I've been a-courting Mary-Jane

[venta]

So, an important point, I'm sure you'll agree.

Please fill in what, if anything, you would sing/shout between verse and chorus:

(Edit: sorry, polls play merry hell with formatting and can't be edited after the fact.)

[Poll #1304903]

I think I learned this song from my parents. They sang an extra line in between the verse and chorus, but not one between the chorus and the verse.

Years later, singing this round a campfire with the Scouts, I learned a new set of fill-in lines. These are now the ones I'd sing without thinking (and the ones I filled in on the poll[*]). I thought no more about it, and decided it was another strange thing my parents had made up to fool me.

Recently (at oxfordgirl and mejoff's wedding, no less) someone started singing On Ilkley Moor and I was quite astonised to hear libellum yelling[**] something quite different in between the verse and the chorus.

I was talking to someone else recently, who came up with a third set[***] (which I have annoyingly now forgotten) and it got me wondering. How many variants are there ? Are they geographically distributed ? If you have friends who like a bit of a sing and might know On Ilkley Moor, send 'em along here to fill this poll in and I'll be most grateful.

I'm sure that there will be a moral to this tale.

[*] By which, of course, I mean will have filled in, since at the time of writing the poll doesn't yet exist.
[**] That's a bit unkind. It was quite a melodious noise. Not quite singing, though, so let's go with yelling.
[***] Though, interestingly, despite knowing the song she didn't know that the words to While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks fit really well to the tune. If you didn't know this either, give it a try. While glory shone around, while glory shone around, while glo-ry shone a-round.

Comments

[ringbark.livejournal.com]

That's rubbish. One in a taxi two in a car, else you've lost one of the kings.

Also, shepherds is
While shepherds washed their socks by night
All seated round a tub
A bar of Fairy Soap came down
And they began to rub.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

No no, it's: one in a taxi, one in a car, one on a scooter / honking his hooter / smoking a big cigar.

He may have been the third one to arrive, but it sounds like he was worth waiting for.

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

"Following Ringo Star", I thought.

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

While shepherds washed their socks by night
All watching ITV
The Angel of the Lord came down
And switched to BBC.

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

No no no:

We three kings of orient are
One in a taxi one in a car
One in a scooter beeping his hooter
Following Ringo Starr

You have a different socks one to me because you didn't throw the socks around the airing cupboard.

[beckyl.livejournal.com]

The cigar was alway 'green' in the version I knew.