Category Archives: Musical

British Drinking Song

Nationality: British
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 23, 2018
Primary Language: English

Main piece:

“We like to drink with (person’s name), cause (person’s name) is our mate! And when we drink with (person’s name), she gets it down in 8…7…6…5…4…3…2…1!”

Background:

Informant is a first year student at the University of Southern California who grew up in Henley on Thames, England. As the drinking age is 18 in England, she has experienced the British bar scene with her friends.

Context:

The informant shared this song one night that she sang back home with her friends.

Commentary:

This song is well-known in England, and while it might not be as common in American culture, its simple nature makes it quite easy to join in even without knowing it. Since “mate” is more of a British term, it allows the song to rhyme in a way that wouldn’t be possible using “friend” or any other variation, but it is still understandable across cultures.

 

Hello Operator Song

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 24, 2018
Primary Language: English

Main Piece:

“Miss Susie had a tugboat, the tugboat had a bell. Miss Susie went to heaven, the tugboat went to hell-o operator, give me number 9! And if you disconnect me, I’ll chop off your behind the refrigerator, there lay a piece of glass. Miss Susie sat upon it, it went straight up her ass-k me no more questions, I’ll tell you no more lies. The boys are in the bathroom, zipping up their flies are in the meadow, the bees are in the hive. Miss Susie and her boyfriend are kissing in the D-A-R-K! Dark! Dark! Dark! Dark! Dark is like a movie, a movie is like a show! A show is like a TV show and that’s not all I know! I know I know my Ma, I know I know my Pa! I know I know my sister with a 40 acre bra! My Ma gave me her nickel, my Pa gave me a dime. My sister gave me her boyfriend, who kissed me all the time. My Ma took back her nickel, my Pa took back his dime. My sister took back her boyfriend, and gave me Frankenstein. He made me wash the dishes, he made me sweep the floor. He made me clean his underwear, so I kicked him out the door! I kicked him over London, I kicked him over France! I kicked him into Hawaii where he learned to hula dance! So hello operator, give me number 10! And if you disconnect me, I’ll sing this song again!”

Background:

Informant is a first year student at the University of Southern California who grew up in Seattle, Washington. She learned this song at elementary school as a child.

Context:

The informant was telling me that she had a song from her childhood stuck in her head all day. I asked her which one she was referring to, and she then sang this.

Commentary:

This song was such a familiar piece of the informant’s childhood, and seemingly everyone who grew up around her also knew it. Additionally, some of the informant’s friends who did not grow up anywhere near Seattle knew this song, with maybe some slight variations, and even those who did not know this specific song had their own version with a similar rhyme scheme or tune.

 

Song: American Folklore

Along with film, music has often been a major part of keeping folklore alive in the modern era. There are a number of myths and folklore that are the subject of modern and earlier songs. The one I want to focus on here is a song about a great American folk hero, the Kentucky Headhunters “The Ballad of Davey Crocket.” The song was released in 1991 and is a country ballad that pays homage to Davey Crocket. The lyrics are as follows:

Born on a mountain top in Tennessee/

The greenest state in the land of the free/

Raised in the woods so he knew every tree/

Killed him a bear when he was only three

Davey, Davey Crockett King of the wild frontier/

Davey, Davey Crockett King of the wild frontier.

 

Up through the woods he’s a marching along/

Makin’ up yarns and singing a song/

Itching for a fight and righting a wrong/

Crazy as a bear and twice as strong/

Davey, Davey Crockett King of the wild frontier/

Davey, Davey Crockett King of the wild frontier.

 

His land is biggest and his land is best/

From grassy plains to the mountain crest/

He’s ahead of us all a beating the test/

He follows his legend into the west/

Davey, Davey Crockett King of the wild frontier/

Davey, Davey Crockett King of the wild frontier/

Davey, Davey Crockett King…of…the…wild…frontier.

 

This is an interesting piece because it intertwines real history with American folklore. Davey Crocket was a real historic figure during the expansion period in the early 19th century. He was a frontiersman that later made a name for himself in the U.S. House of Representatives, coming to embody the notion of a self-made American type hero. The song does touch on actual events in order to connect the real man with the myth. It explains his true birth place, but it goes into some of the folk legends of Crockett’s life, rather than sticking much to historical facts. This is meant to embrace the legend of Crockett, which in many ways is an example of American self-reliance, authority, and righteousness. Clearly, there are very patriotic themes throughout the song, with lines like “his land is biggest and his land is best.” Thus, the folk song is part of the larger American discourse that increases national pride and respect for American ideology.

