Singing down memory lane.

[rivka]

telerib just posted the marvelous news that Boston has named their reloadable RFID-based subway card the "Charlie Card."

I grew up on the song "Charlie on the M.T.A.." (Anyone unfamiliar with the song? It's about a guy who gets stuck on the subway for eternity because they want to charge him an "exit fare" to get off.) It was one of the songs my father loved to sing for his kids. One of the many songs.

I remember so much of my father's music.

He sang something that, whoa, apparently was originally a Child Ballad. (I had no idea it had such a distinguished pedigree!) It's about a ship that encounters a mermaid, and my father used to sing it when we were out on his little sailboat. I don't remember the verses from his singing, but he sang the chorus this way:

And the ocean waves do roll, do roll
And the stormy wind doth blow, doth blow
And we poor sailors go running to the top
While the landlubbers lie down below, below, below
While the landlubbers lie down below.

He sang the deeply mysterious song "Green Grow the Rushes-O." I spent hours trying to figure out what it meant, and am pleased to find that others have apparently found that "the lyrics of the song are in many places extremely obscure, and present an unusual mixture of Christian catechesis, astronomical mnemonics, and what may very well be pagan cosmology."

But mostly he sang goofy songs from his college years. He liked Norman Levy's intricately rhymed "Thais," and a similar retelling of "Bluebeard" which I am astonished to discover is more than a hundred years old.

When I was six years old, I liked to sing:

One day while sleeping heavily, from wresting with the Devil he
Had gone to bed exhausted, though the sun was shining still
He had a vision Freudian, and though he was annoyed, he an-
Alyzed it in the well-known style of Doctors Jung and Brill.

He dreamed of Alexandria, of wicked Alexandria.
A crowd of men was cheering in a manner rather rude.
And Athaneal glancing there at Thais, who was dancing there
Observed her do the shimmy, in what artists call The Nude!

Said he,"This dream fantastical disturbs my thoughts monastical,
Some unsuppressed desire, I fear, has found my monkish cell.
I blushed up to the hat o' me to view that girl's anatomy
I'll go to Alexandria and save her soul from Hell!"

I was an odd six-year-old, and my father is at least partially to blame.

He sang the Kingston Trio's bastardized version of the traditional Scandanavian immigrant song "Oleanna." And he sang us every song from Tom Lehrer's first record. His favorite was "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park," but I also remember him treating us to "Fight Fiercely, Harvard," "The Old Dope Peddler," "In My Hometown," "Be Prepared" ...all when I was a tiny kid.

What off-the-beaten-path music shaped your childhood?

Comments

[wild-irises.livejournal.com]

That is marvelous news.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

It's about a guy who gets stuck on the subway for eternity because they want to charge him an "exit fare" to get off.

And his wife brings him lunch but not the nickel he needs, which is very hmmm.

I was raised on a rich melange of lefty folks songs and murder ballads. Every time I see the name of the author of A Heart Shaped Box, I start humming that stupid song.

[treacle-well.livejournal.com]

And his wife brings him lunch but not the nickel he needs, which is very hmmm.

That is exactly what I've wondered about every time I heard the song.

[ckd]

Actually, there's an argument that he did get off in the 1980s, finally qualifying for the senior citizen fare (then $0.10, which he'd already paid).

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

I was raised on a rich melange of lefty folk songs and murder ballads.

Thank goodness they didn't hybridize in my brain. "This is my song about how the working serial killer needs a union to protect his interests. 'Bob has a yard filled with bodies/but never had a 401(K)/He's killed and killed and killed and killed (pause for wild-eyed panting: knife brandishing optional)/ but even he'll have to retire one day."

[carbonel]

I knew "Charlie on the MTA" from summer camp and temple retreats, both of which had singing sessions after meals.

