Have YOU seen the ghost of Tom?
Oct. 30th, 2003 10:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mollyringleRound this time of year I tend to get this little tune in my head; a tune in minor key that they taught us in grade school:
Have you seen the ghost of Tom?
Long white bones with the flesh all gone
Ooh-ooh-ooh-oooh, poor old Tom
Wouldn't it be chilly with no skin on!
Googling on it proves that it's widely known, but no one seems to know who wrote it. So, is this a song that just a few schools learned? Or nearly all kids in the U.S.? Or all over the world? Now I'm curious:
[Poll #198560]
ETA: Here: I found a midi file of the tune, so you can learn it if you don't know it.
Have you seen the ghost of Tom?
Long white bones with the flesh all gone
Ooh-ooh-ooh-oooh, poor old Tom
Wouldn't it be chilly with no skin on!
Googling on it proves that it's widely known, but no one seems to know who wrote it. So, is this a song that just a few schools learned? Or nearly all kids in the U.S.? Or all over the world? Now I'm curious:
[Poll #198560]
ETA: Here: I found a midi file of the tune, so you can learn it if you don't know it.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2003-10-30 10:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-10-30 11:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-10-30 11:55 am (UTC)we used to sing this in the school choir when I was 8!
I sing it to myself all the time, but I don't know very many people who have heard it.
And of course, having learned it at school - nobody ever tells you the origins of the songs you sing unless they're from *gag* Oliver Twist (don't get me wrong, loved the musical, hated singing the show tunes).
no subject
Date: 2003-10-30 01:31 pm (UTC)Same with Cheer Up Sleepy Jean - I was really surprised when I was watching Monkees reruns and they were singing it :)
no subject
Date: 2003-10-30 08:58 pm (UTC)Old choir songs are fun, I randomly got The Water is Wide stuck in my head the other day, and did a google search on it and asked my lj buddies about it. It's cool to think how long these little tunes have been around for and where they might have come from.
link to stream
Date: 2004-12-18 12:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-10-26 11:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-10-28 10:55 pm (UTC)Ghost Tom
Date: 2008-10-11 12:14 am (UTC)Have you seen the ghost of tom? Long white bones with the flesh all gone. Ooh, ooh, ooh, oooh, ooh, ooh, ooh. Wouldn't it be chilly with no skin on.
Pretty much the same, but still different. I really like the tune. Can't stop singing it. My friends in I, who are also in chorus, are going to sing it while we trick or treat. *laugh*
Re: Ghost Tom
Date: 2008-10-12 12:23 am (UTC)I learned the following lyrics in CT ~ 1977
Date: 2008-10-25 01:32 am (UTC)Eyes bugged out and nose too long
with big ugly teeth and
only one cheek to keep his toungue in
Ghost of Tom
Date: 2008-10-31 12:12 am (UTC)I can fill in the missing words to the last version. Yes, I love the tune too, I sing it every year.
Have you seen the ghost of Tom?
Eyes bulged out and nose too long
With big ugly teeth and a shiny white chin
Only one cheek to keep his tongue in
Mimi
We know the song too!
Date: 2009-04-08 05:30 pm (UTC)I sing in a choir in the Netherlands and we use this song to warm-up our voices!
Bye.
Re: We know the song too!
Date: 2009-04-10 12:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-15 05:41 pm (UTC)Have YOU seen the ghost of Tom?
Date: 2009-12-17 07:17 pm (UTC)Re: I learned the following lyrics in CT ~ 1977
Date: 2010-10-14 06:31 pm (UTC)this was it
Date: 2010-11-05 01:25 am (UTC)eyes bugged out and nose to long
with big ugly teeth and a shinny white chin
only one cheek to keep his tongue in
and there was a story about how tom was working in the fields and heard a scream going back to his wife to find her gone the house ransacked he hear's her screaming in the woods. and chases her.. getting his cheek ripped off on a tree branch.. and they found elizebeths body the following spring in the snow and the only thing they found of him was his cheek on a tree my old music teacher told that story every year saying it happened near edgar nebraska.. then we sang the song...
Re: this was it
Date: 2010-11-09 02:45 am (UTC)Ghost of Tom
Date: 2011-04-28 09:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-27 05:51 pm (UTC)Ghost of John/Tom
Date: 2012-08-11 10:55 pm (UTC)A musician out west (California?) named Kristen Lawrence, I think, has an amazing version of it - check her out!
Ghost of Tom
Date: 2012-09-05 12:53 am (UTC)Adult placement
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