From Unknown Sun 18 Feb 96 03:54:26
Newsgroups: rec.music.folk
Path: usc!math.ohio-state.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!gatech!newsfeed.internetmci.com!in1.uu.net!world!jcf
From: jcf@world.std.com (Joseph C Fineman)
Subject: Re: Song "Sweet Violets"
Message-ID: <DpLw0v.B1x@world.std.com>Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
References: <4ka2td$20e@dfw-ixnews3.ix.netcom.com>
Date: Tue, 9 Apr 1996 17:46:06 GMT
Lines: 44

oksteve@ix.netcom.com(Stephen ) writes:

>Does anybody remember a song- "Sweet Violets"- of the early 1950's?

You mean "Sweet Violets" has an _original version_?  %^)  I've never
heard anything but bawdy parodies of it.

In the mid 1950s I heard kids sing

  In the springtime, in the springtime, in the springtime of yore,
  I knew a young lady who was quite a
  Beautiful lady; she lay in the grass,
  And when she rolled over, she'd show me her
  Ruffles & tuffles & sometimes a tuck,
  And she promised to show me a new way to
  Bring up our daughters & teach them to knit,
  While the boys in the horse barn were shoveling
  Hay for the horses, which is quite an art,
  But, boy, does it smell when the horse lets a

  Sweet violet, sweeter than all the roses,
  Covered all over from head to toe,
  Covered all over with sweet violets.

(A friend & I have written a much better version, but I forbear.)

I suspect that the original is a good deal older.

In Scotland in 1959 a version of "The Wheel" was current that ended

  Now we come to the bitter bit:
  There was no method of stopping it.
  The maid was split from C**T-TO-TIT!
  And the whole fucking issue was covered with

  Sweet violets, sweeter than all the roses,
  Covered all over from head to toe,
  Covered all over with SHIT! SHIT! SHIT!

I would be delighted to hear where all this came from.
-- 
        Joe Fineman             jcf@world.std.com
        495 Pleasant St., #1    (617) 324-6899
        Malden, MA 02148