"The Ash Grove" and its Welsh origins

Many camps and youth groups sing "The Ash Grove," a lovely song about the memories evoked by a walk in the woods.  The melody is the same one used in the original version of the song, which appeared in Wales in the early 19th Century.  The title, "Llwyn Onn," is Welsh for "ash grove."

Where it differs is the lyrics, which detail a tale of young lovers who die tragically.  Here is the English translation:

In the grand Ash-grove Palace, there lived a bold chieftain
And he was a squire and ruler of the land.
He had a fair daughter with many to court her
But none would she take for to give up her hand
Save her sweetheart, so handsome, so poor but of pure heart.
Her father unwilling and threatening the worst
Did shoot at the lad, but the bowstring was twisted
So crooked the arrow struck deep in her breast.

Too late to recall the dart back to the bowstring,
The poor girl lay dying, so mournful and sad.
In anger, the squire, his sword at the ready,
Did thrust at the heart of the unflinching lad.
Oh wealth is a master, so old and so peevish,
And from its cruel clutches she desperately strove.
"'Tis better to die by my own lover's side
Than to live in sorrow in the Palace Ash-grove."

Let's listen to both versions, each sung by a popular baritone in decades past. First, the modern version:



And here is the Welsh version:

Whatever the lyrics or language, the song retains its haunting beauty.

Wha Saw the 42nd revisited - with video

Of all the songs I've written about on this blog, the one that received far and away the most comments was "Wha Saw the 42nd," Song #20 (to read them, click on the song's title in the list at the right side of this page).  And the comments have come regularly every few months for 5-6 years.

Last week I recorded the girls at Camp Ajawah in Minnesota singing "Wha Saw."  They use it as a round in the Mess Hall following meals.  I missed the first second or two, and once you have nine tables of eight singing along, it's hard to make out the words and melody.  The occassional loud bang you hear is girls keeping beat by banging their fists on the table at the start of a measure.

Music Alone Shall Live - Song # 35

Back to my list of rounds... next up is another classic example, one with a very simple lyric that is easy to learn and sing. It's on the lovely side, rather than the rowdy.

Here is a link to sheet music, though the first line is a slightly different melody than the one I know:

http://www.8notes.com/scores/5637.asp

Also, I see that many places have the words as "all things shall vanish," but I prefer the way we sing it at Camp Ajawah: "All Things Shall Perish." Not sure what the closer translation is from the original, which is German:

Himmel und Erde mussen vergehn;
Aber die musici,aber die musici
Aber die musici, bleiben bestehn.

Put the first line in babelfish and it outputs :"Heaven and Earth mussen vergehn." Hmmm. I am guessing it means "must vanish" but let me try another online translator... and I get "Heaven and Earth must pass away." Which sounds more like "perish" than "vanish." Not that it really matters.

More on this round in my next post...

A performance of Wha Saw the 42nd

If you go back to my post about song # 20, you will see a new comment from "anonymous." It mentions a youtube clip featuring two singers performing Wha Saw. Their names are Robin Hall and Jimmie MacGregor. Here it is:

Pretty rousing! And no bagpipe to be heard. So who are Robin and Jimmie? They were a Scottish folk music duo who were very popular in the UK in the 1960s and 70s, often on the radio. I'd never heard of them before, but am glad to have been led to them. Here's another song (but not one we sang at Camp Ajawah):

More sloop

The Sloop John B has had a fine run in pop music, as evidenced by my previous post. But it's a traditional song - and from the Caribbean, which is less common for songs we sang at Camp Ajawah. Nassau town refers to the Bahamas, of course. My main question - was there a real Sheriff John Stone?

The song worked at camp for a number of reasons. The melody is catchy and the lyrics easy to learn. "I want to go home" resonates with the homesickness most campers feel from time to time. The captain's trunk is mentioned, and most campers brought their clothes to camp in a trunk. And who can't help but think of the camp's cook while singing "The poor cook he had fits, ate up all of my grits, then he took and he at up all of my corn." Never had grits at camp, but we did have plenty of corn.

I did find this parody online:

SLOOP JOHN A

We looked for the Sloop John A; We looked for it all day;
Round Nassau Town we did roam,
A man on the pier, Said it wasn't here;
We didn't find it, And then we went home.

Where can the John A be? Maybe the A's at sea;
We had a good look round, Then we went home.
Then we went home, We had to go home.
We didn't find it And then we went home.

The first mate was not there, Maybe he was elsewhere;
Maybe he was on board the Sloop John A;
Wherever he was, We didn't meet him because
We didn't find it, And then we went home.

Where can the John A be? Maybe the A's at sea;
We had a good look round, Then we went home,
Then we went home, We had to go home.
We didn't find it, And then we went home.

The day was a non-event, It seemed the A had went;
Then they told us that there's another called B.
B was OK; I had my heart set on A;
We didn't find it, And then we went home.

Where can the John A be? Maybe the A's at sea;
We had a good look round, Then we went home
Then we went home, We had to go home. I wanna go home.
We didn't find it, And then we went home.

