Bonny boys, bonny mad boys, Bedlam boys are bonny, for they all go bare and they live by the air

[gogmagog]

Wow, I'd forgotten how much I love the old traditional songs. They're so delightfully gory. For example:

My staff has murdered giants
My bag a long knife carries
To cut mince pies from children's thighs
For which to feed the fairies.

...For the record, this is from "Tom o' Bedlam," which is all about how insane guys are ZOMG HAWT. Sentiments you can sympathize with, jokersama? >D

Anyway, I don't suppose any of y'all would have MP3s of fun gory traditional ballads you could send me, would you? I'm having trouble finding any in my usual MP3 gankage spots; I guess they're not popular enough to be there. (I'm hoping they'll help me get in the mood for writing a paper on Titus Andronicus, which is certainly gory enough and was probably written around the same time as a lot of these ballads.)

...Also, today was a BPAL update day! While their new Poe line mostly leaves me cold except for a couple of scents, they've also introduced an entire line of Chakra scents to the General Catalogue that I want to get eventually (if for no other reason than the Digital Devil Saga associations). :D

Comments

[hsdshinji.livejournal.com]

I thought you were staying away from the Intarnets to read. :) Hehe

[yoshitsune.livejournal.com]

Well, for "Internet" mostly read "IRC." Nothing is quite as distractible as knowing there's pretty much always someone(s) to talk to 24/7 rather than working on reading. XD

(But I'm just taking a break from it for a few days...once I get semi-caught up and get some major progress done on these papers/presentations I'll be back on as usual.)

[bshippotemkin.livejournal.com]

Can I totally steal your "Tom o' Bedlam" mp3? This seems very interesting to me...not the least of which because a character in Grant Morrison's The Invisibles uses that name.

[yoshitsune.livejournal.com]

Sure! You can download it here (http://s40.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=0V9DTMOB63TJA1UGIWABSOQL09). There are variant versions - certain ones add verses or take them away. And while the song dates from ~1600, the music we sing it to dates from ~1660 and what we currently think of as the "real" version of the lyrics (the one with Mad Maudlin) probably dates from the late 1600s/early 1700s.

(Mercedes Lackey also has a series where each book takes its title from one of the verses of "Tom o' Bedlam," which is how I discovered it.)

[yoshitsune.livejournal.com]

And actually, I just realized that I have another version of the song, by Steeleye Span (called Bedlam Boys, so that's why I didn't realize it). You can get it here (http://s51.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1DXHO41MADKTH245EB5Y4EIM5M).