Greensleeves
I turned on the radio this morning on a channel I usually don’t listen to. I got in just in time for the last part of a somewhat amusing (In a usually low-humor kind of way) show. They were in a part of the show where they try and help people come up with old things they forgot. I got the last few sentences of someone trying to decide about the name of a character on some cartoon. And then I got a whole new question and answer.
The caller explained that there’s a song he’s trying to find. His sister used to play and sing it for him when he was little, and he’s been trying to find out what song it was for years. According to him he asked a lot of people he knows, but everyone just said that it sounds very familiar yet they can’t place it.
He started to sing the song. It took me about five seconds to recognize the music as Greensleeves.
But they lyrics, the lyrics were something else entirely. Something totally unrelated that probably his sister came up with on her own. The two anchors of the show started to hum the music, telling each other that it’s indeed familiar. Guessing it may be from some musical or something…
They told him that they don’t think his words are the originals, and maybe his sister made them up. He replied that no, these are the real lyrics, his sister wouldn’t make up words for songs.
Apparently the usual mode of finding answers in the show was to ask listeners to phone in, send SMS messages, or to send emails. So there was a delay of about two minutes when they kept humming Greensleeves trying to guess what it was, and the caller insisted on singing it with his words.
It was so maddening I almost considered phoning in myself. Not a good idea while driving, though.
The caller also said that he tried running searches through lyrics search engines, and posting the lyrics on newsgroups, but nobody recognized it… Small surprise, since these aren’t the real words, or even close. The anchors tried to tell him that, but he was adamant that his sister couldn’t come up with such amazing lyrics. The idea that maybe she copied them from someone else that made them up didn’t occur to him.
Eventually someone managed to SMS in the word "Greensleeves". One of the anchors exclaimed that he knows it, and that it’s a well known song that has a lot of different performances. Which is absolutely true.
He than continued to say that if he remembers correctly there’s one performance by Loreena McKennitt, so the caller can try and find that. He then continued to spell Loreena "L-o-r-e-n-a"… Almost… He also claimed that’s the best performance of this song he knows. It’s a matter of taste, but while in general I like McKennitt a lot, this particular performance is too slow for my taste.
He also said that he’s not quite sure if this is the first version of the song. I nearly chocked. McKennitt isn’t such a young lady anymore, true, but I’m pretty certain she’s not even a hundred years old, not to mention the several centuries since Greensleeves became popular.
Then the same guy who sent the SMS called in, since they asked on the air if someone could provide more details. This wasn’t just a random listener, but a repeating one, apparently their music expert. The anchor asked him if indeed there was a version by Loreena McKennitt, and he answered that it’s possible (I assume this meant something like: "I haven’t the foggiest, what the hell do you want from me?!").
The anchor than came with another extra info "And if I’m correct, it’s from her album The Visitor". Again, almost. It’s called "The Visit". A bit later on he also decided to refer to the song as "Green Leaves" and was surprised when the other anchor told him it’s Sleeves and not Leaves, "…at least according to the SMS".
They asked the expert what’s the origin of the song. On this he gave a certain and definitive answer. It’s an old American folk song. American. Let me repeat that in case someone missed it: he said American. I got that nearly-chocking thing again. America is even older than Loreena McKennitt, true, but not that old. At least not the English speaking parts with the cultural background needed to make sense out of Greensleeves. Maybe he thought it was originally composed by some Indian tribe? Lot’s of "Lady Greensleeves" were surely wandering around Indian tribes once.
He than sung some of the words. And the original caller burst in saying that they’re not the right words, they’re different from what his sister sung. This guy just refused to accept his sister put the wrong lyrics to the tune.
Great fun all around.
December 8th, 2004 at 10:26 EET | Categories: Music |
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