Hello again, Ervinka!
This is not a Pete Seeger song, but I imagine Pete might enjoy it,
since he certainly has a sense of humor. The song you're remembering
is called "The Irish Ballad," and it was written and performed by the
inimitable Tom Lehrer, one of the finest musical parodists this side
of Weird Al Yankovic.
THE IRISH BALLAD
About a maid I'll sing a song,
Sing rickety-tickety-tin,
About a maid I'll sing a song,
Who didn't have her fam'ly long.
Not only did she do them wrong,
She did ev'ryone of them in, them in,
She did ev'ryone of them in.
One morning in a fit of pique,
Sing rickety-tickety-tin,
One morning in a fit of pique,
She drowned her father in the creek.
The water tasted bad for a week,
And we had to make do with gin, with gin,
We had to make do with gin.
Her mother she could never stand,
Sing rickety-tickety-tin,
Her mother she could never stand,
And so a cyanide soup she planned.
The mother died with the spoon in her hand,
And her face in a hideous grin, a grin,
Her face in a hideous grin.
She set her sister's hair on fire,
a-Rickety-tickety-tin,
She set her sister's hair on fire,
And as the smoke and flame rose high'r,
Danced around the funeral pyre,
Playin' a violin, -olin,
Playin' a violin.
She weighted her brother down with stones,
a-Rickety-tickety-tin,
She weighted her brother down with stones,
And sent him off to Davy Jones.
All they ever found were some bones,
And occasional pieces of skin, of skin,
Occasional pieces of skin.
One day when she had nothing to do,
Sing rickety-tickety-tin,
One day when she had nothing to do,
She cut her baby brother in two,
And served him up as an Irish stew,
And invited the neighbors in, -bors in,
Invited the neighbors in.
And when at last the police came by,
Sing rickety-tickety-tin,
And when at last the police came by,
Her little pranks she did not deny.
To do so she would have had to lie,
And lying, she knew, was a sin, a sin,
Lying, she knew, was a sin.
My tragic tale I won't prolong,
Rickety-tickety-tin,
My tragic tale I won't prolong,
And if you do not enjoy my song,
You've yourselves to blame if it's too long,
You should never have let me begin, begin,
You should never have let me begin.
You'll find a very informative page about Tom Lehrer and "The Irish
Ballad," complete with Tom's original narrative introduction to the
tune (and even a couple of midi audio files with the melody) here:
http://www.mts.net/~pb999874/irish/
Fortunately, Tom Lehrer's popularity did not end when he left show
business and returned to a career teaching at the University of
California at Santa Cruz. You can still buy several classic Tom Lehrer
albums. "The Irish Ballad" is on a CD entitled "Songs & More Songs By
Tom Lehrer."
CDNow: Songs and More Songs by Tom Lehrer
http://cdnow.com/cgi-bin/mserver/SID=157549742/pagename=/RP/CDN/FIND/album.html/ArtistID=LEHRER*TOM/ITEMID=405002
Search strategy:
"rickety tickety tin" + "tom lehrer"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22rickety+tickety+tin%22+%22tom+lehrer
If you need further assistance or clarification, please ask.
Cordially,
pinkfreud
P.S.
Be sure to check your "Palace of the Czar" thread. I finally got an
identification of that song's author! |
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