Origins: Red Light Saloon (Bawdy)

Subject: Origins: Red Light Saloon (Bawdy)
From: and e
Date: 15 Jan 25 - 11:04 AM

Red Light Saloon

Well I arrived in Denver and hour too soon
And I thought I'd stop off at the Red Light Saloon
I boldly walked up in and sat down at a bar
And a dirty old chippy said have a cigar

I took that cigar and sat down in a chair
The dirty old chippy came right over there
Well she tickled my whiskers and ruffled my hair
And she made old John Henry stand up in the air

I stood from my chair and threw down my cigar
And said baby lets have a round somewhere
The place that she showed me was right up the stairs
And the thing that she showed me was covered with hairs

She wrapped her legs round me and wiggled her ass
And she made old John Henry go off with a blast
Well hotsey and totsey -- a flower in bloom
A fuck for buck at the Red Light Saloon

Feb 5, 1958. Transcribed from a reel to reel tape in the Kenneth Goldstein collection.


Listen online: https://egrove.olemiss.edu/kgreels_unk/54/

Subject: RE: Origins: Red Light Saloon (Bawdy)
From: cnd
Date: 15 Jan 25 - 11:41 AM

I have two recordings of this song, both by Oscar Brand; one on Back-Room Ballads (CMS Records CMS-101) from 1949, and the other from American Drinking Songs (Riverside Records, RLP 12-630) from 1956. I have my scholarly qualms with Brand, but as a musician and finder of material, he's hard to rival. Both recordings are materially identical, except the last two verses. Unfortunately, Back-Room Ballads album has no liner notes whatsoever; American Drinking Songs reports the following:

In Minneapolis, many years ago, a bar-side acquaintance sang me pieces of this favorite lumberjack song. I filled in the gaps later on and thought I was very daring. But, in England, Alan Lomax told me that I was singing a bowdlerized version of what he considered America’s rowdiest song. I would have gotten the real verses, but we ran out of Guinness and the party broke up early.

Below is my transcription of the 1949 recording.

RED LIGHT SALOON
(Oscar Brand)

It was early one morning I walked into town
And in sweet recreation, I wandered around
When I spied a hotel in the late afternoon
That was sporting a sign, said The Red Light Saloon

So I boldly walked in and stepped up to the bar
And a pretty young maiden said "Have a cigar"
Well I took that cigar with a "Thanks for the boon"
But she said "That's our way in the Red Light Saloon"

Then she mussed up my hair and sat down on my knee
Saying "You are a lumberjack, that I can see"
Saying "You are a logging man, that we all know
For your muscles are hard from your head to your toe"

She proceeded to try if my muscles was right
And I smoked that cigar without striking a light
And my head starting rising just like a balloon
From the treatment I got at the Red Light Saloon

It was early one morning, I bid her goodbye
She waved from the window with a tear in her eye
So I did not discover til next afternoon
That my wallet was still in the Red Light Saloon

Well I cursed that young maiden til the forest turned blue
And with women and whiskey I swore I was through
But I knew as I swore I'd give my fortune
Just to be back again in the Red Light Saloon

/ / / / / /
And finally, the two slightly different verses from the 1956 recording, sang in place of the 5th and 6th verses above.

It was early one morning, I bid her goodbye
She waved from the window with a tear in her eye
So I did not discover til the middle of June
I was carrying a keepsake of the Red Light Saloon

Well I cursed that young lady til the Heaven turned blue
And with whiskey and women I swore I was through
But with all of my swearing, I'd give my fortune
Just to be back in bed at the Red Light Saloon

Subject: RE: Origins: Red Light Saloon (Bawdy)
From: Lighter
Date: 15 Jan 25 - 12:28 PM

Roud 9424. Good find of a rarely reported song. To judge from other versions, everything after Brand's stanza 3 is probably his owncomposition - or his informant's!

Newspaper ads and accounts mention a great many “Red Light Saloons” from Boston to San Bernardino between 1853 and 1900 (where I stopped looking).

Brand recorded the song at least four times: on "Backroom Ballads" (Chesterfield CMS-101, 10”, 1949) ; on "American Drinking Songs" (Riverside RLP 12-630, 1956) ; on "Oscar Brand Sings for Adults" (ABC-Paramount: ABC 388, 1961), and “'Live' on Campus" (Apex Al-7, 1970), Yet it does not appear in his recorded BS&BB series, despite its inclusion as 6 stzs. w/melody & piano acc. in the songbook that accompanies the recordings; Brand's head note:

“The lumberjacks who depleted our great forests worked twenty-five or more hours daily. One day a year they would visit the nearest settlement which usually consisted of one general store and one saloon, with rooms upstairs. I learned the song from an ex-logger in Minneapolis who claimed he had written it. (Another tall tale from the woods.)”

Newspaper ads and accounts mention a great many “Red Light Saloons” from Boston to San Bernardino between 1853 and 1900 (where I stopped searching). FWIW:

Detroit Free Press (Dec. 13, 1867), p. 1:

“Jennie Jenks, proprietress of the ‘Red Light’ saloon on Jefferson avenue, Louisa Jones, Frank Brundage, and several others who were recently indicted by the Grand Jury for keeping houses of ill fame, were arraigned at the Recorder’s Court yesterday.”

Subject: RE: Origins: Red Light Saloon (Bawdy)
From: and e
Date: 15 Jan 25 - 01:16 PM

Red Light Saloon

I arrived in Muskegon the tenth of July
For connections to make with a train I did find.

Got left in Muskegon and that was my doom
When I paid a short visit to the Red Light Saloon

Oh the Red Light Saloon in Muskegon I walked to the bar
A red headed maiden sold me a cigar

I took my cigar and sat down in the chair
And this red headed maiden come tripin' and skippin' 'round there.

Oh she sat in my lap. She paid with my mustache and mussed up my hair
Oh joy-boy old Ruben went up in the air.

Oh we tripped up the stairway a bedroom to find
I done shucked my cloths and she pulled down the bind.

Oh laid there a-puffin and a-panting a while
She says, "Get off me you damned hobo. You've got me with child."

Oh she washed off my dodger and scrubbed out her cunt.
And she went right downstairs for some more jazzing to hunt

If you should meet this fair maiden when roses to bloom
She'll jazz for two dollars in Muskegon at the Red Light Saloon.

August 1941. Transcribed from the singing of Bill Neupert, Schofield, Wisconsin.



Listen online: https://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/IHADDZ2CK76A68A

Subject: RE: Origins: Red Light Saloon (Bawdy)
From: Lighter
Date: 15 Jan 25 - 01:48 PM

Doerflinger, "Shantymen and Shantyboys" (1951), expurgated from the singing of Willis Norrad, Norrad's Bridge, near Boiestown, New Brunswick:

"A trip down to Bangor, the Fourth of July,
To make my connection with a train I did try.
The train it being late, as you all will know soon,
I was forced to take a trip to the Red Light Saloon.

I boldly walked in and stepped up to the bar,
When a saucy young damsel said. ‘Have a cigar!’
A cigar I did take, in a chair I sat down,
When a saucy young damsel came tripping around.

She boldly came over, sat down on my knee,
Saying, ‘Jack, you’re a woodsman, that I plainly see.’
Saying, ‘Jack, you’re a woodsman, and that we all now,
Your muscle is hard from your head to your toe!’. . ."