Lyric to song "English Country Garden"

American cowboy singer Jimmie Rodgers had a big hit in 1962 with a distinctive song which enthusiastically recorded the invertebrates, animals and flowers in garden habitat.
you may well know it.
the fact that it has been covered by scores of recording artists (including Rolf Harris, the Dandys, Fred Wedlock and The Darkness) and has been commonly sung by classrooms of primary school inmates etc ever since is testament to its evergreen greatness.
along with Joni Mitchells (remarkably ahead of its time) classic Big Yellow Taxi ("pay farmers to put away the DDT/give me spots on apples but leave me the birds and the bees. please") it is one of very few chart hits from the 60s that spoke about important issues like the natural world - instead of "i want to hold your hand/baby come back" etc.
however, some of the species that Jimmie logged in his memorable "survey report" have always raised an eyebrow with me.
i havent got much gripe with the 1st verse (the flora) but in the 2nd (invertebrates and other animals) he cheerfully insists "there are snakes, ants that sting and creeping things in an English Country Garden". i wouldnt have thought the former setting of lawns and herbaceous borders etc ideal for adder even in 1962. of course grassies are occasionally found in gardens.
so i previously dismissed this line as exaggerated.
but i just found out that Jimmie only popularised the song. its a folk tune from the 1700s.
that puts a whole new light on it. back then, few gardeners or lyricists would have known that the "snakes" they commonly encountered were in fact, legless lizards. so the words are accurate for the knowledge of the era.

can anybody shed any light on the £rd and final verse of "English Country Garden though please?
im not much of a twitcher but 3 of the UK garden songbird species commonly spotted in an English country garden during the 1700s seem very unfamiliar to me!

Bobolink
Tanager
Cardinal Bluebird

all in the same breath alongside the more expected Thrush and Nightingale.
anybody got an theory or explanation for this?
perhaps these species were common UK migrants or residents when the song was penned and have since become extinct here like the Red-backed Shrike? or maybe these are just now-neglected alternative or local names for Blackbirds and Wrens. like Throstle for Ring Ouzel in Cumbria?

cheers, ben

I used to live in what is now Cumbria and a throstle was a thrush when I was there Ben.

thanks for your thoughts and info. yeah, Doors great band Gemma.
wonder why Jimmie chose to inaccurately change the words then and what the original lines were?

anyway if he can do it so can i....

How many kinds of sweet herpers post
on a British Reptile Forum?
ill tell you now of some that i know
to those ive missed,
sorry ive ignored em
Suzi, Gemma, Baby Sue
Chris, Mark, Kev, Agilis too
Roberts that debate over grass snake scars
then theres Kit, Will, Jim
a pair of Tims
on a British Reptile Forum.


it was my mate Bryn (an ex-gamekeeper from Cumbria) that told me they called Ring Ouzels "Throstles" up there Suz. maybe it varies even within the same county?

cheers, ben




Edited by ben rigsby - 22 Sep 2011 at 5:29pm

Well, unhappy with the Americanisms, i've corrected it - and added a verse of shamefully overlooked taxa

UK Country Garden

How many kinds of wild flowers grow
In a Gloucester county garden?
I'll tell you now
Of some that i know
And those i miss
You'll surely pardon
Agrostis, Poa, Timothy,
Bittercress, Beech, Hazel tree
Ragwort, Bindweed, Crepis, Willowherb
Ivy up and over walls
Bryophytes where water falls
In a Gloucester county garden

How many insects buzz or crawl below
Through a British backyard garden?
I'll tell you now
Of some that i know
And those i miss
You'll surely pardon
Hoverflies, moths, bumblebees
Woodlice, Earwig, Centipedes
Butterflies that sway
On the lead-polluted breeze
Flower Bugs alight and bite
It's the Midges' turn at night
In our town and country gardens

How many songbirds flit to and fro
Through our Celtic country gardens?
I'll tell you now
Of some that i know
And those i miss
You'll surely pardon
Blackbird, Robin, Nightingale,
Goldfinch, Sparrow, Wren and Quail
A Song Thrush at his anvil
Hammering a snail
Hope is borne by feathered wing
With the signals migrants bring
To our Celtic UK gardens

How many mammals, our nearest, dearest kin
Share our homes, sheds, parks and gardens?
I'll tell you now
Of some that i know
And those i miss
You'll surely pardon
House Mouse, Brown Rat, Fox and Shrew
Sometimes Badgers - just a few
'hogs rustle in the leaves
From the birds the squirrel thieves
Then at dusk the Pipistrelle
From the alcove where it dwells
Raids our backyard outdoor larders

How many herptiles creep to and fro
Through our allotment plots and gardens?
I'll tell you now
That the species range is low
But pet releases
Won't be pardoned
Slow worms are the likeliest
I doubt you'll hear an Adder hiss
Grass Snakes may grow long
But before you blink they're gone
The official stamp of spring
Is when the Common Frogs come sing
From the ponds and puddles of our gardens

Edited - missed a bit out.




Edited by Liz Heard - 21 Aug 2021 at 11:00am

Don’t think it could get that far. I’ve done several of these semi-mimicking corruptions of well known oldies and although I’m quite happy, our guitarist won’t touch any of them.
EG Tony Hatch ‘Messing about on the river’ became a song about alcoholism (Messing about with your liver), an other-end-of-the-social-scale version of ‘Where you you go to my lovely?’ sprang up, the Johnny Cash song ‘Jackson’ got reinvented as a look at the Michael Jackson controversy, ‘I fought the law (and the law won) became an ode to champion buttock clencher Lamarr Chambers - Lamarr fought the law (and Lamarr won), and following a chat about the industry with a care home employee I met, another Clash tune got twisted. ‘Career Opportunities’ dropped a letter - Carer Opportunities.

Anyway, how are the ‘hogs?