The Jackfish
Traditional
That old Jackfish swimming up the stream,
I asked that Jackfish what did he mean.
Just baited a hook to catch a shad,
The first thing he bit was my old Dad.
Chorus:
Sing fal de rol de ee-do, ee-do I-do
Fal de rol de ee-do, ee-do-I.
Ee-do-I, sing, Ee-do-I
Fishpole broke and I got mad
And down to the bottom went old Dad.
I grabbed that Jackfish by the snout,
And turned that Jackfish wrong side out.
Chorus:
That old Jackfish swimming up the stream,
I asked that Jackfish what did he mean.
Just baited a hook to catch a shad,
The first thing he bit was my old Dad.
Chorus:
Ebb
Pat McCaskey (adapted Edna St.Vincent Miley poem)
What is my love like since you left me
Like a shallow pool drying inward from the outside
A tepid little pool drying inward
On a narrow ledge by the sea
Since you left me
Brown Baby
Oscar Brown, Jr. (adapted)
Brown baby, brown baby as you grow up
I want you to drink from the plenty cup
I want you to stand up tall and proud
I want you to speak up clear and loud
Brown baby
Brow baby, brown baby as years roll by
I want you to walk with your head held high
I want you to live by the justice code
I want you to walk down that freedom road
Brown baby
Now, lie away, lie away sleeping
Lie away here in my arms
While your mommy and your daddy protect you
And keep you safe from harm
Oh you little, brown baby
Brown baby, brown baby it makes me so glad
To know you’ll have things that I never had
When out of men’s hearts all hate is hurled
You’re gonna live in a better world
Brown baby
Blow the Candles Out
Traditional:
When I was apprenticed in Londontown, I went to see my dear
The candles they were burning, and the moon shone bright and clear
I stepped up to her window to ease her of her pain
She opened the door and let me in, then she barred the door again.
I like your well behavior and dear I often say
I cannot rest contented when you are far away
The roads they are so muddy, we cannot gang about
So roll me in your arms, Love, and blow the candles out.
Your father and your mother in yonder room do lie
A-hugging one another, so why not you and I?
A-hugging one another, without a fear or doubt
So roll me in your arms, Love, and blow the candles out.
And if we prove successful, Love, pray name it after me
Treat it neat and kiss it sweet and daft it on your knee
When my three years are ended, and I’m again about
I’ll double my indebtedness, by blowing the candles out.
Little Bird
Jerry Jeff Walker
A little bird come sit upon my windowsill
Sat there through the falling rain
As I watched that little bird upon my windowsill
I saw my thoughts of you go by again
Chorus:
And the picture of my face reflected on the pane
Now is it tears I see or is it just the rain
I remember how we talked before we said goodbye
To young to know this world outside our door
And now the miles of time have built a wall, my love
And though I try I just can’t tear it down
For I’ve said that love takes many shapes it has no form
Has no boundary has no grips to hold
But time will take the foolish hand and twist a tinge of pain
And make the heart look back with eyes grown cold
Chorus:
I’ve no regrets about the past there is nothing I can change
For life’s a road you walk just one way down
But looking back I do recall that frame of time
When the world was love and time was just a thought
But many things go many ways the course of life is such
We all must pick that road of life to walk
And each gives off old memories like handnotes in a log
Where the world is time and love is just a thought
Chorus:
My thoughts go tumbling back I wonder how you look
I wonder if you’ve seen that little bird
I wonder if he’s sat upon your windowsill
I wonder if you’ll ever hear these words.
