|
13 Dec 00 - 02:22 PM (#356547) Subject: My Daddy's been taken by bears From: McGrath of Harlow In a local charity shop, I just picked up a cassette tape of tunes played on an old music box. And one of the tunes has the poignant and evocative title "My daddy's been taken by bears".
I'm dying to see the lyrics that must go with a title like that. Someone point me in the right direction, or go off bear-hunting and bring the results back here for us to share.
|
|
13 Dec 00 - 04:47 PM (#356670) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Daddy's been taken by bears From: McGrath of Harlow I've been trying to work out what kind of a song it could be.
It might be some kind of moralising one, maybe a temperance sonmg. Daday went out drinking, and got lost in the woods, and the bears got him. One of the less well publicised perils of drink.
Or maybe he met some other more disgraceful fate, like being put in jail, and they've been protecting teh poor child by telling her teh bears got him.
Or maybe he's a truck-driver and got pulled in by the Smokeys - though that sounds a bit modern.
Or maybe the bears got him in a game of poker, and skinnned him alive. Metaphorically.Or literally.
But somewhere out there there really is (or at least there was) a song with that actual title.
|
|
13 Dec 00 - 04:57 PM (#356674) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Daddy's been taken by bears From: mousethief I've looked in all my usual places and it hasn't been there. Good luck!
O..O |
|
13 Dec 00 - 05:47 PM (#356736) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Daddy's been taken by bears From: Ebbie McGrath, in Alaska we have some REAL bear stories and sometimes that title fits. In most of the cases I've heard of it's a hunter who was carted off/killed by a bear. Sometimes it's surmised that the hunter was making the call of an abandoned fawn. I remember in 1990 or so, a 40ish hunter on Chichagof Island was hauled off up a hill and killed by a brown bear. His hunting partner heard him calling for help but he was dead before his buddy could get to them. They say not many brown bears/grizzlies will eat human beings (it's different with black bears) but there is the occasional odd one. But I suppose the song title you found doesn't refer to anything that grisly? (Pun intended!) Ebbie |
|
13 Dec 00 - 06:15 PM (#356765) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Daddy's been taken by bears From: Joe Offer I checked all my usual sources, and then some - couldn't find mention of this song anywhere. With a title like that, it's a song I gotta hear. -Joe Offer, lover of quirky songs- |
|
13 Dec 00 - 06:23 PM (#356774) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Daddy's been taken by bears From: Mickey191 I was hoping it was composed by George Bush III. |
|
13 Dec 00 - 08:50 PM (#356890) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Daddy's been taken by bears From: McGrath of Harlow I've checked with the tape again - and I got the title a bit wrong - it's actually "The Bears have got my Daddy".
To date it, it's from a instrument/machine called The Polyphon, coin-operated, in a Museum on the Islem of White at present. It was builty about 1898 atbtehy Polyphon Musicwerke Factory which was established in 1890 by Paul Reissner.
So, a sort of primitive juke-box. Most of the tunes sound as if they were put on at the time it was built - some I've come across, such as "My Irish Molly" and "Whistling Rufus", and some I'd love to find, such as "Three Women to Every Man" and "Three makes Jolly Fine Comopany" (that's two separate songs!)
But "The Bears Have Got My Daddy" is the one that's niggling at me. Perhaps it is a straight backwoods ballad about a nasty episode, as Ebbie suggests...Sort of material that the Carter Family might have used and transformed a generation later. |
|
13 Dec 00 - 09:41 PM (#356923) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Daddy's been taken by bears From: GUEST,Sarah Did Mike Ditka write it? Sarah |
|
14 Dec 00 - 11:42 AM (#357113) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Daddy's been taken by bears From: McGrath of Harlow Refresh - or perhaps "bear up" might be a more fitting way of putting it... |
|
14 Dec 00 - 01:07 PM (#357149) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Daddy's been taken by bears From: McGrath of Harlow And here is a site about the Polyphon, with a picture and a sound file. Strange sound, slightly sinister, like all Music Boxes. But no bears as yet. |
|
14 Dec 00 - 02:33 PM (#357215) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Daddy's been taken by bears From: UB Ed Perhaps this is a song written by Uncle Walter's son. I'm thinking of "Waltzing with Bears" which is in the Digitrad. Walter is taken in the last verse. Well we begged and we pleaded, "Oh please won't you stay" Managed to keep him at home for a day But the bears all barged in and they took him away Now he's dancing with pandas, And he can't understand us And the bears all demand at least one waltz a day |
|
14 Dec 00 - 05:11 PM (#357296) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Daddy's been taken by bears From: NightWing Hey McGrath, you left off the URL. Please try again; this is one I want to see, too.
BB, |
|
14 Dec 00 - 06:58 PM (#357364) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Daddy's been taken by bears From: McGrath of Harlow Yes, I'd just come back and noticed that, Nightwing. here it should be And in case the blue clicky goes pear-shaped - http://www.mbsgb.org.uk/- that is the address too. And it looks interesting.
