Tag Archives: Vermont

21 Nov

Learning McFadden to Waltz

Clarence McFadden he wanted to waltz,
But his feet were not gaited that way,
So he saw a professor and stated his case,
And said he was willing to pay;
The professor looked down in alarm at his feet,
And he viewed their enormous expanse,
So he tucked on a five to his regular price,
For learning McFadden to dance.

One, two, three, just balance like me,
You’re quite a fairy, but you have your faults,
While your left foot is lazy, your right foot is crazy,
Now don’t be unaisy, I’ll learn you to waltz.

He took out McFadden before the whole class,
And he showed him the step once or twice,
But McFadden’s two feet they got tied in a knot,
Sure he thought he was standing on ice;
At last he got loose and struck out with a will,
Never looking behind or before,
But his head got so dizzy, he fell on his face,
And chewed all the wax off the floor.

When Clarence had practiced the step for awhile,
Sure, he thought he had got it down fine,
He went to a girl and asked her to dance,
And he wheeled her out into line;
He walked on her feet and he fractured her toes,
And vowed that her movements were false,
Poor girl went around for two weeks on a crutch,
For learning McFadden to waltz.

McFadden soon got the step into his head,
But it would not go into his feet,
He hummed “Maggie Murphy” from morning to night,
And he counted his steps on the street;
One night he went home to his room to retire,
After painting the town a bright red,
He dreamed he was waltzing and let out his leg,
And kicked the footboards off the bed.

Song collector Margaret MacArthur extended the amazing work of Helen Flanders with her collecting work in Vermont in the 1960s. I came upon this Irish music hall gem in amongst the digitized MacArthur recordings available through the Vermont Folklife Center. She recorded it from Winfred Landman of Brattleboro in 1963. Another more complete version (without its melody) appears in Ballads and Songs of Southern Michigan from the singing of Mrs. John Lambertson of Belding, Michigan just northeast of Grand Rapids who sang it for collectors Gardner and Chickering in 1931.

The earliest printing of the music hall original from 1890 lists M.F. Carey as its composer and is viewable online through the New York Public Library digital collection. In addition to entering into folk tradition, the song was recorded by several artists and was even sung by child star Shirley Temple in the 1939 film Susannah and the Mounties as she tries to teach a mountie to dance with a book balanced on his head!

My transcription above is a blend of the Lambertson text, the original song sheet and a rousing recording of Irish entertainer Patrick Kavanagh (no relation to the author?) who recorded it on a 78rpm record in the 30s.

20 Nov

The Three Hunters

Three men they went a-hunting, a-hunting went one day,
’Til they came to a monkey, as they were on their way.
Says the Englishman “A monkey!”
“Oh no,” says Scot, “Oh nay!”
Says Paddy, “That’s your grandfather and his hair is turning gray”

Look-a there, O there! Whack fol the day,
Look-a there. O there! Whack fol duh diddle-oh day.

Three men they went a hunting, a hunting went one day,
’Til they came to a haystack, as they were on their way.
Says the Englishman “A haystack!”
“Oh no,” says Scot, “Oh nay!”
Says Paddy, “That’s a Protestant church and the steeple is blowed away,”

Look-a there…

Three men they went a-hunting, a-hunting went one day,
’Til they came to a hedgehog, as they were on their way.
Says the Englishman “A hedgehog!”
“Oh no,” says Scot, “Oh nay!”
Says Paddy, “That’s a pincushion with the pins stuck in the wrong way”

Look-a there…

Paul Lorette of Manchester Center, Vermont told collector Helen Hartness Flanders that he learned this song in a lumber camp in East Wallingford, Vermont. He sang it for Flanders’ recording machine in April 1931 and that recording is now available via archive.org.

Songs based on the meeting of an Irishman, Scotsman and Englishman and their contrasting reactions to events (not unlike the many jokes built on that scenario) seem to have been popular throughout the North American woods. Like “The Three Nations” from Minnesota (Northwoods Songs #41) and “The Three Dreams” from New Brunswick (Northwoods Songs #99), Paddy gets the last word here.

This particular song is traced by folklorists all the way back to the 1600s where a version even appeared in the play The Two Noble Kinsmen co-authored by John Fletcher and William Shakespeare. Early versions (and a variant found in Eau Claire, Wisconsin in the 1920s by Franz Rickaby) don’t associate the three men with different ethnicities. Another Irishmen/Scotsman/Englishman version was collected in County Wicklow by Hugh Sheilds in 1960.  Flanders, in her book The New Green Mountain Songster, recalls hearing it sung “in Boston by an Irish youth in July, 1911. The singer was entertaining a group of professional ballplayers; after smoking six cigarettes at once, he burst into the song… He sang in so rapid a tempo that it was impossible to take down words or music.” The above transcription is my own based on the Lorette recording.

30 Apr

The Diamond of Derry

Oh the Diamond of Derry looks dismal today,
Since my true love Jimmy has gone far away,
He has gone to old England, strange ladies to see,
May the heavens protect him, bring him safe home to me.

Oh Jimmie, lovely Jimmie, do you remember the days,
When you rapped on my window, and we rode far away,
Over hills and green mountains, together we rode,
Now you’ve gone and left me, with my heart filled with woe.

The first time we met was in yonder green wood,
Where pinks and primroses grew around where we stood,
With your arms locked around me to protect me from the wind,
It was there you first deluded this young heart of mine.

The next time that we courted, you very well know,
Twas down in your father’s garden in the county Tyrone,
You told me you loved me above all womankind,
Pray tell me the reason that you’ve changed your mind,

If I told you I loved you, it was mean and in jest,
For I never intended to make you my best,
I never intended to make you my wife,
No neither will I, all the days of my life.

So  be gone false-hearted young man, I have no more to say
But perhaps you and I may be judged the same day,
And the time it will come love, when rewarded you’ll be,
For false vows and broken promises that you made unto me

This month’s song comes from Belle Luther Richards of Colebrook, New Hampshire and was recorded by Marguerite Olney for the Flanders Ballad Collection (Middlebury, VT) in April 1942. You can listen to Richards’ singing of the song (she sings “Diamonds of Derry”) via the rich digitized Flanders Ballad Collection on archive.org. The collection includes other versions of the song, aslso known as “The False Promise,” from Cadyville, NY and Montpelier, VT. It appears also in the repertoires of “Yankee” John Galusha (Minerva, NY) and Carrie Grover (Gorham, ME). I borrowed a few lines from these other versions but the above is primarily the Richards version.

It is a variant of a song popularized in Ireland by the great Paddy Tunney and hence performed by Dolores Keane and others. Tunney called it “Johnny, Lovely Johnny” and most Irish versions begin “The high walls of Derry” which is also often given as the song’s title.

The New England versions generally begin “The diamonds of (the) Derry.” County Derry song collector Sam Henry, in his notes to another song, “Belfast Mountains,” writes that “The Belfast Mountains (Cave Hill) were supposed to contain diamonds which shone at night. They were often referred to in the ballads of the period [the 1800s].” Some have assumed that this is what is meant by “diamonds of Derry” in this song. However, Derry Town has, in addition to its 17th century high walls and gates (from which the céilí dance takes its name), a prominent central Diamond (town square) of the same vintage. One commenter on the Mudcat song forum thought this a logical origin for the song’s first line and that makes good sense to me. For that reason, I dropped the plural in the above.

Either way, it’s a fascinating variation on a well-loved song. Richards’ melody is quite different from the commonly used Tunney air and suits the song’s sad story well.