the Russian folk song, and also wrote the remaining music used in the song, as well as writing the lyrics, after a trip to Brazil, where he witnessed the Carnival in Rio.

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10 Jul 14 - 05:50 PM (#3641038)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: treewind

Nor is it unusual to use the tune of a known song to go with newly-written words. The broadside ballad printers did it all the time, and so have many others.

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10 Jul 14 - 06:53 PM (#3641051)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: Jack Campin

"Stenka Razin" was also used as the basis for GS MacLennan's tune "The Kilworth Hills" - he heard it sung by Russian sailors in Leith in 1899 (when he was still in his teens) and extended it into a four-part 3/4 pipe march.

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10 Jul 14 - 11:51 PM (#3641096)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: PHJim

I Am Thinking Tonight Of My Blue Eyes
Wild Side Of Life
It Wasn't God Who Made Honky-Tonk Angels
The Great Speckled Bird

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11 Jul 14 - 01:03 AM (#3641101)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: Joe Offer

"Stenka Razin" is also the melody for Pete Seeger's River of my People.

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11 Jul 14 - 02:17 AM (#3641111)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: Bert

And just how many times has "Villikins and his Dinah" cropped up?

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11 Jul 14 - 02:47 AM (#3641113)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: Dave the Gnome

...and Lilliburlero,

I was rather hoping that we would get more examples rather than a discussion on why it happens but I suppose I should have known better with Mudcat. Why just post when you can argue? :-)

Cheers

DtG

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11 Jul 14 - 04:36 AM (#3641133)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: doc.tom

Dives & Lazarus; John Barleycorn; Maria Marten; Brigg Fair; Rolling Down to Old Maui; etc;etc;etc. someone once told me the original was a 13th Century Italian tune.

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11 Jul 14 - 04:53 AM (#3641137)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: Mo the caller

Dives and Lazarus is Star of the County Down, though the other tunes are related when you think about it.

Carolan's Beauty in tears has the same A part as the Ash Grove.

And there are lots of tunes that start out enough like Winster Gallop, and Michael Turner's Waltz to fool some session players.

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11 Jul 14 - 04:53 AM (#3641138)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: Dave the Gnome

Can anyone provide examples similar to the ones I listed in the opening post please?

DtG

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11 Jul 14 - 05:19 AM (#3641141)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: Mo the caller

All the sets of words to the tune Lilliburlero.

Various words to the tune Jamaica. Jolly broomman

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11 Jul 14 - 08:07 AM (#3641175)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: GUEST,c.g.

Amd Michael Turner's waltz is the same tune as Mozart's Trio No. 2 KV 536

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11 Jul 14 - 08:44 AM (#3641188)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: Susan of DT

Lists pasted in without clickies:
For Star of the county Down
THE LAND WHERE THE SHAMROCKS GROW
1.0000 - DOWN BY THE CLAREN'S MOSSY BANKS [THE FIELDS OF ATHENRY]
1.0000 - I HEARD THE VOICE OF JESUS SAY
1.0000 - LAZARUS
1.0000 - TRISTAN AND ISOLDA
1.0000 - THREADS WIDELY EXPANDED
1.0000 - STAR OF THE COUNTY DOWN
1.0000 - MURDER OF MARIA MARTIN
1.0000 - MARY FROM DUNGLOE
1.0000 - DIVERS AND LAZARUS
1.0000 - CROOKED JACK

For Tramps and Hawkers
0 - CANADIAN TRAVELER
1.0000 - TRAMPS AND HAWKERS
1.0000 - THE YOUNG MAN FROM CANADA
1.0000 - THE LOSS OF THE ALBION
1.0000 - TALL MEN RIDING
1.0000 - SANTA CLAUS IN THE BUSH
1.0000 - PADDY WEST
1.0000 - JAUNTING CAR
1.0000 - DURHAM LOCKOUT
1.0000 - DRIVING SAW LOGS ON THE PLOVER
1.0000 - DAVY FAA
1.0000 - CAPTAIN WEDDERBURN'S COURTSHIP
1.0000 - BRITAIN'S MOTORWAYS
I searched for the tunefile and put asterisks before and after the name. You can look for more

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11 Jul 14 - 11:01 AM (#3641228)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: Lighter

Some of these tunes are musically related but not really identical.