The song you refer to as a Child ballad, I knew as "The Mermaid," and again was a summer camp song. Here's the words that I'm familiar with, though I'm seriously dubious about the authorial attribution:
http://www.tsrocks.com/m/molly_maguire_texts/the_mermaid.html

I loved "Green Grow the Rushes-O" (another camp song), but I kept nibbling at the meaning of it, too. Wrote about it in MINNEAPA, way back when.

I never heard "Thais" until I started going to science fiction conventions; it's one of Juanita Coulson's standards. I love the rhyme scheme, too.

I can't remember learning much music from my father, but my mother was an occasional source of songs when we went driving. I learned "We don't give a damn for the whole state of Michigan (we're from Illinois)" from her, and the parody version of the Notre Dame fight song ("Cheers, cheers for old Notre Dame; you take the notre, I'll take the dame"), and similar college-related songs.

My mother also had a party piece she did in a funny voice about "Oscar, the pet mountain lion" (who ate all the family, one by one, and then they came back when Oscar burped) that she could only be induced to do on car trips. I think (in retrospect) she was embarrassed to do it when other adults were present.

My father, on the other hand, introduced me to the Midnight Special (a folk music show in Chicago), and we occasionally had do-it-yourself Midnight Special nights when he would pull out pieces from his record library and play selections.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

I never heard "Thais" until I started going to science fiction conventions; it's one of Juanita Coulson's standards. I love the rhyme scheme, too.

I never met anyone else who knew it!

It further supports my belief that my father was meant to be a science fiction fan, and just never knew it. He loves filks (although he doesn't know them by that name), puns, and obscure bits of trivia; he invented his own system of notation for describing ludicrously large numbers; he would absolutely understand the concept of correcting someone to be polite...

[huladavid.livejournal.com]

Off the top of my head, there's "I'm A Lonely Little Petunia In An Onion Patch".

[kip-w.livejournal.com]

"...an onion patch, an onion patch..."

We had that on a tiny little 78 (five-inch size, yellow plastic). For all I know, they changed the lyrics as they so often did, but I remember the tune and the simpering voice that sang it.

[hobbitbabe.livejournal.com]

My dad "couldn't sing", but he had a wonderful tuneless rumble. When he was brushing our teeth, he used to sing "Stand up, stand up for cleaning" to the tune of "Stand up, stand up for Jesus". I don't remember the rest of his words, however.

Mum taught us the Queen's University fight song in Gaelic (which was odd, since she neither attended Queen's nor spoke/studied Gaelic), the cheers and taunts from her alma mater "Knit one, purl two, Victoria, yoo hoo!",

There once was a farmer who took a young miss
In back of the barn to give her a
Lecture on chickens and eggs,
And told her she had the most beautiful
Manners that suited a girl of her charms,
A girl that he wanted to take in his
Washing and ironing and then if she did
They could get married and raise lots of
Sweet violets, sweeter than the roses,
Covered all over from head to toe,
Covered all over with sweet violets.

Also, for some reason, my mother was very fond of the country song Your Cheatin' Heart.

In the early 70s, our family took up with a hockey team of young women who used to sing with guitars in our living room. I had huge crushes on some of them, and I have reason to believe my mother did too. The songs most evocative of that experience for me were "Mandy was a Bahama girl" and "Today while the blossoms still cling to the vine" (words and music by Randy Sparks, recorded by John Denver).

We also listened (because Mum owned the stereo) to Jesus Christ Superstar, to the BeeGees before they were disco, and to a calypso Christmas album which I wish I could find on CD.

George and I used to sing "There's a hole in my bucket", for obvious reasons, and Keith and I used to sing the Sesame Street duet "Manumanuh".

And Ann played Stairway to Heaven on the bassoon. How's that for off the beaten path?

[kip-w.livejournal.com]

My sisters used to sing "Mandy" in the car when we drove places. We drove places a lot. I'm not complaining. I sang along.

