Sunday Concert -- Sheila's Song

The Bridge Over Troubled Water album by Simon and Garfunkel was one of a bunch that became duplicates when Sheila and I merged our record collections. Here are Simon and Garfunkel performimg the title song and one of our favorites. I post this in celebration of the 37th anniversary of that merging --- and to give Joan another song to hum this week. My sister Beth sang this for us on that glorious August day in Tallahassee, 1971.

Sunday Concert: Deportee

Arlo Guthrie and Emmylou Harris sing Deportee.

Sunday Concert: Today

Imagine my surprise as an old folk music fan to hear, recently, our organist at church launch into a beautiful rendition of this song as a postlude to the worship service. It is one of the prettiest tunes ever written, but the words are hardly a sermon likely to be preached 'round here. I suppose someone has put new words to it, though I've never heard them. Here are the New Christie Minstrels singing, Today ---

PTSW : Hungry Old Lady

Fourth graders still enjoy this silly song. The picture book (at left) with cut-outs on each page to reveal the next lunch is a Caldecott Honor book.

The original song was written, according to Wikipedia, by Alan Mills. I suspect it has entered the folk tradition, where it has gained alternate endings and additional verses. Sing it if you can.

There was an old lady who swallowed a fly,
I don't know why she swallowed a fly,
Perhaps she'll die.

There was an old lady who swallowed a spider,
That wiggled and jiggled and tickled inside her,
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly,
I don't know why she swallowed the fly,
I guess she'll die.

There was an old lady who swallowed a bird,
How absurd! to swallow a bird,
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider,
That wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her,
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly,
I don't know why she swallowed the fly,
Perhaps she'll die.

There was an old woman who swallowed a cat,
Imagine that! to swallow a cat,
She swallowed the cat to catch the bird,
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider,
That wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her,
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly,
I don't know why she swallowed the fly,
Perhaps she'll die.

There was an old woman who swallowed a dog,
What a hog! to swallow a dog,
She swallowed the dog to catch the cat,
She swallowed the cat to catch the bird,
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider,
That wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her,
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly,
I don't know why she swallowed the fly,
Perhaps she'll die.

There was an old lady who swallowed a goat,
Just opened her throat! and swallowed that goat,
She swallowed the goat to catch the dog,
She swallowed the dog to catch the cat,
She swallowed the cat to catch the bird,
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider,
That wiggled and jiggled and tiggled inside her,
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly,
I don't know why she swallowed the fly,
I guess she'll die.

There was an old lady who swallowed a cow,
I don't know how she swallowed a cow!
She swallowed the cow to catch the goat,
She swallowed the goat to catch the dog,
She swallowed the dog to catch the cat,
She swallowed the cat to catch the bird,
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider,
That wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her,
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly,
I don't know why she swallowed the fly,
Perhaps she'll die.

There was an old woman who swallowed a horse,
She's dead—of course!

(Alternate ending for us preachers' kids)
There was an old lady who swallowed a minister,
How sinister!
It finished her.

-by Alan Mills (and others)

At the left is an older book of the song that I have.

Here's a coloring sheet to use with the song for younger kids.

___

Previous Poems to Start the Week:
There Was an Old Lady • i thank you God • finding ourselves
Breathes There a Man • Fog • Snow Day • Ode to Things
A Visit from St. Nicholas • Mice • All In a Word • The Spider • The Eagle
Some People • Custard the Dragon • Statistics 101 • The Spider and the Fly
Back to School • The Inchcape Rock • Ogden Nash • Trash
Hearts, Like Doors • Casey at the Bat • Always a Rose • Home at Last
Bag of Tools • Carpe Diem • Poems About Poetry • Man's Best Friend
Spelling is Tough Stough! • Blue Marble • Tacks, Splinters, Apples and Stars
Oh, Captain, My Captain! • Metaphor • Introducion to Poetry
Loveliest of Trees • Flax-Golden Tales • The Dinosaurs Are Not All Dead
Owl Pellets • Mummy Slept Late • Just My Size
The Kindest Things I Know • Miles to Go • Love that Brother
Oh, Frabjous Day!

Other Posts about Children's Literature:

The Lion's Paw top kid's OOP book!
Harry
Aslan is Dead!
Multiplying People, Rice, and Readers

A Teacher's Life

You can read some of my own efforts at poetry here.
And then there's Alien Invasion.

A weblog dedicated to Poetry for Children.
Watch Sonja Cole's reviews of children's books at Bookwink.com.
The PBS series Favorite Poem Project

Sunday Concert: Early John Denver

Here's John Denver, again, this time with the short-lived trio that succeeded the Chad Michell Trio: Denver, Boise, and Johnson. "I wish I knew how it would feel to be free"

Sunday Concert: Ecclesiastes

Turn, Turn, Turn-
To Everything There is a Season

It was interesting to hear this week, on NPR I think, that the reason the Beatles stopped live concerts was that they could not hear each other for the screaming fans and felt their skills were not improving because of that. So they became a studio group. Listening to the juvenile screams of the Byrds' fans helps me to understand that. I have enjoyed Pete Seeger since the early sixties - I heard Turn Turn Turn before the Byrds recorded it. I was flattered once when my mother heard Pete singing on record, and when she came into the room said she had thought it was my voice.

This song is one of the few pop songs ever to have come so directly from the Bible, yet the handwritten original was owned by the Communist Party of the United States until 2007, according to Wikipedia. (Alas, Pete was indeed, until 1950, a Communist.)

Here's the famous Byrds rendition and then a discussion by members of the Byrds and by Pete of the origins of the song.

Sunday Concert: The First Time

This is another song from our wedding on August 8, 1971. My sister Beth sang. It has been recorded by many singers since folk singers Peggy Seeger and Ewan MacColl wrote it. The Chad Mitchell Trio, Pete Seeger, PP&M, Englebert Humperdinct, Johnny Cash, Kingston Trio, Jose Carreras, and many et ceteras ...

Here is the famous Roberta Flack version which came a while after our wedding.