(wrong) words to songs.
Michael D. Painter
The nice people looking for the lyrics to Woodstock published their
"hearing" of some of the words.
It reminded me of my teenage days when Everything stopped as we tried to
decipher Harry Belefontes word's to "Mama look at bobo day"
And of course the opening line of the Star Spangled Banner.
"Jose can you si."
Anyone else with similar lines???
Nancy Hauser
My mother used to blithely sing the wrong words to songs all of the
time, and it drove me NUTS (all of my friends will attest that I remain
so, to this very day!).
I can't recall all of them, but I remember her singing I Saw Her
Standing There -
...and I held her hand in Hawaii
AAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!
John Price
In message <01bb7917$7fe2cf80$21ce77cc@michaelp>
Are you familiar with: "Maresy dotes and dosey dotes and little
lamsey tivy. A kiddley tivy too, wouldn't you?" If you are, you're
probably English and my age!
jOHN
--
john....@zetnet.co.uk a.k.a. jOHN of St Albans
Frank Reid
Everybody get together, try to mug one another right now."
Michael D. Painter
Not English, know the words, turned 56 yesterday.
I think those are the actual words to the song, so in this thread you'd
have to say
Mare's eat oats and doe's eat oat's ..... to be wrong (?)
Gerry Myerson
Is it time for the Mondegreen thread already? Who will be the first
poster to mention "Excuse me, while I kiss this guy"?
The Australian national anthem begins,
Australians all, let us rejoice
and generations of Aussie schoolchildren convince themselves that it's
Australians all, let ostriches
Gerry Myerson (ge...@mpce.mq.edu.au)
John Allen XL/DZ 01444 234812 ;-
In article 21ce77cc@michaelp, "Michael D. Painter" <mpai...@maxinet.com> writes:
>The nice people looking for the lyrics to Woodstock published their
>"hearing" of some of the words.
>It reminded me of my teenage days when Everything stopped as we tried to
>decipher Harry Belefontes word's to "Mama look at bobo day"
>
>And of course the opening line of the Star Spangled Banner.
>"Jose can you si."
>
>Anyone else with similar lines???
I'm reminded of "The Baron of Brackley". I learned the words (roughly)
from an Ewan MacColl album, and I sing the whole ballad, but I learned
one verse as:
At the heid o' the loch where the battle began,
At Little Rock Jose they killed the first man.
I went back and got the correct ones, but I can never remember them!
So I just sing the above and mumble a bit. Some day my descendants may
be searching for a connection between a Scottish ballad and Arkansas/
Mexico :-)
Well I guess that's the folk process...
Cheers /Yogi
---
Email: etl...@etlxdmx.ericsson.se | John (Yogi) Allen
East Grinstead Hash House Harriers | On On in Sussex and Kent (UK)
Brighton GO Club | British GO Association (2D)
Folk Singer (vox unpopuli) | Guitar, Melodeon, Traditional
"Better to be hung like a bear than shot like a dog"
Abby Sale
On 25 Jul 1996 08:05:12 GMT, "Michael D. Painter" <mpai...@maxinet.com>
wrote:
I'm also about that age and not English. My French prof. at U. Penn.
claimed to have written the straight "Mare's eat oats" set of words,
specificially to illustrate the "liasson" (common running together of two
words as one pronounces French.)
It was stolen by one of his students to make the popular song in the early
40's. My prof was quite proud of this fact in his otherwise obscure life.
I recall seeing the sheet music, again with the straight words and a
picture of a lamb eating ivy on the front. In singing, obviously, the
point is to run all the words together and "encode" it.
>>
>>
On 25 Jul 1996 23:40:42 -0400, Gerry Myerson <ge...@mpce.mq.edu.au> wrote:
> Australians all, let ostriches
:-)
Quite so, Gerry. This thread must never die.
=========================================================================
I am Abby Sale - abby...@sundial.net
And I quote:
Japan is an important ally of ours. Japan and the United States of
the Western industrialized capacity, 60 percent of the GNP,
two countries. That's a statement in and of itself.
-- Vice President Dan Quayle
=========================================================================
Nancy Hauser
Actually, they're BOTH part of the song
... if the words sound queer and funny to your ear
a little bit jumbled and jive-y
sing "Mares eat oats, and does eat oats
and little lambs eat ivy"
I'm 37, and my daughter is 8
what goes around, comes around - Fred Penner did this one fairly
recently (and my mom used to sing it to me)
B-T-W, Happy Birthday! :)
Nancy
Yet Another Steve
In article <01bb7917$7fe2cf80$21ce77cc@michaelp>, "Michael D. Painter"
<mpai...@maxinet.com> wrote:
> The nice people looking for the lyrics to Woodstock published their
> "hearing" of some of the words.
