This edition of Song of the Week is dedicated to Cloudscome of A Wrung Sponge and Diana of St. Fiacre's Garden.
While I was practicing The Garden Song on the guitar, Lucia asked me, "What's the name of the song?"
"It's called 'The Garden Song,'" I replied.
"'The Garden Song' is called...?" she asked again.
"The person who wrote the song [David Mallett] decided to call it 'The Garden Song,'" I said. "That's the actual name of the song."
Have you ever tried to reason with a four-year-old?
Eventually, I found it easier just to switch songs.
I still enjoy playing "The Garden Song," though. It's been covered quite a bit, and I'm pretty sure you've heard at least one version of it:
Inch by inch, row by row
Gonna make this garden grow
All it takes is a rake and a hoe
And a piece of fertile ground
Inch by inch, row by row
Someone bless these seeds I sow
Someone warm them from below
'Till the rain comes tumbling down.
The lines that resonate most with me are in the second part of the song:
Pullin' weeds and pickin' stones,
We are made of dreams and bones...
For those who want guitar chords, that don't involve the pesky F, I'm going to give you the ones Nancy Stewart wrote out for me, only I'm not going to pull my hair out by trying to format them correctly. If anyone out there has successfully posted chords on a blogger platform without pulling out their hair, please let me know. The pre-formatting tag is the best I've done in the past.
Here are the chords:
G C G
Am D G Em
Am D G Em
A7 D
G C G
Am D G Em
C D G Em A7 D G
You can find a MIDI file with the tune here.
Update: Thanks to Galetea of Blogapotamus Rex, I found a link to John Denver singing "The Garden Song" with some fruits, veggies and flowers on the Muppet Show. I hadn't found it previously because (get this) I didn't think to make "gardensong" one word.
If you want something less reverent and more on the silly side, here is The Anti-Garden Song by Eric Kilburn. It's the same tune, only now you're singing,
"Slug by slug, weed by weed,
My garden's got me really teed..."
11 comments:
One of my very favorite episodes of the Muppet Show is the one where John Denver sang The Garden Song with a lot of little cabbages. :)
Galetea: Thanks! I found the Youtube clip (under "gardensong" which is why I hadn't found it before) and updated this post.
Thanks for posting this.
one of my favorite songs when I was a kid listening to Clark Jones and his Fretless Banjo:
http://www.smithsonianglobalsound.org/containerdetail.aspx?itemid=1900
Can't wait to see John Denver...
Oh, I love the Anti-Garden Song. Perfect for my sad garden right about now. The squirrels and chipmunks are winning.
Sam: Thanks for the link! I'll check it out.
HWM: I thought about the Anti-Garden song this morning when I saw that the first squash on the vine had bites taken out of it. It's a good thing squash is so prolific, or I'd be sad.
I first heard The garden Song at a Peter, Paul and Mary concert and fell in love with it immediately.
Alkelda!! John is my BOY!! I have had a crush on him for about 35 years. Hearing his voice again brings it all back and I miss him so much! That is a wonderful song. THANK YOU!
I *LOVE* it! Sorry I have been away so long! Your garden is awesome!
Thanks, Diana! That photo was from Mid-July or early August, I can't remember which. Now, it's time to prepare the ground for those spring bulbs...
I seem to recall that my mother had this on a record when I was young. I heard it on the radio this morning and was searching for a recording and stumbled across your blog post, so thought I'd say thanks for the post.
Emily: Thanks for commenting! I hope you found the recording you liked.
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