Uke-Song: "A FICKLE TWIST OF VERSE"

PARODY-LYRICS, based on traditional poetry (limericks)

ORIGINAL SONG: "Simple Twist of Fate" Bob Dylan 1975; covers by Diana Krall and Sean Costello are recommended.
ORIGINAL POETRY: At Wikipedia (click here), you can find a discussion of limericks dealing with the 'man from Nantucket'.
PARODY COMPOSED: Giorgio Coniglio, June 2016. To return to the corresponding post on "Daily Illustrated Nonsense" (and to see the lyrics without the chord-chart indications) click HERE. 

CONTENTS: 
1. "There once was a man from Nantucket" (clean version) - 3 verses, unattributed .
2. "There once was a man from Nantucket" (dirty version) - cleaned up by G.C.
3. "A gross, a dozen,  and a score" - Leigh Mercer
4. Chorus. "People say it makes them sick" - Giorgio Coniglio


A SIMPLE TWIST OF VERSE

(to the tune of "Simple Twist of Fate")

1. There was a family from Nantucket:
Pa kept cash hid in a bucket,

Til one day his daughter took it

Daughter name of Nan - 

She ran off with a man. 

Pa felt things might get worse, and 

Watched out for a simple twist of verse. 

    Pa followed couple to Pawtucket -
Little Nan and cash-filled bucket. 

Just before old Pa retook it,

He said to the man, 

"You’re welcome to keep Nan.” 

He uttered a terse curse, and  

Moved off with a simple twist of verse. 

    The couple trailed him to Manhasset
Pa held cash there as an asset.

Pail in question? Now man has it;

They stole cash and ran - 

Nan with her new man –  

She stuffed it in her purse, and  

Forgot about a simple twist of verse.

2. They had a neighbor from Nantucket

On the island he was stuck; 

Bad reputation, couldn’t chuck it, 

Based on body build –  

Girls found him too ‘strong-willed’, 

Which fate could not reverse, 

Brought on by a simple twist of verse. 

3. A gross, a dozen and a score
Plus three times the square root of  four;

Divide by seven, no whit more, 

And add eleven fives, 

And hope your brain survives; 

That’s nine squared per Leigh Mercer 

Cited in this twisted limerick verse. 

4. People say it makes them sick
To hear too many limericks;
I fear it has become my shtick,
But now I've lost the knack,
With no good jokes to crack --
A tendency perverse;
Blame it on a simple twist of verse.

HOT LINKS TO "SONGS ABOUT LIMERICKS"
Dark Schemes (Russian Hacking)
Novel Melodies
Simple Twist of Verse
(Another) Simple Twist of Verse
(Yet another) Simple Twist of Verse
Verse!

UKULELE-FRIENDLY FORMAT

(Click on any chord-chart slide to move to 'song-presentation mode'; then navigate through thumbnails at bottom of page.)

 

Leigh Mercer, author of the underlying mathematical limerick, is best known for his palindrome, "A man, a plan, a canal, Panama"

CONTINUATION

This song continues at post #129 - "Bob Dylan Sings More Classic Limerick-Lyrics".



ORIGINAL SONG-LYRICS
(click on any song chart to enlarge and compare the original and parody versions of the song)