# words to these folk songs?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-to-these-folk-songs/32298
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [September 7, 2000, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-to-these-folk-songs/32298 "2000-09-07T00:27:38Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Cessandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cessandra)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2000, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-to-these-folk-songs/32298/1 "2000-09-07T00:27:38Z")
i have this tape of folk songs, ballads and kiddie songs that we play at the preschool/daycare where i work, and in some of the songs that i like, there are words or phrases that i don’t quite catch. i don’t know anywhere to find folk song lyrics on the 'net (only rock songs). can you help?
**song number one:**
\*oh dear, what can the matter be?
dear dear, what can the matter be?
oh dear, what can the matter be?
johnny’s so long at the fair.
he promised to buy me a trinket to please me,
???
???
he promised to buy me a bunch of blue ribbons
to tie up my bonnie brown hair…\*
**song number two:**
_you take the high road,
and i’ll take the low road,
and i’ll be in scotland before you.
but my true love and i will never meet again
on the bonnie, bonnie banks of loch [lowland?]_
if you can help me figure out these words, i’ll be much appreciative. also if anyone knows where i can find the rest of the lyrics to this song:
_my grandfather’s clock was too big for his shelf
so it sat ninety years on the floor.
it was taller by half than the old man himself
but it weighed not a penny-weight more.
it was bought on the morn of the day he was born
and it [always was?] his [joy and his pride?]
but it stopped short
never to go again
when the old man died._
if you can help, thank you so much! if not, thanks for trying!
---
### Author:  [@Saltire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saltire)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2000, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-to-these-folk-songs/32298/2 "2000-09-07T00:38:12Z")
For song number two, the word you’re missing is “Lomond”, as in the song title, “Loch Lomond”.
Here’s an online version of the lyrics, though they’re in the Scottish dialect, to some extent.
[http://www.siliconglen.com/scotfaq/9\_3\_5.html](http://www.siliconglen.com/scotfaq/9_3_5.html)
---
### Author:  [@Cessandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cessandra)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2000, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-to-these-folk-songs/32298/3 "2000-09-07T00:42:04Z")
ah… thank you. it’s a copy of a tape, so there aren’t any song titles to go by, and though i know it’s a famous song, i’d never paid attention to it before.
---
### Author:  [@Trion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trion)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2000, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-to-these-folk-songs/32298/4 "2000-09-07T00:42:16Z")
I found this version of song number 1:
Oh, dear! What can the matter be?
Oh, dear! What can the matter be?
Oh, dear! What can the matter be?
Johnny’s so long at the fair.
He promised to buy me
A trinket to please me
And then for a smile,
Oh, he vowed he would tease me
He promised to buy me
A bunch of blue ribbons
To tie up my bonnie brown hair.
Oh, dear! What can the matter be?
Oh, dear! What can the matter be?
Oh, dear! What can the matter be?
Johnny’s so long at the fair.
He promised to bring me
A basket of posies
A garland of lilies,
A wreath of red rosies
A little straw hat to
Set off the blue ribbons
That tie up my bonnie brown hair.
Oh, dear! What can the matter be?
Oh, dear! What can the matter be?
Oh, dear! What can the matter be?
Johnny’s so long at the fair.
He promised he’d buy me
A beautiful fairing,
A gay bit of lace that
the lassies are wearing,
To set off the hat that
Sets off the blue ribbons,
That tie up my bonnie brown hair.
Oh, dear! What can the matter be?
Oh, dear! What can the matter be?
Oh, dear! What can the matter be?
Johnny’s so long at the fair.
---
### Author:  [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2000, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-to-these-folk-songs/32298/5 "2000-09-07T00:43:56Z")
Song number 1 immediately started to drive me nuts too - will let you know if I come up with anything - maybe I’ll ask my mother tomorrow, (although I’m trying to recall how it went when I was younger, and I do think it possible that the “trinket to please me” line just gets repeated).
As for Song number 2 - your “lowland” word is certainly Lomond. Not a made-up name, a large loch in Scotland. Pretty sure it is the largest “lake” in Britain. Actually, I think there are more words, so I’ll check that. There will be sites that would help you, but I can’t provide a reference right now. Will try to come back to this - I’ll have to, for my own benefit!