 

Source: The Kentucky Headhunters.” The Ballad of Davey Crockett.” 1991.

Song: “Johnny Appleseed”

In my search for music that connected with American folk stories, I found a 2001 song written and recorded by Joe Strummer called “Johnny Appleseed.” The song was recorded by Sony Music and released by Universal on the album Global a Go-Go. It is a pretty catchy song that uses a guitar riff and keyboard as its main instruments to set the melody. Then, Strummer comes in with an acoustic guitar, which makes it feel much more authentic as a folk song because it is reminiscent of earlier blue grass music that often-used themes associated with folk tales. The lyrics are as follows:

Lord, there goes Johnny Appleseed/

He might pass by in the hour of need/

There’s a lot of souls/

Ain’t drinking from the well locked in a factory.

 

Chorus:

Hey, look there goes/

Hey, look there goes/

If you’re after getting the honey, hey/

Then you don’t go killing all the bees.

 

Lord, there goes Martin Luther King/

Notice how the door closes when the chimes of freedom ring/

I hear what you’re saying, I hear what he’s saying/

Is what was true now no longer so.

 

Chorus

 

What the people are saying/

And we know every road, go, go/

What the people are saying/

There ain’t no berries on the trees/

Let the summertime sun/

(Fall on the apple) Fall on the apple.

 

Lord, there goes a Buick forty-nine/

Black sheep of the angels riding, riding down the line/

We think there is a soul, we don’t know/

That soul is hard to find.

 

Chorus

 

Hey, it’s what the people are saying/

It’s what the people are saying/

Hey, there ain’t no berries on the trees/

Hey, that’s what the people are saying, no berries on the trees/

You’re checking out the honey, baby/

You had to go killin’ all the bees.

 

Johnny Appleseed is only mentioned in the first stanza of the song, but it aims to set a foundation for discussing other major figures that are associated with kindness and giving, like Martin Luther King. Overall, the song clearly uses the Johnny Appleseed reference as a way to comment against global warming and the polluting the environment. Appleseed is a figure who brought apple seeds to the Northeast, therefore helping provide a source of food and livelihood to poor farmers. He represents an agricultural entrepreneurship that was more in-tune and respectful of nature. Strummer contrasts this myth with the modern state of American society and its destructive forces on nature, like “killing all the bees.” It exposes how American society has changed for the worse and is polluting the natural environment that once served as a source of national pride.

Source: Strummer, Joe, “Johnny Appleseed.” Global a Go-Go. Sony Music. 2001.

 

 

African Myth: The First Music

As one of my last entries of this collection, I wanted to explore a folk tale from Africa to continue to take a multicultural approach. Not knowing where else to find performances of African folk stories, I again turned to YouTube and found another children’s cartoon presented by August House, the same publisher of the Vietnamese folk tale in an earlier entry. Dylan Pritchett narrates the story “The First Music.”

The story begins with “In the beginning, the African forest had many sounds,” and continues to explain the noises each animal in the African plains made. There is the yelping of the hyena, the roaring of the lion, etc. “Suddenly, a noise like thunder rose through the air,” which caused the animals to stop talking. It was the elephant that had made the noise by beating a log with his front foot. The elephant liked the drum-like sound and continued beating it. This caused the monkey to start dancing, which rustled the leaves and made a rattling noise. The two sounds complimented each other, and the other animals began to join in. The crane landed on the crocodile’s back and began “rocking back and forth” so that it played another noise. All the other animals joined in, except the frogs who were silent. The frogs claimed their short legs and hands could not dance. They played for seven days until they wanted to rest. This is when the frogs began singing. This started a new beat that got the animals interested in playing more music with this different beat. The frogs realized “everyone has something to add when it comes to making music.”

The tale has an inclusive message about how everyone can participate in music. It aims to explore how everyone may participate differently, but it is those differences that make music so unique and interesting. I was surprised to see the tale attribute the first music to the animals, as I thought there would be some mentioning of man replicating the animal sounds. However, it focused only on the animals, making it a nature-based folk tale that is an interesting addition to this collection.

Source: August House. “The First Music.” 2001. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqGli-UrHPw