The difference is that the average listener to "related" tunes is unlikely to think they're "the same."

In the heyday of learning songs from broadsides, people could attach the lyrics to any tune that suited them. Some tunes, of course, became dominant, especially if a ballad seller-singer was using it. But it was often a matter of individual taste.

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11 Jul 14 - 11:42 AM (#3641230)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: GUEST,gillymor

Dick Gaughan used the same basic melody for Thatchers o Glenrae and Erin Go Bragh.
Chuck Berry's Promised Land is very similar to the tune The Carter Family used for The Wabash Cannonball.
Woody Guthrie fit a lot of existing tunes to his lyrics like
Little Darling Pal of Mine / This Land is Your Land.

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11 Jul 14 - 11:47 AM (#3641232)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: PHJim

The fiddle tune "Red Haired Boy" is often done as a song.
"The Little Beggarman" has words, as does the Newfoundland song "My Old Ragadoo" and a song I heard in the Ottawa Valley called "The Old Soldier With The Wooden Leg". These all use the tune of "Red Haired Boy".

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11 Jul 14 - 11:49 AM (#3641234)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: PHJim

"Aura Lee" and "Love Me Tender"

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11 Jul 14 - 11:55 AM (#3641235)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: Jack Campin

Gaughan's tune for "Erin go Bragh" is the one used for it in Ford's "Vagabond Songs". It's one of the "Villikins and his Dinah" family.

And it's almost identical to the tune Matt McGinn used for "The Foreman O'Rourke". I never noticed that before.

McGinn's tunes are tricky. They always seemed to be borrowed from something, but he never gives a name for them. For example "I'm Looking For A Job", from "Lord Randall's Bride". 40 years ago, it was probably more obvious to his audience what they were.

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11 Jul 14 - 12:09 PM (#3641242)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: GUEST,gillymor

The Irish setting of Lily of the West is sung to the same tune as Lakes of Ponchartrain.

Barrack Street (Nic Jones)and Patrick Street (Patrick Street) could be added to the Tramps and Hawkers list above.

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11 Jul 14 - 12:11 PM (#3641244)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: GUEST

doc.tom, I'm struggling to make Old Maui go to the tune of Dives and Lazarus - maybe that's why I made such a pig's ear of Old Maui last time I tried!

Meanwhile . . . Peter Bellamy's setting of Kipling's Road to Mandalay is the tune often used for "A Capital Ship" (although that's not the one printed for that song in the Francis and Day's Community Songbooks of my youth). Is there a common ancestor to those?

SJ

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11 Jul 14 - 12:14 PM (#3641246)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: Matthew Edwards

The air "Eochaill", Youghal Harbour, turns up in many different songs, most famously perhaps in P J McCall's Boulavogue.

Other songs using the same tune that I can think of are:-
Muldoon, the Solid Man
Sweet Omagh Town
The Galway Shawl
The Ould Triangle
Moreton Bay
Edward on Lough Erne's Shore

The odd thing is that I've been to some sessions where two, or even more, of the above songs have been sung without the singers or listeners even realising that the tune was being repeated!

Matthew

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11 Jul 14 - 12:30 PM (#3641251)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: GUEST,ADalton

The Carter Family's "When the World's on Fire" also fits in with "Little Darling Pal of Mine" and "This Land is Your Land".
And then there's "The Ship That Never Returned" and "Wreck of the Old 97".

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11 Jul 14 - 12:43 PM (#3641255)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: sleepyjon

Sorry - fell into the cookie trap on this thread too!

That was me with the post starting "doc.tom"

SJ

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11 Jul 14 - 01:04 PM (#3641262)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: MGM·Lion

People often don't recognise quite obvious similarities. I remember Fred Woods, late editor of Folk Review, once saying to me, "Have you realised that Harry Cox's Foggy Dew goes to the tune of Ye Banks & Braes Of Bonnie Doon?"

"Of course it does," I said.

"I've only just noticed," he replied.

~M~

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11 Jul 14 - 01:23 PM (#3641272)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: GUEST,ADalton

It took me years to realize that the tune to Willie Nelson's " Can I Sleep in Your Arms Tonight Lady" is based on "Red River Valley". I only made the connection once I heard "Can I Sleep in Your Barn Tomight Mister".