I cannot recall any more words to the clock song. This, too, will drive me mad.
You might find it faster just to invent a time machine and transport all the kiddiewinkies to my primary school in in 1968 or thereabouts.
---
### Author:  [@Cessandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cessandra)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2000, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-to-these-folk-songs/32298/6 "2000-09-07T00:48:48Z")
trion, yes! that’s it, exactly! except that the tape only sings the first verse. but i know it had something to do with “tease me.” the damn tape just slurs it so badly that i can’t understand it – even when the kids aren’t screaming.
celyn, thanks for trying, but don’t go too nuts! 🙂
---
### Author:  [@Spider\_Woman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spider_Woman)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2000, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-to-these-folk-songs/32298/7 "2000-09-07T00:55:51Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Grandfather’s Clock
>
> My grandfather’s clock was too large for the shelf
> So it stood 90 years on the floor
> It was taller by half than the old man himself
> Tho’ it weighed not a pennyweight more.
> It was bought on the morn of the day that he was born
> And was always his treasure and pride
> But it stopped, short, never to go again
> When the old man died.
>
> CHORUS:
> Ninety years without slumbering (tic toc tic toc)
> His life’s seconds numbering (tic toc tic)
> But it stopped, short…
>
> In watching its pendulum swing to and fro
> Many hours had he spent as a boy
> And in childhood and manhood the clock seemed to know
> And to share both his grief and his joy
> For it struck 24 when he entered at the door
> With a blooming and beautiful bride
> But it stopped, short…
>
> Now my grandfather said that of those he could hire
> Not a servant so faithful he found
> It wasted no time and had but one desire
> At the close of each week to be wound
> And it stayed in its place, not a frown upon its face
> And its hands never hung by its side
> But it stopped, short…
>
> It rang an alarm in the dead of the night
> An alarm that for years had been dumb
> And we knew that his spirit was pluming for flight
> That his hour for departure had come
> Still the clock kept the time, with a soft and muffled chime
> As we silently stood by his side
> But it stopped, short…
I used to sing this to my daughters when they were little, and I believe now that they are grown, it is still one of their favorites.
---
### Author:  [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2000, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-to-these-folk-songs/32298/8 "2000-09-07T00:59:14Z")
This sounds like a job for [The Mudcat Cafe](http://www.mudcat.org/). I found two versions there:
[Version 1](http://www.mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=4302&Title=O%20DEAR%2C%20WHAT%20CAN%20THE%20MATTER%20BE%3F)
[Version 2](http://www.mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=4338&Title=OH%20DEAR%20WHAT%20CAN%20THE%20MATTER%20BE%202)
---
### Author:  [@Cessandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cessandra)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2000, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-to-these-folk-songs/32298/9 "2000-09-07T04:46:09Z")
you people rock! thanks!
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### Author:  [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2000, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-to-these-folk-songs/32298/10 "2000-09-07T05:24:35Z")
I hope this doesn’t count as an advertisement, but I strongly recommend [this](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0881888796/qid=968303418/sr=1-14/103-5337261-8083848).
It has all three songs that you mention, plus about 500 more.
---
### Author:  [@amberly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amberly)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2000, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-to-these-folk-songs/32298/11 "2000-09-07T05:44:37Z")
I believe the tape is “Children’s Favorite Songs” Volume 3 by Walt Disney Records. It is readily available at Wal-mart or K-mart on CD, and the words would be much clearer. I have all four volumes, and know every word to every song on them. Larry Groce and the children’s chorus are the performers on all four. I have always preferred these CDs to other children’s recordings (my son has many) because they are less grating than most, and I like their folksy style.
---
### Author:  [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2000, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-to-these-folk-songs/32298/12 "2000-09-08T15:14:10Z")
Let me chime in with another question… I had, _mumble_ years ago as a child, a collection of kiddie songs on 45. Among them was a song I found unaccountably charming, sung by a man whose father was “the keeper of the Eddystone Light.”
I think his mother was a mermaid. I seem to remember:
_My father was the keeper of the Eddystone Light
And he married a mermaid one fine night
Of this union there came three
A porpoise and a porgy and the third was me
Singing yo ho ho
The wind blows free
Ah, for the life of the rolling sea_
Some other things happened, which might include the siblings ending up being served in a chaffing dish. ANd I don’t remember the end.
