Recordings & Info 44 A. Hares on the Mountain
CONTENTS
1) Alternative Titles
2) Traditional Ballad Index
3) Folk Index
4) Mainly Norfolk (lyrics and info)
5) Folk Trax
ATTACHED PAGES: (see left hand column)
1) Roud Number 329: Hares on the Mountain (105 Listings)
Alternative Titles
Blackbirds and Thrushes
If Pretty Maids Could Sing
Sally My Dear
Traditional Ballad Index: Hares on the Mountain
DESCRIPTION: The singer avers that if young women ran like hares on the mountain, if he was a young man he'd go hunting. Likewise if they sang like birds in the bushes he'd beat the bushes, etc. ad (possible) nauseum
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1836 (Samuel Lover's novel _Rory O'More_ . See NOTES)
KEYWORDS: sex lyric nonballad animal bird
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) Ireland US(NE)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Bronson (44), "The Twa Magicians" -- the appendix includes 11 versions (#2-#12) which are this song
Reeves-Sharp 38, "Hares on the Mountains" (4 texts)
Williams-Thames, p. 224, "If Pretty Maids Could Sing" (1 text) (also Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 357)
Sharp-100E 63, "Hares on the Mountains"; 64, "O Sally, My Dear" (2 texts, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #2, #12}
Kennedy 169, "Blackbirds and Thrushes" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-More 50, "Blackbirds and Thrushes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 173, "Sally My Dear" (1 text)
DT, HARESMTN* SALLYDR*
Roud #329
RECORDINGS:
Dickie Lashbrook, "Blackbirds and Thrushes" (on FSB2CD)
Pete Seeger, "Sally My Dear" (on PeteSeeger06, PeteSeegerCD01) (on PeteSeeger14)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Roll Your Leg Over" (form, theme)
cf. "Creeping and Crawling" (tune)
cf. "The Twa Magicians" [Child 44]
NOTES: It has been theorized that this song descends from "The Twa Magicians" [Child 44] (so, for instance, Bronson, who prints this piece as an appendix to that ballad). Frankly, I don't see it. More likely is the connection with "Creeping and Crawling (The Knife in the Window)," with which it shares a tune. But even they have separate plots. - RBW
OLochlainn-More: "Sometimes attributed to Samuel Lover (1797-1865) as he printed it in his novel Rory O More, but is probably an older ballad rewritten. He was a versatile genius, poet, artist, novelist, folk-lorist and antiquarian." See my speculation on Lover for "Widow Machree (II)." - BS
Creeping and Crawling
DESCRIPTION: The young man, creeping and crawling, seduces the maid, taking a knife to cut the tie on her drawers. He leaves her to lament nine months later.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (Sharp mss., a "Sally My Dear" version with the words bowdlerized)
KEYWORDS: bawdy childbirth sex seduction lament clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South)) US(So) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Randolph-Legman I, pp. 33-39, "Creeping and Crawling" (7 texts, 2 tunes)
Kennedy 178, "The Knife in the Window" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lehr/Best 89, "Pretty Polly" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, CRPCRAWL* KNIFWIND
Roud #12590
RECORDINGS:
James "Iron Head" Baker, "Crawling and Creeping" (AFS 717 A1, 1936)
Harry Cox, "The Knife in the Window" (on FSB2CD)
A. L. Lloyd, "Pretty Polly" (on BirdBush1, BirdBush2)
Asa Martin, "Crawling and Creeping" (Oriole 8452, 1935)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hares on the Mountain" (tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Pretty Polly
The Snoring Maid
Lay Your Leg over Me Do
Nancy and Johnny
The Young Doctor