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11 Jul 14 - 02:18 PM (#3641299)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: Matthew Edwards

I'm not sure whether Dave was looking for sound recordings in his original post, though to my mind it is a bit much to listen to the same tune repeatedly. However I've looked in YouTube and been pleasantly surprised to find some classic recordings of the Boolavogue air there. I can't find any example of 'Youghal Harbour' other than the set dance tune of that name. I could only find a short soundclip of Gabriel McArdle singing 'Edward of Lough Erne Shore'.

Boolavogue and The Old Bog Road, played by Leo Rowsome on the uilleann pipes

Margaret Barry singing 'The Galway Shawl' and 'The Flower of Sweet Strabane (Thanks to Simon Doyle for this.)

Brendan Behan sings 'The Old Triangle from 30:57 in. He introduces the song by saying "This other song was written by a person who will never hear it recorded because he's not in possession of a gramophone; he's pretty much of a tramp."
This certainly backs the story of Dickie Shannon's authorship told by Tom Neary in this Mudcat thread Origins: The Old Triangle

Moreton Bay, performed by Martin Wyndham-Read and Iris Bishop. This video was recorded at the Conservative Club in Whitby in 2010, where the host is Ray Padgett.

Roisin White singing 'Omagh Town'

Frank Harte sings 'Muldoon, the Solid Man in a classic performance from 1999 in Boston.

Enjoy! But after listening to them all you'll probably never want to hear the tune again!

Matthew

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11 Jul 14 - 03:51 PM (#3641321)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: Joe_F

_A Prairie Home Companion Folk Song Book_, by Marcia & Jon Pankake, has an appendix listing "The Top Tunes", meaning the tunes most used by waggish Americans for parodies. They have collected 14 for "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" (itself, of course, a takeoff from "John Brown's Body"). "O Tannenbaum" comes in second with only 6 (to which one must add, at least, "Maryland My Maryland" & "The Red Flag).

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11 Jul 14 - 04:12 PM (#3641328)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: Steve Gardham

Great thread which I will add to sporadically. For years I've kept a little notebook exactly for this purpose.

However, to make it really useful what is needed is some sort of Excel file so all of the tunes can be given in alphabetical order including variant titles and searchable so that all those related can be pulled out as a file, plus midis etc attached. (I must add that my own technical abilities are minimal.)

We can argue till the cows come home about whether 2 tunes are related or not, but for now just flagging up those that present obvious similarities would be a start, as is being done.

How about using Roud numbers to identify the songs more precisely? I could help with this.

Toorali-ooralie-addy (Adieu to all judges and juries)
Caroline and her Young Sailor Bold
Bells of North Loo (Bell-ringers song)
The Alderman's/Nobleman's Lady

'Derry Down' rivals Villikins for the most used tune, certainly if we look at 18th century ballads.
The earliest use I have is 'King John and the Bishop/Abbot' then 'A Cobbler there was' both 17thc or earlier. The most obvious usage on the folk scene was 'The Dreadnought'.

Swaggering Boney is Weel bred Cappy, The Old Yorkshire Tyke and on broadsides 'The Chapter of Kings'

The following also have similarities.
All round my Hat, The Nobleman's Wedding, Green Willow, Spencer the Rover, Spanish Ladies ( minor), Early one morning.

Shule Agra, Let the Bullgine run.

The Amphitrite, Banks of Sweet Dundee

And of course:
Baa Baa Black Sheep, Twinkle twinkle, Little Nut tree, Incy Wincy Spider, I'm a Little Teapot, etc.   All for now.

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11 Jul 14 - 04:17 PM (#3641330)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: MGM·Lion

We have had quite long threads on songs to the tunes of Villikins and his Dinah and John Brown's Body (one of which I seem to remember I OPd a while back): surely the two tunes which carry the greatest number of different sets of words.

