If you want any more you can sing it yourself, His sister, Peggy Seeger, also took up the song, adding an oft-incorporated final verse which advises the husband to attend his own needs and leave his wife be: Pete Seeger recorded ‘Risselty-Rosselty’ as the second track of his 1950 album Darling Corey. Chubby Parker made several recordings, under the title ‘Nickety, Nackety, Now, Now, Now’, from 1927 and Ridgel’s Fountain Citians recorded their take on ‘The Nick Nack Song’ in 1930. Whenever the song actually originated in Britain, it was appearing in print in the United States by the turn of the twentieth century. She churned the butter in dad’s old boot, Retrical quality, willaby wallaby now now now. Risselty rosselty, hey bombosity, nickety nackety, I carried her off by the light of the moon, She is still slovenly, but escapes overt violent punishment: Bawdy texts of the song exist – including lines such as ‘My wife she’s a hure of aw the sluts’, and one common variant which sees the wife dying in shame because ‘she pishit in the bed’ – but generally the American version is softer on the wife-beating message. The American version of ‘Wee Cooper O’Fife’ goes by the name ‘Risseldy Rosseldy’ or ‘Risselty Rosselty’. If you want yer dinner go get it yourself,Īnd with a good stick he went whickety-whack, This version contains broadly the same verse content as ‘Wee Cooper O’Fife’, but introduces ‘risselty rosselty’ to the hook in place of Scottish names and exclamations: A version was recorded by Burl Ives for his 1941 debut album Okeh Presents the Wayfaring Stranger, and the song has since been performed by folk artists including Hedy West, Ed McCurdy, Ian Campbell, and Jean Redpath.Īn intermediary version exists somewhere between the traditional take, with its thick Scottish accent, and the American reformulation. ‘Wee Cooper O’Fife’ is first referred to in print in texts from the late 1880s. The close of this traditional composition even appears to offer the cooper’s services to other husbands, should they too find themselves suffering the strains of a ‘gentle wife’ unwilling to work. Just you send for the wee Cooper o’ Fife, It’s I’ll no thrash ye for your gentle kin, There was a wee Cooper wha lived in Fife,Īnd he’s laid a sheep’s skin on his wife’s ba’ck, The song details a cooper who beats his wife for refusing to cook, sew, and clean: The tune sung by the schoolchildren is an alternate, American version of a traditional Scottish folk song, ‘Wee Cooper O’Fife’. But as though enticed by the tune, crows gather in the background, readying another onslaught. Repetitive, cycling back upon its hook which seems filled with nonsense words, the children’s singing continues as Melanie sits smoking her cigarette in the playground, waiting for class to end. As she pulls up to the school steps, we can hear the schoolchildren inside – led by schoolteacher Annie Hayworth (Suzanne Pleshette) – reciting a folk song. So Lydia asks Melanie to drive in her top-down Aston Martin to the schoolhouse, to check on Cathy’s well-being. And the following morning Lydia Brenner (Jessica Tandy) pays a visit to her neighbour, Dan Fawcett, only to find the farmer dead in the corner of his room, his eyes all pecked out. Later that evening a swarm of sparrows invade the Brenner home through the chimney. A couple of early incidents featuring agitated lone gulls – a swift strike as Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren) prepares to dock her motorboat, and another which annihilates itself in the Brenner front door – progress into a fully-fledged attack on Cathy Brenner’s (Veronica Cartwright) birthday party, as the youngster celebrates turning twelve.
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