What I'm writing about for this post goes way beyond old songs~
These are not just old songs...they are very old songs made anew---and became popular again in our modern times.
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I love music. Music has been a major part of my life as long as I can remember. My older siblings have told me I could "sing" the hit songs of the day early on before I could even properly talk ("Venus in Blue Jeans" - Jimmy Clanton). And even my life has a soundtrack...that is, when someone brings up the past - my past - there is always music to go with it. Oh, it may oftentimes be in my head, but it's there.
Being such a music fan, I also have numerous books on the subject, mostly centered on 20th century music.
Here and there I began to read snippets about some of my favorite songs, which gave me the realization that people like Paul McCartney, Robert Plant, Paul Simon, and others were actually quite brilliant in their musical works - more brilliant than I realized. This gave me a bit of a knock in the head upon listening to some of the more "modern music:"
To think that a song from the 1500s - Golden Slumbers (as performed by The Beatles) - is still being sung today…how cool! Led Zeppelin’s Gallows Pole is another song with an ancient history, and so is Simon & Garfunkel’s Parsley Sage Rosemary and Thyme/Scarborough Fair.
And a few others...you just might be surprised!
Most people today are unaware of the age of some of these well-known tunes.
As was I...
Golden Slumbers - The Beatles
A great song part of the collection of tunes on side 2 of the Abbey Road album by The Beatles.
The song’s lyrics were taken from a ballad by the Elizabethan poet and dramatist Thomas Dekker (1570-1632), originally known as "The Cradle Song" from 1603. Paul McCartney saw the sheet music on the piano at his father’s home in Heswall on the Wirral. The kicker is, Paul could not read sheet music. So he made up his own melody to go with the words.
Here are the original lyrics to "The Cradle Song":
Golden slumbers kiss your eyes,
Smiles awake you when you rise.
Sleep, pretty wantons; do not cry,
And I will sing a lullaby:
Rock them, rock them, lullaby.
(A wanton is an unruly child)~
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| ~Dekker-McCartney~ According to the page I nicked the McCartney photo from, this was taken the same day he recorded Golden Slumbers. |
Paul McCartney - "I was playing the piano in Liverpool in my dad’s house, and my stepsister Ruth’s piano book was up on the stand. I was flicking through it and I came to ‘Golden Slumbers’. I can’t read music and I couldn’t remember the old tune, so I just started playing my own tune to it. I liked the words so I kept them, and it fitted with another bit of song I had.
I didn't know at the time it was four hundred years old."
On the Abby Road album, Golden Slumbers is credited to Lennon–McCartney, though it's mainly Paul McCartney. The song needn't give writing credit to Thomas Dekker because the original poem it is based on is in the public domain.
So this is McCartney's version:
Golden slumbers fill your eyes
Smiles awake you when you rise
Sleep, pretty darling, do not cry
And I will sing a lullaby
Since its release on the Abby Road album in 1969, these words written over 400 years ago are now still sung nearly every day. I'm sure Thomas Dekker would be quite surprised (and hopefully pleased) that this simple little tune he wrote with (most likely) a quill pen would still be sung and most well known.
Next up~~~~~~~:
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| The Byrds |
Turn Turn Turn - The Byrds
The lyrics are taken almost verbatim from the book of Ecclesiastes, as found in the King James Version of the Bible---(Ecclesiastes 3:1-8)---though the sequence of the words were rearranged for the song. Ecclesiastes is traditionally ascribed to King Solomon, who would have written it in the 10th century BC.
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| This is the text and a scan of the actual, original, first printing of the 1611 King James Version for Ecclesiastes Chapter 3. The King James Version does not get more original or authentic than this. |
From the modern King James bible we have:
To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
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| Pete Seger |
So, folk artist, Pete Seeger, rewrote these biblical words and turned them into a song in 1959.
The Limelighters were the first group to record and release the song in 1962 under the title "To Everything There Is a Season". The Byrds did their version in 1965, and this is the one most are familiar with.
