There is a Tavern in the Town (1891)
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- Опубліковано 20 сер 2016
- A drinking ballad sung by miners in Cornwall, England.
words and music by F. J. Adams
published by Willis Woodward & Co.
sung by sheet music singer, Fred Feild
piano according to the sheet music
1. There is a tavern in the town, in the town,
And there my dear love sits him down, sits him down,
And drinks his wine ’mid laughter free,
And never, never thinks of me.
Chorus:
Fare thee well, for I must leave thee,
Do not let the parting grieve thee,
And remember that the best of friends must part.
Adieu, adieu, kind friends adieu, adieu,
I can no longer stay with you, stay with you,
I’ll hang my harp on a weeping willow tree,
And may the world go well with thee.
2. He left me for a damsel dark, damsel dark,
Each Friday night they used to spark, used to spark,
And now my love once true to me,
Take that dark damsel on his knee.
3. Oh! dig my grave both wide and deep, wide and deep,
Put tombstone at my head and feet, head and feet,
And on my breast carve a turtle dove,
To signify I died of love.
Although the singer is a woman, this song is associated with drinking and carousing by males. It is also known as "The Drunkard Song." It is a comic-tragedy because it is sung as a light-hearted, flippant march when the subject is infidelity and heartbreak. This gives it an odd feeling because the words and music don't fit together. It came to the U.S. as a college song in 1883. It has been used in close-harmony barbershop quartets. It's melody is also used for the song "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes."
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Get the sheet music and MIDI at:
www.sheetmusicsinger.com/ther...
I turned 91 years this month. I awoke in the night with this song playing clearly in my mind. It took me some time to locate it just now. Thanks so much. I probably last sang it 70 years ago with friends and family (few of us still here now).
I liked that. Let’s hear it again. Thank you .
I will never forget the first time I heard that this song was a thing. I was playing the piano for my dearly departed great-great aunt, and she just randomly started singing this. I started to play with her because I knew the kid's song, but my mind was blown that it was a drinking song. I wonder if she was shocked that I could play it, lol.
Well, my grand-daughter loves her pre-school version of "head and shoulders, knees and toes..." Amazing that the lyrics of such a tragic song can be altered into a catchy kiddie tune.
I put this on and the baby started to dance to "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes."
Also sung by children and their parents in the late 60's / early 70's in Indiana. Thanks for posting, I enjoyed hearing! Plus I had forgotten parts of the second verse and about all of the third verse.
Went looking for the history of the tune I know as "head shoulders knees & toes," bc it's a very catchy tube but not something that just pops up organically. Glad to have found this video, thanks for the recording!
I nevercforget the song head and shoulders, knees and toes
Super GREAT thanks for finding a tavern in the Town.
Very nice; revived old memories of my sister playing on the piano with all of the family singing along! Thank you!
My mother used to sing this to me. I was singing it and wondered if it was on UA-cam... Well well. What do ya know.
Head And Shoulders, Knees and Toes
I'm eating fignutans and chilling to this
Head, Shoulders Knees & Toes took its melody from it.
In the 1800's through to the middle of the 1900's, sheet music were the hi-fi "records" of their day and the piano was their player, as long as you had a pianist, which was common, where I live. The Deep South.
When I was in elementary school music class, we sang a Halloween song about a haunted house to this tune ('Don't you trick or treat or you're the one they'll eat / when the moon shines on the haunted house!'). Anybody else remember it or maybe know the title?
By the way, in act 3 of the 1938 Robert Taylor/Vivian Leigh film, "A Yank at Oxford," this song gets a full college march instrumental rendition! Loved it.
In Dutch this is a participation song thing where we sing "hoofd, schouders, knee en teen" (head, shoulders, knee and toe)
The third verse is a popular addition to numerous other traditional Love songs, including "Butcher Boy."
I found myself launching into an imitation of Wally Cox's yodel. Good finds!😋