> It reminded me of my teenage days when Everything stopped as we tried to
> decipher Harry Belefontes word's to "Mama look at bobo day"
>
> And of course the opening line of the Star Spangled Banner.
> "Jose can you si."
>
> Anyone else with similar lines???
Oh lord, yes. Jeannie DuBois running around Junior High School happily
singing "She's my little Miss Poop.." [Little Deuce Coupe]; and *everybody*
wondering who "Leslie" was in "Groovin'" ("You and me and Leslie") [endlessly].
Steve
John Price
In message <01bb79fe$38061f40$12ce77cc@michaelp>
"Michael D. Painter" <mpai...@maxinet.com> writes:
> Not English, know the words, turned 56 yesterday.
> I think those are the actual words to the song, so in this thread you'd
> have to say
> Mare's eat oats and doe's eat oat's ..... to be wrong (?)
> >
> > Are you familiar with: "Maresy dotes and dosey dotes and little
> > lamsey tivy. A kiddley tivy too, wouldn't you?" If you are, you're
> > probably English and my age!
> > jOHN
> > --
> > john....@zetnet.co.uk a.k.a. jOHN of St Albans
> >
> >
OK. I was almost half right! Belated Many Happy Returns.
jOHN
Dick Wisan
John Price <john....@zetnet.co.uk> writes:
> Are you familiar with: "Maresy dotes and dosey dotes and little
> lamsey tivy. A kiddley tivy too, wouldn't you?" If you are, you're
> probably English and my age!
> jOHN
Umm. Somewhere in the 40's, there was a craze in the US for:
Mairzy dotes n dozy dotes...
As usual, you can see the difference in transatlantic spelling.
--
R. N. (Dick) Wisan - Email: internet WIS...@hartwick.edu
- Snail: 37 Clinton Street, Oneonta NY 13820, U.S.A.
- Just your opinion, please, ma'am: No fax.
John Price
In message <31FA9C...@pcsrus.mv.com>
Nancy Hauser <nha...@pcsrus.mv.com> writes:
> B-T-W, Happy Birthday! :)
> Nancy
Well this is all very interesting, because I didn't expect it to be
known outside UK. I must have learned it in about 1949/50 I think
(when I was 6/7 - go on, do the math(s) yourselves). It has never
occurred to me that it might have been an import.
My memory says I heard it sung in an English accent - but then, did
Burl Ives sing it too?
This is beginning to get to me now. Any kind folks out there with any
data on the English or American recordings of that era? Come on, this
is obviously living rec.music.folk we're talking about if it's still
going round. <g>
Oh, and Nancy - I shall take that as a belated Happy Birthday to me
too! I'm sure you won't mind. [<g> (as if you didn't know)]
Roger
In article <31f8a8e...@news.sundial.net>
abby...@sundial.net "Abby Sale" writes:
> In singing, obviously, the point is to run all the words together
> and "encode" it.
The 'mares eat oats ...' song illustrates a particular problem in
singing. The point isn't to run all the words together, the point
is to seperate and articulate them - including the difficult vowels
and 'ts' sounds.
--
"Damned creatures you are thoroughly evil despite my daily teaching and advice."
| Only the saintly can become good without instruction;
Roger | Only the worthy can become good after instruction;
| Only idiots will not become good even with instruction.
Margaret Tarbet
And then there are the wrong words that contribute to the
"folk process"...perhaps the most famous example being
The Wreck Of Old 97 where many people sing "it was on that
grade that he lost his average" without too much a feeling
of puzzlement about how losing an average might be hazardous
(the original having been "lost his air brakes", which makes
the reason for the subsequent wreck considerably less obscure).
And pretty soon ago in here, in the anti-war-song thread,
someone quoted Johnnie I Hardly Knew Ye as having "have to
be put in a bowl to beg" again without too much sense of
incongruity at the notion of a bowl big enough for an adult
to be put into. (The original words were "be put WITH a bowl
to beg".)
=margaret
..........................................................
Who's that gallopin on the King's High Way
Singin so gay and hale-y?
It's that dark and handsome lass
Known as the Gipsa Mary
Nathan Tenny
In article <31FD50...@swaa.com>, Margaret Tarbet <tar...@swaa.com> wrote:
>And then there are the wrong words that contribute to the
>"folk process"...perhaps the most famous example being
>The Wreck Of Old 97 where many people sing "it was on that
>grade that he lost his average" without too much a feeling
>of puzzlement about how losing an average might be hazardous
>(the original having been "lost his air brakes", which makes
>the reason for the subsequent wreck considerably less obscure).
I always thought "lost his average" must be garbled, but _Scalded to Death by
the Steam_---a collection of train-wreck songs assembled by a collector/editor
whose name escapes me---claims that it's meaningful. The "average",
purportedly, is the space between cars of the train---there's some play in the
coupler mechanisms, and you want the cars to maintain a certain distance
instead of getting crammed right up as tight as they'll go, because if they're
jammed together the train loses flexibility and tends to derail.