And here are the lyrics in the way The Byrds recorded it back in 1965:
To everything, turn, turn, turn
There is a season, turn, turn, turn
And a time to every purpose under heaven
A time to be born, a time to die
A time to plant, a time to reap
A time to kill, a time to heal
A time to laugh, a time to weep
To everything, turn, turn, turn
There is a season, turn, turn, turn
And a time to every purpose, under heaven
A time to build up, a time to break down
A time to dance, a time to mourn
A time to cast away stones
A time to gather stones together
To everything, turn, turn, turn
There is a season, turn, turn, turn
And a time to every purpose under heaven
A time of love, a time of hate
A time of war, a time of peace
A time you may embrace
A time to refrain from embracing
To everything, turn, turn, turn
There is a season, turn, turn, turn
And a time to every purpose under heaven
A time to gain, a time to lose
A time to rend, a time to sew
A time for love, a time for hate
A time for peace, I swear it's not too late
Then, in 1966, when first recorded and released, then 1968 when released as a single - - - -
Scarborough Fair/Parsley Sage Rosemary and Thyme
"Scarborough Fair" is a traditional English folk song from the Middle Ages, referring to an old fair in Scarborough, Yorkshire. It is a market fair, comprising of traders, merchants, and other vendors that started sometime in the 14th century and continued until the 18th century.
The tune has been around in some form or another throughout that time, and over that time numerous changes had been made, in its melody and lyically.
To hear what this very old song may have sounded like through time - through the centuries - please click the link below:
The True Story of “Scarborough Fair” | 30 historic recordings and 400 years of untold history
Simon & Garfunkel's version reached number 11 on the national Billboard Hot 100 listing in 1968.
It's their version of this song that they made into a canticle, where one singer sings the main verse, while the other sings another, interwoven in the main verse, in counterpoint (if that makes sense). It is a medieval form of polyphony (polyphony, according to definition, is a musical texture with two or more independent, simultaneous melodic lines).
Got that?
Whew!
Whew!
As far as this particular song as performed by Simon & Garfunkel goes, well, I have it written out below to where the main original verse is sung in normal text, side verse (canticle) I have in italics and brackets. The side verse lyrics are from their own song “The Side of a Hill”, an anti-war song Paul Simon wrote, though he reworked the lyrics for "Scarborough Fair":
Are you going to Scarborough Fair?
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme
Remember me to one who lives there
She once was a true love of mine
Tell her to make me a cambric shirt
(On the side of a hill, in the deep forest green)
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme
(Tracing of sparrow on snow-crested ground)
Without no seams nor needle work
(Blankets and bedclothes the child of the mountain)
Then she'll be a true love of mine
(Sleeps unaware of the clarion call)
Tell her to find me an acre of land
(On the side of a hill, a sprinkling of leaves)
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme
(Washes the grave with silvery tears)
Between the salt water and the sea strands
(A soldier cleans and polishes a gun)
Then she'll be a true love of mine
Tell her to reap it with a sickle of leather
(War bellows blazing in scarlet battalions)
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme
(Generals order their soldiers to kill)
And gather it all in a bunch of heather
(And to fight for a cause they've long ago forgotten)
Then she'll be a true love of mine
Are you going to Scarborough Fair?
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme
Remember me to one who lives there
She once was a true love of mine
(Songwriters: Arthur Garfunkel / Paul Simon. Like McCartney's Golden Slumbers, the original is in the public domain). Only a distinct arrangement, such as Martin Carthy's, can be copywrited.
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| The original 1966 Simon & Garfunkel album that included Scarborough Fair. The song was featured in the movie The Graduate in 1968, and that brought out the immense popularity of the tune. |
Now, how about the song's history?
According to various sites I visited on line, English folk singer Martin Carthy arranged it in the form in which it is best known today. Carthy was not the first person to sing “Scarborough Fair,” not by a long shot, due to the age of the tune. But Paul Simon heard Carthy's version and, well, nicked it for he and his singing partner, Art Garfunkel. Martin Carthy was not pleased and held a decades long grudge against Simon.
"It turned out that Carthy's own publisher had, without his knowledge, copyrighted his arrangement and had been receiving royalties from Simon all along (Carthy had somehow managed to sign away his own claim in the small print of a contract). Carthy and Simon, reconciled, joined forces to sing the song in London in 1998, closing that circle."
I believe Carthy and Simon & Garfunkel had created the definitive and most likely final version of this ancient tune.
Here it is:
Wow---just beautiful...
Gallows Pole - Led Zeppelin
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| A distinct artist's rendition for a distinct verion. |
Of all the tunes Led Zeppelin have recorded on their eight studio albums, "Gallows Pole" has always remained at or near the top of the list for me. Even back in the day (the 70s), this song just "did something" for me.
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| Led Zeppelin 1970 |
And it was in the early 2000s when I found out that it is actually a centuries old English folk song; "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" is one of its many early titles about a condemned maiden pleading for someone to buy her freedom from the executioner.