But I’d love to find (a) the lyrics, and (b) the song.
- Rick
---
### Author:  [@Spider\_Woman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spider_Woman)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2000, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-to-these-folk-songs/32298/13 "2000-09-08T15:34:26Z")
> [@](#):
>
> The Eddystone Light
>
> Me father was the keeper of the Eddystone light
> And he slept with a mermaid one fine night
> From this union there came three
> A porpoise & a porgy & the other was me!
>
> CHORUS: Yo ho ho, the wind blows free
> O for a life on the rolling sea!
>
> One dark night , as I was a-trimming of the glim
> Singing a verse form the evening hymn
> A voice from the starboard shouted “Ahoy!”
> And there was my mother, a-sitting on a buoy.
>
> “O where are the rest of my children three?”
> My mother then she asked of me
> “One was exhibited as a talking fish
> The other was served from a chafing dish.”
>
> Then the phosphorous flashed in her seaweed hair
> I looked again, & my mother wasn’t there
> But her voice came echoing back from the night
> “To Hell with the keeper of the Eddystone Light!”
Those are the words in this book; are they similar to what you remember of the words on your 45? I never saw this until you mentioned it, and then I looked in the title index, which also indexes first lines.
---
### Author:  [@chique](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chique)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2000, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-to-these-folk-songs/32298/14 "2000-09-08T16:36:48Z")
Along the same lines…
_Oh, the cow kicked Nelly in the belly in the barn
Oh the cow kicked Nelly in the belly in the barn
Oh the cow kicked Nelly in the belly in the barn
{what comes next?}_
I don’t even know if this is real song, actually; there’s a long, funny story behind it but my sister and I caught this on Married, With Children once.
---
### Author:  [@Spider\_Woman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spider_Woman)
#### Post date: [September 8, 2000, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-to-these-folk-songs/32298/15 "2000-09-08T17:06:05Z")
That song, as far as I can presently find, is not in my book, but I will keep looking under different indices.
---
### Author:  [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2000, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-to-these-folk-songs/32298/16 "2000-09-14T02:17:50Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Spider Woman \*
> The Eddystone Light
>
> Me father was the keeper of the Eddystone light
> And he slept with a mermaid one fine night
> .
> .
> .
> But her voice came echoing back from the night
> “To Hell with the keeper of the Eddystone Light!”
Those are the words in this book; are they similar to what you remember of the words on your 45? I never saw this until you mentioned it, and then I looked in the title index, which also indexes first lines.
[/QUOTE]
That’s it!
I undoubtedly had a children’s version, since I clearly recall “…and he _married_ a mermaid one fine night,” as well as “…to _quibble_ with the keeper of the Eddystone Light,” at the last line. I guess it would have highly inappropriate to sing to children about any union, other than a marriage, producing offspring. 🙂
Thanks, Spider Woman!
- Rick
---
### Author:  [@Spider\_Woman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spider_Woman)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2000, 8:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-to-these-folk-songs/32298/17 "2000-09-14T08:36:23Z")
-----🙂
—////\\
---
### Author:  [@pothole2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pothole2)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2000, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-to-these-folk-songs/32298/18 "2000-09-14T10:27:25Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Celyn \*
> \*\*
> As for Song number 2 - your “lowland” word is certainly Lomond. Not a made-up name, a large loch in Scotland. Pretty sure it is the largest “lake” in Britain. Actually, . \*\*
It is a Loch, but that precludes it from bein’ a lake as it has one end open to the sea (like loch Ness, which y’all may also have heard of)
I know that doesn’t help you with the songs…sorry!
---
### Author:  [@pothole2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pothole2)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2000, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-to-these-folk-songs/32298/19 "2000-09-14T10:31:14Z")
See if you can find any Stanley Holloway monologues anywhere, if only for the accents…
---
### Author:  [@Spider\_Woman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spider_Woman)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2000, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-to-these-folk-songs/32298/20 "2000-09-14T11:30:46Z")
My folksong book doesn’t have any songs listed by Stanley Holloway. Maybe someone else can help.
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