| Author | Topic: Add: The Derby Ram | |
| dmcg | Posted - 15 Aug 04 - 01:50 pm | |
As I was going to Derby, Sir, 'twas on a market day, I met the finest Ram, Sir, that ever was fed on hay. (Chorus:) And indeed, Sir, 'tis true, Sir, I never was given to lie, And if you'd been to Derby, Sir, You'd have seen him as well as I. The horns upon his head, Sir, held a regiment of men, And the tongue that was in his head, Sir, would feed them every one. The wool upon its back, Sir, made fifty packs of cloth, And for to tell a lie, Sir, I'm sure I'm very loath. The tail was fifty yards, Sir, as near as I can tell, And it was sent to Rome, Sir, to ring St Peter's bell. | ||
| dmcg | Posted - 15 Aug 04 - 03:03 pm | |
This appears in Singing Together, Autumn 1966 edition. | ||
| Michael Morris | Posted - 10 Dec 05 - 11:13 pm | |
DARBY RAM There was a ram- he had such horns They grew up to the sky; The eagles built their nests up there And you could hear them cry Chorus: It's a lie, sir, it's a lie, A most confounded lie; If you had been where we have been, You'd say the same as I. And when this ram was killed, sir, It lost so very much blood, That five and twenty sailor boys Were carried away in the flood. The man who owned this ram, sir, He must have been very rich; And the man who sings about the ram Is a lying son-of-a-bitch. Source: Mellinger E. Henry's Folk-Songs from the Southern Highlands (New York City: J.J. Augustin Publisher, 1938), 177-178. Notes: "Mr. William Maxwell Barclay, of 298 Brook Avenue, Passaic, New Jersey, after listening to the preceding song (variant A in Mellinger) sang the following version. Mr. Barclay learned the song in Scotland thirty years ago." Henry, p. 177. Nice version, but I'm a little puzzled as to why it was printed in a book of folk-songs from the Southern Highlands. | ||