There are many recorded versions, dating back to the 1930s, all of which recount a similar story: a maiden or a man is about to be hanged (for unknown reasons) pleads with the hangman, or judge, to wait for the arrival of someone who may bribe him. Typically, the first person (or people) to arrive, who may include the condemned person's parent or sibling, has brought nothing and often has come to see them hanged. The last person to arrive, often their true love, has brought the gold, silver, or some other valuable to save them.
Believe it or not, Zeppelin kept it as traditional as a modern rock band could, in style and (mostly) in lyrics (though Zeppelin's ending is a bit different, the snarky lads they are).
This song has always been one of my very favorites, from my first time hearing it. A hint of my love of the old old folk songs of long past, even in my youth.
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| A very early version - definitely pre-Led Zeppelin |
As for what Robert Plant sang on Led Zeppelin's third album (for comparison):
Hangman, hangman, hold it a little while
I think I see my friends comin', ridin' many a mile
Friends, you get some silver?
Did you get a little gold?
What did you bring me, my dear friends
To keep me from the gallows pole?
I couldn't get no silver
I couldn't get no gold
You know that we're too damn poor
To keep you from the gallows pole
Over The Hills and Far Away
The phrase "Over the Hills and Far Away" refers to two distinct entities: a traditional English folk song dating back to the 18th century and a Led Zeppelin song released in 1973. While both share the same title, their musical styles and contexts are vastly different. The 18th-century version is a folk tune, whereas Led Zeppelin's rendition is a hard rock composition with elements of folk and acoustic textures. In essence, Led Zeppelin's "Over the Hills and Far Away" is a rock adaptation of a traditional folk tune, taking inspiration from the title and some of its pastoral themes, but translating it into their own unique hard rock sound. Hence, the reason why it is included.
I am also including a version of the folk tune done very near to its original 18th century style:
And, yet, here's still another more contemporary tune with ancient lyrics:
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| Traffic - - |
John Barleycorn Must Die - Traffic
This song as performed by the group, Traffic, is another with ancient roots.
"John Barleycorn is an English and Scottish folk song. The song's protagonist is John Barleycorn, a personification of barley and of the beer made from it. In the song, he suffers indignities, attacks, and death that correspond to the various stages of barley cultivation, such as reaping and malting.
The song may have its origins in ancient English or Scottish folklore, with written evidence of the song dating it at least as far back as the Elizabethan era (Queen Elizabeth - 1500s)."
Many versions of the song have been recorded, including popular versions by the rock groups Traffic (appearing on their 1970 album John Barleycorn Must Die) and Jethro Tull (appearing first on their 1992 album A Little Light Music).
Similar to many old British Isles songs, folk artists have recorded it through the years. But Traffic was the most popularized of these artists and brought it to the masses. And they turned it into somewhat a progressive psychedelic tune to boot.
Amazing Grace is not an ancient tune, as when compared to the other songs here, but it is still over 250 years old and is probably the most familiar hymn in the world.
John Newton (1725-1807) was a sea captain involved in the slave trade who experienced a profound spiritual conversion after surviving a violent storm at sea, which he attributed to God's grace. Newton penned the lyrics in 1772, describing his own transformation from a "wretch" to a saved soul.
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| This would be beautiful framed. |
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| An original 18th century print of Amazing Grace. |
The hymn gained immense popularity in the U.S. during early 19th-century religious revivals, offered as a powerful message of hope. It was composer, William Walker, who set it to the familiar, folk-like melody in 1835, solidifying its place in American tradition.
Judy Collins' 1970 recording of "Amazing Grace" was a major charted single, becoming a surprise pop hit that reached #15 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and #5 in the UK, and had a very long chart run, especially in the UK. It was notable for being an a cappella version of the hymn, which made its chart success even more unusual.
Can you imagine such a song that is so religious and Christian in content, being played on the radio today?
I mean, I remember when this was all over the radio back in 1970. It's still my favorite version.
This last bit somewhat fits. Kinda fun, too.
Paperback Writer - The Beatles (written mainly by Paul McCartney) from 1966.
Beginning with the third verse, as depicted below, and including the 4th, John and George sing background. Until recently, I had no idea what the two were singing. I thought they were simply harmonizing sounds to fit in. Then I learned they were singing a French nursery rhyme that dates back to around 1780: Frère Jacques!
Below here I have the third verse - I then included John and George's background vocals in italics:
It's a thousand pages, give or take a few
Frèr.................................re...........
