Source of "Mr. Fox's Garden"?
Anna Peekstok
Sir Hugh"-type song that is called "Mr. Fox's Garden"?
It's about a girl named Mary who chases her golden ball into Mr. Fox's
garden, where she is imprisoned as a servant by Mr. Fox, who has one red
eye. He forbids her to go into a certain room, so of course she does, and
sees there a sword and her golden ball. The ending is ambiguous; Mr. Fox
jumps out at her, but the song ends before we find out what happens.
I'd appreciate any information about who wrote this song or where it came
from.
Anna Peekstok
peek...@u.washington.edu
Jon Berger
>Can anyone enlighten me as to the origin or source of the eerie "Little
>Sir Hugh"-type song that is called "Mr. Fox's Garden"?
>
>It's about a girl named Mary who chases her golden ball into Mr. Fox's
>garden, where she is imprisoned as a servant by Mr. Fox, who has one red
>eye. He forbids her to go into a certain room, so of course she does, and
>sees there a sword and her golden ball. The ending is ambiguous; Mr. Fox
>jumps out at her, but the song ends before we find out what happens.
Is that the one with the chorus that starts "The wall is high", with a
big scary one-octave leap before the word "high"? If so, it's performed
by Frankie Armstrong, and possibly written by her as well, and I think
it's on the "I Heard A Woman Singing" album.
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-__ __ /_ Jon Berger "If you push something hard enough,
//_// //_/ jo...@ingres.com it will fall over."
_/ --------- - Fudd's First Law of Opposition
Gary Martin
Berger) writes:
In article <1hqfha...@shelley.u.washington.edu>,
peek...@stein.u.washington.edu (Anna Peekstok) writes:
>Can anyone enlighten me as to the origin or source of the eerie "Little
>Sir Hugh"-type song that is called "Mr. Fox's Garden"?
>
>It's about a girl named Mary who chases her golden ball into Mr. Fox's
>garden, where she is imprisoned as a servant by Mr. Fox, who has one red
>eye. He forbids her to go into a certain room, so of course she does, and
>sees there a sword and her golden ball. The ending is ambiguous; Mr. Fox
>jumps out at her, but the song ends before we find out what happens.
Is that the one with the chorus that starts "The wall is high", with a
big scary one-octave leap before the word "high"? If so, it's performed
by Frankie Armstrong, and possibly written by her as well, and I think
it's on the "I Heard A Woman Singing" album.
That's the one. It's by John Pole and Terry Yarnell, written in the
mid-1960s, and recorded by Frankie Amstrong as Jon said, by Jenny
Armstrong and her sister (whose name escapes me) on her album with
George Park-Armstrong, "Wild Hog in the Woods", by Sally Rogers and
Claudia Schmidt on their most recent joint album, and by Cindy Mangsen
(with harmony from Priscilla Herdman and Anne Hills) on her new
solo album, "Songlines", which came out about three weeks ago.
I heard Cindy sing it a couple of times at festivals and coffeehouses
three years ago and went on a wild goose chase after the lyrics. I
thought it was traditional, and searched ballad collections in several
university libraries. Finally, I asked Cindy, who told me that it
was published in Sing Out! a few years ago. Then I searched four more
major libraries before finding one with the correct issue. (Hurrah for
the University of Illinois at Chicago!)
Great song! Tony Barrand is responsible for the last verse, which
is the same as the first verse, where Mary bounces the ball over
the wall, except that Mary's name is changed to Polly, turning Mr.
Fox into a serial killer.
--
Gary A. Martin, Assistant Professor of Mathematics, UMass Dartmouth
Mar...@cis.umassd.edu