I don't know if it's true, but it's in print. :-)
NT
--
Nathan Tenny nte...@qualcomm.com
Qualcomm, Inc., San Diego, CA http://www.qualcomm.com/~ntenny/
The rec.pets.herp FAQ lives at http://www.qualcomm.com/~ntenny/herps/FAQ.html
JMoul81075
>And pretty soon ago in here, in the anti-war-song thread,
>someone quoted Johnnie I Hardly Knew Ye as having "have to
>be put in a bowl to beg" again without too much sense of
>incongruity at the notion of a bowl big enough for an adult
>to be put into. (The original words were "be put WITH a bowl
>to beg".)
Yes, sounds plausible, but: in Ireland the words bowl and basin were and
are interchangeable - so the use of a washing-up basin or the sort of
basin which used to be put in bedrooms, for some-one whose legs had been
amputated is not only possible but attested. There are Dublin stories of
one "Billy the bowl", who having no legs swung and slid himself along on
his hands. It is also said that he was a strangler but how much is
folklore is difficult to sort.
Nonetheless - an Irish bowl can be just that big!
Susan Huffman
There's a John Prine song on "German Afternoons", I think it's
called "When I'm Out of Love" and the opening lines are
something like "barley malts and does eat oats and little girls
are lively..." The entire song is really clever, using various
beer and drinking analogies to describe his romantic
situation.
--
Susan R. Huffman
State Documents, LVA Susan R. Huffman
shuf...@leo.vsla.edu
Martha Borkan
How about the insect friendly Bob Dylan song:
The ants are my friends, they're blowin' in the wind ...
John Price
In message <1996Jul31.1...@leo.vsla.edu>
shuf...@leo.vsla.edu (Susan Huffman) writes:
> There's a John Prine song on "German Afternoons", I think it's
> called "When I'm Out of Love" and the opening lines are
> something like "barley malts and does eat oats and little girls
> are lively..." The entire song is really clever, using various
> beer and drinking analogies to describe his romantic
> situation.
> --
That's close enough to my own name and my own interests to be worth
finding out more! Could anyone guide me towards the full thing?
MaryLee Knowlton
Then there was that famous Spanish song my husband called "One ton of
metal," while his roommate insisted it was "Once on a meadow." Those of
us more ethnically sophisticated called it "Quantanamera>" I never said
we could spell.
MaryLee
Christopher Peter Gronlund
On Sun, 28 Jul 1996, John Price wrote:
> Well this is all very interesting, because I didn't expect it to be
> known outside UK. I must have learned it in about 1949/50 I think
> (when I was 6/7 - go on, do the math(s) yourselves). It has never
> occurred to me that it might have been an import.
>
> My memory says I heard it sung in an English accent - but then, did
> Burl Ives sing it too?
>
> This is beginning to get to me now. Any kind folks out there with any
> data on the English or American recordings of that era? Come on, this
> is obviously living rec.music.folk we're talking about if it's still
> going round. <g>
>
> Oh, and Nancy - I shall take that as a belated Happy Birthday to me
> too! I'm sure you won't mind. [<g> (as if you didn't know)]
> jOHN
>
Well John, like youu in the UK, it never occurred to me it was a hit
outside of the US. Seems I heard it most of my life, especially since my
dad grabbed it and used as as a little nickname for me (the Marsey-dotes
part - my name being Mary). I'm in the process of trying to find out a
little more about it and will post if I come up with anything.
Mary
Lianne McNeil
Christopher Peter Gronlund (cpg...@jove.acs.unt.edu) wrote:
: On Sun, 28 Jul 1996, John Price wrote:
: > Well this is all very interesting, because I didn't expect it to be
: > known outside UK. I must have learned it in about 1949/50 I think
: > (when I was 6/7 - go on, do the math(s) yourselves). It has never
: > occurred to me that it might have been an import.
....
: > This is beginning to get to me now. Any kind folks out there with any
: > data on the English or American recordings of that era? Come on, this
: > is obviously living rec.music.folk we're talking about if it's still
: > going round. <g>
: >
: Well John, like youu in the UK, it never occurred to me it was a hit
: outside of the US. Seems I heard it most of my life, especially since my
: dad grabbed it and used as as a little nickname for me (the Marsey-dotes
: part - my name being Mary). I'm in the process of trying to find out a
: little more about it and will post if I come up with anything.
: Mary
FWIW, I have a copy of it in a "fake-book" type songbook, "1001 Jumbo
Songbook" printed in 1976 by Charles Hansen Distributor, Educational
Sheet Music & Books, Inc., 1860 Broadway, NY, NY 10023, which lists
Milton Drake, Al Hoffman and Jerry Livingston as authors of the song and
gives a 1943 copyright date, with the copyright renewed in 1971 and
assigned to Hallmark Music.Co., Inc.
