Bawdy Songs and Backroom Ballads Vol.3 (1953)

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AUDIO FIDELITY AFSD 5824

Bawdy Songs and Backroom Ballads. Vol. III.
Featuring OSCAR BRAND, Folksinger, with Guitar

This collection of folk songs is as valid a manifestation of Americas
culture as any other. They've been sung around the country for hun-
dreds of years while the nation was being built, and some of them
date back hundreds of years before then. A number of the songs are
to be found in a famous collection in the British Museum entitled
"Pills to Purge Melancholy—a collection of old songs," dated 1607.
These are as distinctly English as "Red Wing" Is American.

Gather 'round, you lovers of lusty lore. All you who have loved and lost, who have loved
and won, or who haven't loved at all, prepare yourselves for a trip through the world of
requited love. For here is a collection of spicy musical folklore that is bound to whet your
emotional appetite and tease your sensibilities. Here is a musical voyage through the wilder-
ness of betrayed maidens, ribald characters, lost souls and philosophical speculation on the
errant ways of lovers and seducers.

Blush not, you timid souls who have not steeped yourselves in the joys of love, for in these
strains you will find much to pique the imagination. Shrink not, you cautious ones who pride
yourselves on following the straight and narrow path. Scoff not, you sophisticates who think
you have heard everything there is to hear. For in these recorded ballads you will hear some
of the most famous ditties of all time — epics of love unchained, ribald lyrics cast in the mold
of the immortal Boccaccio, bone-tickling songs of faded women, conniving men and head-
strong lasses.

Here you will find ballads dealing with sin and gin, with villains vile and virtue vanquished,
derring-do and amorous adventurers, with animals which — like humans — do what comes
naturally, and other classics hitherto confined to secluded taverns, poolrooms and other places
where men gather to sample life's fleeting pleasures,

The folksong in America, like the rest of this nation's culture, stems largely from Europe.
Thousands of ballads, handed down from generation to generation in Europe, have found
their way into every part of the United States, brought here by twenty generations of immi-
grants from every part of the world. Some of these ballads are historical; others are fictional.
Some tell of famous events in history, of nobles, cavaliers and adventurers. Others deal with
tales of plain people and simple, real-life situations in which they become involved.

Most- folksongs follow a very definite pattern in structure and content. The melodic line is
generally very simple, being repeated from stanza to stanza, and the text is the more important
element. Even the most intense emotional experiences or ideas are reflected in a casual man-
ner, and the listener is left to reflect on the meaning and moral lesson of the song, to draw
his own conclusions.

The mechanical structure of the folksong is similar to the most basic form of poetry. Music
and text generally follow an A-B-A pattern—a main theme, a contrasting second theme (the
"B" section) and a repetition of the original theme. Often there is a refrain which serves as a
binder, or a device in which the central idea of the ballad is re-stated as a kind of reminder
to the listener.

A vast number of folksongs reflect man's weaker instincts and actions. "It is a pity," said an
18th century clergyman, "that the devil has all the good songs." However, several centuries
have passed since this observation was made, and during this time some of the more cour-
ageous members of the human species have rescued many of these good songs from the devil
and have offered them up for the enjoyment and enlightenment of us all.

Since people do not say in public what they really think in private, it was inevitable that
balladeers were tempted to assemble a huge storehouse of ditties which deal with some of
man's more common foibles. Public censorship being what it is, these ditties have been rele-
gated to the "back room." Notwithstanding their having been kept under cover, many of them
are famous, like "Humoresque" ("Passengers will Please Refrain") and "The Bastard King
of England." This recording brings them considerably more endurance than they have had in
the past, when they were passed around only by way of mouth.

And so, to all tipsters and gay lotharios, to modest maidens and those who reckon pruri-
ence more dearly than prudishness, to those hard-living men and their winsome wenches, to
the ladies of the sewing circle and the gentlemen of the poetry club, take comfort and joy.
So that your appetite may be good and your stomach strong, so that your nights may be
filled with laughter and enjoyment, here is offered a generous serving of amorous adventure
to suit every taste. Enjoy what you find here, for you know not what tomorrow brings.

side 1

BAND 1: SEVEN OLD LADIES LOCKED IN A LAVATORY

To the tune of an old English Song, this rare specimen relates the
complications that arise with each of seven elderly ladies who are
locked in a ladies room. The intricacies in which they find them-
selves involved—if you'II excuse the expression—shouldn't happen
to a dog.

BAND 2: WE GO TO COLLEGE

This is one phase of college life
you don't read about in curriculum bulletins or catalogues. It pro-
vides some insight beyond the world of pantie raids that so many
young male collegians are going in for these days.

BAND 3: THE JOLLY TINKER

Here is an old English scoundrel
who thinks about little in life except his pleasure. This 17th Cen-
tury ballad describes the tinker's experiences as he encounters
an unsuspecting maiden who is somewhat unenlightened on the
compulsions of tinkers.

BAND 4: BELLA

The story of Bella relates the unfortunate ex-
perience of a damsel who finds herself irresistibly drawn to the
temptations of love, only to realize in the end that she has gained
a life of regret for a few moments of ecstasy.

BAND 5: CATS ON THE ROOFTOPS

This ribald British ballad,
dealing with the doings of cats, crocodiles, hippopotamuses, ba-
boons, camels, and other creatures, serves to point out that the
animal world, too, derives considerable enjoyment doing what
comes naturally.

BAND 6: HUMORESQUE

Here is a classic, with music by Dvo-
rak. It suggests the complications presented when an irresistible
human urge takes shape while a passenger train is standing in a
railroad station with mens and ladies' rooms securely locked.

BAND 7: RING DANG DOO

If the Greeks had a word for it,
they certainly never used this term, which relates in true Boccaccio-
tike fashion the tale of a fallen woman.

side 2

BAND 1: ROLL YOUR LEG OVER is the American version of one
of England's oldest folksongs. Its import is evidenced by the open-
ing strains "If all them young ladies were up for improvement,
I'd give them some help with a ball-bearing movement."

BAND 2: THREE PROMINENT BASTARDS

This ditty attributed to
a well-known contemporary humorist, describes the heritage of 3
young men whose position in the structure of society was prede-
termined by the fact that their mothers and fathers happened to
be abed, and therefore forgot to get married.

BAND 3: RED WING

The delectable charms of an Indian maid
named Red Wing is the theme of this native American ballad,
which tells how amorous males sought to explore the lady's
"promised land." A delightful lesson in navigation.


BAND 4: BALL OF BALLYNOOR

Every Scot knows this one and
so do many Americans. The authentic atmosphere of old Scotland
is captured in this epic of high living in the highlands, which is
replete with action that leaves little for the listener to speculate
about.

BAND 5: SHE'LL DO IT AGAIN

Robert Burns is credited with this
old favorite in which man's irrepressible instinct for earthly pleas-
ure is the subject. The song has its origin in the world's oldest
mating ground—the fields and pastures of rural Europe.
BAND 6: KAFOOZALEM—The shocking brazenness of the Harlot
of Jerusalem serves as the theme of this song which relates in no
less brazen fashion how Kafoozalem achieved her reputation as
one of the most celebrated courtesans of all time.

BAND 7: THE BASTARD KING OF ENGLAND

Here is a bit of
English history which, for reasons you will discover upon hearing
the ballad, never found its way into history books. Notwithstand-
ing, it is one of the most famous epics the world over, and has
been attributed to Rudyard Kipling.


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