Rock and roll singin' in 1865

[Jonathan Lighter]

Much can we learn from the magic of birdsong:

  1865  New Orleans Times (Feb. 27)  3 [rptd. from All the Year Round]: This sent the parrot's association to sea and she...sang with a tenderness and fair-weather-after-a-storm sweetness:

  "Rock and roll me over, one more day,
  One more day, my darling, one more day;
  Oh, rock and roll me over,
  One more day."

  Aficionados will recognize the song as a sea shanty called "One More Day."   "Rock and roll me over" appears in the chorus of every known version.

  JL


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