buoy [boy] ~ [BOO-ee]

[Dan Goodman]

I learned the boy/buoy bit from John Boardman (author of The Asteroid
Light) several decades ago.  He was not (and is not) a professional singer.

I believe there are several versions of "The Eddystone Light" at
mudcat.org.  Also "The Keeper of The London Zoo," "The Asteroid Light,"
and "The Leader of the General Strike."


On 03/24/2014 08:07 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
> You can find a bunch of different versions (52) of "Eddystone Light" on iTunes; the excerpts I checked all have
  /@hoi/ and /boi/ (and the bit, I just after that couple, about how one
of the offspring was exhibited as a talking fish
and another served in a chafing dish; all very tragic), but I didn't
come across any (without having checked all 52) that
included the final spoken couplet below.  I guess it was the old
"Brothers Four" version that I dimly recall.
>
> On Mar 24, 2014, at 8:00 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>
>> Who's singing and can you give us an audio URL?
>>
> At 3/24/2014 01:51 PM, Dan Goodman wrote:
>>> ...
>>> My father was the keeper of the Eddystone Light.
>>> He slept with a mermaid one fine night.
>>> Out of this union there came three;
>>> A porgy, a porpoise, and the other was me.
>>>
>>> One day as I was trimming the glim,
>>> Singing a snatch of the evening's hymn;
>>> I heard a voice shouting "Ahoy!"
>>> And there was my mother, sitting on a boy.
>>>
>>> Spoken:  That is, a buoy what's for ships that sail;
>>> And not a boy what's a juvenile male.

--
Dan Goodman
Whatever you wish for me, may you have twice as much.
http://dsgoodman.blogspot.com

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