Auld Lang Syne: Words to Songs You Used to Know

By Karen Dolby

Auld Lang Syne is a timeless collection of lyrics for all to cherish.

Our memories are bursting with half-remembered songs. They stick with us in a way that no other words do.

Just the first few notes of a tune can bring a sports stadium full of people to their feet or kindle memories of starlit nights around a campfire, or a bedtime lullaby soothing us to sleep. But so often after those first few lines we're left humming until the chorus comes back in.

With this book you need never miss a line again.

Inside you'll find:

* Beloved songs from across the English-speaking world, including tunes from Australia, America, Canada, Ireland as well as the UK

* Lesser-known gems among the firm favourites

* Short accompanying text explaining the origins and stories behind the lyrics celebrating the wonderful variety of songs, shanties, ballads, ditties and anthems that wind through our lives and bring us together.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Michael O'Mara
• Release date: Sep 17, 2015
• ISBN: 9781782435433

Karen Dolby

Karen Dolby is a freelance editor and writer. Among her books are Auld Lang Syne, The Wicked Wit of Queen Elizabeth II and The Wicked Wit of Princess Margaret, all published by Michael O'Mara Books. She lives and writes in Suffolk.

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Introduction

Everyone has their own personal soundtrack running throughout their life, with certain songs that can instantly transport you back to ‘that’ summer, a teenage holiday, or particular place or time. Music and memories intertwine and it is not only modern music that resonates; older tunes also linger, and snatches of half-forgotten lyrics can spring to mind although we often have no idea when we first heard them.

Songs have been sung in every area of life: by factory workers, sailors, soldiers, mothers and grandparents; they were sung on journeys, in fields, music halls and pleasure gardens, and at country fairs. Many told of love, both happy and sad, relationships, everyday work and life’s concerns. They were as likely to come from the workhouse as the parish church, the schoolyard as the local tavern. Sometimes words and melodies were composed together but tunes were also ‘borrowed’ from older existing songs. They were learned by rote and rarely written down. Traditionally, songs were passed on from generation to generation, through impromptu performances within families and at social gatherings. In the pre-technology days, when people ‘made their own entertainment’, they were sung whenever and wherever people got together. They are essentially everyday music from a time when the only music heard was live.

Popular songs took on a life of their own as they travelled across countries and oceans; along the way different singers would add their own embellishments to make the words their own. Variations developed over the years and there are often several versions of the same song as they have been adapted to suit the singer or a specific place or event. In this book I have tried to choose the most authentic, or best-known lyrics, but everyone will have their favourite version and so I apologize if it is not the one included here.

Coming from a largely oral tradition it can be difficult to find records of very old lyrics. Plays, memoirs and novels can be good sources for references to the songs of the day, and from the eighteenth century cheaply produced broadsides and street literature printed words and music. In addition, many Christmas songs and carols were originally noted down with illustrations in chapbooks, which were circulated particularly in London and other cities.

The oral tradition received a boost in the nineteenth century when a growing interest in vernacular music and the songs of the people inspired individuals to record and publish them for the first time. In Britain, there were various collectors, including the Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould and Frank Kidson, who would travel the country gathering together songs from local people. Often, such collectors were inspired by Thomas Percy’s work a century earlier following his discovery of a manuscript of ancient ballads. Towards the end of the century Cecil Sharp, Ralph Vaughan Williams and Percy Grainger began their work and the Folk-Song Society was formed in England in 1898. In the US, individuals such as Alan Lomax (who was followed into the field by his son) were also making their mark, founding societies, publishing collections and organizing field studies. In Australia and Canada, contributions were also being made by musicologists and collectors such as Clive Carey and, later, Edith Fowke. Collectors noted down words and music and, just as performers had, they introduced their own variations, sometimes cleaning up lyrics considered too bawdy for respectable ears.