(Though I hold some skepticism about whether those people are the actual
authors -- they might have laid hold of something that was public domain,
and registered a copyright -- it does give some clues for tracking the
origin of the song.)
I learned the song from a friend in 1967-8, here in the U.S. I suspect
that she learned it from her family, who are several-generations-American.
Lianne
--
Lianne or Jim McNeil jam...@hevanet.com
"...I should've known that luck Is a waste of time, Cause it don't bring
you love if you don't love, And it don't bring you time if you ain't got
time, And it don't bring you strength baby if you ain't strong, And it don't bring you kindness if you ain't kind." Mary Chapin Carpenter
John D. Gretzinger
John Price wrote:
>
[snip}
> Well this is all very interesting, because I didn't expect it to be
> known outside UK. I must have learned it in about 1949/50 I think
> (when I was 6/7 - go on, do the math(s) yourselves). It has never
> occurred to me that it might have been an import.
>
> My memory says I heard it sung in an English accent - but then, did
> Burl Ives sing it too?
>
> This is beginning to get to me now. Any kind folks out there with any
> data on the English or American recordings of that era? Come on, this
> is obviously living rec.music.folk we're talking about if it's still
> going round. <g>
>
>
> --
> john....@zetnet.co.uk a.k.a. jOHN of St Albans
I don't think a have the 78rpm of this one any longer, but I may still have the sheet music for
this (along with "Little Man Who Wasn't There" among others) hidden somewhere.
My recollection is that it was published mid 40's and was popular about then (no personal
recollection of popularity as I wasn't born until 48). My mother and father used to sing it to
me. I think it was sung by a woman as I can visulize one on the cover of the music. I will dig
around and see if I can find it this weekend.
John
--
****** This Message Transmitted Using 100% Recycled Photons *****
John D. Gretzinger Platinum Solutions Corporation
Principal Member, Technical Staff 9800 La Cienega Boulevard
Email: jdg...@platsol.com Inglewood, CA 90301-4440
Voice: +1.310.337.5136 FAX: +1.310.337.5945
***************** Remember - it's WYDSIWGY **********************
jan & muke
This website of nothing but useless facts just taught me that there's a
term for the resulting lyrics when a song is misinterpreted. It's
called a mondegreen. I post this here because it was said to come from
a folk song in the 1950's (didn't mention the country of origin).
The true lyrics of the song were "They slew the Earl of Morray and laid
him on the green." The name came from the popular misunderstanding,
"They slew the Earl of Morray and Lady Mondegreen."
Truly useless however appropos(sp?)
Jan
John Price
In message <4u0tli$l...@dfw-ixnews2.ix.netcom.com>
gu...@ix.netcom.com(jan & muke) writes:
> Truly useless however appropos(sp?)
> Jan
I *like* that! (But how could the song be from anywhere but Scotland?)
Even more useless, and a long way from .folk I'm afraid -
Two lines from hymns. (Well, it is Sunday.)
"Gladly", the cross-eyed bear.
Can a woman's tender care, cease towards the child she-bear.
As a child, I could never understand the line:
"There is a green hill far away without a city wall."
I mean, why would a green hill *need* a city wall?
But then, I was a child who for years misread the word "liked" in a
particular sentence in "Noddy in Toyland". So I was always puzzled by:
"Noddy looked at Big Ears and licked him."
Steve Unsworth
> "There is a green hill far away without a city wall."
>
> I mean, why would a green hill *need* a city wall?
I had the same misunderstanding :-)
Steve Unsworth
Wes Hopper
I suppose everyone who tries to transcribe songs off recordings has a
favorite instance where their ears failed them. Mine was when I was
writing down the words to Butch Hancock's "Smokin' in th Rain" and I came
to the lines;
"Allow me to elucidate,
Like Basie Bears I see my fate..."
I thought it was an obscure big band jazz reference (after all, he
mentioned a Motzart piano concerto in "Mario y Maria"), but another
Hancock fan pointed out it was more likely "..they see theirs.."
Oh, well. Nobody's perfect.
Wes
Amy Fonoroff
>we could spell.
>
>MaryLee
>
>
I was on a cruise 5 or 6 years ago and everyone was singing "One Ton
Tomato"...
Nancy Hauser
>
> I was on a cruise 5 or 6 years ago and everyone was singing "One Ton
> Tomato"...
But that was a PARODY! It was supposed to be that way, wasn't it?
John Allen XL/DZ 01444 234812 ;-
I have a "Coffee House Songbook" with all sorts of lyrics collected
across the States. There's a version of "The Bonny Ship the Diamond"
with the lines:
Along the quay at Peterhead, the lassies stand around
With their shawls all pulled around them and the sword-tails hanging down.
For those who don't know it, that used to be "salt tears running".
