Corona - what does help you? Your fears, thoughts, everything

[Jeff Wrangler]

Oddly enough, I've been thinking about weird old songs I was forced to learn in my elementary school music class. A teacher would come with her pitch pipe once a week and lead us through a book of very ancient songs whose meanings we could not fathom until much later. So, there was one that began, "Casey would dance with the strawberry blonde, and the band played on." The lyrics seemed nonsensical to me and I couldn't fathom the reason for a song dedicated to that. Most of all, I couldn't figure out what a "strawberry blonde" was, neither species nor genera.

I remember teachers with pitch pipes! Are they even a thing anymore? I guess I thought a strawberry blonde was someone with pale red hair, or blonde hair with red highlights.

I always figured the band played on because it was past closing, but I've always wondered why she married Casey if he was an alcoholic who frightened her.

[serious crayons]

I guess I thought a strawberry blonde was someone with pale red hair, or blonde hair with red highlights.

Yes to the first, but as for the second it would be the other way around. Highlights are made by bleaching streaks in darker hair. I have lightish red hair that might in itself qualify, but sometimes I have added blonde highlights, and then it definitely qualifies.

I vaguely knew the song ATBPO but not all the lyrics. Bleak song! When I hear And the Band Played On, I think of the book, which of course is bleak in a different way.

For some reason I literally woke up today thinking about how "The Green Green Grass at Home" is about death -- the green green grass and the old oak tree and the loved ones all being in Heaven. When I got to my computer I reread the lyrics and saw that while it partly does suggest that interpretation, I had forgotten the surprise twist at the end about the guard and the sad old padre. With that, the earlier lyrics could be interpreted more straightforwardly.

Maybe a year ago or so I was involved in a conversation, I think on Facebook, about seemingly jolly old Americana songs that are actually about death. "She'll Be Comin Round the Mountain" was one ("she" being death); I looked it up and found that at least some versions are, and were intended to be, about death.

But there was another song that was even more surprising, a seemingly cheerful song but once you thought of it in that way it definitely fit. Trying to figure out what it was; if you google "songs about death" you mostly get rock songs.

Well, on that depressing note! Let's get back to the much more cheerful topic of a worldwide pandemic of a highly fatal and highly contagious virus that the country's most prominent expert says may kill 100,000 people in the US alone!

 

[Jeff Wrangler]

Yes to the first, but as for the second it would be the other way around. Highlights are made by bleaching streaks in darker hair. I have lightish red hair that might in itself qualify, but sometimes I have added blonde highlights, and then it definitely qualifies.

I know how highlights are created now artificially, but when I was a teenager and hadn't yet begun to lose my brown hair, depending on how the light struck my hair, you could see red shades--not like fire engine red or Prince Harry red, but definitely red, a sort of dark red. My mother always called that highlights, so that was what I was thinking of.

I vaguely knew the song ATBPO but not all the lyrics. Bleak song! When I hear And the Band Played On, I think of the book, which of course is bleak in a different way.

That's what I always think of.

For some reason I literally woke up today thinking about how "The Green Green Grass at Home" is about death -- the green green grass and the old oak tree and the loved ones all being in Heaven. When I got to my computer I reread the lyrics and saw that while it partly does suggest that interpretation, I had forgotten the surprise twist at the end about the guard and the sad old padre. With that, the earlier lyrics could be interpreted more straightforwardly.

Not doing the research, but my impression always was that it was about somebody about to be executed.

Maybe a year ago or so I was involved in a conversation, I think on Facebook, about seemingly jolly old Americana songs that are actually about death. "She'll Be Comin Round the Mountain" was one ("she" being death); I looked it up and found that at least some versions are, and were intended to be, about death.

I can see that for some, even verse by verse, but not others.

But there was another song that was even more surprising, a seemingly cheerful song but once you thought of it in that way it definitely fit. Trying to figure out what it was; if you google "songs about death" you mostly get rock songs.

Well, on that depressing note! Let's get back to the much more cheerful topic of a worldwide pandemic of a highly fatal and highly contagious virus that the country's most prominent expert says may kill 100,000 people in the US alone!

On another forum somebody wrote something about social distancing can save lives. My response was, "The life you save may be your own."

