Froggy Went A-Courtin'


Happy New Year! What a year 2018 was—it went by so quickly because of all that took place… there were weddings (one of which was mine!); there was sickness and health; there was Yosemite, Cahokia Mounds and Haleakala; there was Vegas and the Stray Cats; their was opening for The Blasters; their was home renovation—my window of opportunity for saying "I re-plumbed the whole house!" is probably gone; and the list goes on (but not here).

2018 was also a year of sketching and this year I hope to bring more sketches to fruition. My last piece of 2018 was Froggy Went A-Courtin'. Many of us know a little of that song and it got stuck in my head this fall. I started to imagine Froggy looking for his mate and getting all those fun bachelor things out of the way like smokin' and drinkin' and shootin' and tootin'—really living it up. I also started to imagine this very wholesome song in a seedier way (guess I've been watching too much of the evening news) with Froggy thinking sexier thoughts about Ms. Mousey and Papa Rat Trap being a little bit rougher around the edges.

Tex Ritter (father of John Ritter (father of Jason Ritter)) is credited with writing this song although I thought it was one of those tunes that's just been around forever. The lyrics are very extended, but the only recorded version I can find of his is pretty short. It's a great little bouncy-fun tune:

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