NOTES: In England, this song regularly mixes with "Hares on the Mountain," with which it shares a tune. But the plots are different; I happily keep them separate though Roud lumps them (while defining "Crawling and Creeping" as a separate item). - RBW
The Lloyd recording provocatively contains the chorus "Lay your leg over me, over me, do" And at least one recorded version of "Sally, My Dear" -- an American one -- contains the "cutting the trousers" motif. So if "Sally, My Dear" is truly part of the "Hares on the Mountain" family, then "Creeping and Crawling" (or the "Pretty Polly" variant of it) is another link to "Roll Your Leg Over." - PJS
Roll Your Leg Over
DESCRIPTION: In this quatrain ballad, singers hypothecate that if the girls were ducks, rabbits, bricks, etc., they would be drakes, hares, masons, and euphemistically enjoy lustful pleasures.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: bawdy humorous nonballad animal
FOUND IN: Australia [from an American student] Canada US(MW,So,SW)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Cray, pp. 301-309, "Roll Your Leg Over" (5 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph-Legman II, pp. 643-647, "Roll Your Leg Over" (2 texts)
DT, ROLYRLEG
Roud #10410
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hares on the Mountain"
cf. "Creepin' and Crawlin'"
cf. "The Twa Magicians" [Child 44]
NOTES: This more or less recently composed bawdy song -- the earliest text recovered dates from the second world war -- is ultimately descended from "The Twa Magicians" (Child 44). See Cray, pp. 306 ff. - EC
G. Legman offers extensive notes in Randolph-Legman II. - EC
Paul Stamler suggests that this is a strongly bawdy version of "Hares on the Mountain." The dependence, in lyrics and form, is obvious, but this text apparently has taken on a life of its own in army circles. I must admit that I question the connection with "The Twa Magicians." Cray concedes there are no intermediaries between "The Twa Magicians" and the "Hares on the Mountain/Sally My Dear" complex. - RBW
Folk Index: Hares on the Mountain
Rt - Blackbirds and Thrushes ; Sally My Dear
Uf - Sally My Dear
Yolen, Jane, et.al. / Fireside Song Book of Birds and Beasts, Simon & Schuster, Bk (1972), p 92
Armstrong Family. Wheel of the Year. Thirty Years with the Armstrong Family, Flying Fish FF-70 594, CD/ (1992), trk# 10
Armstrong Family. Wheel of the Year. Thirty Years with the Armstrong Family, Flying Fish FF-70 594, CD/ (1992), trk# 11
Armstrong, Frankie; and Sandra Kerr. My Song Is My Own, Plane Label TPL 000-1, LP (1980), trk# A.02
Collins, Mitzie. Sampler of Folk Music, Sampler aafm 7601, LP (1976), trk# B.05a
Hooper, Louie; and Lucy White. Reeves, James (ed.) / Idiom of the People, Norton, Sof (1958), p119/# 38A [1903]
Langstaff, John. Langstaff, John / Lark in the Morn, Revels CD 2004, CD (2004), trk# 4 [1949-56]
Lock, Mrs.. Reeves, James (ed.) / Idiom of the People, Norton, Sof (1958), p119/# 38B [1904]
Summers, Andrew Rowan. Seeds of Love, Folkways FA 2021, LP (1951), trk# B.01
Mainly Norfolk: Hares on the Mountain
[Roud 329; Ballad Index ShH63; trad.]
Hares on the Mountain is one of the best known light-hearted love song from Southern England and was published by Cecil Sharp in his Folk Songs from Somerset. Shirley Collins recorded this song twice: in 1959 for her first LP Sweet England and in 1964 together with Davy Graham for their album Folk Roots, New Routes. Here she sings two introductory verses.
Hares on the Mountain was also recorded in 1973 by Steeleye Span for their album Parcel of Rogues and by Patterson Jordan Dipper (with a similar melody but quite different lyrics) on their album Flat Earth.