[Jeff Wrangler]

I got to wondering if this one has to do with death. I guess the third verse does, but I really had no clue what the song is about generally. This was fascinating to read.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Old_Kentucky_Home

[Front-Ranger]

Katherine, you might have been thinking about "Ring Around the Rosy" which is about the plague I guess.

Although Snopes discounts the idea. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/ring-around-rosie/

[serious crayons]

I know how highlights are created now artificially, but when I was a teenager and hadn't yet begun to lose my brown hair, depending on how the light struck my hair, you could see red shades--not like fire engine red or Prince Harry red, but definitely red, a sort of dark red. My mother always called that highlights, so that was what I was thinking of.

Oh, OK, your mother was right. In darker hair, highlights often are red -- they needn't go all the way to blonde; just lighter than the surrounding hair. And they need not be artificial; they can just be different shades of hair.

Not doing the research, but my impression always was that it was about somebody about to be executed.

Oh, you're right! For some reason, until this moment I've always thought the line was, "there's the guard, and the sad old padre, arm in arm, WE walk at daybreak." Meaning, they were in the habit of taking their daily constitutionals together early in the morning. But now I see it's actually "WE'LL walk at daybreak," suggesting, well, a final constitutional.

I can see that for some, even verse by verse, but not others.

Apparently there are many different versions of it, some darker than others.

I got to wondering if this one has to do with death. I guess the third verse does, but I really had no clue what the song is about generally. This was fascinating to read.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Old_Kentucky_Home

Remember how in the movie of Gone With the Wind, Prissy sings "just a few more days for to tote the weary load"? Somehow I didn't realize it was from MOKH until I read the lyrics just now.

I'm learning a lot here!

It's funny how at least some of those Americana oldies are from African-Americans' points of view, treated pretty sympathetically if not with the outrage they would get today. Wonder why. Maybe because some grew out of slave songs, I suppose.

[serious crayons]

Katherine, you might have been thinking about "Ring Around the Rosy" which is about the plague I guess.

Although Snopes discounts the idea. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/ring-around-rosie/

That's not the one I was thinking of, because I've known about that one forever (though incorrectly, if Snopes is right). I even told my kids about it when they were little and we'd go to the beach and play it in the water -- "we all fall down" being the cue to plunge underwater. Gruesome backstories didn't bother then.

No, this was from another old folk song and much more shocking. I did some googling and couldn't find it, so maybe it actual was SBCATM and I'm thinking it was something different.

 

[Jeff Wrangler]

Katherine, you might have been thinking about "Ring Around the Rosy" which is about the plague I guess.

Although Snopes discounts the idea. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/ring-around-rosie/

That's interesting. Too bad the author doesn't address "Mary, Mary Quite Contrary." I've heard tell that refers to Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots.

[Jeff Wrangler]

Oh, you're right! For some reason, until this moment I've always thought the line was, "there's the guard, and the sad old padre, arm in arm, WE walk at daybreak." Meaning, they were in the habit of taking their daily constitutionals together early in the morning. But now I see it's actually "WE'LL walk at daybreak," suggesting, well, a final constitutional.

Yup, directly to the gallows, hence the presence of the priest.

[serious crayons]

I don't if I find that Snopes article totally convincing. Nursery rhymes, like "She's Comin Round the Mountain," have lots of different versions and sometimes spring from sources seemingly unrelated to the version we know. But also, this sentence

The word “ashes” cannot be “a corruption of the sneezing sounds made by the infected person” and a word used for its literal meaning. Either “ashes” was a corruption of an earlier form or a deliberate use; it can’t be both. Moreover, the “ashes” ending of “Ring Around the Rosie” appears to be a fairly modern addition to the rhyme; earlier versions repeat other words or syllables instead (e.g., “Hush!”, “A-tischa!”, “Hasher”, “Husher”, “Hatch-u”, “A-tishoo”) or, as noted above, have completely different endings.

is kind of funny. All of those other words could represent the sound of a sneeze!

Also, I've always found the idea (mentioned later in the article) that characters and things in The Wizard of Oz represent political figures and entities fairly plausible. The other things about Mary Queen of Scots and so on also seem like they'd be possible.

Just because John Lennon says interpretations of some Beatles songs were invented by critics doesn't mean interpretations of songs and writing are never valid.

What's he going to tell us next -- that "American Pie" has no connection to Buddy Holly, Elvis, Mick Jagger, etc.? That the coffee pot and kettle and fan are just ordinary household objects?