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09 Feb 02 - 10:57 PM (#646335) Subject: April Come She Will From: Garry Gillard Paul Simon's "April Come She Will" obviously has a debt to tradition. Is there any specific borrowing? cheers, Garry |
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10 Feb 02 - 01:10 AM (#646371) Subject: RE: Help: April Come She Will From: Little Hawk I don't know, but it's got beautiful words, and does sound like a trad song all right. I used to play it quite a bit back in the 70's. - LH |
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10 Feb 02 - 04:39 AM (#646409) Subject: RE: Help: April Come She Will From: Mark Cohen He did quite a bit of borrowing from trad sources in their early stuff, but my sense it that this one's an original. I don't have any facts to back that up, though. Good question; it'll be interesting to see if someone can give a definitive answer. Aloha, Mark |
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10 Feb 02 - 04:53 AM (#646411) Subject: RE: Help: April Come She Will From: IanC This is the cuckoo rhyme, known in various forms to most country folk across England as far as I know.
The Cuckoo comes in April I had never before come across her dying in August but perhaps S&G added that as mystification.
Cheers! |
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10 Feb 02 - 05:18 AM (#646415) Subject: RE: Help: April Come She Will From: GUEST,ulli The song is - as mentioned by IanC - based on an old English proverb/poem/rhyme (whatever you might call it) and I also think that S&G made a beautiful song of it APRIL COME SHE WILL
April,
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10 Feb 02 - 06:31 PM (#646803) Subject: RE: Help: April Come She Will From: Mark Cohen Thanks, ulli, now I see the connection. It enhances my enjoyment of the song. Aloha, Mark |
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10 Feb 02 - 07:38 PM (#646874) Subject: RE: Help: April Come She Will From: Desdemona Oh, that's a beautiful song---I literally hadn't thought of it in years; thanks for the nudge! |
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10 Feb 02 - 08:09 PM (#646902) Subject: RE: Help: April Come She Will From: Benjamin The story (pretty much the same) in Paul Simon's words- Paul - 'When I was living in England, about three years ago, four years ago, I worked in a club in a town called Swindon. It's about 100 miles north of London. I spent the night with a friend of mine in a smaller village called Great Coxswell, not that it means anything, no pun intended. We'd stayed up all night and talked and I said to her 'Let's go out in the morning and do it' (Laughs from audience) 'You too huh?'. We went out at dawn and she recited an English nursery rhyme, it was a children's rhyme and it was about a cuckoo, a bird. It went 'April come she will. May she will stay, June she'll change her tune. July she will fly. August die she must'.Hollywood Bowl 1968 |
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10 Feb 02 - 09:18 PM (#646971) Subject: RE: Help: April Come She Will From: masato sakurai A version ("The cuckoo is a merry bird") in Opie's Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (new ed., no. 121) has this verse:
The cukcoo comes in April,
("The cuckoo is said to 'beat the drum' when he often falters and cries 'Cuck-cuck-cuck,' without the final syllable. This is said to be a sign of his impending departure."--Williams)
This (from Alfred Williams, Folk Songs of the Upper Thames, 1923, p. 165; no music) is a related song to CUCKOO'S A BONNY BIRD and CUCKOO SHE'S A PRETTY BIRD. ~Masato
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11 Feb 02 - 02:03 AM (#647104) Subject: RE: Help: April Come She Will From: Mark Cohen It would seem to me, Masato, that these are two different songs or verses that are only "related" by being about the same bird. I first heard "The cuckoo she's a pretty bird" on the album "Troubadour" by hammered dulcimer player Dorothy Carter. It's an "Americanized" version in that the line is "And the more she hollers cuckoo...", but otherwise it's similar to the ones you cited. But I don't see a relation to the April-May-June verse...unless I'm missing something. Aloha, Mark |
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11 Feb 02 - 02:33 AM (#647108) Subject: RE: Help: April Come She Will From: masato sakurai The text as a whole seems to me to be related.