~M~

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11 Jul 14 - 04:35 PM (#3641339)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: Steve Gardham

Another widely used is G F Root's 'The Prisoner's Hope or Tramp, Tramp, Tramp' from the 1860s. Harry Clifton borrowed it for 'Work, Boys, Work and be contented' and it was used by political supporters endlessly for 'Vote, Vote, vote for ..........' then on the football terraces for 'We're all part of .........'s army, we're all off to
Wemberley, WWI March, March, March, the boys are marching, etc...

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11 Jul 14 - 04:48 PM (#3641340)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: GUEST,gillymor

Listening to "Villikins..." it sounds the same tune used in "Sweet Betsy From Pike".

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11 Jul 14 - 04:59 PM (#3641343)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: GUEST,Mike Yates

For songs that use the tune "House of David Blues", see the Musical Traditions article of the same name.

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11 Jul 14 - 05:30 PM (#3641351)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: Jack Campin

The John Brown's Body tune in Felcsik, Transylvania, with Hungarian words:

Golya, golya
quieter version from Csikszentdomokos, with dance demo

They think it's one of theirs. They may be right.

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11 Jul 14 - 05:44 PM (#3641358)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: Dave the Gnome

Thanks Jack - Yes, they sound the same to me. Well, similar enough anyway!

And thanks Matthew - Yes, same there. Apart from the last one, which I thought was a bit different but that was probably just me getting to the end of my tolerance :-)

Cheers

DtG

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11 Jul 14 - 05:46 PM (#3641362)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: MGM·Lion

I have refreshed the threads on the Villikins & John Brown tunes. Just look how many different songs were found to each!

~M~

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11 Jul 14 - 05:49 PM (#3641363)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: Dave the Gnome

You missed Mike Hardings "Strangeways Hotel" I think :-)

DtG

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11 Jul 14 - 05:55 PM (#3641365)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: Dave the Gnome

Just remembered

Cushy Butterfield

and

Pretty Polly Perkins

Cheers

DtG

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11 Jul 14 - 05:57 PM (#3641366)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: Acorn4

There are loads:-

Groovy Kind of Love?

Some years ago I came up with this "Weary Old Folk Tune":-



Weary Old Folk Tune

I am a weary old folk tune, it's ofttimes you've heard me
played,
Like when orders came one afternoon that we were to march
away,
From Bantry Bay down to Derry Quay from Galway to Dublin
Town,
To the Lowlands of Holland I've well and truly done the rounds.

Like when I told of three gallant poachers one March evening a
plan they made,
With trap and snare and with finger in their ear, by the
gamekeepers were waylaid,
For the singing of folk songs out of season straightway they
were condemned
To fourteen years transportay-she-aye-on unto Van Diemen's
Land.

Well as the ship it sped, we shook-ed our eds , and gay-zed
with a feeling rare,
Upon a ship that go-ed in the other direction saying "who are
that rabble over there?"
I said, says I "That's the Lancashire Lads, saying whatever shall
we do?"
Then before you could say "To me wack fol diddle eye day"
they'd nicked the bloody tune.

By now I totally confus-ed was to whom I did belong,
This melody to let, no lyrics yet, who'd be an old folk song,
An identity crisis for seven long years and only after intensive
counselling they set me free.
Only to be 'ad by Martin Carthy, three times on one CD.

Well I've been 'ad by half the regiment, given pleasure all
around the fleet.
Abus-ed by all and sundry-aye-ay from me nut brown hair to
me snow white feet.
I've been ad by the aristocracy, and by the rank and file.
It's time I was laid in the unquiet grave, like Lazarus to rise
again.


The explanation of course is that the broadsheet hawkers only sold words - you just put them to a tune you knew , hence thousands of folk songs with only a handful of tunes?

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11 Jul 14 - 06:09 PM (#3641372)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: Dave the Gnome

Nice one Acorn - Not heard that before

Elvis himself did a couple :-)

Muss I Denn

and

Plaisir d'amour


Cheers

DtG

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11 Jul 14 - 11:02 PM (#3641429)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: GUEST,gillymor

Banks of the Bann shares a tune with a couple of hymns, Lord of All Hopefulness and Be Thou My Vision. One of my favorite melodies.

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12 Jul 14 - 12:17 AM (#3641436)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: MGM·Lion

Can't see much resemblance between Plaisir d'Amour & Muss i Denn. both previously well-establshed songs before ol' Kingie got on to them.

