On the 4th of July our family had our annual cookout, food-fest at my sister’s house. I had the bright idea of having a sing along.
I printed up words to many, classic, easily learned songs and brought my mountain dulcimers for backup.
We had a great time! No stereos, televisions or radios. Just all of us singing and laughing.
The best loved song of all turned out to be “Darling Clementine”. Most people don’t know all the lyrics to that tune and some of them are hilarious in a dark, sick sort of way.
For example:
There’s a churchyard on the hillside
Where the flowers grow and twine.
There grow roses, 'mongst the posies
Fertilized by Clementine
In my dreams she still doth haunt me
robed in garments soaked in brine
Though in life I used to hug her
Now she’s dead, I draw the line.
The second favorite was “Mrs. Murphy’s Chowder.”
We’ve decided we’re going to do this at every family gathering.
bill grogan’s goat is my wife’s family’s favorite song. this is done at picnics and most family functions. i’ve seen other words to this song too but these are the best.
bill grogan’s goat (echo)
was feeling fine (echo)
ate three red shirts (echo)
from off the line. (echo)
bill took a stick (echo)
gave him a whack (echo)
and tied him to (echo)
the railroad track. (echo)
the whistle blew (echo)
the train drew nigh, (echo)
bill grogan’s goat (echo)
was doomed to die. (echo)
he gave a groan (echo)
of awful pain (echo)
coughed up the shirts (echo)
and flagged the train. (echo)
I used to play the guitar and sing for the old folks in nursing homes, VA hospitals, etc. One song that I often sang was Patty McGinty’s Goat, although I suspect that many of my listeners had never heard of it. I heard Jean Redpath sing it on the radio, and I learned the lyrics by writing them down from the taped radio broadcast. Seeing the lyrics to Bill Grogan’s Goat, I immediately thought of Patty McGinty’s Goat The lyrics to the tune are about two thirds of the way down the list. These, evidently are the Irish lyrics, as the lyrics that I learned from Jean Redpath were a little different.
I think I preferred “Delaney’s Donkey” to “Paddy McGinty’s Goat”.
“Delaney had a donkey, everyone admired,
Tempor’aly lazy, and permanently tired;
A leg at every corner and upon its neck, a head,
And a tail to let you know which end had wanted to be fed.”
The one that makes me shiver is “Carrickfergus”. I’ve heard it too many times. I have the same reaction as many people here have to the Londonderry Air.
They really are…kind of like “Mack the Knife” . It’s all jazzy and has a great beat, so you’re dancing around to it while doing the dishes. Then all of a sudden you realise what he’s really singing about
It sounds like you all had a great time, Fly Dood I love stuff like that…I wish my extended family was more open to it.
Gee, I know very few of these. Clementine, only the chorus, the ant tune and the 99 bottles- that’s it. I grew up singing stuff like “Slewfoot”, “Pretty Polly” and such…
I like the idea. We use to always do a version of this at family gatherings. The difference was we were usually just playing tunes. Once in a while someone would sing but usually everyone would just pick up something to play, even if it was a pair of spoons. Now days, sadly, so many are gone that it’s just me and my brother mostly playing.
A summer camp that I was attending was having a talent contest, and they were looking for applicants. I decided to enter with a little song that I learned from a record in the library that was entitled “English Pub Songs”. I didn’t have any accompaniment; I merely stumbled across the stage in the auditorium, stood before the microphone, paused, and started to sing.
I sha’nt forget the day that I was born,
Twas on a cold and frosty Winter’s morn,
The doctor said I was a chubby chap,
And then the nursie took me on her lap,
Oh, she washed me all over, I remember,
And powdered me all over tenderly,
Then she placed me in the cradle by the fireplace,
IN The Little Shirt My Mother Made For Me.
Last summer when I was on my holidays,
Across the brimy ocean I did gaze.
The sea it looked so nice, I thought I’d go,
And have a dip, but in a minute, oh,
All the girls on the beach at me were staring,
And some were taking snapshots, I could see
It’s a good thing for me that I was wearing,
The Little Shirt My Mother Made For Me.
The second Saturday of just about every month for the past 16 years or more we’ve hosted a community sing-along in our living room. We call it the Greenwood Family Sing after our neighborhood and recognizing the fact that when we started most of us had young children who were free to take a turn choosing a song for us to sing, or to go off to another part of the house to do what kids do when the tribe gathers (often they would gather in the basement and come up with some elaborate skit to perform during our ‘intermission’). But now all our kids are grown and mostly out of the house, and people come from all over the city and beyond to sing. We mostly use Rise Up Singing, the “group singing songbook” which contains words, chords and sources for some 1200 songs of all kinds, from spirituals to golden oldies to protest songs and everything in between.
I’m happy for your success in getting the relatives to join in your sing-along, and I hope you will consider expanding it to more than once a year!
I heard this first as an adult, sung by an Irish ex-pat. It always
sounded like an Irish camp song to me. It has amusing things to
shout after most of the lines… (those are shown in parentheses)
Have you heard about the big strong man?
He lived in a caravan.
Have you heard about the Jeffrey Johnson fight?
Oh, Lord, what a helluva fight.
Well, you can take all the heavy-weights you got, (what you got?)
You got a lad that can whip the whole lot,
He used to work as a doorman;
And now he’s going to fight George Forman.
CHORUS
That’s my brother, Sylvester, (what’s he got?)
He got a row of forty medals on his chest, (big chest)
He killed fifty barmen in the west.
He knows no rest.
(Bigger the man. Hell’s fire. Don’t push. Don’t shove. )
(Plenty room for you and me. )
He got an arm like a leg, (lady’s leg)
And a punch that would sink a battleship. (big ship)
Takes all of the army and the navy
To take the bra off Mae West.
And he thought he’d take a trip to Italy,
And he thought that he’d go by sea.
He jumped off the harbor in New York,
And he swam like a man from Cork!
He saw the Luthitania in distress; (what’d he do?)
He put the whole ship up on his chest (big chest)
And he drank all the water in the sea,
And he walked all the way to Italy.
(CHORUS)
And he thought he’d take a trip to ol’ Japan, (Sayonara)
They brought out the whole brass band.
He played every instrument they got,
Like a lad he outplayed the whole lot;
The old church bells will ring, (Hell’s bells),
And the ol’ church choir will sing. (Hell’s fire)
Then he took his head and rang the bells,
And they all came out to say farewell.
I love stuff like that…I wish my extended family was more open to it.