posted by [identity profile] vvalkyri.livejournal.com at 08:49pm on 2005-02-23
I don't know most of those verses. In fact, most of them are quite terrible. I did, however, like the following, and shall try to remember to sing it at the first opportunity (and it would have been precious to sing last night!)

30. You must marry very soon
Baby's due the next full moon
 
posted by [identity profile] dglenn.livejournal.com at 09:52pm on 2005-02-23
Fortunately nobody (AFAIK) tries to sing Every Verse Plus Variations, so we get to cherry-pick the verses. (ISTR having seen an even longer list of verses a long time ago, but I could be mistaken. No, no, wait, I know there's at least one version with a whole section of wedding verses instead of birthday ones, and IIRC a couple of other non-birthday sections as well.)

As for verse #30: no, I'm just overweight.
 
posted by [identity profile] vvalkyri.livejournal.com at 09:55pm on 2005-02-23
:*P
I was just going for the absurdist overtones.

But the dirge in the link is so , well, death oriented.
 
posted by [identity profile] cirith-ungol.livejournal.com at 02:19am on 2005-02-24
Then of course, there's the verse we sing just as it's reaching absurd lengths:

You will now writhe in pain
As we sing another refrain
 
posted by [identity profile] suecochran.livejournal.com at 02:53am on 2005-02-24
This doesn't scan - ouch.

"Now we'll watch you writhe in pain
As we sing one more refrain"

Would work nicely.
 
posted by [identity profile] cirith-ungol.livejournal.com at 02:58am on 2005-02-24
If you parse "another" as a triplet instead of a pair of eighths (last two syllables on the lower note), it scans as well as many other drinking songs :)

Not that this is saying much... but it is a verse with a fairly limited use-group.
 
posted by [identity profile] suecochran.livejournal.com at 01:38pm on 2005-02-24
I don't know any drinking songs, so I don't know what you're referring to there. Even parsing "another" as a triplet (which granted, works, but is pushing it a bit), the first sentence doesn't scan either.

da da da da da da da
da da da da da da da

There are seven syllables (or whatever they're called in music, stresses maybe?) in each line. In the set you quoted there are 6 in the first and 8 in the second - which yes, adds up to the same as 7 and 7 but it's not the same thing musically. Just sayin' :)

Links

January

SunMonTueWedThuFriSat
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
8 9 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19 20 21
22 23 24
 
25
 
26
 
27
 
28
 
29
 
30
 
31