This morning I am thinking about singing with my mother.
My mother and I used to sing together all the time when I was small. Whenever we’d drive anywhere, we never listened to the radio; we sang songs. Old songs, silly songs, campfire songs: John Brown’s Baby and My Grandfather’s Clock and If I Had a Hammer.
She called me the other night, happy because a friend who could handle the interwebs found for her one of the original singers of some of her favorites, which she used to sing with her father.
Here’s the one she mentioned specifically. I don’t know if your mother does this, but my mother drops conversational references that I have never heard before, because she talks about things to someone else — my mother has MANY friends — and thinks she told me. There are also times when she tells me things, and I forget, but she remembers forever that she told me. I don’t know which category this is in, but when she said, “I found the prune song!” I was at a total loss.
Here it is: the prune song. That I don’t remember her ever talking about. Dang sure we never sang it together, though she might have sung it to me.
Here’s one I sang with my dad, (Surprising because my dad can’t sing), and he had a different set of lyrics; I had no idea this one had this many verses — we only sang the chorus.
(Here’s the version my dad taught me, by the way. I love this man intensely. I love my dad, too — but this guy RULES.)
Here’s the same man singing another one I loved singing with my mom; this one made her uncomfortable, I remember, I think because we’re talking about a six-year-old singing about beer and sliding over naked people.
This one I loved, and still sing, because it’s pirate-y as hell. Here it is by a chorus, because my mom loves choral music.
Here’s the song I remember most fondly: a completely ridiculous, and frequently racist, song about an Ottoman Turk in a feud with a Russian Cossack.
And here’s a version of it with an equally offensive cartoon — and it says it was banned, but I SWEAR I saw this at some point in my life.
I’m going to go sing some songs now. You should, too.
On top of spagheeeeettttttiiiiiii, alll covered with cheeeeeeeseee….
Just Dusty 