In the same book was "The Lass of Byker Hill" with the line:
If I had another penny, I would buy another jill...
At the bottom was a footnote: "Jill = A flirt".
Rather liked that one!
On-On /Yogi
Christopher Peter Gronlund
Allow me to take this out of the folk music context for a moment and tell
about my Catholic youth, learning the Act of Contrition. I could never
understand, as a child, why we said "Oh, my God, I am hardly sorry for
having offended Thee. . . . . . ."
Mary
M. Jonas
In article <4u0tli$l...@dfw-ixnews2.ix.netcom.com>,
jan & muke <gu...@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
>This website of nothing but useless facts just taught me that there's a
>term for the resulting lyrics when a song is misinterpreted. It's
>called a mondegreen. I post this here because it was said to come from
>a folk song in the 1950's (didn't mention the country of origin).
>
>The true lyrics of the song were "They slew the Earl of Morray and laid
>him on the green." The name came from the popular misunderstanding,
>"They slew the Earl of Morray and Lady Mondegreen."
>
The song is a Child ballad (don't have the number handy) and Scottish, of
course. If you want a good recording of it, it's on a Five Hand Reel
album which is handily titled "Earl of Moray".
Martin
Bev Herzog
A friend of mine, for whom English was not her native
language, learned "Deep in the Heart of Texas"
as "Deep in the high professor." She was a child at
the time, living in Brazel and unfamiliar with Texas,
but this strange English idiom also confused her.
Bev Herzog
Will Higgins
In article <Pine.SOL.3.91.96080...@jove.acs.unt.edu>,
cpg...@jove.acs.unt.edu says...
...or hearing the Nuns refer to "Father O'Mighty" and thinking he was a big Irish
priest.
--
Robin E. Baylor
In article <4u6haj$29...@useneta1.news.prodigy.com>, ZXX...@prodigy.com
(Amy Fonoroff) wrote:
> MaryLee Knowlton <deep...@earthlink.net> wrote:
> >Then there was that famous Spanish song my husband called "One ton of
> >metal," while his roommate insisted it was "Once on a meadow." Those of
> >us more ethnically sophisticated called it "Quantanamera>"
> I was on a cruise 5 or 6 years ago and everyone was singing "One Ton
> Tomato"...
Then there was the song for the Hubble Space telescope
"One Ton O'Mirror"
--
Newlywed Warning: If you can't stand radiated happiness, stand back.
Robin
Greg Bullough
In article <robin.baylor...@163.254.33.86> robin....@lmco.lockheed.com (Robin E. Baylor) writes:
>Then there was the song for the Hubble Space telescope
>"One Ton O'Mirror"
The text of *Green Eggs and Ham* works as verses to 'South Australia.'
'Gilligan's Island' and 'Amazing Grace' have interchangable lyrics and
tunes.
And I once started 'The Topman and The Afterguard' to the tune of
'Pleasant and Delightful,' which runs aground when you get to the
grand chorus of the latter, when the audience gets the grand chorus to
sing on instead of the simple 'Amen.'
Greg
Bob Hunter
w-hi...@nwu.edu (Will Higgins) wrote:
>--
I've just stopped in after a long absence, but is this about what Jon
Carroll calls Mondegreens? As in "they've killed the laird of Murray
and Lady Mondegreen"?
Elyse
Paul L. Madarasz
When Gerry and the Pacemakers released their first single in ?1964, my
mother wondered what a "Ferry Customary" is...
--
Paul L. Madarasz
Tucson
Baja Arizona
"Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell."
-- Ed Abbey
Stephen McKendry-Smith
Greg Bullough wrote:
>
> 'Gilligan's Island' and 'Amazing Grace' have interchangable lyrics and
> tunes.
>
'Gilligan's Island' and Stan Rogers' "Athens Queen" are also
interchangable. Even the repeat at the end of each verse.
Steve M.
Michael D. Painter
Stephen McKendry-Smith <smck...@u02.itc.mb.ca> wrote in article
<320FB7...@u02.itc.mb.ca>...
> Greg Bullough wrote:
> >
> > 'Gilligan's Island' and 'Amazing Grace' have interchangable lyrics and
> > tunes.
My total lack of musical ability precludes my doing this. Up til now I did
not see any good in this lack.
bth...@bth12.med.navy.mil
> Stephen McKendry-Smith <smck...@u02.itc.mb.ca> writes:
> Greg Bullough wrote:
> >
> > 'Gilligan's Island' and 'Amazing Grace' have interchangable lyrics and
> > tunes.
> >
>
> 'Gilligan's Island' and Stan Rogers' "Athens Queen" are also
> interchangable. Even the repeat at the end of each verse.
>
> Steve M.
>
>>>>
performance of "House of the Rising Sun" as the meter and
rhythm are also identical. It wasn't my idea originally (damn the
bad luck!) but that's what the folk tradition is all about.
