I’m 61 and only recently learned that the song Vincent by Don McLean is about Vincent Van Gogh. Ha, for years I thought he was singing about his brother or something. Listening now I can’t imagine how I missed that.
I just realized today that in the song Clementine, the miner’s daughter is said to have fallen into “the foaming brine.”
A saltwater river/stream/brook/creek? That strikes me as implausible.
Brine mining:
To quote about one of the uses:
Not too sure if brine mining is what the song was referring to, or just runoff which is “briney”, but there is likely a rational explanation which made sense at the time.
Ha! As a kid I thought I was so clever for deciphering that completely obscure reference.
Well, you had my mom beat. She thought it was a song about a gay guy. Of course, she’s not ever been one to pay attention to lyrics (or art).
Clementine’s father was a “miner forty-niner” which implies he was a gold miner. I figured the term “foaming brine” was used for the rhyme. I had always figured the singer had murdered Clementine, he does run off with her little sister at the end of the song.
Odd note: I was double-checking the lyrics just now, and have discovered the Scouts removed the verse where he runs off with Clementine’s sister, and added a couple verses about how much the singer mourns Clementine. This must be new. I remember singing Clementine at camp, and the song had always ended with:
How I missed her
How I missed her
How I missed my Clementine
Until I kissed her little sister
And forgot my Clementine!
I had the same situation with realizing that “Black Velvet” was about Elvis.
It took me forever to recognize the Travis in Red Angel Dragnet by The Clash was Travis Bickle from Taxi Driver.
That sounds like the kind of lyrics kids would come up with by themselves. We had a whole genre of “Glory Glory Hallelujah!” verses involving teachers and their untimely demise.
I verified these lyrics that I remembered from Camp with a State Department site with American folk song lyrics. I had no idea such a thing existed until this morning.
I remember a recording of Clementine whereas she did not drown…she simply got impatient with the narrator “cortin’ too slow”, and she got snatched up by some other guy.
I think the lyric “courtin’ too slow” comes from “On Top of Old Smokey.” Perhaps the two songs were conflated.
Just jumping in to say that today is the first time I ever heard of the “Until I kissed her little sister” lyrics.
ETA. But maybe we never got past the first verse at camp.
He jumped from 20 thousand feet and didn’t pull the cord,
He jumped from 20 thousand feet and didn’t pull the cord,
He jumped from 20 thousand feet and didn’t pull the cord,
And he ain’t gonna jump no more!
See also,
O Tom the Toad, O Tom the Toad, why are you lying on the road
You did not see, the car ahead,
and now you’re wearing tire tread
O Tom the Toad, O Tom the Toad, why are you lying on the road
In the Wizard of Oz tornado scene, Dorothy sees Miss Gulch transform into the Wicked Witch of the East, not the West. She’s wearing the ruby slippers and striped socks in the linked clip. Gulch/East gets her deserts either by the tornado or in Munchkinland, and isn’t seen again when Dorothy returns to Kansas.
My high school’s Latin class always had an “orgy” during the Fall semester – essentially a potluck with the kids wearing sheet togas. That started sometime in the late 50s (my high school was only establishing in 1952) and was still around in the middle to late 60s. No idea if it still is being done. The sophomores were the “slaves” to the juniors and seniors, but it was also pretty PG. Just serving food or doing silly errands.
On Jeopardy! tonight it was made apparent to me that “The Grapes of Wrath” title came from the lyrics of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”.
Now the G&S verse of Clementine as performed by Tom Lehrer makes sense!
That I missed her depressed her young sister named Esther this mister to pester the tried
Now a pestering sister’s a festering blister you’re best to resist her, say I!
The mister resisted, the sister persisted when I kissed her all loyalty slipped
When she said I could have her, her sister’s cadaver must surely have turned in its crypt!
Yes, yes, yes, yes!
I’d like this to be true, but when I pause that clip in various spots, I can’t see striped stockings, and the shoes aren’t clearly the ruby slippers. Something that appears to be striped seems to be the broom.
Coincidentally, Lehrer used “brine” to refer to a freshwater river in “The Subway Song”: “C is Charles that overlooks the brine.”
(Genius.com suggests that it’s a reference to “inflow from the sea.”)