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Archive-name: music/birthday-dirge-faq
Posting-Frequency: monthly Last-modified: 1997.10.13 Version: 1.03 See reader questions & answers on this topic! - Help others by sharing your knowledge
Table of Contents
1. What is "The Birthday Dirge"?
2. What are the lyrics?
3. Where did it originate?
4. Why?
1. What is "The Birthday Dirge"?
--------------------------------
"The Birthday Dirge" is sung to the tune of "The Volga Boatmen". If you
don't know the tune by name, you know it by sound. It's the depressing
sounding Russian folk tune that nearly everyone has heard at one time
or another. The resounding thud that follows each "Happy Birthday!" is
traditionally accompanied by a "HUHN"-like grunt. The sort of groaning
grunt that workers lifting heavy loads might find natural.
2. What are the lyrics?
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The Dirge is know know in various circles as "The Barbarian Birthday Song",
"The Viking Birthday Sang", "The SCA Birthday Dirge", etc. Those lyrics
most common are listed first. Variations and additional lyrics follow.
Feel free to pick and choose those verses that best suit the group you
are with and the person being serenaded.
THE BIRTHDAY DIRGE
tune: "Volga Boatmen"
Happy Birthday! <thud!> Happy Birthday! <thud!>
1. Now you've aged another year
Now you know that Death is near
Happy Birthday! <thud!> Happy Birthday! <thud!>
1a. So you've aged another year
Now you know that Death is near
2. Children dying far and near
They say that cancer's caused by bheer
2a. Children dying everywhere
Women crying in despair
3. Death, destruction, and despair
People dying everywhere
3a. Doom and gloom and dark despair
People dying everywhere!
3b. Doom, destruction, and despair
Grief and sorrow fill the air
3c. Doom, destruction, and despair
People dying everywhere
3d. Death and gloom and black despair
People dying everywhere
3e. Pain destruction and despair
People dying everywhere
4. Typhoid, plague and polio
Coffins lined up in a row
5. Now that you're the age you are
Your demise cannot be far
5a. Now you are the age you are
Your demise cannot be far
5b. When you've reached the age you are
Your demise cannot be far
Other Common Verses:
6. Black Death has just struck your town
You yourself feel quite run-down
6a. Pestilence has struck your town
You yourself feel quite run-down
7. Birthdays come but once a year
Marking time as Death draws near
8. Long ago your hair turned grey
Now it's falling out, they say
8a. Soon your hair will all turn grey
Then fall out (or so they say)
The Viking/Barbarian Verses:
9. Burn the castle and storm the keep
Kill the women, but save the sheep
9a. Hear the women wail and weep
Kill them all, but spare the sheep
9b. May the women wail and weep
kill them all, but save the sheep
10. Burn, then rape by firelight
Add _romance_ to life tonight
11. Indigestion's what you get
From the enemies you 'et
12. May the candles on your cake
Burn like cities in your wake.
12a. May the cities in your wake
Burn like candles on your cake,
13. May the children in the street
Be your barbequeing meat
13a. We love children, yes we do
Baked or broiled or in a stew
14. May your deeds with sheep and yaks
Equal those with sword and axe
14a. May your deeds with sword and axe
Equal those with sheep and yaks
15. They stole your sword, your gold, your house
Took your sheep but not your spouse
16. This one lesson you must learn
First you pillage, then you burn
17. While you eat your birthday stew
We will loot the town for you,
The SCA Verses:
18. We brought linen, white as cloud
Now we'll sit and sew your shroud
19. You're a period cook, its true
Ask the beetles in the stew
20. Your servants steal, your wife's untrue
Your children plot to murder you
Other Verses:
21. Fear and gloom and darkness but
No one found out you-know-what
21a. Just be glad the friends you've got
Haven't found out you-know-what
22. I'm a leper, can't you see
Have a birthday kiss from me
23. It's your birthday never fear
You'll be dead this time next year
24. Now another year has passed
Don't look now they're gaining fast!
24a. So far Death you have bypassed
Don't look back, he's gaining fast
25. Now you've lived another year
Age to you is like stale beer
26. Now your jail-bait days are done
Let's go out and have some fun
27. See the wrinkles on your face
Like the pattern of fine lace
28. Were I sitting in your shoes
I'd go out and sing the blues
29. So you're 29 again
Don't tell lies to your good friend
29a. Tho you're turning 29
Age to you is like fine wine
30. You must marry very soon
Baby's due the next full moon
31. When you've reached this age you know
That the mind is first to go
3. Where did it originate?
--------------------------
The origins are shrouded in mystery. My first exposure to it was around
1983 or 1984. I've heard various forms of the tune performed by various
organizations (e.g. SF fandom, SCA). This threatens to remain one of
those unanswerable frequently asked questions.
4. Why?
-------
After several sessions of trying to remember what the lyrics were, I
decided to start writing them down. Then I began to see other versions
on various newsgroups. Collecting and grouping the verses has become one
of my hobbies. After enough people asked for copies, I decided to start
posting the collection.
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This compilation is Copyright 1997 by B. Gabriel Helou (gabe@mystery.com)
If you forward, repost, or print this message, please include this notice.
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