Little Fish and Grandfather's Clock

[hengruh]

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This is the scene from "Captains Courageous" that got me interested in the hurdy gurdy. In it Manuel (Spencer Tracy) is singing with his hurdy gurdy (the boy is Freddy Bartholomew). Once I saw how much hurdy gurdies sell for, even the kits, well, that thought is on the shelf unless I hit the lotto (which I don't play).

But at least my voice doesn't cost me anything. I don't sing the way people like, but I like how I sing just fine. I like old tunes like this. They were made for human beings with regular vocal cords, not divas or pretenders using Autotune.

I sing to myself a lot. Old stuff I learned as a kid from family or in school, and some as I got older too. Like "Jesse James" or "Joe Bowers" or "Sonny Don't Go Away" or "Tom Dooley."

YEA HO, LITTLE FISH

Come all ye bold fishermen, listen to me
I'll sing you a song of the fish in the sea

Yea ho, little fish, don't cry, don't cry
Yea ho, little fish, don't cry, don't cry

You go to fish school and can learn from a book
How not to get caught on a fisherman's hook

Yea ho, little fish, don't cry, don't cry
Yea ho, little fish, don't cry, don't cry

Watch out little fish, we're out after you
But you can escape away deep in the blue

Yea ho, little fish, don't cry, don't cry
Yea ho, little fish, don't cry, don't cry

You just swim around the fisherman's bait
And you won't end up on the fisherman's plate

(http://www.lyricsbay.com/yea_ho_little_fish_lyrics-unknown.html)

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Another song on my mind right now is one I used to hear on a toy we used to have, but I thought it was older than 1968:

"A popular clock toy, marketed by Fisher-Price in 1968, had a dial on it that, when turned, caused the toy to play the song along with clock-like ticking and moving hands on the face of the clock. An updated version of the toy (which is completely made of plastic and with other activities like a clicking plastic mouse on the side) has been manufactured by Fisher-Price since 1994. Imitations of the toy made by various companies exist and are sold in various countries worldwide." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Grandfather's_Clock)

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My grandfather's clock
Was too large for the shelf,
So it stood ninety years on the floor;
It was taller by half
Than the old man himself,
Though it weighed not a pennyweight more.
It was bought on the morn
Of the day that he was born,
And was always his treasure and pride;
But it stopped short
Never to go again,
When the old man died.

CHORUS:
Ninety years without slumbering,
Tick, tock, tick, tock,
His life seconds numbering,
Tick, tock, tick, tock,
It stopped short
Never to go again,
When the old man died.

In watching its pendulum
Swing to and fro,
Many hours had he spent while a boy;
And in childhood and manhood
The clock seemed to know,
And to share both his grief and his joy.
For it struck twenty-four
When he entered at the door,
With a blooming and beautiful bride;
But it stopped short
Never to go again,
When the old man died.
CHORUS

My grandfather said
That of those he could hire,
Not a servant so faithful he found;
For it wasted no time,
And had but one desire,
At the close of each week to be wound.
And it kept in its place,
Not a frown upon its face,
And its hand never hung by its side.
But it stopped short
Never to go again,
When the old man died.
CHORUS

It rang an alarm
In the dead of the night,
An alarm that for years had been dumb;
And we knew that his spirit
Was pluming for flight,
That his hour of departure had come.
Still the clock kept the time,
With a soft and muffled chime,
As we silently stood by his side.
But it stopped short
Never to go again,
When the old man died.
CHORUS