Old childhood songs

MissAdventure, we all loved the Windmill of Old Amsterdam, especially:
I saw a mouse, where? There on the stair, where on the stair? Right there etc
Foxglove77, My Grandfather’s Clock was my favourite as a little girl. For anyone interested, there is a fantastic arrangement on YouTube of this with virtuosic euphonium solo played by Daniel Thomas and acccompanied by the Black Dyke Mills Band.
Michael Finnegan was always a great favourite. We were taught all sorts of folk songs at school, reinforced by Singing Together on the radio. I was also in children’s choirs and learnt others, such as John Peel, there. Listen with Mother, reinforced the nursery rhymes we sang at home. There is such a rich heritage of traditional songs but fewer and fewer children seem to know them, which is such a shame. This is a lovely thread and I think many of us are singing the songs in our heads with big smiles on our faces.

He also had a funny record by Charlie Drake called Please Mr Custer which we pleaded to hear again and again.

Magenta8

Oldnproud My favourite lines from "The Lion and Albert"
goes something like :

Well it only goes to show
That the future is never revealed
If I'd have known he was going to be took like this
I'd have not had his boots toed and heeled

Great stuff.

I think it started ( the monologue) with ‘There’s a famous seaside resort called Blackpool, famous for fresh air and fun’
There’s also a line where Albert is feeling bored as ‘there were no shipwrecks and nobody drowning’.
Grandfather had an old 78 record of this and we kids fell about laughing.
He also had an old record of The Laughing Policeman which terrified me.

Nannee49

*MissAdventure and Grannynannywanny* as a child I too was a bit obsessed with the fine lady running off with the raggle taggle gypsy-o (and seem to have lived my life with a similar sort of recklessness tho' that's another story!)

There's a brilliant version of it by The Chieftans (sorry I can't post a link)

Oh me too. It appealed to my wild nature. I wanted to be her.

Oh these are lovely. Brings back happy times.

In the clip I posted of the Planxty version from 1973 the long haired musician on the left playing the bouzouki is Donal Lunny. He’s a multi award winning musician, writer and producer who’s since been at the forefront of traditional music for over 50 years.

I bumped into him about 5 years ago while on holiday in Ireland. He was staying in the same small hotel while working in a local recording studio. He was so friendly and chatted away about the project he was working on.

There was an old lady who lived in a shoe

Falling star I remember this. I think it began
I’m in a right bit of trouble I confess
Somebody with me has Had a game
I should by now be a proud and happy wife
But somebody with me has played a game
I was proposed to by Obidia Fink ( not sure of the name)
In a very gentlemanly way
I gave him all my money so that we could by a house
But suddenly at twelve o’clock today
There was I waiting ……
My gran taught me that along with many old music hall songs.

Songs we sang in the playground were many
My mother said I never should
play with the gypsies in the wood…..

On a mountain stands a lady
Who she is I do not know …..

What have we got for dinner Mrs Bond
There’s sheep in the meadow
And ducks in the pond

I love little kitty her coat is so warm
And if I don’t hurt her she’l do me no harm

Ivy is amazing that I can remember them all, we skipped ro many of them.

Nannee49

*MissAdventure and Grannynannywanny* as a child I too was a bit obsessed with the fine lady running off with the raggle taggle gypsy-o (and seem to have lived my life with a similar sort of recklessness tho' that's another story!)

There's a brilliant version of it by The Chieftans (sorry I can't post a link)

I'm off to find the chieftans version (and hoping you might tell your story sometime)
Oh, and the Steeleye Span version too.

OldFrill

Puff the Magic Dragon
So sad

It's not just me then!

I can barely even think about this song, let alone listen to it, without getting tears in my eyes. This happened a lot recrntly as I mistakenly played it for my youngest DGS and now he wants me to play it on repeat.

I know it is just about childhood and growing out of that imaginative stage, but for some reason I still have to fight back the tears every single time I hear it - in fact just thinking about it now is having the same effect ...
..

Being from an Irish family this one was always sung in ours and relatives homes.
As I came home on a Monday night
As drunk as drunk could be
I thought I saw a horse outside
Where my old horse should
so I called the wife and I said to her
Will you kindly tell to me
Who owns that horse outside the door
Where my old horse should be

Oh your drunk your drunk you silly old fool
As drunk as drunk could be
Why that's a sow me mother sent to me
..........

My late DH used to sing The Galloping Major and at an informal concert I sang O Mio Babbino Caro, someone played a Rachmaninov piece, but my DH finished off with the Galloping Major and brought the house down! No one bothered about us…
He did look the part.

I still sing the Raggle Taggle Gypsy and many of the songs mentioned here at a weekly music club👍

Whingey

Gilly Gilly ossenfeffer.Ossenfeffer is peppered hare and katzenellenbogen is cats elbow.name of a family whose women had beautiful arms

Ooh, that's another one that I had completely forgotten about.

The mention of these songs is bringing back a whole range of other memories and emotions!

MissAdventure and Grannynannywanny as a child I too was a bit obsessed with the fine lady running off with the raggle taggle gypsy-o (and seem to have lived my life with a similar sort of recklessness tho' that's another story!)

There's a brilliant version of it by The Chieftans (sorry I can't post a link)

We listen to Junior Choice with Anneka Rice every Christmas morning. Nellie the Elephant and the Windmill in old Amsterdam are virtually compulsory though I suspect some things like The Big Rock Candy Mountain and Three Wheels on my Wagon are a bit too un PC to broadcast to sensitive ears.

Gilly Gilly ossenfeffer.Ossenfeffer is peppered hare and katzenellenbogen is cats elbow.name of a family whose women had beautiful arms

Magenta8

Oldnproud My favourite lines from "The Lion and Albert"
goes something like :

Well it only goes to show
That the future is never revealed
If I'd have known he was going to be took like this
I'd have not had his boots toed and heeled

Great stuff.

😂

Oldnproud My favourite lines from "The Lion and Albert"
goes something like :

Well it only goes to show
That the future is never revealed
If I'd have known he was going to be took like this
I'd have not had his boots toed and heeled

Great stuff.

MissAdventure

I know an old lady who swallowed a fly...

That song used to give me the creeps 😁

What about the spider in the bath?
Before i cut me throat, i wrote this little note - "Driven to it by the spider in the bath!"

Yon lion's ett Albert.
'Is stick with the 'orses 'ead 'andle...

I know this isn't a song, but this thread has brought back strong memories of my late dad reciting the poem "The Lion and Albert" - though having quickly Googled this now, the version of that poem that I found doesn't quite seem to match my recollection of it!

MissAdventure

How much is that doggy in the window?
The one with the waggly tail?
How much is that doggy in the window?
I do hope that doggy's for sale

Oh yes, I remember that one well.

You can't dig it there, dig it elsewhere.
You're digging it round when it ought to be square...

Donald where' your troosers.
(Although my dad was technically English, his dad was Scottish, and the family lived in Scotland for about five years when Dad was a young child.)

Green Grow the Rushes O
(My Dad's mum was Irish)

Daisy Daisy
Im forever Blowing Bubbles
(My memory of these two remind me of my Yorkshire grandma .)

One man went to mow.
In the big rock candy mountains.
Puff the magic dragon.