The note I have in my old loose-leaf notebook of songs that I used to sing says that I got it from Carl Sandberg's "American Songbag," and has the added comment, "The tune is 'Dixie" - a melody which could stand some new words anyway." I think I learned the singing of it from the Ed McCurdy record. It was my daughter's absolute favorite song when she was young. Our version went this way:

A HORSE NAMED BILL

I had a horse, his name was Bill,
And when he ran he couldn't stand still,
He ran away, one day, and also I ran with him.

He ran so hard he couldn't stop,
He ran into a barber shop,
He fell exhausted, with his teeth, in the barber's left shoulder.

Oh, I went out into the woods last year,
To hunt for beer and not for deer,
I am, I ain't, a great sharpshooter.

At shooting birds, I am a beaut,
There is no bird I cannot shoot,
In the eye, in the ear, in the teeth, or in the finger.

In 'Frisco Bay there is a whale,
And she eats pork chops by the bale,
By the hatbox, by the pillbox, by the hogshead, or schooner.

Her name is Lena and she is a peach,
But don't leave food within her reach,
Or babies, or nursemaids, or choc'lat ice cream sodas.

She loves to laugh and when she smiles,
You just see teeth for miles and miles,
And tonsils, and spareribs, and thingas too fierce to mention.

She knows no games, so when she plays,
She rolls her eyes for days and days.
She vibrates, she yodels, and breaks the ten commandments.

Oh what can you do in a case like that?
Oh what can you do but stamp on your hat,
Or on an eggshell, or a toothbrush, or anything that's helpless.

I had a gal and her name was Daisy,
When she sang the cat went crazy
With delerium, and St. Vitus and all kinds of cat-aleptics.

*************

As I recall, the last verse was not in the Carl Sanberg version. I'm not sure where I found it, but it worked well as a final verse to end the song.


Reiver 2