#902. Come and I Will Sing You

 

"Come and I Will Sing You (The Twelve Apostles)" has been an obsession of mine since I first heard it on the Great Big Album The Hard and the Easy, released all the way back in 2005 (if I can possibly believe it...!), one of the rare songs sung by Bob Hallett (sort of the band's own Ringo Starr in that regard).

...The problem is that Bob Hallett sings it...Bob's great!  Don't get me wrong.  But he doesn't exactly sing...clearly.  That's of course him singing in the first of the two videos (the second being an adorable version I found last month in my further attempts to get my family to love the song as much as I do), so you can hear what I mean.

But that's also part of the charm!  I love listening to Bob sing it.  Actually learning what he's singing becomes difficult, however, so that's why it's taken the better part of twenty years to do so...

Obviously I didn't dedicate a great amount of time in the past two decades to do so, but the interest was always there.  The song itself is based on traditional material (as with much of Great Big Sea's catalog), and the variations are known by different titles, but the gist of it is that it's a version of "The Twelve Days of Christmas," which itself has enough weirdness just trying to interpret what all the figures mean, which is also the fun of "Come and I Will Sing You," once you find out what Bob's singing.

To wit (and this is my version, don't you know):

Come and I will sing you!  What will you sing me?  I will sing you one-o.  What will the one be?  One the one that's all alone and ever more shall be.

So come and I will sing you!  What will you sing me?  I will sing you two-o.  What will the two be?  Two of them were lily-white babes, clothed all in green-o, one the one that's all alone and ever more shall be.

So come and I will sing you!  What will you sing me?  I will sing you three-o.  What will the three be?  Three of them were drivers, two of them were lily-white babes, clothed all in green-o, one the one that's all alone and ever more shall be.

So come and I will sing you!  What will you sing me?  I will sing you four-o.  What will the four be?  Four gospel preachers, three of them were drivers, two of them were lily-white babes, clothed all in green-o, one the one that's all alone and ever more shall be.

So come and I will sing you!  What will you sing me?  I will sing you five-o.  What will the five be?  Five ferrymen under the bush, four gospel preachers, three of them were drivers, two of them were lily-white babes, clothed all in green-o, one the one that's all alone and ever more shall be.

So come and I will sing you!  What will you sing me?  I will sing you six-o.  What will the six be?  Six the six pallbearers, five ferrymen under the bush, four gospel preachers, three of them were drivers, two of them were lily-white babes, clothed all in green-o, one the one that's all alone and ever more shall be.

So come and I will sing you!  What will you sing me?  I will sing you seven-o.  What will the seven be?  Seven stars under the sky, six the six pallbearers, five ferrymen under the bush, four gospel preachers, three of them were drivers, two of them were lily-white babes, clothed all in green-o, one the one that's all alone and ever more shall be.

So come and I will sing you!  What will you sing me?  I will sing you eight-o.  What will the eight be?  Eight Gabriel singers, seven stars under the sky, six the six pallbearers, five ferrymen under the bush, four gospel preachers, three of them were drivers, two of them were lily-white babes, clothed all in green-o, one the one that's all alone and ever more shall be.

So come and I will sing you!  What will you sing me?  I will sing you nine-o.  What will the nine be?  Nine bright-eye shiners, eight Gabriel singers, seven stars under the sky, six the six pallbearers, five ferrymen under the bush, four gospel preachers, three of them were drivers, two of them were lily-white babes, clothed all in green-o, one the one that's all alone and ever more shall be.

So come and I will sing you!  What will you sing me?  I will sing you ten-o.  What will the ten be?  Ten the ten commandments, nine bright-eye shiners, eight Gabriel singers, seven stars under the sky, six the six pallbearers, five ferrymen under the bush, four gospel preachers, three of them were drivers, two of them were lily-white babes, clothed all in green-o, one the one that's all alone and ever more shall be.

So come and I will sing you!  What will you sing me?  I will sing you eleven-o.  What will the eleven be?  Eleven that went straight to heaven, ten the ten commandments, nine bright-eye shiners, eight Gabriel singers, seven stars under the sky, six the six pallbearers, five ferrymen under the bush, four gospel preachers, three of them were drivers, two of them were lily-white babes, clothed all in green-o, one the one that's all alone and ever more shall be.

So come and I will sing you!  What will you sing me?  I will sing you twelve-o.  What will the twelve be?  Twelve the twelve apostles, eleven that went straight to heaven, ten the ten commandments, nine bright-eye shiners, eight Gabriel singers, seven stars under the sky, six the six pallbearers, five ferrymen under the bush, four gospel preachers, three of them were drivers, two of them were lily-white babes, clothed all in green-o, one the one that's all alone and ever more shall be.

Hey!

Finally I decided I just needed to sing it, so I learned it, and some of it was tongue-tying until I learned it well enough, and that's how I spent the weeks of Christmas and so I've satisfied both my curiosity and interest in the song.  At last!

And here's some explanations:

• "One the one..." This one's pretty self-explanatory.  This is God.
• "Two lily-white babes" These are Jesus and Mary, born without original sin.
• "Three of them were drivers" The Three Kings.
• "Four gospel preachers" Well, Matthew Mark Luke & John.
• "Five ferrymen" One of the difficult ones to parse.  Possibly the five wounds of Christ on the cross.
• "Six pallbearers" Also subject to wide interpretation, possibly the six jars of water Jesus turned into wine, or the six days of creation.
• "Seven stars" Probably the seven sacraments.
• "Eight Gabriel singers" Archangels.
• "Nine bright-eye shiners" The orders of angels in general.
• "Ten commandments" Self-explanatory.
• "Eleven that went straight to heaven" The apostles excluding Judas.
• "Twelve apostles" And including him.