[Dixielandjazz] Lead and Chords Needed - ROW, ROW, ROW

[Don Kirkman]

On Sat, 28 Feb 2004 16:37:36 EST, PBurke113 at aol.com wrote:

>Because I have an Ada Jones CD version of the song, I was searching for 
>different versions of the lyrics today and found that when I searched "Row Row Row" 
>by itself I got the lead-in that became the children's song "Row Row Row Your 
>Boat" and discovered that the best search was "Then He'd Row Row Row". They 
>even had some midi instrumental playbacks (piano). I also discovered back when 
>I first heard the song (by Jones) that the "row, row, row" was a lot slower 
>than what it became in later years (thanks to Eddie Cantor et al)....which made 
>sense when you think the timing of someone rowing. Slower makes it almost 
>sensuous. In addition, I noticed that all the illustration I find for the song 
>seem to ignore the lyrics, "he'd jump in his boat and they would spoon". They all 
>show her sitting in the stern seat opposite him. I imagine that such a scene 
>of him rowing and her sitting in his lap would have been a bit risque for the 
>time. And it really was quite a risque song if you listen to it, what with all 
>that spooning and landing among grand trees, and "he knew just how to row, he 
>was a rowing Romeo" and all. Or maybe people have forgotten what spooning 
>was.

I wonder if you might not be too young to remember the other meaning of
"spoon," which was pretty much synonymous to "spark" ?  IIRC (at my age
there's no guarantee) they both meant to neck or to pet, to woo or to
court.

My Websters, nearly as old as I am, says to spoon is "to make love by
caressing, kissing, and talking amorously."  No sitting in laps
necessary.  :-)   Musical content (hundreds of lyrics)  "croon, June,
moon, spoon, tune."

[...]
-- 
Don
donkirk at covad.net