The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #59319   Message #3992108
Posted By: Jim Dixon
13-May-19 - 12:01 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Why Do You Bob Your Hair, Girls? (A Reed)
Subject: Lyr Add: ...SINCE MOTHER BOBBED HER HAIR
Another song on the same subject, from the sheet music at Indiana Historical Society:


SISTER HASN'T GOT A CHANCE SINCE MOTHER BOBBED HER HAIR
Words Blanche Franklyn & Nat Vincent, music by Harry Von Tilzer, ©1924.

VERSE 1. Extra! Extra! Special extra! Here's some news for you:
No, it's not about King Tut or how to make home brew.
It's about my flapper sister, fly and flip at that.
Gee, she took an awful flop; her beaus have left her flat.

CHORUS 1: Sister hasn't got a chance since Mother bobbed her hair.
You talk about your vamp!
Mother throws a wicked lamp.
Now that Ma is young again, she's given Dad the air.
She has fellows by the score,
Some as young as eighty-four.
Sister hasn't got a chance since Mother bobbed her hair.

VERSE 2. Extra! Extra! Special extra! Headlines say today
Barbers all went out on strike and threw their tools away.
There's a reason, darn good reason, that you will agree:
All the barbers' close relations want their hair bobbed free.

CHORUS 2: Sister hasn't got a chance since Mother bobbed her hair.
At dancing she's a hound,
Picks 'em up and lays 'em down.
If Dad loses one night's sleep he's like a grizzly bear.
That ain't all I'm telling you:
Grandma's gone and done it too.
Sister hasn't got a chance since Mother bobbed her hair.

[You can hear a recording of this song at the Internet Archive, by Arthur Collins and Byron G. Harland on Edison 51392-R from 1924. It has the following additional lyrics which are not on the sheet music. This is my transcription with some questionable parts:]

There's bobbed-haired Chinese, bobbed-hair Heines, bobbed-hair Portuguese,
Bobbed-hair Slovaks, these-aks, those-aks(?), bobbed-hair grits and grease(?).
There's bobbed-hair Syrians and Siberians, Belgians, polgians(?), wops,
And I hear in dear old London they've got bobbed-hair cops.

Sister hasn't got a chance since Mother bobbed her hair.
Now Mother's wise, you see,
Gives her age as twenty-three.
Talk about your chicken, well! I'll tell you, she's all there.
Sister's got a lot to learn.
Ma's an old established firm.
Sister hasn't got a chance since Mother bobbed her hair.

There's bob-tailed horses, bob-tailed thrushes(?), bob-tailed rabbits, too.
Bob-tailed cats and bob-tailed hats and bob-tailed kangaroos.
There's bobolinks and bob-wire drinks and bob-tailed ginger(?) coats,
Bob-tailed bulldogs, bob-tailed bullfrogs, bob-tailed nanny goats.

Sister was the cat's meow.
Ma's the bulldog's bow-wow-wow.
Sister hasn't got a chance since Mother bobbed her hair.