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London Bridge

from Love Call Me Home by Peggy Seeger

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(note by Elisabeth Higgins Null with Charles H. Baum)
"London Bridge Is Falling Down" is, at one level, a simple children's game, but for Peggy it hints at possible practices of human sacrifice. Indeed, European and Asian legends suggest that a body entombed during the construction of a bridge could protect travelers as they crossed over water. In this country, two children usually make an arch with their outstretched arms and other children pass underneath until one is captured when the arch descends. The "prisoner," "sweetheart," or "fair lady" must then make a choice or be chosen in order to gain release. "I remember playing London Bridge as a game myself when I first went to school," recalls Peggy:

"I even remember what I was wearing. I loved those games. The 'circle round' is an odd one because in the game you don't circle. You file through the 'bridge' while the children who make the bridge hold their hands up."

William Wells Newell, in his classic Games and Songs of American Children (New York: 1883) compares Anglo-American versions in which the bridge falls or burns and is built up again to those of France and Italy, where children choose between heaven and hell or wine and water. According to Newell, the game is mentioned by Rabelais as "The Fallen Bridge" (c. 1533) and appears as "Charlestown Bridge" in an American chap-book called Mother Goose's Memories during the early nineteenth century. He also tells us that Pennsylvania Dutch children called a German version of the game ("The Magdeburg Bridge") the "Bridge of Holland." An English version of London Bridge first appears in print in Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book (1744), although printed references appear in the seventeenth century and circulated in oral tradition well before that.

In addition to its mythological resonances, the song has often stood for the resilient and enduring nature of England, and school children there have frequently been taught that it refers to the temporary destruction of London Bridge by King Olaf, early in the 11th century. Destroyed and rebuilt again and again, one of the bridge's recent incarnations was moved to Lake Havasu City, Arizona where it now attracts tourists by the thousand. Peggy's step-daughter, the celebrated pop singer Kirsty MacColl (1959-2000), used the "falling-down" of London Bridge to symbolize the waning of British power in her own contemporary song, "London Bridge is Falling Down."

Peggy's version comes from her parents, Ruth Crawford Seeger and Charles Seeger. She says she learned it from her mother, but there is also a 1937 recording of Charles Seeger singing a similar verse of it on Songs for Political Action (Bear Family box set, 1996). Peggy herself previously recorded "London Bridge" on her American Folksongs for Banjo (Folk-Lyric) and included it in her book, Folk Songs of Peggy Seeger (Oak, 1964). Peggy's family version employs a distinctive tune and an unusual set of play-party lyrics that emphasize choosing, kissing, and hugging multiple partners.

The original version of the Seeger family song was probably collected in Arkansas by John A. Lomax in 1936 and Laurence Powell, at that time the conductor of Little Rock's symphony orchestra. According to Vance Randoph and Frances Emberson's "The Collection of Folk Music in the Ozarks," (The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 60, No. 236. 1947, pp. 115-125), Powell invited John Lomax (perhaps with his wife Ruby T.) to Arkansas, where they recorded 78 songs from the great traditional singer Emma Dusenbury of Mena, Arkansas. We know that Mrs. Sidney Robertson and Lee Hays (Dusenbury's cousin) did some additional recording of Dusenbury, but "London Bridge" came from the Lomax-Powell sessions according to Duncan Emrich's American Folk Poetry: An Anthology (Boston: 1974). Ruth Crawford Seeger transcribed four of these songs from Emma Dusenbury for Our Singing Country (New York: 1941). The book, authored by John and Alan Lomax, is still in use today. Although "London Bridge" does not appear in the book, Peggy's mother may have learned the tune and lyrical structure of the song in the course of working from the set of field recordings of which it was a part.

Dusenbury's song, close to Mississippi versions on file at the Library of Congress's American Folklife Center, employs "O, Girls remember me" as the second line refrain instead of Peggy's "Do Lord, remember me." (We know that Charles Seeger sings "O, Girls remember me" on his 1937 recording.) Peggy's version also adds other common play-party or dance figures such as "circle round" and "take her home" as separate verses, regularly interjecting "honey my love" instead of other instructions such as "as we march around." Some of these displaced instructions also appear as separate verses. Peggy's song is thus given a regular and predictable form and meter.

Who contributed most to this lyrical transformation? It's hard to say. The song passed through the creative minds of both mother and daughter both of whom respected tradition even as they infused it with their own meanings and interpretations.

Emma Dusenbury's Lyrics to "London Bridge" (from the American Folklife Center,AFS 865A1):

London Bridge is a-burning down,
O, girls remember me
London bridge is a-burning down
For the prettiest girl I know.

Choose you one as we march around
O, girls remember me
Choose you one as we march around,
Of the prettiest girls you know.

Hug her neat and kiss her sweet
O girls remember me
Hug her nice and kiss her sweet
For the prettiest girl you know.

Take her by the right hand, tell her how you love her,
Oh, girls, remember me,
Take her by the right hand, tell her how you love her,
For the prettiest girl I know.

Invaluable research help was provided by Ann Hoog, reference specialist at the Library of Congress's American Folklife Center (www.loc.gov/folklife/ ), and also by Joe Offer and "Q" of Mudcat Café (www.mudcat.org)

lyrics

07 LONDON BRIDGE

words and music: traditional USA
5-string banjo tuning: Key of Eb; 5th and 3rd, low Gb; 4th, low Eb; 3rd, Bb; 2nd, D.

London's Bridge is falling down
Do Lord, remember me
London's Bridge is falling down
On the prettiest girl I know.

Choose you a partner, honey my love,
Do Lord, remember me
Choose you a partner, honey my love
You're the prettiest girl I know

Kiss your partner, honey my love,
Do Lord, remember me (etc)

Circle round, honey my love (etc)

Take her home, honey my love (etc)

Choose you another one, honey my love (etc)

Circle round, honey my love (etc)

Hug your partner. honey my love (etc)

Then take her home, honey my love (etc)

London's Bridge is a-falling down
Do Lord, remember me
London's Bridge is a-falling down
On the prettiest girl I know.

credits

from Love Call Me Home, released April 26, 2005

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Peggy Seeger Oxford, UK

Peggy is one of the most influential folk singers on either side of the Atlantic. She is Pete Seeger’s half-sister and Ruth Crawford Seeger’s daughter; her first life partner was the English songwriter Ewan MacColl, who wrote First Time Ever I Saw Your Face for her. She has made more than 22 solo recordings to date. Please check ewanmaccoll.bandcamp.com for other albums featuring Peggy. ... more

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