~M~

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12 Jul 14 - 12:18 AM (#3641437)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: MGM·Lion

Lord Of All Hopefulness, mentioned above, also set to tune of With My Love On The Road.

~M~

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12 Jul 14 - 12:38 AM (#3641443)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: Bert

The Lincolnshire Poacher, The Thing, and The Chandler's Wife.

Liverpool Barrow Boy, The Rakes of Mallow.

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12 Jul 14 - 12:56 AM (#3641447)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: MGM·Lion

One needs to distinguish, I think, between the songs which traditionally share a tune [eg Dives & Laz/Star Of Cty Down], and new, often comic songs, set to familiar, "everyone-knows", tunes, as with above-mentioned The Thing to Lincs Poacher. The Thing's format, of course, derives from The Farm Servant ["And there was I with me 'knock·knock·knock', So a-courting we fell straight way"], but not melodically.

~M~

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12 Jul 14 - 01:22 AM (#3641448)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: PHJim

Steve Gardham mentioned the Twinkle Twinkle family, which also contains the tune we often used to memorise the alphabet.

There's also Lord Of The Dance and Simple Gifts.

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12 Jul 14 - 03:14 AM (#3641459)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: Monique

Muss i denn and My Pigeon House

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12 Jul 14 - 03:15 AM (#3641460)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: Acorn4

"Good to See You" by Allan Taylor and "Roseville Fair" are remarkably similar.

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12 Jul 14 - 03:19 AM (#3641461)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: Jack Campin

Sydney Carter consciously adopted the "Simple Gifts" tune for "Lord of the Dance", as he heard it via Aaron Copland's "Appalachian Spring".

One I don't quite understand: "The Mist Covered Mountains" ("Chi mi na mor-bheanna"). In the original Gaelic publication of the song (I've seen it in a book from about 1880), the tune was not printed with it, but named as "Johnny's too long at the fair" (aka "Oh dear what can the matter be"). But within about 20 years the tune had mutated; the song was printed in the Mod songbooks with the modern tune, which is obviously derived from "Johnny's too long at the fair" but couldn't be confused with it. So, how did that happen? Who created the adaptation?

(We have had innumerable discussions about how that tune is the same as the one for Jim Maclean's "Hush, hush" - please, not again).

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12 Jul 14 - 03:56 AM (#3641468)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: Dave the Gnome

Whoops - First line only should be italics.

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12 Jul 14 - 04:40 AM (#3641472)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: MGM·Lion

Ah -- gotcha. Thank you Dave.

~M~

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12 Jul 14 - 09:07 AM (#3641521)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: Steve Gardham

We used to sing A B C etc to 'See Saw Marjery Daw', PHJim as kids in the 50s.

For the serious student of this sort of thing 'Folk Songs of the Catskills' by Cazden, Haufrecht and Studer is a gold mine.

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19 Jul 14 - 01:51 AM (#3643320)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: PHJim

I was just listening to Lyle Lovett singing "If You Were To Wake Up" and I'm sure I've heard another song to that tune, but I'm not sure what. Any help?

If You Were To Wake Up - Lyle Lovett

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19 Jul 14 - 05:12 AM (#3643338)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: Tattie Bogle

Add to list for The Land where the Shamrocks grow (Star of the County Down):
Van Diemen's Land ( Come All Ye Gallant Poachers)

For The Red-haired Boy, add Matt McGinn's Lots of Little Soldiers.
And he has two songs to the tune of My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean, namely Skin, and Right Proper Bar Steward.

Hey Tuttie Tatie is used for 3 of songs, 2 of which are by Burns: the song by that title appears in The Merry Muses cantata, then there's Scots Wha Hae. And to the same tune, but much slower and more lyrically, Lady Nairne's song "Land O the Leal" (a friend said he'd been singing it for years before he realised it WAS the same tune as SWH!)

More Burns:
Dainty Davie, There was a lad born in Kyle (Rantin Rovin Robin), and The Gairdener Wi His Paidle (When Rosy May) all to the same tune.

As for how tunes become song melodies, Green Grow the Rashes was originally a very snappy strathspey, as is Miss Admiral Gordon's Strathspey which has been slowed down and smoothed out to provide the tune for "O A the Airts": the first half of the tune is also used for The Scarborough Settler's Lament in the smooth lyrical version.

