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07 Mar 01 - 01:43 PM (#412893) Subject: 'Simple Boy' Puzzle From: GUEST,Roll&Go-C There's not a chance you'll guess who wrote this song, and if you knew you would not want to have anything to do with it, but it's really quite lovely. I will confirm correct guesses but otherwise my lips are sealed. SIMPLE BOY (ANON, Boston coffeehouse, 1963) A simple boy lived in our town, And he was knows for miles around. Chorus: He sing, "Birds fly, aren't they pretty, Sun, moon, all is beauty, Fish swim, they don't make a sound." He did not know his given name, The people went, the people came. (CHO) The people said, "Alas, poor thing, He sits and knows not what he sings." (CHO) The years went by, the boy's now gone, But those who care still sing his song. Final Chorus: They sing, "Birds fly, aren't they pretty, Sun, moon, all is beauty, Fish swim, they don't make a sound."* * New verse by Charlie Ipcar |
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07 Mar 01 - 07:51 PM (#413055) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: 'Simple Boy' Puzzle From: Sarah2 It is pretty. I'll bite; let's see, a Boston coffeehouse in the early '60s...but no one here would want anything to do with it if we knew the author. Hmmm... George W. Bush? Sarah |
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07 Mar 01 - 08:02 PM (#413063) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: 'Simple Boy' Puzzle From: GUEST,Roll&Go-C Don't think George W. was ever so poetic, nor did he have an evil twin. |
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07 Mar 01 - 08:11 PM (#413064) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: 'Simple Boy' Puzzle From: Sarah2 Well, he was up there about then, and this site doesn't contain a lot of his biggest fans. Hmmm...must think more. Sarah |
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17 Mar 01 - 04:32 PM (#420061) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: 'Simple Boy' Puzzle From: GUEST,Roll&Go-C Well, he traveled to Madison County, North Carolina, and met up with Obray Ramsey about 1963. That's when I and a friend looked him up, sharing music and white lightning, not to mention ground hog stew. Now that should be refreshing enough! |
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26 Nov 02 - 08:13 PM (#835616) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: 'Simple Boy' Puzzle From: Charley Noble Hmmmm. Never did answer my own puzzle. "Simple Boy" was composed by Mel Lyman in the early 1960's, before he was overcome by his dark side. Cheerily, Charley Noble, aka Guest Roll&Go-C |
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26 Nov 02 - 08:20 PM (#835622) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: 'Simple Boy' Puzzle From: Charley Noble Oh, here are the chords (copy/paste into WORD/TIMES/12 to line up properly): Words and Music by Mel Lyman © 1963 Last verse added by Charlie Ipcar 1965 Key: G Simple Boy G-D7-G—F-----------------G A sim-ple boy lived in our town, -----D7-G---F-----------G----F-G And he was known for miles a-round. Chorus: D7---G-----F He'd sing, "Birds fly, aren't they pretty, G-------------------D7--G Sun, moon, all is beau-ty, F------------------------G----F-G Fish swim, they don't make a sound." Charley Noble |
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07 Apr 13 - 09:24 AM (#3500018) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Simple Boy (Mel Lyman) From: GUEST,Ricky Love In 1961/62 I was stationed at Fort Hood Texas and spent the weekends in Austin at the Ghetto. I had left home at 15, graduated High School in Las Vegas at 16 and enlisted in the Army to escape my life. If I was "romantic" I wouldn've joiined the Foieign Legion, but I by grace, didn't. One weeked I was staying with my friend Harold, who was a philosophy major at UT and had the job of taking care of the lab rats on Campus, and was a highly unusal human being and an incredible friend. While I was there this guy came in from (somewhere) by the name of Mel. He had a banjo with a squirrel or possum skin head he had cured and stretched hisself and jar of home made Jam, which later I discovered had a secret ingredient. We sat around I listened as he and Harold shared stories of mutual friends I didn't kinow or never heard of and after dinner, & a desert of toast and Jam, he asked me to pull out my guitar so we could play some music. Well, I knew a few chords and had learned a couple of simple songs, and he was kind enough to show me a few things. I just wasn't a musician, but felt like a poet becoming -- so I shared my long sad story with Harold & Mel about being a bastard child etc. (to long for this note) and a poem -- where I had "quoted" (messed with) Pslams 8.8 -- the last verse of what became the song goes like this: " I"m gonna climb the mountian high, keep going 'til I touch the sky". (spoken) you see, I'm the simple boy and I sing -- "Birds Fly aren't they pretty, sun, moon, all is beauty, fish swim, they don't make a sound." Mel shaped the melody, I had zero sense of that, and he taugfht me how to play the melody on the guitar...we shared, he came up with some really cool ideas. I've been singing this song for 52 yearts. Not professional. I think I heard it on a record sometime in the late 60"s or early 70's, it wasn't Mel singing...but it's all good. It wouldn't be a song without him. |