Chorus:
Crazy Mary
Pat McCaskey
She plays with teddy bears and blocks
She keeps her memories in a box
She’s half a child, half a lady
She’s crazy Mary, crazy Mary
When one is still adoring
At the summing up the scoring
And the other has a far and distant look
That’s the hardest ending in the book
First a lover then a friend
That’s they way the story ends
With half a child, half a lady
Crazy Mary, crazy Mary
When one is still adoring
At the summing up the scoring
And the other has a far and distant look
That’s the hardest ending in the book
First a lover then a friend
That’s they way the story ends
With half a child, half a lady
Crazy Mary, crazy Mary
Until It’s Time for You to Go
Buffy Ste. Marie
I’m not a dream, I’m not an angel, I’m a man
You’re not a Queen, you’re a woman, take my hand
We'll make a space in the lives that we planned
Here we'll stay til it's time for you to go
Yes, we're different, we’re worlds apart, we're not the same
We laughed and played, at the start, like in a game
You could have stayed outside my heart but in you came
Here we'll stay til it's time for you to go
Don't ask why, Don't ask how
Don't ask forever, Love me now
This love of mine, had no beginning, it has no end
I was an oak, now I'm a willow, now I can bend
And tho' I'll never in my life see you again
Here we'll stay til it's time for you to go
Don't ask why, Don't ask how
Don't ask forever, Love me now
I’m not a dream, I’m not an angel, I’m a man
You’re not a Queen, you’re a woman, take my hand
We'll make a space in the lives that we planned
Here we'll stay til it's time for you to go
My Beloved
By: Pat McCaskey
Pardon me, dear
But I forgot
That I don’t love you any anymore
And the joy. dear
And the fantasy
And the pain, dear
Came rushing in again
Just because, just because
I forgot that I don’t love you anymore
Anymore
I forgot that I don’t love you anymore
And a tear, dear
Etched a line
Across the life reflected in my mirror
Just because, just because
I forgot that I don’t love you anymore
Anymore
I forgot that I don’t love you anymore
But I want you
And I need you
And I love you
Forever evermore
Evermore
Yes I want you
Need you
Love you
Evermore
Hey Zhankoye
Traditional (translated: Pete Seeger)
If you go to Sevastopol
On the way to Sinferopol
Just you go a little further down
There we have a railroad station
Known quite well throughout the nation
As Zhankoye, Dzhan
Chorus:
Hey Zhan, hey Zhankoye
Hey Zhanvili, hey Zhankoye
Hey Zhankoye, Dzhan, Dzhan, Dzhan
Now if you look for Paradise
You’ll see it there before your eyes
Stop your search and go no further on
There we had a collective farm
All run by husky Jewish arms
In Zhankoye, Dzhan
Chorus:
Aunt Natasha drives the tractor
Grandma runs the cream extractor
Work together hand in hand
Help to build a better land
In Zhankoye, Dzhan
Chorus:
Lass From thee Low Country
Traditional
There once was a lass from the low country
Who loved a lord of high degree
She loved him oh so tenderly
Sing sorrow sing sorrow
Now she sleeps in the valley where the wild flowers nod
No-one knew she loved him but herself and God
One day when the sun was on the mead
He passed her by on his milk white steed
She smiled and she spoke but he paid her no need
Sing sorrow sing sorrow
Now she sleeps in the valley where the wild flowers nod
No-one knew she loved him but herself and God
Now if you be a lass from the low country
Don't love you a man of high degree
For he don't have the heart or the sympathy
Sing sorrow sing sorrow
Now she sleeps in the valley where wild flowers nod
No-one knew she loved him but herself and God
Hushabye (All the pretty little horses)
Traditional
Hushabye, don't you cry, go to sleepy little baby
When you wake you shall have all the pretty little horses
Blacks and bays, dapples and greys, coach and six little horses
Hushabye, don't you cry, go to sleepy little baby
Hushabye, don't you cry, go to sleepy little baby
Way down yonder lies a poor little lamby
Bees and butterflies pecking out his eyes
Poor little thing cries for its "Mammy"
Hushabye, don't you cry, go to sleepy little baby
Civil War Trilogy:
The First Battalion
Shel Silerstein & Bob Hamilton
Ah whroom, baba boom, baba boom boom
Ah whroom, baba boom, baba boom boom
And Richmond was their tomb
And Richmond was their tomb
There’s a hundred dead at Richmond
Three hundred more at Gettysburg
But the First Battalion’s home
The Battle Cry Of Freedom
Traditional (attributed to George Root)
Oh, we'll rally 'round the flag boys, we'll rally once again,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom;
We will rally from the hillside, we'll gather from the plain,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom.
