When you're up you're up.

Walden · Post by **Walden** » Sat Feb 28, 2009 12:46 am

The grand old duke of York he had 10,000 men.

Walden · Post by **Walden** » Sat Feb 28, 2009 12:46 am

He marched them up a hill and he marched them down again.

Walden · Post by **Walden** » Sat Feb 28, 2009 12:47 am

And when they're up they're up.

Walden · Post by **Walden** » Sat Feb 28, 2009 12:47 am

And when they're down they're down.

Walden · Post by **Walden** » Sat Feb 28, 2009 12:48 am

And when they're only halfway up they're neither up nor down.

hyldemoer · Post by **hyldemoer** » Sat Feb 28, 2009 1:05 am

"Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me"
- Richard Fariña

djm · Post by **djm** » Sat Feb 28, 2009 6:46 am

Stir it up, little darling.
Stir it up. Come on, baby.
- Bob Marley

djm

brewerpaul · Post by **brewerpaul** » Sat Feb 28, 2009 7:05 am

Walden wrote:And when they're down they're down.

There's always Viagara...

Makes you wonder about the line "He 'had' 10,000 men"...

emmline · Post by **emmline** » Sat Feb 28, 2009 7:09 am

Well, being only halfway up, myself, I can't especially relate to the Grand Ol' Duke,

but I would like to go Up, Up, and Away in a beautiful balloon.

otoh:

wiki wrote:The nursery rhyme is usually said to be based upon the events of the brief invasion of Flanders by Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany (1763-1827), the second son of King George III and Commander-in-Chief of the British Army during the Napoleonic Wars. In 1793, a painstakingly-prepared attack on the northern conquests of the French Republic was led by the Duke himself. He won a small cavalry victory at Beaumont (April 1794) only to be heavily defeated at Tourcoing in May and recalled to England.

but perhaps more convincingly:

More authoritative sources, such as Opie's Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes and Robert's Heavy Words Thrown Lightly, reveal several earlier versions of this rhyme. These described the military incompetence of leaders of other battles. One of the earliest known versions, for example, described the King of France leading 40,000 men. According to Opie and Robert, this rhyme had very little to do with any Duke of York, but was used instead more like children at school singing "Mary and David up in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G", swapping the names to fit whoever they wanted to torment that day.

Me...I would put my money on Opie. He got all that good advice from Andy, after all.

dwest · Post by **dwest** » Sat Feb 28, 2009 8:06 am

brewerpaul wrote:
Walden wrote:And when they're down they're down.
There's always Viagara...

Makes you wonder about the line "He 'had' 10,000 men"...

Royals, low count, it always shows. Jack and Jill went up the hill, you would think the well would be at the bottom of the hill.

Innocent Bystander · Post by **Innocent Bystander** » Sat Feb 28, 2009 10:14 am

Walden wrote:And when they're up they're up.

And when they were up they were up.

Otherwise it doesn't fit the tune.

djm · Post by **djm** » Sat Feb 28, 2009 10:43 am

dwest wrote:you would think the well would be at the bottom of the hill.

Hope springs eternal.

djm

emmline · Post by **emmline** » Sat Feb 28, 2009 10:54 am

Perhaps it was not a well, but a pump.

crookedtune · Post by **crookedtune** » Sat Feb 28, 2009 11:06 am

In my generation it was the library. Whatever. Still sounds like rough stuff going on.

peeplj · Post by **peeplj** » Sat Feb 28, 2009 11:09 am

What goes up, must come down.

--James

Chiff and Fipple Forums

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