Brooklynbanjoboy - Posted - 01/16/2015:  02:17:34

Good Morning BHO friends.

I was drawn to this tune contained in a CD of Joe Thompson fiddling:

amazon.com/Molly-Put-the-Kettl...0056D4S2W

Joe passed away in March 2012.  A great loss. 

nytimes.com/2012/03/02/arts/mu...html?_r=0

Bob Carlin did a great deal to get Joe’s music out and about again, producing the Rounder CD “Family Tradition, containing this TOTW.  Bob comments a bit about that experience in this worthwhile interview by Gail Gillespie:

oldtimeherald.org/archive/back...rlin.html

In my view, the version Joe Thompson fiddled bears only a slight resemblance to the lilting Celtic version that has been traced back to the late 1700s.  Far more slurs, different sort of tempo, a urgency and energy in the music that strikes me a bit differently than versions, fine versions, that sound like this:

song365.us/mp3/the-kettle-mp3.html

When one thinks about it, “Molly” works better for Joe Thompson’s approach.  The “M” sound rolls around in the mouth before dripping out, allowing a long preface to the M and a lingering sound enriched by the following vowel.  “Polly is more of a quick, explosive sound.

As one linguist has said:

The M consonant is made by pressing the lips together lightly, mm, mm, while making a sound with the vocal cords, mm, mm. In speech, the teeth may begin to part a little in preparation for the vowel in the word, mm, mm, Mom, map. Pulling the lips a bit. …  The M consonant sound is one of the few sounds in American English where the soft palate remains down like the mouth at rest. This allows air to pass up over the soft palate, which results in the sound feeling somewhat in the nose, which is why it is categorized as a nasal consonant along with N and NG. - See more at: rachelsenglish.com/videos/m-co...cKGG.dpuf

The P sound, and the B sound, the same linguist notes is unvoiced, meaning only air passes through your mouth. 

To make this sound, the lips will stay together while the teeth part a little bit.  Two sounds, pp and bb are stop consonants.  In stop consonants, there are two parts.  There is a stop of the airflow, and a release.  So the stop of the airflow happens, pp, as the lips remain closed, and the release when they part and the air comes through.  - See more at: rachelsenglish.com/videos/p-an...59TQ.dpuf

This, above, is what one gets when one thinks too much about sound, and that’s often what happens to someone who has more than one language rolling around in their brains. 

Anyway…

I get more of Joe’s version when I listen to this version:

song365.us/mp3/the-kettle-mp3.html

And I hear more of Joe in this Now Orleansy rendition by Kitty, Daisy & Lewis, the three-piece sibling Durham family band that reflects profound affection for swing, jump blues, country western, blues, Hawaiian and rock:

song365.us/mp3/the-kettle-mp3.html

Bob Carlin told me that Joe got this tune from his father, Walter Thompson. 

Wikipedia says this:

A song with the title: "Molly Put the Kettle On or Jenny's Baubie" was published by Joseph Dale in London in 1803.^[2] It was also printed, with "Polly" instead of "Molly" in Dublin about 1790–1810 and in New York around 1803–07.^[3] The nursery rhyme is mentioned in Charles Dickens' Barnaby Rudge (1841), which is the first record of the lyrics in their modern form.^[1]

In middle-class families in the mid-eighteenth century "Sukey" was equivalent to "Susan" and Polly was a pet-form of Mary.^[1]

The tune associated with this rhyme "Jenny's Baubie" is known to have existed since the 1770s.^[1] The melody is vaguely similar to "Oh du lieber Augustin", which was published in Mainz in 1788–89.^[3]

Notes

1.   I. Opie and P. Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd ed., 1997), pp. 353–54.

2.   D. M. Kassler, W. Hawes, D. W. Krummel and A. Tyson, eds, Music entries at Stationers' Hall, 1710–1818: from lists prepared for William Hawes (Aldershot: Ashgate 2004), p. 514.

3.   James J. Fuld, The Book of World-Famous Music: Classical, Popular, and Folk (1966, 5th ed., Dover, 2000), pp. 399–400.

The lyrics, again per Wikipedia:

Polly put the kettle on,

Polly put the kettle on,

Polly put the kettle on,

We'll all have tea.

Sukey take it off again,

Sukey take it off again,

Sukey take it off again,

They've all gone away.^[1]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polly_Pu...Kettle_On

As much of the rich musical ethnographic research and writing shows, tunes like this travel far from their origins, and end up being played in multiple musical traditions, twisting and turning, and becoming a part of many different musical idioms. 

song365.us/mp3/the-kettle-mp3.html

stringband.mossyroof.com/Molly...tleOn.mp3

Dan Levenson has a great “Tunetorial” lesson on BHO.  Here’s the Youtube “Lesson Sample”:

And here’s the link to the BHO six dollar full lesson:

banjohangout.org/lessons/video...sp?id=156

Lyle Konigsberg tabbed the tune, though these links might not be the right ones [LYLE, YOU OUT THERE? MAYBE YOU CAN JUMP IN WITH CORRECT LINKS?]:

lylewk.home.comcast.net/~lylew...%20On.pdf

banjohangout.org/myhangout/med...archived=

There’s a two finger tab on BHO, courtesy of BHO’s Michel Marcon of Bron, France:

banjohangout.org/tab/browse.as...p;v=14884

And a TABEDIT version by our own Janolov:

banjohangout.org/tab/browse.as...p;v=16124

Here is my quick and dirty crack at the tune, played on my Fawley Neck/Vega Pot hybrid A scale tuned to aDADE:

Have a fine banjo-fueled day.