It'll be interesting to try "House" using "Gilligan's Island" :-)
MIKE REGENSTREIF
On Tom Chapin's new live album JOIN THE JUBILEE (Gadfly) he does a
version of Harry Chapin's "Circle" where he invites various band members to
each sing a verse. One of them sings the first verse to "House of the Rising
Sun" and it scans perfectly.
Mike Regenstreif
"Folk Roots/Folk Branches" on CKUT in Montreal
mre...@vax2.concordia.ca
Alan Havens
In article <320FB7...@u02.itc.mb.ca>, Stephen McKendry-Smith> interchangable..
>
> Steve M.
Another pair of songs that you can swap the words and the tune are
"Clementine" and "The Marine's Hymn"
Alan Havens
The above does not represent any official opinnion of anybody, anywhere.
SamXYZ
I do Jabberwocky to the tune of Greensleeves.
Sam Edelston
Brett Weiss
John McCutcheon does a set in some of his performances of a number of songs
(including "Amazing Grace" and "House of the Rising Sun") set to the tune
of "Irene Goodnight."
--
Brett
law...@erols.com
http://members.aol.com/interlaw
Olin Murrell
SamXYZ wrote:
>
> I do Jabberwocky to the tune of Greensleeves.
>
> Sam Edelston
Yet another one is Kris Kristofferson's "Bobby McGee," and "Bill Bailey."
It's fun to stick in the "Bill Bailey" songs during the la-la-la part of
"Bobby McGee," and watch heads pop up.
Same goes for sticking bawdy limericks into the middle of "Goodnight
Irene."
--
Olin Murrell
Austin, TX
ol...@bga.com
http://www.realtime.com/~olin
Frank Reid
(from _FM 11-7: TRICKS, HORRID by Kentucky Jones, with author's permission :)
What could be more innocuous than singing songs with alternate lyrics?
This game is also known as "song pong;" these are not parodies, but tunes
which happen to fit the words from different songs or poems. One of the
nicest and best-known is "Away in a Manger" to the tune of "Flow Gently,
Sweet Afton." Quintessential nice-guy Robert Fulghum sings "Old Macdonald
Had a Farm" to the tune of "Ode to Joy" (from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony,
music which is also used as a church song). One time I sang that and was
told that I would burn in hell for it!
As in the above examples, many hymns borrow their tunes from famous
nonreligious music (and vice-versa; the boundary is sometimes indistinct.
Some hymns may be early examples of filk, from times when their respective
churches were still outcast cults). "Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken"
(number 382 in the Methodist Hymnal, also the lesser-known number 461) have
the same music as the German national anthem (which itself is attributed to
an Austrian hymn). You will receive stares from your neighbors and subtle
pokes and kicks from your spouse for singing "Deutschland, Deutschland,
Uber Alles" in church.
Almost any song can be sung to the tune of either "Greensleeves" or
"Camptown Races." (Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, doo-dah, doo-
dah...) Many songs also fit the music of "The Lost Chord," a pipe-organ
classic and semi-hymn. Other examples range from beautiful to ridiculous.
Use them as appropriate for enjoyment or to bother overly-formalistic
marks:
Sung to the tune of "Rock Around the Clock --
(with everyone snapping in rhythm on the offbeat)
God is great, God is good,
And we thank Him for this food.
We're gonna thank Him in the morning,
Thank Him in the night,
We're gonna praise our Lord cuz He's outa sight.
Amen amen amen... amen.
Music: Rock Around the Clock
Words: The Doxology ("Praise God from Whom all blessings flow...")
Add amens at the end as necessary.
These lyrics and tunes are all interchangeable. The poems "Hiawatha,"
"The Raven" and "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" can be sung to
most of the tunes:
Deutschland Uber Alles Darling Clementine
Ode to Joy Mack the Knife
Marines' Hymn Deck the Halls
most Alma Maters
The German national anthem can be sung to the tune of the French
national anthem, and vice-versa: Piss-off two groups at once!
All these are also interchangeable:
Gilligan's Island Amazing Grace
Yankee Doodle House of the Rising Sun
Greensleeves Mary Had a Little Lamb
Marching Through Georgia Wabash Cannonball
Music: Stairway to Heaven
Words: Gilligan's Island
("Stairway to Gilligan's Island" was professionally recorded
but allegedly suppressed by copyright owners.)
Music: Danny Boy
Words: September in the Rain
Words: Casey at the Bat
Music: Canadian Railroad Trilogy or Wabash Cannonball
Music: Pomp and Circumstance (the part played at graduations)
Words: Panzerlied
Music: Bridal Chorus ("Here Comes the Bride") [Wagner]
Words: Waltzing Matilda (slightly rearranged):
Waltzing with me, waltzing with me,
You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me...