I'll be writing more in a week or two
Ja..........................cques
I could make it longer if you like the style
Frèr........................... re................
I can change it 'round
Ja......................
And I wanna be a paperback writer
..........cques...
Here are just the vocals for the song:
According to Google, ‘Frère Jacques’ is about a lazy Catholic monk who has overslept and is being urged to wake up and sound the bell for early morning Matins prayers. It is commonly sung in harmony as a round when different phrases in the melody will coincide.
So, in typical Beatles fashion, they (subtley) snatched it as a part of their own music.
This is the sort of thing I find interesting.
And fun.
I'm sure there are numerous other tunes that would fit this mold of contemporary tunes with ancient lyrics. Maybe I'm being biased but I can't see contemporary pop/rock artists doing something like this, though I'm ready and willing to be proven wrong. Just please keep the "contemporary" song being sung at least 200+ years old - and a bonafide recorded modern hit (album or single).
All of this because my interest in etymology...and history...
Music has always played such a major role in my life. If I had a soundtrack to my memories, you can bet the tunes here in this post would be a part of it, as would a number of others. I can't imagine going back in time to tell the writers of these ancient tunes that their music - their lyrics - would still be popular...well known, in fact...centuries later.
This is our time - what of the music in our lifetime will survive and be heard long after we're gone? What of our music will be heard 200+ years from now? The Beatles, for certain. At least, some of their tunes. Maybe a song or two by Led Zeppelin---Stairway to Heaven and/or Kashmir. Simon and Garfunkel? Perhaps their verion of Scarborough Fair, but probably more as a historical curiosity. Maybe Bridge Over Troubled Water. The same with the Byrds and Turn, Turn, Turn. I also believe that albums such as Days of Future Passed by The Moody Blues will be around in 2276, as will The Beatles Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, though, again, possibly as historical curiosities.
Of course, none of us know for certain (though some claim to know based on their own biases---lol).
But it is interesting to think on.
Music history in my own collection, click HERE
Christmas music has a wonderful history - you just might be surprised!
Ancient Christmas Music: Upon A Winter's Eve, click HERE
'Tis The Season to Troll The Ancient Yuletide Carol (an update), click HERE
Troll The Ancient Yuletide Carol, click HERE
Musical instruments of the past:
Lyre (u-shaped stringed instrument, like a small harp, used to accompany singing and poetry), lute (a pear-shaped, plucked string instrument with a rounded back and fretted neck), bowed viol (a fretted string instrument popular during the Renaissance and Baroque eras, played with a bow and typically held between the legs), violin, vihuela (similar to a small guitar with a rounded "Ovation-style" back), cittern (similar to a lute), harp, the recorder, and early keyboard instruments like the clavichord.
Since the majority of people during the time this music was written were not rich, the musical instruments they may have had, if any, would have been simple, homemade, or inexpensive instruments, with a focus on woodwinds, rustic strings, and percussion.
And a capella vocals.
"Rustic string instruments would have been traditional, often folk-oriented, stringed instruments with origins in rural or medieval settings, characterized by their historical use in folk dances, storytelling, and village life. They are generally distinguished by their simple construction, often crafted from locally sourced wood, and include plucked, bowed, and hammered instruments that frequently feature drones for accompaniment."
(from Google)
(from Google)
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| Various string instruments; mostly from the lute family |
The Lyres of Ur (Oldest Physical Artifacts)
The Lyres of Ur are a group of four of the world's oldest surviving stringed instruments, dating from around 2550–2450 BC in ancient Mesopotamia. Discovered in the Royal Cemetery at Ur in the 1920s, they provide significant insight into the music, art, and rituals of the Sumerian civilization.
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| The Lyres of Ur are widely considered the oldest surviving stringed instruments found to date. |
Mesopotamia was known as the "land between the rivers" (Tigris and Euphrates), and was an ancient region in the Middle East, primarily modern-day Iraq, recognized as the "cradle of civilization". Flourishing from roughly 4000 BC to 331 BC, it saw the rise of the Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian, and Assyrian empires. Key contributions included the first cities (Uruk, Ur), cuneiform writing, and advanced law codes.
If you are interested in reading about my own personal music history CD collection of sounds past - Music Through Time: From the Collection of Ken - click HERE
To learn more about Ancient Farming & Daily Life Practices from the B.C. Era Through the Early A.D. Period, including the period I've written about in today's post, click HERE.
Until next time, see you in time.
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