Chorus:
The Union forever, Hurrah, boys, hurrah!
Down with the traitor, Up with the star;
While we rally 'round the flag, boys, rally once again,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom.
We are springing to the call of our brothers gone before,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom,
And we'll fill the vacant ranks with a million freemen more,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom.
Chorus:
Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye
Traditional
With your guns and drums, and drums and guns, harru, harru
With your guns and drums, and drums and guns, harru, harru
With your guns and drums, and drums and guns
The enemy nearly slew ye
Ach darlin dear you look so queer
Johnny, I hardly knew ye
Where is your smile that was so mild, harru, harru
Where is your smile that was so mild, harru, harru
Where is your smile that was so mild, harru, harru
The smile that once my heart beguiled
Ach darlin dear you look so queer
Johnny, I hardly knew ye
Where are your legs that used to run, harru, harru
Where are your legs that used to run, harru, harru
Where are your legs that used to run
Now you’re back and there’s only one
I’m afeard your dancin days are done
Johnny, I hardly knew ye
Ye haven’t an arm, you haven’t your leg, harru, harru
Ye haven’t an arm, you haven’t your leg, harru, harru
Ye haven’t an arm, you haven’t your leg,
You’re an eyeless, boneless, chickenless egg
And you’ve got to be put with your bowl to beg
Johnny, I hardly knew ye
Reprise:
When Johnny comes marching home again, hoorah, hoorah
When Johnny comes marching home again, hoorah, hoorah
All the men will cheer and they boys will shout
And the ladies they will all turn out
And we’ll all feel gay when
Johnny comes marching home
Johnny comes marching home
Johnny I hardly knew ye
| Most of the references to this song on the Internet refer to a recording of the song in an album of the same name by John Langstaff. My first exposure to it was in an album by The Modern Folk Quartet recorded in the 1960s. There was also a recent request from a reader of Sing Out for information about the song. It is often referred to as an Appalachian dance tune, but it is certainly in the public domain as a “traditional” if not often recorded song. I happen to like it because of the guitar part that I use. I am embarrassed to admit that I do not remember where or when I learned the guitar part that I play. Most southerners know that the jackfish is really the quite common eastern chain pickerel. One must remember, however, all of the pike clan possess razor-sharp teeth, so never stick your fingers into their mouth. I have landed such a fish off of my dock in China Lake, Maine. I can vouch for the teeth. I can also vouch for the fact that this is one of the smelliest fish in any body of water. It is also not the most attractive creature I have ever seen. My research identified references to this song (although vague) at the Smithsonian as well as a reference to a book by Mr. Ebe Richards, English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, Vol 2, Oxford University Press, (1932/1917), pg 361/#251
I read this poem in 1963 and loved the image she presented. Besides, ebb is a great crossword puzzle word. While this set of words is short, the song, with its guitar part is only a bit shy of a regular song length.
The original poem follows:
I know what my heart is like
Since your love died:
It is like a hollow ledge
Holding a little pool
Left there by the tide,
A little tepid pool,
Drying inward from the edge.