Verses fit the part usually not performed at weddings:
Once a jolly swagman sat beside a billabong,
Under the shade of a collibah tree
And he sang as he sat and waited while his billy boiled,
You'll come a-waltzing, you'll come a waltzing,
Waltzing with me, a-waltzing with me,
You'll come a-waltzing Matil-da with me.
Music: Luke Skywalker's theme from _Star Wars_
Words: Somewhere Over the Rainbow
Consider the parallels between _Star Wars_ and _The Wizard of Oz_...
Luke Skywalker Dorothy
R2D2 Toto
C3PO Tin Man
Chewbacca Lion
Han Solo Scarecrow
Obi-Wan Kenobi Wizard
Princess Leia Good Witch
Darth Vader Wicked Witch
Storm Troopers winged monkeys
DeathStar witch's castle
DeathStar plans ruby slippers
Jawas Munchkins
Tatooine Kansas
--
Frank re...@indiana.edu
Wayne Seymour
Another favorite trick (and a disconcerting one!) is to omit the first
two words to "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" and then sing the remaining
lyrics to the existing tune; like this.....
Out to the ball game take me;
Out with the crowd, buy me
Some peanuts and cracerjack, I don't
Care if I never get back, so it's root, etc.
The song ends up on the seventh degvree of the scale, driving everyone
nuts.
Enjoy! (Happy?)
Wayne Seymour
"House of the Rising Sun" works well to "Gilligan's" . In a moment of
perversity, my band played this at a contra dance in 6/8 time as
Gilligan's Jig or Isle of Gilligan. It also makes a nifty clawhammer
banjo piece. Play it slowly and call it "Cast Ashore". We also played
"Leave It to Beaver" as a jig and called it Planxty Hugh Beaumont, later
retitled to the vastly more obscure "The Humours of Beaumont" Enjoy!!
Paul J. Stamler
Fairport Convention's tune for "John Barleycorn" is also used for an
English hymn (sorry, don't recall which one). Garrison Keillor discovered
"Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" fits well to "Hernando's
Hideaway". And of course, Woody Guthrie used the tune of "Goodnight,
Irene" several times, including "Rambling 'Round".
Hymns swap around like crazy, of course; check out the Sacred Harp hymnal
for examples of the same words set to multiple tunes. Standard "ballad"
stanza form also allows a lot of swapping. (4-3-4-3-4-3-4-3)
Alfred Karnes put the Sacred Harp song "I'm Bound for the Promised Land"
to the ragtime-progression tune usually used for "Don't Let Your Deal Go
Down" on a 78 in the early 30s, just reissued on "The Music of Kentucky,
Vol. 1". (Yazoo, I think.)
"Plagiarism is basic to culture." -Charles Seeger
Peace.
Paul
Sibyl
In <19960815095643.reid@frank_reid.electronics.indiana.edu>
re...@indiana.edu (Frank Reid) writes:
>
[much snipped stuff]
>
>
>Almost any song can be sung to the tune of either "Greensleeves" or
>"Camptown Races." (Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, doo-dah, doo-
>dah...)
In one of my college lit classes, we sang much of Emily Dickinson's
poetry to the tune of Camptown Races ("Because I could not stop for
death, doo-dah, doo-dah")
Now I find it hard to read her poetry without mentally singing it to
that tune.
--Sibyl
Sarah F. Wassum
In article <4v1q0n$l...@sjx-ixn3.ix.netcom.com>
si...@ix.netcom.com(Sibyl) writes:
>In <19960815095643.reid@frank_reid.electronics.indiana.edu>
>re...@indiana.edu (Frank Reid) writes:
>[much snipped stuff]
>>"Camptown Races." (Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, doo-dah, doo-
>>dah...)
>
>poetry to the tune of Camptown Races ("Because I could not stop for
>death, doo-dah, doo-dah")
>Now I find it hard to read her poetry without mentally singing it to
>that tune.
>--Sibyl
>
I can't read her without hearing that song....
Thomas Norulak
Danny Raymond wrote:
>
> 'Giligan's Island also works to the tune of "Stairway to Heaven"
>
> cheers lonnieAt a festival late one night we sang "There was an old woman who
swallowed a fly" to the tune of "Streets of Laredo"
Tom Norulak
http://www.lm.com/~norulak
Peter Dwyer
Try singing "The Wild Colonial Boy" to the tune of "Ghostriders in the Sky"
Peter Dwyer
Melbourne, Australia
Paul J. Stamler
Oh, and who could forget the setting of the words from the theme to
"Green Acres" to the tune of "Purple Haze", in the classic recording
"Green Haze" by Elvis Hitler?
Peace.
Paul
Fogbound Child
And then I've even heard the Edgar A. Poe's "The Raven" sung to the
tune of "Deck the Halls."
It even included the fa-la-las.
Yikes.