I agree with UB Ed that it sound like a sequel to Uncle Waltrer. Except I doubt if that was around in 1898. If I can find it though, it might turn out to be an appropriate companion. |
|
15 Dec 00 - 07:50 AM (#357534) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Daddy's been taken by bears From: MartinRyan McGrath |
|
15 Dec 00 - 08:02 AM (#357538) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Daddy's been taken by bears From: MartinRyan Sorry about the mysterious posting! What I MEANT to type was: McGrath - was that "Irish Molly" the usual "my sweet acushla dear" one or the earleir one which grew into "The Sash"? I'm curious abouit the date. Regards |
|
15 Dec 00 - 02:37 PM (#357845) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Daddy's been taken by bears From: McGrath of Harlow I think it's the usual one. I'll check when I get the tape back. |
|
07 Jan 01 - 07:29 PM (#370547) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Daddy's been taken by bears From: McGrath of Harlow Problem solved!
I posted a query about it on that music box thread I mentioned earlier The Musical Box Society of Great Britain - and I have just had an email from a helpful fella called Mark, with the answer.
It's not "the bears" - it's "The Boers". Which makes sense - I've got a feeling I'v come across it before somewhere. A classic mondegreen, that had me and other people looking in completely the wrong durection.
Anyway, Mark's going to let me have the words, and I'll post them here. |
|
08 Jan 01 - 05:04 PM (#371094) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Daddy's been taken by bears From: MartinRyan Now we're motoring! Try a Google search on "Boers have got my daddy". Among others, you get THIS Regards |
|
08 Jan 01 - 05:19 PM (#371108) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Daddy's been taken by bears From: MartinRyan Sorry about the duplicate posting. The lyrics are well down that page. Regards |
|
08 Jan 01 - 07:26 PM (#371210) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Daddy's been taken by bears From: McGrath of Harlow Thanks for that, Martin - I followed through that link, and got to a New Zealand site with someone singing it (among others) - here it is.
And they are both of them fascinating sites! I advise anyone reading this to push the blicky and visit.
I love the way you never know where you get once you start looking. You can turn up stuff to break your heart and split your sides. |
|
08 Jan 01 - 07:46 PM (#371224) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Daddy's been taken by bears From: Snuffy You managed to get a "d" in href, Kevin. Try this: here it is. |
|
08 Jan 01 - 09:18 PM (#371248) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Daddy's been taken by bears From: McGrath of Harlow Thank you Snuffy - I normally check the blicky spellings, and correct if need be, but I slipped up. I hope you visited the site and heard the song. Sentimental - but restrained where it needs to be, in the last verse:
I learnt his father was a private
|
|
21 Jul 02 - 11:39 PM (#752233) Subject: Lyr Add: THE BOERS HAVE GOT MY DADDY From: Jim Dixon Copied from http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/Gallery/SAW/songs.htm
THE BOERS HAVE GOT MY DADDY
This morning in a busy street, a tiny lad I spied.
CHORUS: "The Boers have got my Daddy, my soldier Dad.
I smiled down at the youngster, though a lump came in my throat,
I learnt his father was a private in an Irish corps, |
|
22 Jul 02 - 05:17 AM (#752285) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Daddy's been taken by bears From: GUEST Given the current Stock Market conditions - BEARS would have been post appropriate |
|
22 Jul 02 - 11:23 AM (#752409) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Daddy's been taken by bears From: Charley Noble Bears/Boers/Bores whatever! Clearly this mix-up should be the subject of a song challenge! Cheerily, Charley Noble |
|
22 Jul 02 - 12:21 PM (#752441) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Daddy's been taken by bears From: Mudlark Great sentimental song, but oh, I LOVE the thread title, exactly as it is. |
|
22 Jul 02 - 01:57 PM (#752507) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Daddy's been taken by bears From: Dead Horse Sounds like Montypolython to me! |
|
22 Jul 02 - 05:57 PM (#752657) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Daddy's been taken by bears From: McGrath of Harlow I see my mondegreen has resurfaced. It came in two parts - the first was that tape I got which gave the title of the tune as "The bears have got my Daddy" - and then when I asked at the Mudcat the tape wasn't handy, and I remmebered it as "My Daddy's been taken by bears", so adding chaos to the confusion.
Still, I'm sure that back in the days of the Boer War there'd actually have been children who got the Boers and the Bears mixed up in their head.
I can remember in the war (WW II) getting mixed up between Germans and Germs. I think I had the feeling that if you didn't get rid of the Germs by washing it'd mean Hitler might be coming to get you. |
|
22 Jul 02 - 06:58 PM (#752695) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Daddy's been taken by bears From: Gareth Ahh ! Kevin, its nice to know a Mudcatter who is old enough to remember the songs of the Boer War !!! Gareth - Ducking for cover |