Original text: Edna St. Vincent Millay, Second April (New York: Mitchell Kennerley, 1921)
This is one of the more powerful songs which I sing. It was written by Oscar Brown, Jr. over 40 years ago. Oscar Brown was a jazz singer (if you have to classify him as anything at all) who lived in the Chicago area. He recently passed away (something I was surprised to learn while reading Time magazine). His daughter Maggie Brown is also a singer and has recorded both with her father and as a single artist. In the early 1960s my father was working at the "Hungry i" in San Francisco where he met and worked with Oscar Brown. He brought home a record of his work which included two songs which I now perform, "Brown Baby", and "Bid 'Em In". It was during my discussions with Maggie Brown's husband that I learned that both Oscar and I were born on October 10th. For the most part, my searches have not shown very many other performers who have recorded this song. That is a shame. It is a wonderful piece of work
I’ve been singing this since my high school days. However, I am, as the following will show, a true late- comer to this song. There are far more verses than I would ever endeavor to sing, as well as a response from the women. From an Internet search of this title we found a wealth of information. A useful site at www.contemplator .com led me to a Bruce Olson site where I learned that the earliest printed copy of this tune is found in Thomas Durfey’s Wit and Mirth: or, Pills to Purge Melancholy (Volume in 1720) as The London Prentice. It was popular in England, Ireland and Scotland. Variants and alternate titles include: The London Apprentice and The Jolly Boatsman (a variant in Kentucky), and is now better known as "Blow the Candle Out," but that title is from 1800 or later. C. M. Simpson in BBBM, p. 13-16, 1966, shows the tune was known from the beginning of the seventeenth century, and probably was known in the late 16th century. It appeared in the early 17th century with a variety of names. The other ballad of "The London Prentice", "The Hounour of a London Prentice", which appears in the 1714 edition of Pills is evidently a late 16th century ballad, but the earliest extant copy seems to be one in a Bodleian broadside collection, Wood 401, with a Coles, Vere and Gilbertson imprint, 1658-63. The song in the 1714, and 1719-20 edition of Pills, now called "Blow the Candle Out," seems to have been rarely reprinted in the 18th century, but as late as 1799 appeared in a chapbook as "The London Prentice." "Blow the Candle Out" is the title of a tune in Petrie's Ancient Music of Ireland said to have been collected about 1805.
Jerry Jeff Walker is one of the outlaws out of Lubbock, Tx. His big hit was Mr. Bojangles, but the songs he was writing at that period of time were generally great. Little Bird is one of them. It was on the same album as Mr. Bojangles along with several others that I will someday add to the program. I particularly like the image of the tears or rain on the pane in the song’s chorus. I put a similar thought into part of Crazy Mary where I refer to the pain reflected in my mirror. I also enjoy the guitar part in the chorus to this song. It just seems to flow.
This song was first written in 1980 and relates to a lesson learned. The idea of "When one is still adoring" had been with me waiting for the right song from about 1965 on. While this is a rather simple song, it clearly makes its point.
This song by Buffy Sainte Marie has been in my performance program since the mid-1960s. I owe the chord progressions that I use to Terry Ross who first picked them out for me. When checking the copyright sources for this song (as I needed a license to legally record the song for resale) I was amazed at the number and variety of people who have recorded this piece. They include but are not limited to: Eddie Arnold, Shirley Bassey, Neil Diamond, Al Martino, Maureen McGovern, Jim Nabors, Willy Nelson, Elvis Presley, Helen Reddy, Barbara Streisand and Andy Williams, to name but a few of the better known artists on the list. Buffy Sainte Marie has had a very interesting career from her early days in the folk singing world, to a long hiatus to raise a family, to a return to music in the 1990s. She has been a strong activist singer throughout her career and her songs are often filled with passion and meaning. The words and music to this song consistently quiet a noisy audience. I truely love performing it.
Written in 1975 this song came out of a six-year infatuation with my first red head. This was an on again - off again relationship that finally came to an end. The song was written sometime between the last two attempts at saving the relationship, and was actually sung for her at one point in time. There are two good parts to this story. First, time has led me to know that the relationship was not one of those life-long things. Second, I met my wife when I spotted her red hair and introduced myself. You see it was the same color. I've been married since 1986.
And I got a good song out of the deal as well!
