Old childhood songs

I guess our version came from Singing Together. It was more lively.
They played it as the King passed behind the guards at yesterday’s Trooping the Colour. I think it was at 34.42 minutes.

1965 Watersons recording of "North Country Maid" but the song is probably Northumbrian.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=yM_1gLvySHw&list=RDyM_1gLvySHw&start_radio=1

We sung that in top Juniors because the teacher loved the old songs. We sung Bonny Ivy tree.

But also I lived in Hull which was the Watersons HQ for many years and went to see them and. friends perform in the famous folk club, Folk Union One, in the upstairs room of Ye Olde Blue Bell pub on Market Place with my half pint cider. This was 67 ish. Happy days. I had no idea of how significant they were, it was just a wonderful weekly outing with first boyfriend.

Mollygo that sounds like the Watersons version. That's the one I like to sing. Lots of people I know end with a rowan tree but I prefer the bonny ivy tree.

Another song we learnt that I was reminded of this morning
A fair country maid
Up to London had strayed
Although with her nature, it did not agree. Oh the Oak and the Ash and the Bonny Ivy Tree,
they flourish at home in my old country.
Guess where I heard that?

Oh how sad.
It really is.
Sorry, i didn't mean to spoil the thread with it.

JamesandJon33

Really sad. I was in hospital many, many moons ago ,on the gynae ward .
There was a young woman who had lost her third baby. She stood , one afternoon, in the middle of the ward, and sang that song. It was heartbreaking.

It was a music hall song, and, at the period, the poverty of many people meant most music hall patrons would know people that poor. An example, perhaps of the black humour that so often accompanies tragedy.

Really sad. I was in hospital many, many moons ago ,on the gynae ward .
There was a young woman who had lost her third baby. She stood , one afternoon, in the middle of the ward, and sang that song. It was heartbreaking.

Thank you!!!
That's exactly how the ex sang it.

I need to add, his daughter was 19.

Mournful, isn't it?

MissAdventure

Does anyone know the song
"Your baby has gone down the pĺughole...."?
My ex used to sing it to his daughter, and it always made her cry.

My baby has gone down the plughole, my baby has gone down the drain, the poor little thing was so skinny and thin, you never will see him again.

I looked up and it is part of a longer song called;The Mother's Lament
A muvver was barfin' 'er baby one night
The youngest of ten, and a tiny young mite
The muvver was poor and the baby was thin
Only a skel- lington covered with skin
The muvver turn'd round for the soap off the rack
She was but a minute, but when she looked back
Her baby was gorn and in anguish she cried
'Oh where is my baby?' The Angels replied,

Chorus: 'Your baby has gorn dahn the plug-'ole
Your baby has gorn dahn the plug
The poor little thing was so skinny and thin
It should 'ave been barfed in a jug
Your baby is perfectly 'appy
'e won't need a bath any more
Your baby has gorn dahn the plug'ole
Not lost but gorn before.'

Does anyone know the song
"Your baby has gone down the pĺughole...."?
My ex used to sing it to his daughter, and it always made her cry.

I've just found this thread, thank you all so much.
Mum sang a lot of the well recalled upthread by many above all the time but added a couple of French ones like Frere Jaques

but at school one teacher, piano player, loved all the songs like "the Oak and the Ash" and "Drink to me only with thine eyes" "Art thou troubled music will soothe thee" and all those, oh I treasured them.
I'm liking the ones from Dads and Grandads as Dad never could hold a tune or try to.

5 4 3 2 1 I've got an itchy bum 🤣

From Punch magazine WW2
Hans is a sailor sailing west
Tattooed with an artists tender care
There's a portrait of Hitler on his chest
And a talking Goebbels I won't say where 🤣

Scribbles
How rude we were!
We said,
Nobody loves me, everybody hates me
I’m going into the garden to eat worms.
Long, thin, slimy ones slip down easily
Short fat fuzzy ones, stick!

My brother sang
Percy was a pigeon, a pigeon, a pigeon
He flew in the morning. He flew through the night and if he flew over, you’d be covered in xxx!
My mum told him if he must sing it, he had to sing
He flew all day through, and if he flew over, you’d be covered in poo, because she said it wasn’t as rude

5...4...3...2...1
Grandad got a gun.
Shot my nanny up the fanny
5....4...3...2...1

All righty! If we're into truly revolting - this was often chorused in the school yard c.1960, usually accompanied by biting, sucking and throwing actions! Obviously a hardy perennial because 20 years later, in a different school, different region, small daughter and friends were happily singing the same words 😅

"Nobody loves me, everybody hates me.
I'm going out to eat worms.
Long, thin skinny ones,
Short, fat slimy ones,
Itsy bitsy teeny weeny worms.
I bite off the heads and suck out the juice
Then throw the skins away.
Nobody knows how I can survive
On worms three times a day."

Did anyone else sing
Where have you been, Henry my son?
Where have you been, my beloved one?
To the woods, dear mother, to the woods, dear mother.
Oh mother come quick, ‘cause I feel very sick and I’m gonna lay down and die.

What did you do there, Henry my son?
What did you do there, Henry my son?
Ate, dear mother. Ate dear mother.
Oh mother come quick, ‘cause I feel very sick and I’m gonna lay down and die.

It went on
What did you eat there, Henry my son?
Worms, dear mother.

What colour were they, Henry my son?
Green and yellow, green and yellow . . .

Those worms were snakes Henry my son.

Yuck, dear mother, yuck dear mother

Oh mother come quick, ‘cause I feel very sick and I’m gonna lay down (silence)

Singing ooompah ooompah,
Stick it up your jooompah!
Rule Brittania, marmalade and jam,
We threw sausages at our old man!'

...under a bush.....

"On top of spaghetti, all covered in cheese,
I lost my poor meatball when somebody sneezed.
It rolled off the table and on to the floor
And then my poor meatball rolled out of the door.....

Rolled into the garden and under a busy
And then my poor meatball was nothing but mush.

It may go on to be eaten by worms, but I'm not sure if I'm mixing it up with Ilkley Moor Bah't 'At....

We sang a ruder one to that tune. About Betty Grable and Roy Roger’s.
I won ‘t write the words here as I don ‘t want to upset anyone. But when you are 9 or 10, it was a very naughty song to sing .

@Scribbles “it rolled in the garden and under a bush and then my poor meatball was nothing but mush “

We had spaghetti and meatballs for dinner last night and it reminded me of this ditty we used to sing in the playground at primary school. Sung to the tune of "On top of Old Smokey", there were about a dozen verses but I can only remember the first one now.

"On top of spaghetti, all covered in cheese,
I lost my poor meatball when somebody sneezed.
It rolled off the table and on to the floor
And then my poor meatball rolled out of the door....."

Does anyone remember the other verses in this sad culinary saga?

My abiding memory of Singing Together is the tragic tale of William Taylor, press ganged into naval service leaving his fiancée heartbroken. Being a feisty lass, she disguised herself as a man and joined the navy to try and find William. She succeeded but all did not end well. It always struck me as a strangely unsuitable offering for a class of 9 year olds!

62Granny

I read something recently that "Puff the Magic Dragon" was a song written about smoking cannabis? I remembered some of the words and the tune and looked up the lyrics , I suppose it might have been but I am sure Peter, Paul and Mary didn't have that interpretation of it. It's surprising how harmless songs/ lyrics from the past get interpreted these days yet seemed innocent at the time but perhaps it was our innocence.

That rumour came out shortly after the song was released, but has been rejected by the band ever since.

One can interpret lots of things in many ways, and someone obviously did with the lyrics, but I am believing the original meaning of the song.