Lyr Req/Add: He Goes to Church on Sunday

Subject: Lyr Req: He Goes to Church on Sunday
From: iancarterb
Date: 12 Aug 07 - 01:12 PM

This song is from an Edison cylinder transcribed and sung at my first hearing by one Peter Fletcher, then a math grad student at Duke in 1963 or '64. I remember the chorus from singing it with Peter many times but zero verses, and I suppose that means I don't know the melodic line for the verses either. Nothing shows up in Digitrad or any old Mudcat threads. The chorus as I remember it is:

He goes to church on Sunday,
He passes 'round the contribution box,
But catch him in the office on a Monday,
He is cunning and as clever as a fox,
On Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday,
He is robbing everybody that he can,
But he goes to church on Sunday,
So they say that he's an honest man.

Any help out there?

Carter Bannerman

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: He Goes to Church on Sunday
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 12 Aug 07 - 02:02 PM

The sheet music is available on the Levy Sheet Music site.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: He Goes to Church on Sunday
From: masato sakurai
Date: 12 Aug 07 - 06:46 PM

The sheet music at the Levy:

Levy Call Number: Box 146, Item 142
Title: He Goes to Church on Sunday.
Composer, Lyricist, Arranger: Words by Vincent Bryan. Music by E. Ray Goetz.
Publication: New York : Shapiro Music Publisher, Cor. Broadway & Thirty Ninth Street
Date: 1907
Form of Composition: strophic with chorus
Instrumentation: piano and voice
First Line: I know a very wicked man, I knew him when a lad
First Line of Chorus: He goes to church on Sunday, he passes round the contribution box
Performer: Introduced by Eddie Foy in the Musical Comedy "The Orchid"
Engraver, Lithographer, Artist: Starmer; unattrib. photo of Eddie Foy
Advertisement: ads on back cover for Shapiro Music Publisher stock
Subjects: Frauds; Deception; Vice; Alcoholics; Lawyers

The cylinder recording:

"He goes to Church on Sunday" sung by Billy Murray.
Edison Gold Moulded #9612, recorded in April, 1907. A comic (but somewhere true) song from "The Orchid".
Composed by: E. Ray Goetz / Vincent P. Bryan

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: He Goes to Church on Sunday
From: iancarterb
Date: 12 Aug 07 - 07:37 PM

Thanks Dick, thanks Masato. Peter even used the "Edison presents Billy Murray" intro when he sang it. I am downright gleeful as well as grateful. Carter B

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: He Goes to Church on Sunday
From: iancarterb
Date: 13 Aug 07 - 01:26 AM

What an incredible resource the Levy collection is! I've been directed to it before and didn't get there. Oh, for dumb! Thanks again. Carter B

Subject: Lyr Add: HE GOES TO CHURCH ON SUNDAY (Bryan, Goetz
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 16 Aug 07 - 11:50 PM

My transcription from the sheet music at the Levy site:

HE GOES TO CHURCH ON SUNDAY
Words, Vincent Bryan. Music, E. Ray Goetz.
New York: Maurice Shapiro, 1907.

1. I know a very wicked man. I knew him when a lad.
I never met his equal telling lies.
And though he takes delight in doing ev'rything that's bad,
He thinks he'll go to heaven when he dies.
When but a child, he robbed his dear old grandma in her sleep.
He stole two golden teeth out of her jaws.
He's been a kleptomaniac since he began to creep,
But the neighbors think that he's all right, because...

CHORUS: He goes to church on Sunday.
He passes round the contribution box;
But meet him in the office on a Monday,
He's as crooked and as cunning as a fox.
On Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday,
He's robbing ev'rybody that he can,
But he goes to church on Sunday,
So they say that he's an honest man.

2. All through the week, this wicked man is fond of drinking deep.
He makes his fam'ly wish that they were dead.
He gives his kids a penny each, to make them go to sleep,
And then he robs them when they go to bed.
They wake up in the morning and they look round for the cent,
Then in a crying chorus they all join.
Then papa scolds the kids and asks them where the money went,
And he spanks them all because they lost the coin.
And ... CHORUS

3. I always thought my fam'ly doctor honest as could be,
Until I had a pain the other day.
He said, "You have appendicitis, I can plainly see.
You need an operation right away."
He charged three hundred dollars for that operation,
Then he found I only had a stomach ache.
He left his scissors in me when he sewed me up again;
Then he went and marked me, "Opened by mistake."
And ... CHORUS

4. I've lost my faith in lawyers, too. There's one a friend of mine:
I though that he was honest and O. K.
I asked him once if he supposed the weather would be fine.
He answered, "No, it's sure to rain today."
Next day, I got a note which read, "I've sent my bill to you:
Ten dollars for opinion on the rain."
I wouldn't pay. He sued me, and he got a judgment too.
I was busted, so he took my watch and chain.
And ... CHORUS