This song is an example of how a piece of music can lead you into a search of history. The Zhankoye memorialized in song was a Jewish collective farm established by Stalin in the Crimea. There are a few, rather dated, recordings of this Yiddish song with lyrics translated by Pete Seeger. Among others the Limelighters recorded it in the early 1960s. The liner notes to that recording describe the song as, “a farm song from Jewish settlements in the Crimea in the middle “20’s”. There is also an early recording by Pete Seeger, and one by Theodore Bikel, who provided a different translation/version. One version of original lyrics is:
As men fort kine Sevastopol
Iz nit veit fun Simferopol
Dortin iz a stantzi faran
Ver darf zuchen niye glikken
S'iz a stanziye an antikel
In Zhankoye, Dzhan, dzan, dzhan
Chorus
Hey Zhan hey Zhankoye
Hey Zhanvili, hey Zhankoye
Hey Zhankoye, Dzhan, Dzhan, Dzhan
Hey Zhan hey Zhankoye
Hey Zhanvili, hey Zhankoye
Hey Zhankoye, Dzhan, Dzhan, Dzhan
Enfert Yidden af mine Kashe
Vi'z mine brider, v'iz Abrashe
S'gayt ba im der traktor vi a bahn
Di mime Layre ba der kosilke
Bayle ba der molotilke
In Zhankoye, Dzhan, Dzhan, Dzhan
Repeat Chorus
Ver zogt az Yidden kene nit handlen
Essen fette yoich mit mandlen
Nor nit zine kine arbitsman?
Doss kenen zogen nor di sonim
Yidden shpite zay on in ponim
Tit a kik af Dzhan, Dzhan, Dzhan
Repeat Chorus
I first came to know this song from a Limelighters album that I heard while still in high school. My friend Terry Ross (I think) picked out the guitar accompaniment that I generally play on my classical guitar. There is some question in my mind about whether or not this is a “traditional” song, and thus in the public domain. Nina Simone recorded it and listed it as “traditional”. However, the name of John Jacob Niles is often listed with it as well. A search of listings with his name seems to indicate that a good number of early traditional songs are now attributed with him on various web sites. Judging from some of the other titles, which I am quite sure are “traditionals”, I think that the attribution most likely is in error. I have also found several web sites that list it as an old folk tune. I have not, however, found any references to date that explain the history of the song or its lyrics.
There have been several occasions when I have had a crying baby in the audience. Both that I specifically remember took place in small coffee houses. Both times I switched my planned program and sang this old “negro” lullaby. Like magic the babies quieted down.
"First Battalion", by Hamilton (Bob) Camp and humorist/songwriter/cartoonist/author Shel Silverstein, begins this set of three songs that focus on the Civil War. This song in a different form was the first tune in a “Civil War Trilogy” recorded by several artists in the 1960s. The other two used then were: “Yes I See” and “Two Brothers”. However, these songs, while based on the Civil War, are not period pieces. I have chosen to pair the “First Battalion” with two different, traditional, tunes which are of the Civil War period: “The Battle Cry of Freedom” and “When Johnny Comes Marching Home”. I do have a version of “Two Brothers” which I perform, but I do so with different, original, music rather than the music by Irving Gordon. “The Battle Cry of Freedom” is a traditional song that dates from 1862 and is credited to George F. Root. This song was also used as a campaign song (with different words) in the presidential campaign of Abe Lincoln in 1864. It was one of many civil war songs written by Root, but was perhaps his most famous and most widely sung. I treat this trilogy as a protest song. To accomplish this I use the Irish version of the Johnny tune it is titled “Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye”. “When Johnny Comes Marching Home” is generally credited to the Union Army bandmaster, Patrick S. Gilmore, who wrote it in 1863. It is similar to the Irish song “Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye” (a tale of a maimed soldier returning from war). Which version came first is debated. Rather than the victorious soldier returning to be met by the cheering crowds, Johnny shows the ravishes of war, having lost his arm and leg. I find the recent war in the Middle East a good subject for a protest song. The extensive buildup of patriotism after 9/11, and the wide spread popularity of patriotic songs and flag waving can tend to repress the sentiments of those who question the war. The use of irony and patriotic songs from the past can be quite effective in this regard. “First Battalion” is used to introduce the trilogy, and is occasionally, but not always, also sung to bridge the gap between “The Battle Cry of Freedom” and “Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye”. I only use parts of the first two songs prior to the full third number.
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