[kcobweb.livejournal.com]

I totally associate "Charlie and the MTA" with your father, actually. I remember singing it with you and him. :)

The songs I go back to are songs from Girl Scout camp. Almost every time my sister and I are together, we end up singing some, and asking each other about lyrics and whatnot. My sister is incredibly good at remembering lyrics of songs she heard once or twice when she was a kid (she said this doesn't apply to stuff from later years). The last time she was here it was the song "Chicken":

C, that's the way it begins,
H, I'm the second letter in,
I, I am the third and
C, I'm the fourth letter in that word, oh-
K, I'm filling in,
E, I'm nearing the N
Oh, C H I C K E N
That's the way you spell chicken!

Oh, Rufus Ruff-us Johnson Brown,
Whatcha gonna do when the rent comes round?
Whatcha gonna say,
Whatcha gonna play,
Whatcha gonna do on the judgment day?
Oh, you know I know
Rent means dough,
Landlord gonna throw you out in the snow,
Oh, Rufus Ruff-us Johnson Brown,
Whatcha gonna do when the rent comes round?

Her boyfriend was.... stunned.

You could *completely* keep up with us in these discussions, *and* add to the mix.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

You could *completely* keep up with us in these discussions, *and* add to the mix.

Girl Scout camp songs!!

Do you sing them to Elena? When Alex was teeny tiny, I used to sing her every song I knew that had hand motions - mostly songs from Camp Comstock.

Remember this one? Or was this one from when I went to Comstock as a counselor, instead of from when we were kids?

Every morning at half past eight
I go "ooie ooie ooie" to Georgie
And every morning at half past eight
He goes "ooie ooie ooie" to me
No need to shout, no need to call
But as I rub my eyes
I open the window, pop out my head
And "ooie ooie ooie" goes Georgie.

Every morning at half past eight
I go "ooie ooie ooie" to Georgie
And every morning at half past eight
He goes "ooie ooie ooie" to me
No need to shout, no need to call
But as I rub my eyes
I open the window, pop out my head
Down falls the window, off rolls my head
And "ooie ooie ooie" goes Georgie.

[kcobweb.livejournal.com]

I *don't* remember that one. Though it sounds good.

Let's see, off the top of my head: Middies, Bloomers; The Princess Pat; A Ram Sam Sam; Just a girl and a boy, in a little canoe.... (I like that one).

I've been known to get "Anna Botsford Comstock" stuck in my head for *weeks* at a time.

I totally need to start singing these to Elena. She's a little bored with some of the songs I sing her. :)

[kcobweb.livejournal.com]

(If it's not obvious, I don't remember the Georgie one - I don't know how this comment got here.... *grin*)

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

At one point, I attempted to contact the children of Walter O'Brien to find out about the rest of his campaign songs besides that one. He had an eleven-point platform, and had a folk-song for each one. That's the only one that has really survived.

Um. They emailed me back, but I never followed up.

[juliansinger.livejournal.com]

Welllll did he ever retern, no, he never returned...

Yeah, anyway.

We had a lot of Peter, Paul, and Mary songs (many of which were of course old folk songs), so I have "John Henry" and "All My Trials" and such in my head. Also, Simon and Garfunkle. Those guys did some really singable hits.

Also, my brother and I danced to _The Sting_ soundtrack a lot.

[ink-monkey.livejournal.com]

My mother used to sing me and my brother "The Lumberjack Song" and "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" to get us to quit crying when we were little. She regretted it once we got to preschool; the teacher asked if anyone knew any songs, I didn't know the meaning of the word 'discretion' and the whole thing ended with a phone call to my mother, who was absolutely appalled. I still start humming it when I get bored.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's hilarious!

[wcg.livejournal.com]

What off-the-beaten-path music shaped your childhood?

I think it was almost all off the beaten path. Lots and lots of Irish stuff, like Master McGrath and Molly Malone and The Garden Where the Praties Grow and Kelly From Killane. Then I got into Cub Scouts and learned camp songs like The Bellybutton Song. There were also the Captain Kangaroo songs, like Lonely Little Petunia in an Onion Patch that was mentioned upthread, and Alfred the Airsick Eagle and Sean, Sean, the Lepracauhn, and Angus MacTavish MacFergus Dundee.