___Samuel___
--
------------------------<lib...@webbwerks.com>-------------------------
The Winds & Sands of Time: http://webbwerks.com/~libelle
Samuel's Porno Links[tm]: http://webbwerks.com/~libelle/spl.html
------------------------------------------------------------------------
"he's like a shadow / there by the window / but no man's an island /
no man's an artesian well..." -- LD & KB.
Danny Raymond
'Gilligan's Island also works to the tune of "Stairway to Heaven"
cheers lonnie
Danny Raymond
'Giligan's Island also works to the tune of "Stairway to Heaven"
cheers lonnie
Dick Wisan
In article <3214F2...@webbwerks.com>, lib...@webbwerks.com says...
>
>And then I've even heard the Edgar A. Poe's "The Raven" sung to the
>tune of "Deck the Halls."
>
>It even included the fa-la-las.
"The Raven" is very useful that way. If you ever want to sing more of
"Ta Ra Ra Boom Dee-ay" than the chorus, you'll find the verses (if you
do find them) simply awful. Much better, sing "The Raven" for the
verses, and at the end of each verse, instead of the last line (the
ones that mostly end with "nevermore", you go into the Ta Ra Ra...
Dick Wisan
>>
>> Oh, and who could forget the setting of the words from the theme to
>> "Green Acres" to the tune of "Purple Haze", in the classic recording
>> "Green Haze" by Elvis Hitler?
>>
>
>
>tune of "Deck the Halls."
"The Raven" is very useful that way. If you ever want to sing more of "Ta-
rara Boom Dee-Ay", than the chorus, you'll find that the verses (if you do
find them) are simply awful. Much better: sing "The Raven" for the verses.
At the end of each verse, instead of the last line (that usually ends
with "nevermore") you go into the Tarara chorus.
--
R. N. (Dick) Wisan Email: wis...@norwich.net
Snail: 37 Clinton St., Oneonta, NY 13820, USA
Just your opinion, please Ma'am; no fax.
Nick Lombardo
Let's not forget that nearly ALL the works of Emily Dickinson
scan to "The Yellow Rose of Texas".
--Nick
--
Nick Lombardo
Nancy Cassel
My church youth group used to drive our advisors nuts by singing the
doxology ("Praise God from whom all blessings flow, etc." ) to the tune of
"Fernando's Hideaway."
--
"The truth's still wrapped in a mystery
the sixties are over, so set him free
.....
Ghosts of the old days wil follow me there
and the winds of the old days will blow in my hair.
Joan Baez
Nancy Cassel
Stephen McKendry-Smith
Danny Raymond wrote:
>
> 'Gilligan's Island also works to the tune of "Stairway to Heaven"
>
> cheers lonnie
The question now becomes ... is there any lyric which can NOT be sung to
the tune of Gilligan's Island.
Steve M.
Danny Raymond
A fun one to try is sing the "Wild Rover" to the tune of "I Only Want To
Be With You" or have a go at "South Australia" like this
"In South Australia I was born
Singing doo wah diddy diddy dum diddy do
South Australia round cape horn
do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do
Heave away
Haul away
It gets harder everyday
Singing doo wah diddy diddy dum diddy do"
there's lots of others routinely sung at the tag end of festivals and
parties a special favourite of mine is to sing "Burning Times" (Charlie
Murphy) to "We Will Rock You" by Queen.
If I think of any others I post them
Cheers Lonnie & Danny
Peter Kantor
You can also sing Take Me Out to the Ballgame to the tune of House of the
Rising Sun, which some members of our party (Toby & John are you out there?)
discovered during the baseball strike. (It seemed particularly apt for the
cancellation of the World Series that year)
My that old blues tune is versatile...
Sarah
Andy's Front Hall
Gerry Myerson
I once embarassed myself at a gathering of friends by singing Ed
McCurdy's An Irish Song to the tune of Queen Eleanor's Confession.
Well, they're both old Chad Mitchell Trio favorites, and I got the
tunes confused. It worked OK, until I got to the polly-wolly-do-wah
part in the lyrics, and there was no place for it in the melody!
Gerry Myerson (ge...@mpce.mq.edu.au)
Lee Brenkman
Wayne Seymour wrote:
>
> "House of the Rising Sun" works well to "Gilligan's" .
The leader of the band I work for was in a group that recorded
"Stairway to Gilligan's Island" which was just what the
title implied. They were getting airplay on Dr. Demento's radio show
and starting to sell quite a few copies until Led Zeppelin's attorneys
got in touch...
Cheers,
Lee Brenkman
A.J. Davis
.. or 'Banks of Sweet Primroses' to Gershwin's 'Summertime'
from 'Porgy and Bess',
It happens (and has happened) a lot in traditional song with
many sets of words sung to several tunes shared with many
different lyrics.
Andrew
Andrew Davis
University of Leeds, Yorkshire
England, LS2 9JT UK
a.j....@uk.ac.leeds