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28 Dec 04 - 04:34 PM (#1366171) Subject: Folk songs and real life From: *Laura* In folk songs people are always 'chancing' upon a 'pretty young fair maid' or 'handsome squire' who take one look at them and fall in love. I wondered if this ever really happens? Has anyone been wandering through the streets of London town when a hansome young squire they chance'd for to meet? Or had similar experiances!?!?!? I'd be interested. xLx p.s. if someone thinks this belongs in non-music then please move it - I wasn't sure. :-) |
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28 Dec 04 - 05:26 PM (#1366216) Subject: RE: Folk songs and real life From: PoppaGator Love at first sight, or whatever, is not an everyday occurence -- that's why it's noteworthy enough to write about. Like all events that rarely happen, however, this *does* happen once in a great while. And, since hope springs eternal, people will gladly sing about it and listen to songs about it. Any such experiences I may have had didn't work out in the long run. ;^) |
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28 Dec 04 - 05:26 PM (#1366218) Subject: RE: Folk songs and real life From: Wolfgang It's the same as in books and films: more things than usually happen during a normal real life can happen during 24 hours in a work of art. The process is condensation. Things like described in usual songs etc. do happen in the real world, but only to few people and even to them not in such close succession. Books and songs are mostly written about unusual people and happenings. A book about my life, for instance, wouldn't sell at all. Some gifted songwriters, however, can write about very common events and people and make them the theme of very uncommon songs. These writers are the greatest in my mind. Wolfgang |
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28 Dec 04 - 06:07 PM (#1366266) Subject: RE: Folk songs and real life From: GUEST Not quite love at first site but I have had a couple of interesting relationships develop very quickly at folk festivals. (posted as an anonymous guest to protect the guilty) |
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28 Dec 04 - 06:09 PM (#1366268) Subject: RE: Folk songs and real life From: Georgiansilver Interesting to note, in Folk songs, that whenever a woman needs a man to row her across the water to find her true love he always has to be a "Handsome Boatman"....WHY??? Best wishes. |
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28 Dec 04 - 06:13 PM (#1366269) Subject: RE: Folk songs and real life From: Bill D ah, Laura....of course those stories happen in real life! People meet and fall in love and live happily ever after.......and....like OTHER songs explain, 'young maids' get pregnant and the handsome squires leave town...or lure the unfortunate maids out to a lonely spot and do 'em in! Like Wolfgang says, ther are WAY more stories than you can write songs about....except the songs usually leave out the boring parts of the story. Why, I myself once...ummmm.....never mind...*grin* |
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28 Dec 04 - 06:21 PM (#1366276) Subject: RE: Folk songs and real life From: Georgiansilver What did you say Bill? Been there, seen it, bought the "T" shirt, made a hole in it, mended it, wore it again, made another hole etc etc. mmmmmmm Sounds like real life to me. Best wishes. Mike. |
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28 Dec 04 - 06:41 PM (#1366302) Subject: RE: Folk songs and real life From: Susanne (skw) I agree with Wolfgang - it's a time problem: Every one of these songs would exceed the longest of ballads if the true story was told ... Who would listen? Also, maybe the songs let you dream about something that rarely happened in real life where criteria of selection other than love were the norm - relative financial security (for women) or good housekeeping and childbearing qualities in the partner (for men), and the predominant attitude was 'Love will come later'. For many, love never came. Wolfgang, I'm sure you underrate your life! Marrying late (and there must have been a life before marriage!), having lively young children and spending nights with strange women in foreign airports must surely rate! It seems you got your own Internet connection as a Christmas present - or are you still working at this ungodly hour? Happy Hogmanay to you (and your family), Laura, PoppaGator and all Mudcatters! |
