I knew the song Billy Barlow as Let's go hunting. It was one of the silly songs that we recorded. I adored this song when I was little for two reasons. One was that it was funny. The other was that I interpreted it as a song that could be changed and sung about more than one animal. I wanted to hunt for elephants or aardvarks or dinosaurs and see how the story would change. I can remember when I realized that no, the adults sang it the same way each time and they would not change the animal. I was disappointed but I still loved the song. And I could change the animal on my own.
It's a good song to raise girls: an illustration of a group of guys....
Let's go hunting, says Risky Rob
Let's go hunting, says Robin to Bob
Let's go hunting, says Dan'l and Joe
Let's go hunting, says Billy Barlow
When my son was a teen, another parent commented that the IQ dropped in half for each teen added to a group. Two boys cut the IQ in half, three had it to one quarter and four was trouble.
What'll we hunt for, says Risky Rob
What'll we hunt for, says Robin to Bob
What'll we hunt for, says Dan'l and Joe
Let's hunt rats, says Billy Barlow
How'll we catch them,
How'll we catch them,
How'll we catch them,
Let's borrow a shotgun, says Billy Barlow
How'll we divide them,
How'll we divide them,
How'll we divide them,
How'll we divide them, says Billy Barlow
I also loved this song because the last line changed. Sometimes Billy Barlow said the same thing and sometimes he said something different. When I was very small and still learning the song, that was part of the joy of it, to see what Billy Barlow would do. And clearly he was wicked, like Coyote or Pan or Loki and going to lead the group to trouble if he could....
I'll take shoulders,
I'll take sides,
I'll take hams
Tailbone mine, says Billy Barlow
Oh good, we are learning about butchering and terms for the parts of a butchered animal.
How'll we cook them,
How'll we cook them,
How'll we cook them,
How'll we cook them,
I'll fry shoulders,
I'll boil sides
I'll bake hams,
Tailbone raw, says Billy Barlow
Oh, delicious ickiness, raw rat tailbone... It would give my sister and me shivers....
Let's go hunting, says Risky Rob
Let's go hunting, says Robin to Bob
Let's go hunting, says Dan'l and Joe
Let's stay home, says Billy Barlow
And relief. Billy was messing with them all the time and he doesn't want to go and he never did, which is why he suggested a shotgun to hunt rats.... I like this Billy.
When I search on Billy Barlow, here is an entirely different song, a civil war marching song for Company B from New York City that marched into Maryland in 1863 and 63% were killed. My sister had a civil war marching band play at her rehearsal dinner and we ended up marching in pea gravel and inventing circus tricks using construction tools for a couple hours. It turns out that my oldest cousin had ambitions to be a drum major. The band thought we were so funny that they offered to return. But the civil war fighters on both sides had marching bands with them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1ZlfsP7dZA
And here is Pete Seeger with our song, in a slightly different style: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrgTOPufru4
And here is another site that says the song is a version of "The Cutty Wren" or "The Hunting of the Wren". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_oAPCVkMP0
Grundoon, me and our father: http://drkottaway.com/2015/10/26/songs-to-raise-girls-billy-barlow/