# What is this old folk song? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 19, 2007, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-old-folk-song/430578 "2007-12-19T15:31:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Kizarvexius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2007, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-old-folk-song/430578/1 "2007-12-19T15:31:43Z")
I’m pretty sure it’s an Irish folk song. You’ve heard it a million times…or at least the first line of it. There was a sequence in an old cartoon I haven’t seen in over 20 years – it might have been Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, or The Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote, or even Tom and Jerry – but it went like this. The would-be-saboteur sets a bomb inside a piano. The victim reads the sheet music and plays the first line of the song, but keeps hitting the wrong key for the very last note. This is, of course, the key that sets off the bomb. The saboteur, breathlessly awaiting the explosion, gets frustrated at the victim’s lack of piano skills and dashes in to correct him. “No, you idiot! It goes like this!” Boom. If transcribed into C major, the notes of the opening line are as follows EDCDCCEGFACC. Somebody, please, put me out of my misery. ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2007, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-old-folk-song/430578/2 "2007-12-19T15:37:04Z")
“(Believe Me) If All Those Endearing Young Charms” [Ballot Box Bunny - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballot_Box_Bunny), scroll down ---
**Author:** ![Kizarvexius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2007, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-old-folk-song/430578/3 "2007-12-19T15:57:43Z")
[QUOTE=Wile E] “(Believe Me) If All Those Endearing Young Charms” [Ballot Box Bunny - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballot_Box_Bunny), scroll down [/QUOTE] Eureka! Many thanks to Wile E – _genius_. ---
**Author:** ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2007, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-old-folk-song/430578/4 "2007-12-19T16:00:31Z")
[QUOTE=Wile E] “(Believe Me) If All Those Endearing Young Charms” [Ballot Box Bunny - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballot_Box_Bunny), scroll down [/QUOTE] Six minutes. What took you so long? 😉 This place is amazing. ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2007, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-old-folk-song/430578/5 "2007-12-19T16:02:35Z")
Yay! I’m so happy I got to be the first to answer something! I expected there to be several other posts by the time I hit the submit button. ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2007, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-old-folk-song/430578/6 "2007-12-19T16:09:47Z")
[QUOTE=Kizarvexius] Many thanks to Wile E – _genius_. [/QUOTE] Well, of course **he** would know. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2007, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-old-folk-song/430578/7 "2007-12-19T16:35:12Z")
[QUOTE=Scarlett67] Well, of course **he** would know. 😃 [/QUOTE] _gets out the popcorn, prepares to watch the fireworks_ ---
**Author:** ![ChiefScott](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/58f4c7/32.png) [@ChiefScott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChiefScott)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2007, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-old-folk-song/430578/8 "2007-12-19T19:15:25Z")
[QUOTE=Kizarvexius] Eureka! Many thanks to Wile E – _genius_. [/QUOTE] Ahem… \*Super \* genius. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2007, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-old-folk-song/430578/9 "2007-12-19T19:55:41Z")
Oddly, although I’ve always been fully familiar with BMIATEYC (aka “To Celia”), I never noticed before that that’s what was being played there. For some reason I was hearing it in 4/4 time instead of 3/4 : \ \ \ ED | CDCC | EGFA | CC \ instead of \ \ ED | CDC | CEG | FAC| C \<… B, A\> ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2007, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-old-folk-song/430578/10 "2007-12-19T20:00:46Z")
:smack: And I’m wrong about “To Celia” being the other name for this song. It’s the other name of a totally different song, “Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes”. ---
**Author:** ![kelly5078](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/6f9a4e/32.png) [@kelly5078](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kelly5078)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2007, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-old-folk-song/430578/11 "2007-12-19T21:03:07Z")
Yeah, the other name for this one is “My Lodging Is in the Cold Ground.” ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2007, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-old-folk-song/430578/12 "2007-12-20T01:12:04Z")
This same plot device - the last note of a piano tune sets a bomb off - was used in the Goon Show episode [China Story](http://www.thegoonshow.net/scripts_show.asp?title=s05e17_china_story), recorded 16 January 1955. It could well have been influenced by the Bugs Bunny cartoon above, as Spike Milligan was a known cartoon fan; the character of Eccles was inspired by Goofy for instance. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2007, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-old-folk-song/430578/13 "2007-12-20T02:15:49Z")
[QUOTE=Askance] the character of Eccles was inspired by Goofy for instance. [/QUOTE] I do not wish to know that! ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2007, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-old-folk-song/430578/14 "2007-12-20T03:11:11Z")
[QUOTE=Biffy the Elephant Shrew] I do not wish to know that! [/QUOTE] I’ve got a bottle of scotch and a melon baller. I can remove that bit of knowledge\* if you’d like. \*That and a great deal of other knowledge. It’s a pretty big melon baller.