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sovay ([personal profile] sovay) wrote2011-03-27 10:16 am
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I'd go down on my knees, but nobody's to blame

From the Department of Seriously, Who Knew: Tom Courtenay originated "Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter."

I can find no other information about The Lads (1963) except that it produced at least three other songs (also written by Trevor Peacock) which don't seem to have become famous at all and hey, there's Ronald Harwood again. (And again!) I'm guessing it was about a band? Anyway, I like him better than Herman's Hermits.

I am off to the Coolidge Corner Theatre to try for Mahler auf der Couch (Mahler on the Couch, 2010). Chances of me not returning with Tom Lehrer stuck in my head: probably close to nil.
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[identity profile] cucumberseed.livejournal.com 2011-03-27 03:22 pm (UTC)(link)
I used to have a copy of that song on (I want to say "on vinyl" which is technically correct, but weird) a children's novelty song album themed for the Red Baron. (started with "Snoopy vs. the Red Baron") I wonder if that album still exists anywhere.

[identity profile] martianmooncrab.livejournal.com 2011-03-27 06:18 pm (UTC)(link)
Tom Lehrer stuck in my head

I used to walk through a small quad to get to work, and it had its resident population of pigeons... so, you know what song I would be humming...

[identity profile] martianmooncrab.livejournal.com 2011-03-27 06:19 pm (UTC)(link)
I have it on a 45...

[identity profile] ladymondegreen.livejournal.com 2011-03-27 07:54 pm (UTC)(link)
I learned Mrs. Brown from Herman's Hermits, which was my 'Hmm, I don't want to listen to the Beatles right now' British invasion band.
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[personal profile] sovay 2011-03-27 08:42 pm (UTC)(link)
I wonder if that album still exists anywhere.

The internet has asked itself this very question.

(I learned "Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavor on the Bedpost Overnight?" from my grandfather. I keep running into people who know all the weird songs I picked up in my childhood, only they got them from Dr. Demento.)
sovay: (Psholtii: in a bad mood)

[personal profile] sovay 2011-03-27 08:45 pm (UTC)(link)
I used to walk through a small quad to get to work, and it had its resident population of pigeons... so, you know what song I would be humming...

I've had that song in my head for weeks!
sovay: (I Claudius)

[personal profile] sovay 2011-03-27 09:03 pm (UTC)(link)
I learned Mrs. Brown from Herman's Hermits, which was my 'Hmm, I don't want to listen to the Beatles right now' British invasion band.

I'd never actually heard the song before last night, when I caught Herman's Hermits on The Ed Sullivan Show on PBS. I looked it up to see if it was theirs or a case of Harry Champion, and was surprised.

[identity profile] ladymondegreen.livejournal.com 2011-03-27 09:41 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm not sure where I picked up the Hermits, possibly from a friend of mine who also turned me onto the Chad Mitchell Trio.

[identity profile] ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com 2011-03-28 03:54 am (UTC)(link)
Fascinating. I'd no idea the song had a pre-Herman's Hermits history, although I do seem to vaguely remember having thought at one time or another that it had a somewhat older sound to it, not music hall, really, but as if it'd been written by somebody under the influence of such.

I hope you've enjoyed the film. And I can think of far worse songwriters to be stuck in one's head than Tom Lehrer.

[identity profile] kenjari.livejournal.com 2011-03-28 04:27 am (UTC)(link)
My mom taught me that one, as well as "Be Kind to Your Web-footed Friends".
sovay: (Morell: quizzical)

[personal profile] sovay 2011-03-29 02:08 am (UTC)(link)
I'd no idea the song had a pre-Herman's Hermits history, although I do seem to vaguely remember having thought at one time or another that it had a somewhat older sound to it, not music hall, really, but as if it'd been written by somebody under the influence of such.

I think it might be skiffle? That's a genre of music I'm not really familiar with, but the song has a sort of plinky, comb-and-paper sound to it.

[identity profile] ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com 2011-03-30 06:58 am (UTC)(link)
I think it might be skiffle? That's a genre of music I'm not really familiar with, but the song has a sort of plinky, comb-and-paper sound to it.

That could be it. All I really know about skiffle is that various people--ranging from the Beatles to Andy Irvine--started their musical careers in it and later went on to do the more the sorts of things which I've heard them do.*

I suspect this would be in the direction of skiffle, at least, although my mind associates skiffle more with tea-chest basses and cheap acoustic guitars playing very basic chord-book chords and less with... whatever's going on in the accompaniment here--my first thought was "some sort of plectrum banjo, but probably not in either of the normal tenor tunings, maybe even a banjo ukulele but probably something lower pitched than the usual soprano banjo-ukes that one sees" but now I'm wondering if it's maybe a regular ukulele (maybe a baritone?) or a (shallow bodied?) guitar being played up the neck and with a lot of damping for a particularly "plinky" sort of sound?**

I hope that's made some sort of sense. I should go to bed now, in any event.

*I'm also acquainted with a band called the Jackson Pike Skifflers, but I suspect the connection to U.K. skiffle is tenuous--they're more or less residents of the fixed-intonation (guitar, fretted banjo, the odd bit of mandolin) end of American old timey music.
**In case nobody's figured this out, it's years since I've played anything besides trad and my life revolves entirely around various mandolin-type-things. I'm pretty much grasping at straws here.
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