The Blackbird (2)
One day as I was going the road to town
What did I see but a blackbird and she swinging by her legs upside down.
Sez I to her, "Bird what is your song?"
Sez she to me, "Some dirty no good blackguard of a cock done me wrong!"
Oh the day it was fine, 'twas in the merry month of May
When slugs and likewise all the earwigs come out to play
With his feathers afire, he soon beguiled me
Sez he to me, "Come up to me nest me girl, I've some damn fine etchings
for you to see!"
Well it's when we got up to the nest, there was nothing there at all
But a damn great enormous brass studded double bed and nothing else at all.
Sez I to him, "Bird where are these things which do your nest adorn?"
Well he looked at me most peculiarly and sez he to me "Was it yesterday
you were born?"
"Ochone go cleo, agus a-weena strew," which means,
What happened after that, I don't intend to relate to you.
And thus she sang, hangin' upside down by her spindly legs,
He left me all alone in the world and me with one-half dozen fatherless eggs.
And thus I roam the whole world through
Catching slugs and catching earwigs and likewise sometimes catching the flu.
And thus she sang, a poor old lonely godforsaken blackbird hen.
Which only goes to show ye girls, there's fuck-all good at all to be
got out of men!
note: I got this from the writing-it-down of it by maybe it was Johnny
Butler about 1967 but unfortunately I just can't really remember who
it was. The thing is, it's basically chanted as if each line had the
same length and it were 4/4 timing. Except that the rest of the words
are kind of speeded up to make them fit. Lines a & c of each verse
were (sung) with a single note for the whole of the line, say F. Lines
b & d maybe all an A. Only the last syllable of each line is sort of
crooned with grace notes. Maybe you get the idea. Sort of. AJS
AJS
apr96
Thanks to Mudcat for the Digital Tradition!