And Frankie Armstrong sang this in 1997 on her CD Till the Grass O'ergrew the Corn. She commented in the album sleeve notes:
It is widely accepted that this song is derived from the rare ballad The Two Magicians (Child #44), although the conceit is surely obvious enough to have been independently invented and all traces of magic (and story) have disappeared, leaving us with a genial day-dream of lyric. Robert Graves in his hugely influential (and more than a little dotty) book The White Goddess blithely informs us, on no real evidence at all, that The Two Magicians “is likely to have been the song sung at a dramatic performance of the chase at a witches' Sabbath”. He also remarks that before the triumph of patriarchy, it would have been the women in pursuit, so Frankie was pleased to come across a version in which they, rather than men, are doing the fantasising. Sharp noted it in 1904 from Mrs Lock of Muchelney Ham, in Somerset. Frankie has added a couple of standard verses to the existing three.
Lyrics
Shirley Collins sings Hares on the Mountain on Sweet England
If all you young men were hares on the mountain,
How many young girls would take guns and go hunting?
With a ri-fol-de-di, cal-ol-de-day, ri-fol-ai-de
If the young men could sing like blackbirds and thrushes,
How many young girls would go beating the bushes?
With a ri-fol-de-di, cal-ol-de-day, ri-fol-ai-de
If all you young men were rushes a-growing,
How many young girls would take scythes and go mowing?
With a ri-fol-de-di, cal-ol-de-day, ri-fol-ai-de
If all you young men were ducks in the water,
How many young girls would undress and dive after?
With a ri-fol-de-di, cal-ol-de-day, ri-fol-ai-de
But the young men are given to frisking and fooling,
I'll leave them alone and attend to my schooling
With a ri-fol-de-di, cal-ol-de-day, ri-fol-ai-de
Shirley Collins sings Hares on the Mountain on Folk Roots, New Routes
Oh Sally, my dear, it's you I'd be kissing,
She smiled and replied, you don't know what you're missing.
Oh Sally, my dear, I wish I could wed you,
She smiled and replied, then you'd say I'd misled you.
If all you young men were hares on the mountain,
How many young girls would take guns and go hunting?
If the young men could sing like blackbirds and thrushes,
How many young girls would go beating the bushes?
If all you young men were fish in the water,
How many young girls would undress and dive after?
But the young men are given to frisking and fooling,
Oh, the young men are given to frisking and fooling,
So I'll leave them alone and attend to my schooling
Steeleye Span sing Hares on the Mountain
Young women, they run like hares on the mountain.
And if I was a young man, I'd soon go a-hunting
With me right fol-de diddle de-ro right fol-de diddle-day
Young women, they sing like birds in the bushes.
If I was a young man I'd go beat them bushes
With me right fol-de diddle de-ro right fol-de diddle-day
Young women, they swim like ducks in the water.
If I was a young man I'd soon go swim after
With me right fol-de diddle de-ro right fol-de diddle-day
(Repeat first verse)
Frankie Armstrong sings Hares on the Mountain
If all those young men were rushes a-growin'
Then all those pretty maidens would get scythes, go mowing
Sing wack fol-de-dee fol-ol-de-day wack-fol-li-dee
If all those young men were hares on the mountain
Then all those pretty maidens would get guns, go hunting
Sing wack fol-de-dee fol-ol-de-day wack-fol-li-dee
