From "Roll Me in Your Arms: 'Unprintable' Ozark Folksongs and Folklore: Volume I, Folksongs and Music," by Vance Randolph, 1992, found with Google Book Search. (You can also view the sheet music.)


THE LADY IN RED

'Twas a cold winter's evening.
The guests were all leaving.
O'Leary was closing the bar,
When he turned and he said
To the lady in red,
"Get out! You can't stay where you are."

She wept a big tear
In her bucket of beer
As she thought of the cold night ahead,
When a gentleman dapper
Stepped out of the crapper (phone-booth),
And these are the words that he said:

(Slow and mawkish:)
Her mother never told her
The things a young girl should know,
About the ways of college men
And how they come and go.—(Mostly go!)

Now age has taken her beauty,
And sin has left its sad scar,
So remember your mothers and (kid-)sisters, boys,
And let her sleep under the bar!

[Excerpts from Randolph's extensive notes:]

Sung as above by Miss Wyana McDow, Fayetteville, Arkansas, May 20, 1957. Text and tune copied from her manuscript of that date, Songs for the Suds: A Collection of College Party Songs ... private manuscript of a college thesis....

This is a typical barbershop quartet mock-tragic, humorous 1890s piece....

Also, to tease the audience, at the expected word crapper ... some singers substitute the mock-expurgatory "phonebooth." ...