Friday, April 22, 2011

With Her Head Tucked Underneath Her Arm

Surprisingly, I didn't raise my children on this one. I should have. It would have done them good.


It is originally English, lyrics slightly different, here - by the same songwriter who wrote "I'm Henry VIII, I Am."

9 comments:

Sponge-headed ScienceMan said...

Keyboardist Rick Wakeman of Yes, later with Ozzie Osbourne, released his solo album in 1973 - a tribute to the Six Wives of Henry the VIII. Pretty upscale stuff for mere rockers. Here's an in-concent mix: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jdi5QQHW9XU

Texan99 said...

My father did raise us on this one. He sang it in the car on trips all the time, and I've sung it to more young children of nonplussed friends than I can count. For some reason it came up just the other day (because of something here? I can't recall), so I hunted it down on YouTube, never before having known who wrote it. I had no idea he also wrote "'Enery the Eighth," the song that inspired me to buy my very first LP at the age of 12 or so.

My father used the Stanley Holloway words, not the modified Kingston Trio ones -- even though I can recall only Kingston Trio LPs in my childhood, and no Stanley Holloway ones.

GraniteDad said...

We did too learn it and sang it a bunch. Pay attention.

GraniteDad said...

I'm betting Ben can even tell you specific times we sang it on car trips.

Assistant Village Idiot said...

Really? I can't imagine you learning it, nor plowing through an entire rendition in the car. The fact that you recognise it is evidence for your claim, however.

I can imagine us singing it, whether the two of you were listening or not.
But neither one of you would have known more than a line from the chorus, plus a fragment.

Gringo said...

For one of my childhood birthdays I requested and got 3 Kingston Trio albums for presents, but I do not remember this song. It must not have been on the album I had.

Assistant Village Idiot's wife said...

In third grade I sang this to a group of my friends out on the Central School playground under the shadow of Lawson Tower. One of the girls swore on a Bible to Mrs. Ford that she saw a ghost in the tower.

Ben Wyman said...

You've forgotten we had Pop as our grandfather. That's where we learned it.

Assistant Village Idiot said...

Ah, Stuart knew it, yes. But he would have been likely to refer to fragments or sing individual lines rather than the whole song.

I might well have sung the whole thing in the car, just for my own pleasure. And when Uncle Jonathan gave me that shirt that said "Tudor University," with the picture of Henry and the motto Corpus Sine Caput it would likely have set me off.