After I got into school for a few years I started to learn songs that other kids knew.

[hobbitbabe.livejournal.com]

Oh, my dad used to also sing the one with cockles and mussels, alive alive-o. When we were very young. When we were older he was too self-conscious to sing.

[ckd]

Many folks commented on the silliness of having a new fare system named after a guy famously screwed over by a new fare system, of course.

[juthwara.livejournal.com]

Tom Lehrer was really big in our house too. I think I appreciated him most once I got to my cynical teen years, but singing his songs is still a big memory from my childhood. In fact, I was waltzing around with K tonight, singing the Wiener Schnitzel Waltz and I Hold Your Hand in Mine.

My parents played mostly classical music, but they liked folk as well and that's what always sticks with me - things like the Kingston Trio, Pete Seeger and several Burl Ives children's records. The songs that still go through my head (and I find myself singing to K) are the ones from a particular Weavers record, where they sang things like The Erie Canal, The Keeper of the Eddystone Light and Johnson Boys:

Johnson boys eat peas and honey,
They have done it all their life,
Peas and honey taste mighty funny,
But it keeps them on the knife.
(chorus) But it keeps them on the knife...

This is the sophisticated culture I'm passing down to my daughter. :)

[wild-patience.livejournal.com]

My mother liked to sing her old Navy songs. (She was a Wave in WWII.) She said that when the Waves were marching in formation, the men would like to sing to them, "If you're nervous in the service and you don't know what to do, have a baby, pretty baby" to the tune of "Pretty Baby."

She also sang the songs her mother sang from the turn of the last century. "I Don't Want to Play in Your Yard," and things like that. (My mother's now 84 and her mother was 40 when she had her, so her repertoire extends relatively far back for popular music.)

[kip-w.livejournal.com]

Lots of 78s at archive.org. You find them in the Audio section. It's a treasure trove for me.

[lysana.livejournal.com]

"Off the beaten path" only really compares to what the kids I grew up with heard. My parents were old enough that I knew who Johnny Mathis was. My agemates had no clue.

[dafna]

I was raised on an odd mixture of 60s and 70s hippie songs and classic Broadway musicals. When I was very young, we lived in Boston and I have a totally vivid memory of *my* dad singing the "Charlie on the MTA" song as well. And Tom Lehrer was huge (another Boston connection, I've always thought -- when we moved to Seattle in 1976 no one seemed to know him.) But also "Where Have All the Flowers Gone" and your basic Dylan-Pete Seeger spectrum of stuff. "Roll on Columbia" was a favorite. And of course, I had every single song on the "Free to Be" album memorized.

At the same time, I was singing risque Cole Porter songs and his slightly more child-friendly (but not by much) contemporaries. I remember running around the living room singing "You Gotta Have a Gimmick" at age 8, which was still more PG-rated than the score of "Can-Can," which I also knew by heart.

I was a Camp Fire Girl, and went to summer camp, so I totally know the Rufus Brown song, and Johnny Appleseed and John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt and Rise and Shine and have even non-ironically sung Kumbaya around a campfire.

And of course there were Jewish songs too, of which the ones I remember best are Tumbalalaika (in a slightly different translation than the one given there) and Eli, Eli, both songs with a theoretically hopeful message that is belied by their mournful tone. I love Eli Eli in particular -- I often sing it when I'm surrounded by nature.

