The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #26926   Message #2612115
Posted By: GUEST,Robert
15-Apr-09 - 09:47 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Oh my, I want a piece of pie
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Oh my, I want a piece of pie
OK, I gotta join in because I came looking for just this discussion, and am surprised to not see the version I learned. I grew up in the Anacostia district of SE Washington, D.C. I was born in 1961 and vaguely recall that I learned this one from my older brother maybe between 1967 and 1970. I always assumed he got it from school, but we were pretty much the only whites on our street and the black girls next door spent a lot of time doing some skilled rope jumping with songs and chants, so maybe it came from them. The rhythm seems much too slow for skipping rope, though, unless they jumped at twice the meter or something. But it had a truly "boy sound" to it, always with a deep, growling voice like an alcoholic bum or something...can't imagine girls doing this one!

OOOH! AHH!
Wanna piece o' pie!
Pie too sweet,
Wanna piece o' meat!
Meat too tough,
Wanna ride a bus!
Bus too full,
Wanna ride a bull!
Bull too black,
Want ma' money back!
Money too green,
Go get Mr. Clean!
(with emphasis...)
Mr. CLEEAAN SEZ...(pause)
(start over at top and repeat, endlessly)

I had to do it for my 7-year-old son tonight, as I always do, when I got out the Mr. Clean to clean up a mess of his. Who knows, maybe I picked up some kind of marketing version of it!

And, BTW, we sometimes did this as we played penny-ante tunk, but that is another thread somewhere, I am sure!

Robert