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19 Jul 14 - 06:17 AM (#3643356)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: Jack Campin

The Lyle Lovett thing sounds a bit like "Morning Has Broken".

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19 Jul 14 - 06:27 AM (#3643359)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: MGM·Lion

"Morning Has Broken" is a popular and well-known Christian hymn first published in 1931. It has words by English author Eleanor Farjeon and is set to a traditional Scottish Gaelic tune known as "Bunessan" (it shares this tune with the 19th century Christmas Carol "Child in the Manger").
                   Wikipedia

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19 Jul 14 - 06:33 AM (#3643360)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: Jack Campin

Yeah, we've been over that one a lot. But I'm not sure if Lovett's godawful dirge is really the same tune or if something else has been mixed in. The words recall "If I Was A Carpenter" and that may be part of it.

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19 Jul 14 - 07:01 AM (#3643364)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: Brian Peters

'Searching for Lambs' is pretty close to some versions of 'Geordie' and 'Lord Bateman'. I've seen an article somewhere in which (I think) Bertrand Bronson compared a whole pile of ballad tunes and clamed that they were closely related, but I can't trace it now. Anyone who's come across this paper and knows where it was published, please give me a clue.

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19 Jul 14 - 07:08 AM (#3643367)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: Jack Campin

The "tune family" idea comes from Hungarian musicology - it's rather more obvious in Hungarian folk. The most enthusiastic proponent of in British folksong studies was S.P. Bayard, who thought there were something like 56 basic tunes for the entire ballad corpus. Bronson followed Bayard a lot of the way but wasn't quite so extreme about it.

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19 Jul 14 - 11:16 AM (#3643412)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: Steve Gardham

Here's one from Cazden et al.
Baffled Knight (in Pills)=Shantyman's Life=Barbara Allen (US)= Andro and his Cutty Gun =The Boyne Water= State of Illinois

Green Grow the Laurels=If I was a Blackbird=The Beautiful Muff

Again Cazden...
Young Beichan=Betsy the Servant Maid=Bourbon (shapenote hymn)=Captain's Apprentice

Jimmy McBeath's 'Beggar Wench' sounds very much like the English 'Miller's 3 Sons' to me.

Big ship sails on the illy allyo = If you want to find the sergeant I know where he is = Down in Demarara.

Barnacle Bill the Sailor =Hey ho says Rowley, which also has similarities with the jig Dingle Regatta in places.

One of the common 'Bold Grenadier' tunes has similarities with 'Polly Perkins'

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19 Jul 14 - 11:28 AM (#3643414)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: GUEST

So how many basic generic melodies are there in Blues songs ?

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19 Jul 14 - 12:06 PM (#3643423)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: Jack Campin

Big ship sails on the illy allyo = If you want to find the sergeant I know where he is = Down in Demarara.

Which are all pretty close to John Brown's Body/Golya, golya.

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19 Jul 14 - 01:03 PM (#3643438)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: GUEST,gillymor

One of my favorite fiddle tunes:
Killiecrakie/ Planxty Davis

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19 Jul 14 - 02:02 PM (#3643457)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: Jack Campin

"The Boyne Water" = "Parcel of Rogues", though the tune for PoR has evolved slightly since the text was written. I think there may be a version of PoR in Oswald's Caledonian Pocket Companion - the original form of the text is from the beginning of the 18th century and it was thought of as having a tune of its own before Burns was born.

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19 Jul 14 - 03:15 PM (#3643466)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: GUEST,DTM

To answer therefore blues tunes query ....... 1

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19 Jul 14 - 03:19 PM (#3643467)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: GUEST

Oops 'therefore' should read 'the'
I hate predict text. Grrrrrrrrr

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19 Jul 14 - 05:21 PM (#3643497)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: Steve Gardham

John Brown's Body.
Good spot, Jack.

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20 Jul 14 - 07:34 AM (#3643583)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: GUEST,raymond greenoaken

My two favourite examples of "Why did I never notice...? –

All Around My Hat = 'Twas On One April Morning

Jack Orion = Donald Whaur's Yer Troosers

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20 Jul 14 - 09:53 PM (#3643749)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: GUEST,eldergirl

Lyle Lovett's tune is nowt like If I were a Carpenter, apart from being in a minor key.
Words, maybe..

