Poptimists Goes The Weasel

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Yesterday I got sent a CD of nursery rhymes for my kid - it was rub though. But it reminded me to do the much promised NURSERY RHYMES CANON. These selections are from the top ranked nursery rhyme CD at Amazon.co.uk, from "Oxbridge Baby" (ew). Other CDs have about a billion rhymes on but this is a CANON POLL and we frown on such inclusiveness. You get six ticks.

[Poll #1126074]

Bonus task - can we compile a CD of pop records which quote or reference all of these? Adam Ant - "Puss In Boots". Fergie - "London Bridge" - there, 16 to go!

Comments

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

Is "This Old Man" the Knick Knack Paddy-wack one?

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Yes! Well I assume so. I dont actually own the Oxbridge Baby CD, all mine are School Leaver Baby CDs from Woolworths' £1 bin. But I don't see what else it could be.

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

My votes are skewed in favour of rhymes which have tunes (or at least, universally recognised tunes) associated with them. This is a poptimists poll after all!

Does Fergie really ref LBIFD in that song? Surely she refs TOWER BRIDGE!

Sticking with the Fergie theme

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

MY HUMPS-y Dumpty?

[sbp.livejournal.com]

Running out of ideas are we?

[atommickbrane.livejournal.com]

Are you?

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

So many of these are RLY MENACING melodies (worst offenders: Ring A Roses, Popping Weasels). I suppose they're all about the plague tho so we can't judge them too much for providing STARK WARNINGS about the impending perils of adult life.

Is there a canonical tune to Pat-A-Cake? We always did it as a kind of tribal chant (also quite terrifying, as if we were going to sacrifice the baker's man if he didn't churn out cakes quick enough).

Best one out of the lot: Sing A Song Of 6d. It mentions pie!

[atommickbrane.livejournal.com]

Well, there's canonical rhythm and metre to it I guess - dunno the technical poetry terms re SCALE and all that but there's definitely a BEAT.

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

De La - "Ghetto Thang":
'(Mary had a little lamb)/ That's a fib/ She had two twins though/ And one crib'

Didn't Snap! also do something along these lines?

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

This song references several of the above (http://www.actionext.com/names_r/rosemary_clooney_lyrics/little_red_riding_hoods_christmas_tree.html)

The lovely "Jack in the Box" by Moments (70s pop hit, kids) also sweeps up several IIRC. Possibly the same ones as the Clooney song.

[atommickbrane.livejournal.com]

12345 as in "caught a fish alive"?

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Yes! Not as in Feist.

mary had a little ASBO

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

my votes are skewed in favour of nursery rhymes which are about (urban myth alert) THE PLAGUE or political mayhem generally

Re: mary had a little ASBO

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Our "Richard Scarry's Nursery Rhymes" book has the awesomely ASBOesque "Taffy Was A Welshman" in it.

Ring A Ring's spookiness/plagueiness is well worth witholding a tick in my view!

My ticks and why

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Pop Goes The Weasel - includes pub I have drunked in (unless this Eagle connection is a falsehood). Also rollicking good tune.

The Grand Old Duke Of York - biting metaphor for military incompetence. And good actions.

London Bridge - extended verses are great! (and practical)

Sing A Song Of Sixpence - good tune, pie, violence etc.

Twinkle Twinkle - imbues child w/sense of cosmic mystery

12345 - only one of these I actually DO with my baby.

Re: My ticks and why

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

it's the eagle at the bottom of city road, rather than the gastro in farringdon.

green go the rushes

[atommickbrane.livejournal.com]

I'd never ever heard this song until Steed and Peel on the Avengers are pretending to be drunk/druggz0red in a very bizarre episode called Too Many Christmas Trees (Mrs Peel dresses as a Dickensian Urchin?? Or is that another one) - anyway - they sing Green Grow the Rushes-O and it isn't half CATCHY.

But anyway - I wonder why I never encountered it? Is it fairly common? I thought it was probably fairly obscure... but perhaps I was just sheltered from it's pagan message.

Re: green go the rushes

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's common exactly, not as much as these picks are anyway. It was one of the songs my Mum and Dad would get us to sing on long car journeys (along w/One Man Went To Mow and Old Micky D), I don't know where they picked it up, my Mum grew up in Westmoreland so maybe there.

It is an awesome song.

[bengraham.livejournal.com]

Bonus task - can we compile a CD of pop records which quote or reference all of these? Adam Ant - "Puss In Boots". Fergie - "London Bridge" - there, 16 to go!

How about using pop artists?

Sing A Song Of Sixpence None The Richer
Ring A Ring Of Stone Roses
Pussycat Pussycat Dolls
Jack & Jill Scott

How am I doing?

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Polly Harvey Put The Kettle On
Hey P.Diddy Diddle?