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29 Dec 04 - 01:06 AM (#1366519) Subject: RE: Folk songs and real life From: GUEST,Art Thieme I believe that Bill D is, once again, right on the money. People, I just wrote a very long polemic here...and somehow lost it while trying to post. I doubt I can put it together again aywhere close to how I said it.-----Yes, I'm pissed off. I just want you to know that I think I nailed several ideas I'd been pondering for the last 50 years. Suck is life!!! (Of course I meant SUCH is life.) I'm going to bed!! Art |
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29 Dec 04 - 01:52 AM (#1366531) Subject: RE: Folk songs and real life From: Liz the Squeak It can happen.... I chanced across a handsome young man in a potato field once.... we were practically inseperable after that.... (except that it really was in a monastary garden and we had to consider the monks...). He sailed across the seas (alright, flew to China to teach) where we lost contact. After a certain 'revolution' (Tianamin Square - my first reaction was 'what's he started now?), everyone lost contact with him... even his parents thought he was dead, so I married another. When he did eventually turn up, he married another too. This would be a wonderful song, but it took 7 years in all from first sight to me giving him up for dead. He wasn't dead, but had narrowly escaped internment and had managed to get out of China with another teacher. They had nothing but what they could carry so they walked out of China, into India, where they made it to a British Consul, who got them home. We did meet again, 10 years almost to the day of our first meeting but neither of us had a half a wardrobe to match up, nor a ring to put together. He is now a priest and I'm here. One day, maybe, the song will come... but I think the book of his life would be more compelling! LTS |
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29 Dec 04 - 01:57 AM (#1366535) Subject: RE: Folk songs and real life From: Gurney Geogiansilver, it may be that the boatmen were handsome because they were so fit, which is surely a component of attractiveness. According to the novel I just finished ('London', by Edward Rutherford) the Thames boatmen were hired by early insurance companies as firemen, for just that reason. Interesting book, thought-provoking and enlightening. |
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29 Dec 04 - 06:44 AM (#1366636) Subject: RE: Folk songs and real life From: Wolfgang Susanne, yes, I had a life before marriage. Strange women in foreign airports? Hm, whom could you mean? But foreign women in strange airports, I could, nah, better not. Wolfgang (grin) |
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29 Dec 04 - 08:40 AM (#1366681) Subject: RE: Folk songs and real life From: muppitz I can empathise with the Guest at the top, I too have had a few 'interesting', shall we call them encounters rather than relationships, and they have always developed very quickly. I however am not posting anon, as I don't recall having anything to be ashamed of (Except the time at Bridgenorth when I got REALLY REALLY drunk after being upset by a past 'encounter' and cried a lot!), it has all been damn good fun and damn good life experience! muppitz x |
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29 Dec 04 - 09:56 AM (#1366717) Subject: RE: Folk songs and real life From: Charley Noble Hmmm. There was the time I had a reunion in Boston with an ex-girlfriend who played a mean blues guitar. I causually introduced her to one of my college budies I was traveling with and the two of them really hit it off, got married, and lived happily ever after. One of my verses that reflects back on that experience runs: It?s better to have loved and lost, Then never to have risked the cost, But better yet to try anew, And fall in love again. Cheerily, Charley Noble |
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29 Dec 04 - 10:10 AM (#1366723) Subject: RE: Folk songs and real life From: Bill the Collie Hi Georgiansilver, please tell me why you made a hole in your "T "shirt... it's been driving me nuts. |
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29 Dec 04 - 10:11 AM (#1366724) Subject: RE: Folk songs and real life From: Mary in Kentucky For me it was love at first sight, or second sight for sure a few days later. (At first sight I loved his shoes. At second sight, an allday picnic in the rain at a beautiful nature area, I was thoroughly "snowed.") I spent the next 28 months denying it, but finally gave in and got married. That was 33 years ago today! |
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29 Dec 04 - 10:17 AM (#1366729) Subject: RE: Folk songs and real life From: GUEST,Raggytash I first set eyes on my wife on the 14 November 1978, we "went out" for the first time together on the 22 November 1978, she never went home, over 26 years later we are still together, probably closer than ever if that's possible ....... so yes it does happen |