Lyrics: Les Barker, published in 'Sitting With My Dog On Display'.
Recorded by David Knutsen on Tubular Dogs (catalogue no: Dog013)"

Back to the actual song, Carl Sandberg wrote that he was told the "weathered ribs of the historic craft lie imbedded in the sand at Governor's Harbor" in Nassau. Already by 1927 "Time and usage have given this song almost the dignity of a national anthem around Nassau."

Another interesting tidbit: "I've heard from one knowledgeable source that the bad things that happen on that sloop are all the result of naming the boat "John B." In Afro-Caribbean culture, nobody with a surname beginning with "B" (supposedly) will name a son "John," because the result ("John B." sounds too much like "jumby" -- a west African (Wolof/Bambera) term referring to this undead thing we've anglicized to "zombie" -- apparently it won't do to mention these creatures; "speak of the devil," and all that."

The lyrics in versions in the first part of the 20th Century are fairly close to the Beach Boys' version, with slight variations here and there. The Weavers had a hit with the song in the early 1950s. Some versions say "Mr. Johnstone" rather than "Sheriff Johnstone," so it seems unlikely there was really a lawman of that name.

Bob Marley's "I Shot The Sheriff" seems distantly related - both songs are from the Caribbean, feature someone's travails, and have a sheriff. Loose thread, I know...

I've Been Working on the Railroad - Song #30

IBWOTR is one of those songs that everyone, even if they have never gone to summer camp or been a member of a youth group, etc. seems to know at least in part. Maybe they learned it in elementary school or heard it in old cartoons. But it's a song everyone seems to sing exactly the same, unlike many songs I've blogged about.

Train songs have a rich tradition and we sang a number of them at Camp Ajawah - at least the boys did.

I've been working on the railroad
All the livelong day
I've been working on the railroad
Just to pass the time away

Can't you hear the whistle blowing
Rise up so early in the morn
Can't you hear the captain shouting
Dinah, blow your horn

Dinah, won't you blow
Dinah, won't you blow
Dinah, won't you blow your horn
Dinah, won't you blow
Dinah, won't you blow
Dinah, won't you blow your horn

Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah
Someone's in the kitchen I know
Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah
Strumming on the old banjo, and singing

Fie, fi, fiddly i o
Fie, fi, fiddly i o
Fie, fi, fiddly i o
Strumming on the old banjo

I have two questions: who is Dinah? And is this song indeed from the 1800s? Did rail workers sing it? Is it of African American origins? Or was it a commercial composition?

Yes, that's more than two questions, but the last three are variations on the second questions. I just want to find the origins.

Dinah - there is speculation that it's "diner" with a southern accent. Dinah blowing her horn = dining car calling workers to lunch. Or maybe Dinah was the cook. Or "dinner." Maybe blowing her horn was a variation of Gabriel blowing his horn (from The Eyes of Texas are Upon You, which has the same melody as the first part of IBWOTR).

Gargoyle at mudcat.org writes:

"Dinah - short for dynamite.

Kitchen - the engineer's cab of a steam locomotive

Banjo - short handled shovel"

Origins - First appeared in print in 1894 at Princeton, but otherwise the roots are somewhat murky, which is not unusual for folk music. It is likely two or three songs combined - a variation of "I've Been Working on the Levee" and "Dinah."

Strumming on the old banjo may mean stirring food in the frying pan.

Viva L'Amour - Song #28

I was looking up the origins of the song we knew as Viva L'Amour at boys' camp and found that it's more often titled Vive La Compagnie. Oddly enough, it appears to be a British song and sung often in America, but no trace of it ever having been French. Well, only the chorus is in that language, so maybe that does make sense.

Here is an old version of the lyrics, quite different from the one most Boy Scouts know:

VIVE LA COMPAGNIE
Published by F. D. Benteen, Baltimore, 1844.

Let Bacchus to Venus libations pour forth, Vive la compagnie!
And let us make use of our time while it lasts. Vive la compagnie!

CHORUS: Vive la, vive la, vive l'amour!
Vive la, vive la, vive l'amour!
Vive l'amour, vive l'amour,
Vive la compagnie!

Let ev'ry old bachelor fill up his glass, Vive la compagnie!
And drink to the health of his favorite lass. Vive la compagnie! CHORUS

Let ev'ry married man drink to his wife, Vive la compagnie!
The friend of his bosom and comfort of life. Vive la compagnie! CHORUS

Come fill up your glasses—I'll give you a toast, Vive la compagnie!
Here's a health to our friend—our kind worthy host. Vive la compagnie! CHORUS

Since all with good humor, I've toasted so free, Vive la compagnie!
I hope it will please you to drink now with me. Vive la compagnie! CHORUS

I'm back...

Been a few months. Between doing a blog for work and the holidays, I have let When We Sing rest a bit. But I will try to get back to semi-regular posts.

I will start with a link sent to me by my buddy Mack; it's to a site where you can hear a woman's version of my favorite Camp Ajawah song, The Ash Grove. Nice voice, simple backing, works well.

She does split the two verses we sing at camp by interposing a verse that is an alternate version often sung by Girl Scouts, among others. I don't like that verse as much, but it's not bad.

http://www.chivalry.com/cantaria/lyrics/ashgrove.html