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21 Jul 14 - 02:52 AM (#3643778)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: Tradsinger

Lord Franklin
Macaffery
The Croppy Boy
Versions of "Father, father, build me a boat"
Bob Dylan's Dream

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21 Jul 14 - 08:20 AM (#3643820)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: Jack Campin

"The Spanish Lady", "The Basket of Eggs" and the verse of Ewan MacColl's "Tunnel Tigers".

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21 Jul 14 - 04:44 PM (#3643967)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: Steve Gardham

Nice one, Gwilym

Giving a proper title (master title) to your 'father, father' has always presented difficulties, partly due to the multiplicity of titles it comes with both in oral tradition and on broadsides, and partly the fact that the fuller versions even share an opening line with other ballads 'It was early, early all in the spring'. When I was making my list of master titles the interested parties who contributed suggested using the most widely used title, which makes sense. In this case the most widely used in publication was 'Sweet William'. Unfortunately there are lots of other 'Sweet Williams' amongst the ballads. However I stuck to the rule and so it is in my indexes the title, even though more common titles on the folk scene have been 'The Sailor Boy' and 'The Sailing Trade'.

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21 Jul 14 - 05:09 PM (#3643974)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: MGM·Lion

Sometimes putting an entirely new set of words to an already existent tune creates a very fine new song, without in any way detracting from the original, which retains its integrity. Such I think is the case with Austin John Marshall's beautiful Dancing At Whitsun, to the tune of the Coppers' The Week Before Easter.

~M~

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22 Jul 14 - 10:39 AM (#3644186)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: GUEST,gillymor

Richard Thompson's Farewell, Farewell (from Fairport days) uses the tune sometimes used for Willie o' Winsbury.

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22 Jul 14 - 01:53 PM (#3644259)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: GUEST,LynnH

When I first started making songs I was always worried about unconsciously 'pinching' tunes, not least because this was about the time when "My Sweet Lord" caused Geoprge Harrison to come a cropper. Strange that he hasn't been mentioned here already.

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22 Jul 14 - 02:14 PM (#3644269)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: Tradsinger

John Blunt (Oxfordshire version)
Jack and Jill went up the hill

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22 Jul 14 - 03:00 PM (#3644280)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: MGM·Lion

The Ballad Opera form, popular in C18-19, of course set songs to well-known airs of various sorts, many folk. Best known example is, of course, John Gay's The Beggar's Opera, 1728, whose script specifies the tune to be used; not always by the best known title, but usually to be extrapolated. The song A Miser Thus A Shilling Sees goes to the air we should best recognise as The Broom Of Cowdenowes. I recall a Shirley & Dolly Collins record way back, in which Barry Dransfield joined them on one of the tracks to sing a selection of these. Greensleeves & Lillibulero also, unsurprisingly, feature; and, probably best known, Over The Hills And Far Away.

Such recourses can be used in other contexts. I was once musical director, and playing Amiens, the singing member of the Court in Exile in the Forest, in an open-air "hippy" production of As You Like It, in Selwyn College gardens in Cambridge, back in the 1970s. I set It Was A Lover And His Lass to tune of The Little Beggarman; Under The Greenwood Tree to The Gentleman Soldier; Blow Blow Thou Winter Wind to Here's Adieu Sweet Lovely Nancy; What Shall He Have That Killed The Deer? to Hal-an-Tow; The Wedding Hymn to Kelvingrove. Production got good review in the Cambridge Evening News.

~M~

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23 Jul 14 - 06:18 AM (#3644478)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: MGM·Lion

I remember once visiting Harry Cox with Bob Thomson. Looking thru some of his broadsides & MSS, we came across "The Ship Called Onward" [see my article describing this visit in Folk Review for February 1973]. Harry asked if I knew any song like that, so I sang a stanza of 'The Amphitryte' from the first Penguin Book of English Folk Song, remarking that the tune was like his version of 'Van Diemen's Land', which he called 'Henry Abbot he Poacher'; and when Harry looked a bit puzzled, Bob put in "Or like 'The Painful Plough'".