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29 Dec 04 - 12:46 PM (#1366810) Subject: RE: Folk songs and real life From: *Laura* Good. :-) It's nice to have top-ups of faith in human nature - or something... :-) xLx |
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29 Dec 04 - 01:13 PM (#1366835) Subject: RE: Folk songs and real life From: jaze Somehow, I thinks "fair maids" even in days of old, would be more apt to get in a boat with a handsome young man than a butt-ugly one. |
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29 Dec 04 - 04:18 PM (#1366988) Subject: RE: Folk songs and real life From: Willa GS The meaning of the word has changed, as so often happens.Perhaps the old meaning makes more sense? Handsome \Hand"some\ (?; 277), a. [Compar. Handsomer; superl. Handsomest.] [Hand + -some. It at first meant, dexterous; cf. D. handzaam dexterous, ready, limber, manageable, and E. handy.] 1. Dexterous; skillful; handy; ready; convenient; -- applied to things as persons. [Obs.] |
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29 Dec 04 - 04:49 PM (#1367023) Subject: RE: Folk songs and real life From: Bert It does still happen and here's the song to prove it. |
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29 Dec 04 - 05:09 PM (#1367046) Subject: RE: Folk songs and real life From: Uncle_DaveO Wolfgang wisely said: Books and songs are mostly written about unusual people and happenings. A book about my life, for instance, wouldn't sell at all. This goes along with the well-known saying, Truth is stranger than fiction. And the reason truth is stranger than fiction is that truth is not limited that which is or may be made to seem believable. Dave Oesterreich |
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29 Dec 04 - 06:04 PM (#1367091) Subject: RE: Folk songs and real life From: LilyFestre I believe in love at first sight...it happened to me! We both were at a function that was out of character for each of us and were there only due to prodding of (different) friends. He was standing on one side of the quad and I was at the other...our eyes met....and something just clicked. We were married within the year....that was over 12 years ago! :) Michelle |
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29 Dec 04 - 06:39 PM (#1367129) Subject: RE: Folk songs and real life From: Little Robyn Happy Anniversary Mary. Robyn |
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29 Dec 04 - 07:06 PM (#1367152) Subject: RE: Folk songs and real life From: Amos Over 25 years ago I met a gal in the company cafeteria and asked her to go diving with me to see the strange manatee. Indeed, yes, she said, and that answer has served all the years since. We wed three weeks later! A |
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29 Dec 04 - 08:32 PM (#1367204) Subject: RE: Folk songs and real life From: Grab Not through the streets of London Town, but in a dodgy bedsit in Stafford getting a few quid during an Easter vac, the only time I worked over Easter, my wife-to-be rented the downstairs room. I bumped into her on the way out to the gym, and helped unload her stuff. She'd just *returned* from London Town, having spent her money and not found anyone. :-) IIRC I asked her to marry me 3 weeks later and we were married 9 months after (we would have been married quicker if I hadn't been at uni). Graham. |
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03 Jan 05 - 08:55 PM (#1370530) Subject: RE: Folk songs and real life From: Hawker I met my husband at a ceilidh, we met on the frday night and decided to get married 3 days later. It was a holiday romance too, and we are still together 16 years later, so yes, it does happen! Cheers, Lucy |
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04 Jan 05 - 07:52 PM (#1371537) Subject: RE: Folk songs and real life From: Big Al Whittle I'm sure you all know the old story about Noel Coward. Parlez-vous Francais? he asked a young man auditioning for him. Un petite peux, said the young chap. Really...... unfortunately somehow I never feel that's quite.. enough....... Love at first sight. I never feel it's quite enough to predicate an entire lifetime commitment upon. In my experience handsome squires are generally up to no good. |
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05 Jan 05 - 12:51 AM (#1371719) Subject: RE: Folk songs and real life From: GUEST Willa is right on the money: a "handsome boatman" is the opposite of an "incompetent boatman," not an "ugly boatman." |