THE CUCKOO
The cuckoo is a merry bird,
He sucks the birds' eggs
The cuckoo is a lazy bird,
She never hatches her own young,
And when her time is come
The cukcoo comes in April,
(Alfred Williams, Folk Songs of the Upper Thames, 1923, p. 165; no music) ~Masato
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17 Feb 02 - 05:10 AM (#651983) Subject: RE: Help: April Come She Will From: Garry Gillard I'm very grateful to you all, especially Benjamin. I take it you've actually taken the trouble, B, to transcribe what Paul said to the audience on that occasion in 1968. many thanks, Garry |
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25 Sep 10 - 08:54 AM (#2993409) Subject: RE: Origin: April Come She Will (Paul Simon) From: Jim Dixon From Pictorial Calendar of the Seasons By John Aikin (London: Henry G. Bohn, 1854), page 148: For the following curious and elaborate paper on the Cuckoo we are indebted to the pen of a clever lady. THE CUCKOO. The cuckoo comes in April, Sings a song in May; Then in June another tune, And then she flies away; says the Gloucestershire peasant, and this—like all our quaint old popular sayings—is a correct, if not an elegant, account of that of which it treats. It alludes, however, only to the old birds, which leave as at the end of June or in the beginning of July; but there is another version, which, with various verbal alterations carries on the story to the end of the scene, to the flight of the young birds, thus:— In April Come she will, In flowery May She doth sing all day, In leafy June She doth change her tune In bright July She doth begin to fly, In August Go she must. |
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25 Sep 10 - 11:29 AM (#2993471) Subject: RE: Origin: April Come She Will (Paul Simon) From: open mike ahh--give a listen (and look) here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lO9Ild2cvdg |
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25 Sep 10 - 11:38 AM (#2993475) Subject: RE: Origin: April Come She Will (Paul Simon) From: olddude It seems Paul Simon did this a lot didn't he. I was listening to an interview on TV and he said he was "embarrassed" of the songs he did back in the 60's and early 70's. OMG I wish I could be so "embarrassed" huh ... great song even if he borrowed part. Everyone thought that "Scarbough Fair" was original also. Interesting there isn't even a comment that I read its original origins .. Still .. I love the song. |
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25 Sep 10 - 11:54 AM (#2993484) Subject: RE: Origin: April Come She Will (Paul Simon) From: MikeL2 hi Dan <" Everyone thought that "Scarbough Fair" was original also. Interesting there isn't even a comment that I read its original origins .. Still .. I love the song. "> It could have been that this song did not cross the Atlantic until the Simon & Garfuncle version but over here in the UK it has long been known as a traditional folk song....whatever that means !! I actually learned it at primary school some 50 or more years ago. The " new version" may have updated it somewhat but it certainly wasn't new. Like you I think the S&G version a good one....though there are many here who would not agree with us. Regards MikeL2 |
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02 May 11 - 04:49 AM (#3146261) Subject: RE: Origin: April Come She Will (Paul Simon) From: GUEST,aliruadh The cuckoo comes in April Sings his song in May Then in June he'll change his tune And in July he'll fly away |
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02 May 11 - 05:21 AM (#3146281) Subject: RE: Origin: April Come She Will (Paul Simon) From: Silas The Cuckoo is a funny bird It sits upon the grass His head tucked up his wing and his beak stuck up his ass And in this strange position, it whistles "tweet, twit" Cos its hard to say "Cuckoo" when your beak is full of shit. Is that the one do you think? |
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03 May 11 - 03:16 AM (#3146913) Subject: RE: Origin: April Come She Will (Paul Simon) From: Rusty Dobro Not the least of Paul Simon's many achievements is the relocation of Swindon to north of London. Maybe, like an infectious disease, Swindon can suddenly appear in different places. Not a nice thought for anyone who's ever been there. |
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29 Aug 22 - 09:27 AM (#4151353) Subject: RE: Origin: April Come She Will (Paul Simon) From: GUEST,Chex Blatant steal from Benjamin Britten's Friday Afternoon (Cuckoo). Which was based on a folk rhyme/nursery rhyme. Everyone borrows from the past, but Paul Simon always claims to have written it himself. IMO, it should be "Trad. arranged by Paul Simon. Jmho, though. |
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29 Aug 22 - 11:15 AM (#4151372) Subject: ADD Benjamin Britten's Friday Afternoon (Cuckoo) From: Joe Offer Benjamin Britten's Friday Afternoon (Cuckoo) In April, I open my bill In May, I sing night and day In June, I change my tune In July, far, far I fly In August, away! I must What do you do? In April, I open my bill In May, I sing night and day In June, I change my tune In July, far, far I fly In August, away! I must Source: Musixmatch Songwriters: Britten https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92SwAt4DEr0 |