V/R,

Lew

Cyndy - Posted - 01/16/2015:  07:36:11

Nice choice! I love Joe Thompson's album. Can't tell you how many times I've listened to it.

There are some fine versions of the tune on the Slippery Hill page. (Best to search for the word "kettle" because of the variation in names.) My all-time favorite comes from Mr. Lundy!

Brooklynbanjoboy - Posted - 01/16/2015:  07:41:38

Cyndy, thanks for jumping in here with some great additions.

Lew

lucyloo - Posted - 01/16/2015:  09:56:52

i think i've watched sheesham and lotus' version about 20 times and i'm still not bored of it:



youtube.com/watch?v=aUb_tre9X8U

mworden - Posted - 01/16/2015:  12:09:46

Great tune, Lew.  And thanks for taking on last-minute TOTW duty too!  It's such a popular tune (I've got 18 versions of it in my collection) I'm surprised it hasn't been done yet but that just bodes well for the future of this great project.  So many terrific tunes....

Lucy, thanks for posting the link to the Sheesham and Lotus video.  It's really great.

Two of my favorites are by Brad Leftwich and Dan Gellert on "A Moment in Time" and a really great solo clawhammer banjo version by Calvin Cole on the Field Recorders Collective album "Fancy Gap Banjo".  The one I've heard most is by the Frieght Hoppers but it's just a little too frenetic for my taste.

Brooklynbanjoboy - Posted - 01/16/2015:  12:13:44

Wow.  Banjo sounds like a machine gun in his hands.

carlb - Posted - 01/16/2015:  12:45:17

quote:

---

Originally posted by ajisai

My all-time favorite comes from Mr. Lundy!

---

Mine too!

JanetB - Posted - 01/18/2015:  16:06:51

Your tune is one I've heard for years in class, yet never before connected with the old-timey versions offered here, Lew.  I worked on a 3-part arrangement after finding both a Polly version to work on from Emmett Lundy and a Molly one from Wade Ward.  The third section of my arrangement is the way I've heard it in nursery songs.

The extra discussion on the phonics of "m" and "p" reminds me of the fact that mama, mom, mommy, ima, oma, etc. emerge easily as one of the first sounds from a baby's mouth.  And p begins papa. 

Here's the common image I associate with the title:

Polly Put the Kettle On (TOTW)

Polly Put the Kettle On tab

Paul Meredith - Posted - 01/18/2015:  19:29:24

Nice write up and playing Lew, this is one of my favorite tunes.  I learned it from RD Lunceford's book & CD, in double-D tuning.  However, it is one of those D tunes that plays nicely out of open D tuning (G tuning lowered down to D) on a minstrel banjo.  I know a third part but usually play it as a two-part tune.  I must admit that while I haven't listened to a lot of fiddle versions, the version by Lundy (see above) is indeed excellent.

Polly Put The Kettle On

Bill Rogers - Posted - 01/18/2015:  19:46:58

There seem to be two distinct tunes.  Polly is the one we've  all heard since nursery school.  OTOH, Molly is this one youtube.com/watch?v=vaOYimQjPwo , although Polly is sometimes also called Molly.

janolov - Posted - 01/19/2015:  00:59:48

Polly Put The Kettle On seems to occur as title on other tunes not connected to this week's TOTW:

• Obray Ramsey in Blue Ridge Mountain Banjo: youtube.com/watch?v=zpCpNwYfZM0


• When listening to the "Pollys" in the Milliner-Koke Collection there are three bluesy versions played in the key of G with quite another melody : Marcus Marting, Byard Ray and Manco Sneed. 

Brooklynbanjoboy - Posted - 01/19/2015:  02:04:37

Great versions from TOTW cadre.  Thanks.

And great info from TOTW stalwarts.  Thanks for these additions.

Play hard,

Lew

 

Don Borchelt - Posted - 01/19/2015:  16:56:55

A great Tune of the Week, Lew, or should I say tunes, the variations on this one go further afield than with most tunes, and its hard to say when a melody crosses the frontier and becomes essentially a new tune.  You did a great job of picking it, too.  Fine, courtly picking from Janet, too, with lots of that rich, luxurious tone that only she can get.  Great job, JB!  Paul plays a deep, growly rendition on his minstrel banjo, very nice.  I learned the version I play a number of years ago, it comes from the legendary Round Peak fiddler Tommy Jarrell, and has three parts instead of two.   I am three finger picking my 1964 Ode Model 42, in open D tuning (aDF#AD).  I do have a tab posted on my website.  I've added a link to the recording of Tommy Jarrell on the Slippery Hill webpage.

- Don Borchelt

VIDEO: Polly Put the Kettle On (click to view)

Dock Jekel - Posted - 01/20/2015:  11:02:31

Wade Ward played a wickedly smooth version of Polly put the Kettle on.  Hear his Smithsonian Folkways recording!  

Dock Jekel - Posted - 01/20/2015:  11:05:19

Polly or Molly,, either way.  I was not aware of different versions.

Tom Berghan - Posted - 01/22/2015:  16:14:24

I will add to the confusion!

Back in late 2009 I recorded a little mash-up of both of the famous "Molly" songs . . . Old Molly Hare combined with Molly Put the Kettle On.  My first niece was named  Molly, she had passed away, much too young, from an illness and I was thinking of her.

Old Molly Hare / Molly Put the Kettle On