186. The Riddle Song

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Song Learning Time Stamps:
Start time of teaching: 00:02:20
Start time of reprise: 00:12:08

Lyrics:

I gave my love a cherry that had no stone,
I gave my love a chicken that had no bones,
I told my love a story that had no end,
I gave my love a baby with no crying.

How can there be a cherry that has no stone?
How can there be a chicken without no bones?
How can there be a story that has no end?
And show me, where's the baby with no crying?

A cherry in the blossom, it has no stone.
A chicken in the pippin, it has no bones.
The story that I love you, it has no end...
A baby, when it's sleeping, has no crying!

Song: The Riddle Song
Music by: traditional

Notes: I find myself feeling like we live in a bit of a riddle right now -- how can this impossible thing be so, and what will resolve it? I literally learned this song at my mother's knee... it's one of the earliest I remember singing, and I was so delighted by the riddle form! As a young teen, it was one of the first songs I learned on guitar. I sang it to kids I babysat in college, where I learned about the Child Ballads and Cecil Sharp's collecting in southern Appalachia. I sang it with my children, with our granddaughter -- and now I get to sing it with you! There's a through-line for a song.... what songs have travelled with you your whole life?

Songwriter Info: Patricia was born in Boulder, CO, and is grateful to the burgeoning folk music scene that encouraged family music, which is how she learned this song.

Song Learning Time Stamps:
Start time of teaching: 00:02:20
Start time of reprise: 00:12:08

Links:
An intriguing discussion board about trad music: https://mudcat.org/
An introduction to Child Ballads: https://folkways.si.edu/playlist/child-ballads 
Text of Child Ballad #46 (which The Riddle Song is believed to have come from): https://sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/child/ch046.htm 
The Cecil Sharp collection of The Riddle Song: https://archives.vwml.org/records/CJS2/9/2688 
Doc Watson's recording: https://youtu.be/fRO6egtKipg?feature=shared 
Carly Simon's recording: https://youtu.be/4O_Lu_khQDM?feature=shared 

Nuts & Bolts: 4:4, major, strophic (3 verses)

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