Poprefs

[anatol-merklich.livejournal.com]

Hey Diddle Diddle: The Fun Boy Three, "The Farmyard Connection": "Hey diddle diddle, policeman on the fiddle / He sold off the drugs to the man in the middle" etc

Jack and Jill: The Divine Comedy, "If": "If you were attacked, I would kill for you / If your name was Jack, I'd change mine to Jill for you"

Pat-a-Cake: Kahimi Karie, "The Seventh Wife of Henry VIII" (I've only heard Momus's demo though)

(Actually I'd expect Momus to have references to several of these scattered around his oeuvre)

(Also I wouldn't be surprised if the same goes for Current 93)

and the momus rap outgrabe

[anatol-merklich.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, that's what I was thinking of, msieu Currie crams lots of such stuff into his rymez in "Righthand Heart":

Nick nack heart attack, give the dog a bone
Knees up, who's up Old Mother Brown?
Rubber boy, bovver boy, my son John
Kills all the Judys with his big hard on
Pop goes the weasel, bang goes the deal
Punch went to market to club a few seals
Cat got the baby, Judy fell apart
This little piggy had a righthand heart

[damnspynovels.livejournal.com]

Didn't Kirsty McColl do London Bridge Is Falling Down?

dainty my arse

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

When the pie was open the birds began to sing...

sorry but how did these birds survive the baking process exactly?
maybe they were still just about alive and the singing was actually screams of pain. how awful.

Re: dainty my arse

[the-roofdog.livejournal.com]

They didn't feel anything, the sound was air escaping from under their... feathers.

I like

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

When Jack (when Jack)
met Jill (met Jill)
their love (their love)
gone downhill

'When Jack Met Jill' from Etienne De Crecy's 'Tempovision' album

Re: I like

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

omg i've only just realised it's about meeting someone IRL after chat-room based flirtation/relationship!

pop songs

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

mary had a little lamb - MACCA
mary had a little lamb - hmhb (mhall the doctors were astounded etc)
pop goes the weasel - spencer davis group? is this right, one of that lot anyway, wasn't there a film?
humpty dumpty - jim bob (new alBUM)
grand old duke of york - hmhb agane

i'm SURE half of them must be in carter songs...

Re: pop songs

[anatol-merklich.livejournal.com]

carter sounds like GOOD CALL. I had PWEI hovering around my brain when trying to think of likely artists, but didn't make the jump to the USM.

Cultural Differences?

[justfanoe.livejournal.com]

A few of these I have never heard of before: "Polly Put the Kettle On", "Pussycat Pussycat", and "12345". Also "Ring a Ring O Roses" is I assume the same nursery rhyme that is called "Ring Around the Rosie" in America.

"The Grand Old Duke of York", despite its seemingly British centric lyrics, is well known in America, if not as well known as some of the others.

"Baa Baa Black Sheep" is clearly the most shameful omission here, though I put "Itsy Bitsy Spider" in the text box cause "Baa Baa Black Sheep" had already been mentioned.

Speaking Of Urban Myths...

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Baa Baa Black Sheep was left off because it's racialist.

[pony-meat.livejournal.com]

there's a japanese grindcore band called 'humpty dumpty'

London Bridge: source of much confusion

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Despite being born in London & living here for ages, I seriously thought that there WAS no London Bridge anymore, because the song clearly stated that it had fallen down (or was at least in the process of falling). It was HORRENDOUSLY confusing.

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

For some reason all I can think of is Andrew Dice Clay when I start to recite several of these in my head..."Jack and Jill went up the hill both with a buck 'n' a quarter..." uh, etc. *exits quietly*

[whalefish.livejournal.com]

I know a lot of these from childhood, but my mum just recited a lot of them, so I don't know the tunes that well. I'll have to get hold of her later and see if she can sing them for me or something.

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star is a TUNE though.

[justfanoe.livejournal.com]

Some of these, like "Jack and Jill" and "Old Mother Hubbard" and "Hey Diddle Diddle" I'm pretty sure have no canonical tune.

[edgeofwhatever.livejournal.com]

Aw, cripes, I forgot to write in "Five Little Speckled Frogs," which is the best children's song of all time. Also, "Elizabeth, Elspeth, Betsy, and Bess."

Stupid Jill forgot the pill

[koganbot]

can we compile a CD of pop records which quote or reference all of these?

Lady B "To The Beat Y'All" (hip-hop hit in NYC in 1979):

Jack and Jill went up the hill to have a little fun
Stupid Jill forgot the pill and now she has a son

(She did not invent these words, but may have been the first to put them on record.)

[koganbot]

"Little Star" by the Elegants, wonderful doo-wop number one hit, 1958.

[justfanoe.livejournal.com]

Surely there has to be a rap song that samples or other wise references "Pop Goes the Weasel"

[mcarratala.livejournal.com]

This,/a> is worse than I remember, but it does have actual WEASELS in the video (plus the Watts Towers). (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGDiKw9jxbM)

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Do we have a "Little Bo Peep" yet? Because I noticed today that Snoop namechecks her in "Sexual Eruption" (/"Sensual Seduction" edit)