Songs of weather

pugwash

pugwash

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We're visiting friends in the US for New Year and they have warned that every guest at the party is expected to sing a song about weather. Crikey, I'd rather be seasick! What's the choice beyond "You are my sunshine" and "The sun has got his hat on"? I'd sooner find something stormier, grittier, more anglo saxon, and preferably funnier. Any suggestions please?
 
"A song of the Weather" by Flanders and Swann:

January brings the snow,
Makes your feet and fingers glow.

February's ice and sleet
Freeze the toes right off your feet.

Welcome March with wintry wind
Would thou wert not so unkind!

April brings the sweet spring showers,
On and on for hours and hours.

Farmers fear unkindly May
Frost by night and hail by day.

June just rains and never stops
Thirty days and spoils the crops.

In July the sun is hot.
Is it shining? No, it's not.

August, cold and dank and wet,
Brings more rain than any yet.

Bleak September's mist and mud
Is enough to chill the blood.

Then October adds a gale,
Wind and slush and rain and hail.

Dank November brings the fog
Should not do it to a dog.

Freezing wet December, then
Bloody January again!


To be found on this album:
cover_hat.gif
...which I think you can still buy.
 
The January Man

The January man he walks the road
In woollen coat and boots of leather
The February man still shakes the snow
From off his hair and blows his hands
The man of March he sees the Spring and
Wonders what the year will bring
And hopes for better weather

Through April rains the man comes down
To watch the birds come in to share the summer
The man of May stands very still
Watching the children dance away the day
In June the man inside the man is young
And wants to lend a hand
And grins at each new color

And in July the man in cotton shirt
He sits and thinks on being idle
The August man in thousands take the road
To watch the sea and find the sun
September man is standing near
To saddle up another year
And Autumn is his bridle

The man of new October takes the reins
And early frost is on his shoulder
The poor November man sees fire and rain
And snow and mist and wintery gale
December man looks through the snow
To let eleven brothers know
They're all a little older

And the January man comes round again
In woollen coat and boots of leather
To take another turn and walk along
the icy road he knows so well
For the January man is here for
Starting each and every year
Along the road for ever
 
Singing in the rain? The film was set in NY, I beleive, so there's topical for you.

Or two with a nautical theme:

For those in peril on the sea
Blow the wind southerly
 
Stick with Flanders and Swann. Short, tuneful, very funny and easy to sing! Best with piano if it can be managed.
 
Yolu could recite "the rhyme of the ancient mariner" while accompanying yourself on guitar. At least they'll never ask you to do that again! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
STRMYWTH.gif


Stormy Weather, Boys

We were laying in Surrey Dock one day.
The mate knew that it was time to get under way.

cho: Stormy weather, boys, stormy weather, boys,
When the wind blows our barge will go.

He's homeward bound but he's out of luck
'Cause the skipper's half drunk in the Dog and Duck

Then the skipper came aboard with the girl on his arm
He's going to give up barging and take a farm.

So the mate ran forrard and the cook fell in the dock
And the skipper caught his knackers in the mainsheet block

The mate's at the wheel and he gybed her twice
'Cause the skipper's got his knackers in a bowl of ice

At last we're off down Limehouse Reach,
When our leeboards knocked on Greenwich Beach

The barge went ashore and scared our whore.
She said:"Chuck this, I'm off ashore."

We shoved her off and away we go,
But the skipper's got a barrel of beer below.

She fills away and she sails like heck
But there ain't no bargemen up on deck.

There's a crash and a bump and she's ashore
The mate says: "Christ, we're on the Nore."

Then up comes a mermaid covered in mud
The skipper says: "I think we're on the Whittaker Spit"

Then up comes another one covered in slime
So we took her down the focsle and had a time.

On the top of the tide the barge did fleet,
When the mate sees a ghost on the tops'l sheet

So away we go and the ghost did steer,
And the cook drank the dregs of the old man's beer.

We laid close-hauled round Orford Ness,
When the wind backed round to the south sou'west

We reached our port all safe and sound
And tied her up in Yarmouth Town.

So after all our fears and alarms
We all ended up in the Druid's Arms.

from the Oxford Book of Sea Songs, Palmer

Note: This may be the only song peculiar to the spritsail bargemen of England, according to Palmer
 
A Tribe of Toffs

"OOOOhhhhhhhh
Ayrton Senna's got the voice of a tenor
Peter Snow sings very low
Mark Barano is a soprano
and John Kettley, John Kettley, John Kettley
is a weatherman

John Kettley is a weatherman
a weatherman
a weatherman
John Kettley is a weatherman
and so is Michael Fish

Simon Parkin's always larkin
Eric Lane is the same
Jonothan Ross collects moss
and John Kettley, John Kettley, John Kettley
is a weatherman

Lester Piggot couldn't dig it
David Icke rides a bike
Richard Keys has got no knees
and John Kettley, John Kettley, John Kettley
is a weatherman

Debbie Thrower's got a lawnmower
Johnny Marr he plays guitar
David Steele lives in Keele
and John Kettley, John Kettley, John Kettley
is a weatherman

Chuck Knox has blue socks
Andy Crane has got no brain
Bernard Davy left the navy
and John Kettley, John Kettley, John Kettley
is a weatherman

John Kettley is a weatherman
a weatherman
a weatherman
John Kettley is a weatherman
and so is Michael Fish
and so is Billy Giles
and so is Ian McGaskill
so is Wincy Willis "
 
I have somewhere a Brian Perkins version of the Shipping Forecast, based on The Archers which is quite amusing if you can narrate in in BBC style.....I must find it , if of any interest pm me and i will dig it out
 
for example..Brian Perkins....Lundy,Fundy,Sundy,Monday, Wind southwesterly, bloody marvellous.
Humber, Thames,Bedford,Leyland,Daf, Regular outbreaks of wind,
 
Help! I can't sing a note, but... Yes, concur with previous posters who've mentioned the title... As you like sailing (I like the Sovereign 32 by the way), and you're going to USA - then you should consider: "Stormy Weather", written in 1933 by Harold Arlen, and performed in New York by Lena Horne... (that is reputed to have led to the naming of one of the most historical and successful small boats).
 
Thanks to all...

...for the great songs. All much appreciated. Even if I don't sing or drone them in Florida you might hear them off The Lizard one early morning.
 
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