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!

[sbp.livejournal.com]

Running out of ideas are we?

[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]

Are you?

[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?

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Dude the canons are in semi-retirement innit!

[atommickbrane.livejournal.com]

12345 as in "caught a fish alive"?

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

Sticking with the Fergie theme

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

MY HUMPS-y Dumpty?

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Yes! Not as in Feist.

[atommickbrane.livejournal.com]

It's classic, but Patty cake is better (WHERE IS THE LOVE FOR PAT A CAKE? It's great)!

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.

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: 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!

[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.

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.

Re: green go the rushes

[sbp.livejournal.com]

I've known it since I was fairly small. Don't know where from.

[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?

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)

[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.

[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.

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