You can sense Jon’s glee as he says, “Found in the Oxford book of Nursery rhymes. One of those too-good-to be-true moments when I came across it.” It is of course on Fay’s excellent Looking Glass CD as well, although you’ll already know that (won’t you!) I’ve not much to add to that except that the family’s location can certainly be changed to suit your purpose, should any of you be singing this out and about.
You can buy the October digital album now from all good download stores:
A great song indeed, but I think you’ll find Jon’s partner is called Fay (!)
Yes clumsy fingers!!
Love this one for its bouncyness. Now its going to earworm me all day. 😉
Forgiven Simon – happens to the best of us!
Speaking as a mad person from a mad family myself, I love it!
Got to post link to Bright Young Folk – you are! – where Fay sings it too, with Jon playing his squeeze-boxy thing very well indeed! The interview afterwards with Fay is very interesting too. Yorkshireness noted and approved! Both versions lovely all round.
http://www.brightyoungfolk.com/gigs/video/fay-hield-sings-mad-family.aspx
Thank you for the above link,Jane. This mad family seem rather interesting to meet;I think that,in the past,I taught some of their children.
I thought this song warranted the return of my red hat….
OMG! Does anyone remember Old Mother Riley?
@Jane……………….ref “remember Old Mother Riley”…
after seeing your avatar I now believe in reincarnation!…..
now where can I find a mad horse…seems I have a journey to go on.
Hard to think of this as a nursery rhyme. As for Old Mother Riley don’t forget daughter Kitty the original mad family.
@ Muzza: How very dare ye! Clearly, I’d be better cast as KITTY McShane than Mrs Daphne Snowdrop Bluebell Riley, the washerwoman from Dublin!
Old Mother Riley is referenced in the Kinks’ song “The Village Green Preservation Society” (from their 1968 album The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society.) Not a lot of people know that…
Great but still have trouble getting it into my head that it is a nursery rhyme.
It’s all down hill from here on….Did you all see Jon and John on the Jools Holland BBC4 programme about songs of London on Sunday…..Jon wearing a pea green scarf that MUST HAVE BEEN a Christmas present from an aged aunt.
And Jane is the subject of this week’s song on another site………..’show her a whip and she breaks out in a sweat!’…..not OUR Jane! http://dl.dropbox.com/u/9278327/afolksongaweek/Creeping_Jane.mp3
Hahahahahaha! Muzza, I am just listening to ‘Creeping Jane’ now as reading your comment above! It’s a grand song, wonderfully well-sung by Andy Turner, who rightly cites Joseph Taylor as covering a definitive version. Loved it!