“Dance to Your Daddy” – and the loss of “thou”
When I was very young, we had a record that had a rendition of the folk song “Dance to Your Daddy.” I loved it and can remember it well. I’ve looked and looked online for the particular version from my childhood – unfortunately, I can’t remember who sang it but maybe the Clancy Brothers. But I haven’t been able to find it although I found plenty of others. Most are nice, but not quite right.
The original song used the word “thou” instead of “you” in addressing the child to whom the singer is singing. “Thou shalt have…” was repeated throughout, not “you will have” or “you shall have” as in so many versions appearing on YouTube. The words “thou” and “thou shalt” are phrases many people think of as religious and archaic because they’re familiar with them from the King James Bible. But “thou” was a way people who were close to each other used to address each other in the second person instead of “you,” as in “tu” for example in Spanish. It’s the familiar, and it was the way you spoke to loved ones.
The following version has the right tune and many of the words. But they sing “you” instead of “thou,” as well as a few other changes. She’s a fine fiddler, though, and seems to perform with such ease! I love the little catch in her voice, too. These two musicians are married, by the way. At the end, they segue into another version of essentially the same song:
And here’s another rendition of the first version. It’s fairly close to the one I know but this time starting slow and getting fast. Note how the type of fish the child will get keeps changing. This one has the “thou shalt” construction that I consider important:
Another thing that may seem minor to you but is major to me is when they say something like “she will be your girl (or lass) and you will be her man“. No, no, NO! My version said lass and laddie. “Laddie” rhymes with Daddy, first of all. And it just goes better with the famliar “thou,” as far as I’m concerned. The version I knew went this way: She shall be your lass and thou shalt be her laddie/Dance to your Daddy, my little man.
Here’s a different version, basically the one they finished up with at the very end of that first video. This version uses “thou shalt,” which I consider obligatory, but otherwise it’s rather different:
But I wish wish wish I could find the version I knew. Can anyone help? The way they sang “boiled” was great, too; it had two syllables.
I grew up with devout Quaker neighbors who in the sixties unselfconsciously issued forth thees and thous to a fare thee well. Potter mother, turning bowls, cups, plates, saucers, mugs . . . my entry to the world of handcrafted goods. Carved soap, too. Besties with her kids, we did a heap of hanging out.
I did some quick searching to learn about “thou” and so on as the familiar. I couldn’t find evidence for that, but lots of evidence that it was simply the second person singular, and “ye” was the plural. “Ye” became “you” and the distinction between singular and plural disappeared in common speech.
My kids took Latin in a southern state. Their teacher made them translate the second person singular as “you” and the plural as “y’all” so she could tell if they knew the difference.
Well, there’s always this, the creepy favorite of Daddy Daughter dances in the South: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmC3rJR7E98
“…second person singular as “you” and the plural as “y’all…”
Heh. I always thought “y’all” was the singular, and “all y’all” was the plural…!
But then…I was a yankee by birth, and had to learn Southern speak, so I might have it wrong.
What a difference a century or two makes!
The title “Dance to Your Daddy” sounds slightly obscene today.
“Y’all” is plural. “All y’all” is used when the speaker wants to make it clear that everyone is included without exception.
The version I remember was the theme song for a BBC drama ‘When the Boat Comes In” sung by Alex Glasgow. Right words but with a northern British accent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utkMQJeiK50
… y’all …
I recall another great moment in SjwSpeak, when someone decided that “you guys” was patriarchal or something, then recommended “y’all” as the plural pronoun of choice.
Didn’t the people who put up Robert E. Lee statues say, “y’all”?
I prefer “you” to “you guys,” when the group addressed contains females, but I’m not prepared to be rude to people about it.
“Y’all” is plural. “All y’all” is used when the speaker wants to make it clear that everyone is included without exception.
Ok…everyone included without exception sounds to me like plural.
If “y’all” is plural, then what’s the singular?
The singular is “you.” “All y’all” is just an extra-emphatic, inclusive, plural.
“Y’all,” after all, is a contraction for “you all.”
Never heard that song.
I never heard it, either, and I’m about Neo’s age. Strange.
Apparently, just as soon as “you” became the singular as well as the plural form, Americans (at least) started inventing new plural forms. “Y’all” is the just best known, but “youse”, “yinz”, and “you’uns” also exist. “You guys” is a more modern version.
If I had to guess, I’d say that rural British stuck with the “thou” form; I think I’ve heard it morphed into “tha” in various “old folks show off their dialect” recordings.
I wonder what other Anglosphere dialects have come up with — any Aussies or Kiwis on here want to enlighten us?
I never heard it, either, and I’m about Neo’s age. Strange.
I’ve listened to a fair amount of English, Scottish, and Irish folk music for an American and me neither. But there’s plenty more from that well than I’ve sipped.
It’s on my bucket list to make it to the annual Cropredy Folk festival started by the legendary folk-rock band, Fairport Convention, some fine year. (neo, that’s Richard Thompson’s first band, if you don’t know.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairport's_Cropredy_Convention
I know the song from nursery-school days, and love this recorded version, although it’s not the one I learned.
King’s Singers. Uses “thy” and changes the names of the fish; they present it more as a drinking song than a child’s song.
Great harmony of course. The entire album is superb, especially the Welsh ballad “Watching the White Wheat.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUC5nFGdCag
I did a search with duck duck go and found all the first ones saying thou.
There was one that sounded very authentic as a folk song, unfortunately it gave only an intro of the music and to hear the rest you had to start an account. It’s out there for you, but hard to find.
I too will endorse Alex Glasgow’s version recommended by Alistair. To be specific the accent is Geordie, often difficult for other English people to understand.
Auld Lang Syne, often thought to be a Scottish song, has the same pedigree. Burns first heard it sung in Newcastle.
This version by Sweeney’s Men is the one I’ve always known. It’s got the “thou shalt” and the fish changing, but not the lass/laddie construction, sadly, although there is a laddie/daddy rhyme. It’s off a UK folk music 2 CD set I’ve had for years.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qONmZyWdILU
A big thanks to everyone who introduced me to a new version. Quite nice, but still not the one I seek.
ComputerLabRat: the one you linked to is closest. But I want “thou shalt be her laddie!”
The loss of “thou” in classic hymns is a big problem to me. Most hymns are poems, and modernizing the wording changes the sound effects that make the poetry work. The intimate form of “you” was used to address God, too.