Bob said afterwards that he wasn't sure Harry thought particularly of his tunes, and that he quite possibly didn't recognise the tunes of any of them being similar, as eg here 'Henry Abbot' and 'Painful Plough'. I said to Bob that I wondered if that really was the case; and I continue to wonder so to this day.

~M~

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26 Jul 14 - 09:20 AM (#3645449)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: GUEST,silver

Birmingham Jail=Down in the Valley=Connemara Cradle Song

Red is the Rose=Loch Lomond

'Tis the Last Rose of Summer=Vid Roines strand (Swedish/Finnish)

Some tunes are very apt for writing new words to, like Rosin the Beau=Acres of Clams, as delightfully demonstrated by Pete Seeger on his "Singalong Concert" recording. Likewise O Tannenbaum, Streets of Laredo, My Darling Clementine (I've heard that one sung in Bosnian), and, strangely enough, Ode to Joy, from Beeethoven's 9th Symphony.

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04 Aug 14 - 12:49 AM (#3648142)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: MGM·Lion

Put this on Sweet Thames & Recruited Collier thread. Think it belongs here also --

I once pointed out to Peter Bellamy that one song from The Transports, which he claimed all had original tunes, was very redolent of a traditional song: I Once Lived In Service/The Fair Maid On The Shore. He said he didn't think he'd ever heard Fair Maid -- certainly not one he'd ever sung; and asked me how it went. When I'd just sung him the first couple of lines, he said, "Well, I suppose I must have heard it some time, then, & had it at the back of my mind."

And so these things happen.

And have you ever related Tomorrow Belongs To Me, from Cabaret, to The Rout Of The Blues? Probably coincidental; and maybe nobody else can hear the resemblance I do: but who can really tell?

≈M≈

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04 Aug 14 - 11:26 AM (#3648257)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: GUEST,leeneia

sorry I can't remember the titles of the songs, but yesterday we sang a hymn in church. and I finally remembered that it was a Caribbean tune that I had on a steel drum album in the 1970's.

At one time Lutheran service and steel drums were miles apart, but no more.

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30 Aug 21 - 12:18 PM (#4118295)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: GUEST

The lilly of the vally is mabye a hymn that is a 3 borrowed songs. I have been working on this for a long time. Jambalya a song written and sung by hank williams in 1952 is not called this. grand texas is name first by chuck gillik in 1949. hank williams put a record of chucks song and heard it over again covers of hank's 1953 song was so well sung by males and females all over but nobody will know the 1949 song before williams wrote his new set of. when i got the home i am in started burning cds old songs from the same tune songs you no when you were young in the folk albums well here is a list of them. in 1771 when johny cochrane 1 became riders in the sky the 1955 song rock around the clock has a tune that mistery will be not non's and jambeya song a 1949 cajun tune that you can talk about and get the cuck gilicia song before the song we new. for tomorow my birthday when happy birthday was done 1666 writer the balley sisters were writing a tune that tune is the same tune as a called good morning to all.

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01 Sep 21 - 08:02 AM (#4118461)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: GeoffLawes

Click Go the Shears and the pumping shanty Strike The Bell both share their tunes with Ring The Bell, Watchman written as a hymn of peace after the US Civil War by Henry Clay Work.

Click go the Shears     https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=+Click+go+the+Shears+
Strike The Bell     https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=strike+the+bell+sea+shanty
Ring The Bell, Watchman     https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Ring+The+Bell+Watchman

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01 Sep 21 - 08:09 AM (#4118464)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: GeoffLawes

Original Sheet Music for Ring The Bell, Watchman     https://www.loc.gov/resource/ihas.200002355.0?st=gallery

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02 Sep 21 - 07:31 PM (#4118643)
Subject: RE: Same tunes
From: Tattie Bogle

Puir Rovin' Lassie - tune comes up in a number of other songs that currently escape my late-night memory!
"Kelvingrove" and "The Shearing's no for you".
Not quite the same, but close: "My Old Man's a Dustman" and "The Jeely Piece Song".
"The Wark o the Weavers" - borrowed by Billy Connolly to become "If it wisnae fur yer wellies".

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