[ahforgetit.livejournal.com]

Now look what you've made me go and dig up. My uncle Brian used to be a folk singer in the sixties, one of that crowd of guys with guitars who played in pubs for beer money but never really got any further and became insurance salesmen in the seventies. When I was wee he used to bring his guitar when he came visiting and we would have concerts and singalongs. My favourites were:

Puff, the Magic Dragon, (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYD5CeFOTOI) (innocuous music for eight-year-olds)

The Orange and the Green, (http://www.triskelle.eu/lyrics/orangeanthegreen.php?index=080.010.060.020) (much less innocuous but funny)

and this one;

The Cod Liver Oil and the Orange Juice (http://www.nigelgatherer.com/tunes/songs/song1/codlo.txt)

This transcription isn't quite the same as the one my uncle used to sing; in the verse about Hairy Mary's Mammy, I remember;

"Then oot came her mammy, she was goin' tae the cludgie, [toilet]
She walked doon the sterrs like a constipated budgie..."

(guaranteed to get a laugh from any small boy)

[rivka.livejournal.com]

The Cod Liver Oil and the Orange Juice

Hee! Yeah, that's just about the right level of inappropriate.

[kip-w.livejournal.com]

Dad used to sing,
"Speak to me darling, oh speaky-spikey spoke
Why are those tears on your cheeky-chikey choke?"
Which is a slightly corrupted version ("...spokey" "...chokey") of an older tune, but it's the way his dad sang it. Being a musician, he not only sang, he used to play bits and pieces of tunes. I remember learning that one little motif of his was from a Shostakovich polka. He didn't have much use for Shostakovich, but he practically made that one little bit his own.

As I've said, my three older sisters sang in the car whenever we went for a drive, especially up in the hills. They had a great repertory of folk songs, some already mentioned. "White choral bells, upon a slender stalk / Lilies-of-the-valley on my garden walk..." There were the Girl Scout songs. There were even a few Broadway and popular tunes.

And one source of these was the radio station Mom had on in the house most of the time, which played a lot of folk and inoffensive pop. Considering how non-conservative a lot of that was, it's kind of a surprise in retrospect.

I must stop now, or I'll just drivel on and on.

[fairoriana.livejournal.com]

My childhood had a lot of the Americana songs people have mentioned: Peter Paul and Mary's 10th anniversary album, the Kingston Trio, English folk tunes from the Kings Singers. (We had about 10 CDs for about 4 years... those CDs made a big impression, in addition to some records and tapes.) There was a lot of Christian music too: Marantha, Psalty the Singing Psalmbook (be grateful you missed that one), hymns, etc.

When we took Grey to the science museum two weeks ago, we took the T. And I sang the song of Charlie to my son on the Orange line. It's taken me years to not automatically start singing it in my head whenever I took the T!

[tchemgrrl.livejournal.com]

Oh, gosh, Psalty. I don't even need to ask.

None of these folk songs are remotely familiar (my parents raised me on the Beatles, Queen, Devo, that kind of sound), but they played Psalty at school.


"I've got the joy, joy, joy joy, down in my heart
(long pause, creaky old lady voice) Where?"


The thing it took me years to figure out was that most of the songs my parents sang were ones they made up. Or maybe my grandparents did. In any case, no one knows them. As I grew up, I added in harmonies.

[norah.livejournal.com]

My father has a freakish memory for the lame pop tunes of eras gone past, so I was mostly raised on half-remembered snatches of those. Whenever people scorn musicals, saying, "Nobody just bursts into song in real life!" I think, "They must not know my family." Peter Paul and Mary, Gilbert and Sullivan (the theatre near us used to do G&S singalongs, and we always went), that sort of thing. But my husband catches me singing really inappropriate songs (with Adult Content! or references to animal death!) to the baby now and gives me That Look. Which isn't fair, because the only songs HE will sing to the baby, despite having a gorgeous singing voice, are high-pitched squeaky nails-on-chalkboard things that he makes up himself.

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

My folks played mostly religious music at home except for singing the odd version of Row, Row, Row Your Boat that I've mentioned before. But by the time I was six, my father had started getting folk music and since I was at home teaching myself from age six to twelve, I'd play that and harmonize and dance (which was a sin). Nobody ever knew.