If all those young men were duck in the water
Then all those pretty maidens would soon follow after
Sing wack fol-de-dee fol-ol-de-day wack-fol-li-dee
If all those young men were fish in the brooks-O
Then all those pretty maidens would be off with their hooks-O
Sing wack fol-de-dee fol-ol-de-day wack-fol-li-dee
If all those young men were blackbirds and thrushes
Then all those pretty maidens would soon beat the bushes
Sing wack fol-de-dee fol-ol-de-day wack-fol-li-dee
Sing wack fol-de-dee fol-ol-de-day wack-fol-li-dee
Folk Trax: HARES ON THE MOUNTAINS -
"If all the young ladies were hares on the mountains" - ROUD#329 - BRONSON 1 p350 suggests this is a derivative of the ballad THE TWA MAGICIANS - BARING GOULD-SHARP Schools 1906 #18 - SHARP-MARSON FSS 1904 1 pp20-21 Louie Hooper/ Mrs Lock/ 5 pp10-12 George Wyatt (m) & Mrs Chapman (m) & 3 p60 "Sally my dear" - SHARP Sel Ed 1 pp108-111 2var "Hares" & "Sally my dear" - SHARP Cf 1 p47 incl Petrie version - SHARP- KARPELES 1974 #109 1 pp430-436 Louie Hooper & Lucy White, Hambridge Somerset 1903/ Mrs Balsh, Ubley, Som 1906 1v/m "Prety Polly"/ Mrs Slade, Minehead, Som 1904 1v/m/ Jack Barnard (or John Barnett ?), Bridgwater, Som 1906 "O Sally my dear"/ Mrs Lock, Muchelney Ham, Som 1904/ Mrs Eliza Small, Langport, Som 1905 1v/m/ Wm Bailey, Cannington, Som 1906 1v/m/ Wm Davis, Portlock Weir, Som 1906 "O Sally my dear" - JFSS 2:6 1905 pp40- 1 Sharp: Hooper/White/ Slade 1v/m - WILLIAMS FSUT 1923 p224 #357 'Wassail' Harvey, Cricklade, Wiltsh (w/o) "If pretty maids could sing" - REEVES IP 1958 #38 p119 Hooper-White/ Mrs Lock/ John Barnett/ Wm Davis (w/o) - REEVES EC 1960 #63 p150 Hammond; John Seward, Charmouth Dorset 1906 (w/o) ("O Kitty walked out all in her best order" Ch "Shepherd so bold") - O'LOCHLAINN MISB 1965 #50 p100 "Blackbirds and Thrushes" printed in Sam Lover's "Rory O More" to tune of "The Bold Fenian Men" by P Kearney (6 v in English and four comp Irish gaelic verses added) - SEDLEY 1967 p87 collated text - CRAY Bawdy Ballads 1969 p112 "Roll your leg over" Cf THE HERMIT p80 - KENNEDY FSBI 1975 #169 p395 Dicky Lashbrook 1950-52 "Blackbirds and Thrushes" ("If maidens could sing") -- see also KNIFE IN THE WINDOW which often contains some of these verses - ROLL YOUR LEG OVER - JIMMY WILL BE SLAIN IN THE WARS I'M AFRAID (which is also called BLACKBIRDS AND THRUSHES) -- Louis HOOPER, rec by Douglas Cleverdon, Hambridge, Somerset 7/2/42: RPL 4014 (78 rpm)/ FTX-136 - Dicky LASHBROOK (travelling chimney sweep) rec by PK, Lifton, Devon 27/5/52: RPL 17796/ FTX-017 (with banjo) (vs 1-3 only)/ ROUNDER 11661-1778-2 2000 "Blackbirds and thrushes" - Charles BOYLE rec by PK, Belfast 7/7/52: 7"RTR-0543/ RPL 18405 "If all the young ladies" (First 2v & last only) - Seamus ENNIS (with fid bef & aft) rec by PK, London 1958: FTX-169/ rec by Pat Sky: FREE REED FFR- 001-2 1976 - Shirley COLLINS with John HASTED (banjo), Ralph RINZLER (gtr), Guy Carawan (gtr) rec by PK 1958 (ARGO): SEE FOR MILES SEE-212 1987 - Havelock NELSON (piano) rec Belfast 11/8/60: RPL LP 26255 "Blackbirds & Thrushes" - Douglas KENNEDY with PK (gtr) rec Woodbridge, Suffolk 1961: FTX-041 & FTX-136 - Tom GILFELLON: LEADER LER-2007 1969 - GARRET SINGERS: ARGO ZFB-7 1970 - STEELEYE SPAN: CHRYSALIS CHR-1046 1973 - Archie FISHER (voc/ fid/gtr): TOPIC 12-TS-277 1976 --- Horton BARKER, rec by Maud Karpeles, Chilhowie, Va USA Sept 1950: RPL 17144/ FTX-136/ FTX-908