Traditional songs remained popular and continued to develop, with new lyrics and melodies adding to the canon. However, as the twentieth century progressed singing within communities declined with the ready availability of recorded music of all types. There was something of a folk revival in the late fifties and early sixties when a new wave of folk singers began recording the old songs to vinyl, but by the end of the decade the emphasis had shifted towards contemporary, nontraditional folk music.

Some songs are short and simple, but many spin an enticing yarn and pack a great deal of emotion into their verses. There’s humour and irony, pathos, regret, love and sorrow. They tell of faraway places and the minutiae of home, offering a glimpse of other lives and times. They are a great social catalogue.

It is surprising just how many old songs have slipped into popular culture, not only through modern recordings and interpretations, but also through films, adverts and television. A few notes of a half-remembered tune can bring a stadium to its feet, crooning along, or conjure memories of schooldays or bedtime lullabies. Good songs stick and simply refuse to be forgotten, or rather not completely. Often we know the chorus or a few lines, the rest remaining tantalizingly out of reach. This book aims to provide the missing verses, along the way celebrating the wonderful diversity of songs, shanties, ballads and anthems that wind through our collective history and bind us together.

CHAPTER 1

Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme: Country Life

The countryside and rural life were particularly popular themes with Victorian song collectors, who travelled the country to record lyrics and research local traditions, although some of the songs actually originated in towns where idealized pictures of a pastoral idyll appealed to industrial communities. This interest in folk songs from a bygone era, never before written down, continued into the twentieth century, throughout the British Isles and North America.

Are you going to Scarborough Fair?

Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme.

Remember me to one who lives there,

She once was a true love of mine.

Have her to make me a cambric shirt,

Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme.

Without no seams, nor fine needle work,

Then she’ll be a true love of mine.

Tell her to weave it in a sycamore wood lane,

Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme.

Gather it up in a basket of flowers,

Then she’ll be a true love of mine.

Have her wash it in yonder dry well,

Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme.

Where water ne’er sprung, nor drop of rain fell,

Then she’ll be a true love of mine.

Tell her to find me an acre of land,

Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme.

Between the sea foam and over the sand,

Then she’ll be a true love of mine.

Plow the land with the horn of a lamb,

Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme.

Then sow some seeds from north of the dam,

Then she’ll be a true love of mine.

Have her reap it with a sickle of leather,

Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme.

Gather it up in a bunch of heather,

Then she’ll be a true love of mine.

If she tells me she can’t, then I’ll reply,

Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme.

Let me know, that at least she will try,

Then she’ll be a true love of mine.

Love imposes impossible tasks,

Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme.

Though not more than any heart asks,

And I must know she’s a true love of mine.

When thou has finished thy task,

Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme.

Come to me my hand for to ask,

For then you’ll be a true love of mine.

Parsley for comfort, sage for strength, rosemary love and thyme courage. These herbs could be the ingredients of a medieval love charm, or the line may be nothing more than a romantic-sounding nineteenth-century addition. The fair in Scarborough was an annual event, lasting some weeks, and dated back to the thirteenth century, but it is not clear exactly how old this well-known folk song really is. Some versions refer to other towns or fairs, and the lyrics possibly have their roots in an older Celtic or Scottish song called ‘The Elfin Knight’. The wording varies but always includes impossible tasks set as a riddle for a man’s former lover, to prove her true love.

How many gentle flowers grow

In an English country garden?

I’ll tell you now of some that I know,

And those I miss I hope you’ll pardon.

Daffodils, hearts-ease and flox,

Meadow sweet and lilies, stocks,

Gentle lupins and tall hollyhocks,

Roses, fox-gloves, snowdrops, forget-me-nots,

In an English country garden.

How many insects find their home

In an English country garden?

I’ll tell you now of some that I know,

And those I miss I hope you’ll pardon.

Dragonflies, moths and bees,

Spiders falling from the trees,

Butterflies sway in the mild gentle breeze.

There are hedgehogs that roam,

And little garden gnomes,

In an English country garden.

How many song-birds make their nest

In an English country garden?