Origins: Shanghai

Subject: Origins: Shanghai
From: Goose Gander
Date: 13 Jan 08 - 06:23 PM

Shanghai

Well, the hen and the rooster went away out West
Said the hen to the rooster, 'Hon, I love you best.'
Said the rooster to the hen, 'Hon, I think you lie,
Caught you in the alley with the red shanghai.'

Lord, ain't that so?
Now, listen baby, I don't know
Honey, don't you lie to me
Ain't as dumb as I used to be

Now, I know a doctor by the name of Heck
Fell into a well and broke his doggone neck
Served him right, he was in the wrong
He ought to tend the signal that the well was long*

Lord . . .

Well, I bought a combination suit of underwear
To keep out the cold and the wintery air
I wore 'em six months without exaggerating
When I start to take 'em off, I forgot the combination

Lord . . .

Well, I put Easter eggs under my old hen
It was Easter morning then
The rooster came along and saw the green ones and the red
And he jumped upon the bench and killed the peacock dead

Lord . . .

As sung by Willard Brewer at Shafter FSA Camp 8-4-40.

Source:
Voices From the Dust Bowl.

Alright, this song obviously is related to Who Broke the Lock on the Henhouse Door?, done by Riley Puckett as Riley's Hen House Door, but this seems to be a distinctive variant. Roud 16033, but Brewer's song is the only reference listed.

*Not sure about this line . . . .

Subject: RE: Origins: Shanghai
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 13 Jan 08 - 06:51 PM

I hear the line the same as you. I think it's OK, with tend in the sense of pay attention to.

Mick

Subject: RE: Origins: Shanghai
From: Goose Gander
Date: 13 Jan 08 - 10:22 PM

It looks like Debbie in Utah learned a similar version from her father, if this verse (posted in this thread) is any indication . . . .

The Jealous Rooster:
Well a hen and a rooster lived a way out west,
Said the rooster to the hen, "Hun, I love you best."
Said the hen to the rooster, "Hun, oh how you lie!
I saw you in the alley with a big Shanghi."
CH: "Oh, ain't it so?" "Honey I don't know."
"Honey don't you lie to me,
Cuz I ain't as dumb as I used to be."
(5 more versus)

Subject: RE: Origins: Shanghai
From: Goose Gander
Date: 17 Jun 08 - 12:37 PM

Some lyrics associated with Turkey in the Straw, posted by Bill in Alabama in this thread, are clearly related.


There was an old doctor; his name was Peck;
Fell in the well and broke his neck.
Served him right, he should have stayed at home,
Tended to the sick, 'n' let the well alone.

I was down in the henhouse on my knees,
Thought I heard a chicken sneeze.
It was only the rooster sayin' his prayers,
A-thankin' God for the hens upstairs.

Way down yonder in Chitlin' Switch,
A bullfrog jumped from ditch to ditch.
Bullfrog jumped in the bottom of the well;
He said, "Oh, Lord, I've jumped in hell."

Subject: RE: Origins: Shanghai
From: 12-stringer
Date: 17 Jun 08 - 01:58 PM

"I knowed a doctor by the name of Heck (Peck?)
Fell into the well and broke his god-dog neck
Served him right, he was in the wrong
He ought to tend the sick and let the wells alone."

Brewer's song appears to be a reworking of "Old Black Crow in the Hickory Nut Tree," recorded by the Allen Brothers on 11/22/1930 (Victor 23551). The melody is slightly different, but only slightly, and most of the Brewer lyrics are very similar to the Allens', though his version is shorter. His chorus sounds, melodically and lyrically, like a rewrite of the Allens':

"Now ain't that so?
I don't know, I don't know.
Certainly is a mystery
About an old black crow in a hickory nut tree."

There's a thread about the "Old Black Crow/Story the Crow Told Me" group of songs. thread.cfm?threadid=95777
See the first post in the thread for a link to the Honking Duck real audio copy of the Allen Brothers recording.

The verse about the peacock parallels one in Blind Blake's "Lowdown Loving Gal of Mine," recorded in 9/1928 on the Paramount label:

"When the rooster saw the eggs and they was red
He went across the road and knocked the peacock dead
I tried to do that to that ever loving gal of mine."

Subject: RE: Origins: Shanghai
From: Goose Gander
Date: 17 Jun 08 - 02:15 PM

Thanks for all of that, 12-stringer. I have a feeling that these are all remnants of a larger cluster of lyrics current among both black and white singers around the end of the nineteenth and the start of the twentieth centuries. Maybe something from the medicine shows or the minstrel stage(?). I'll go look up and listen to your references now . . . .

Subject: RE: Origins: Shanghai
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 17 Jun 08 - 03:25 PM

Cluster(s?) is the right word. Perrow, Odum, et al. have printed a number of fragments or whole songs, and there are mudcat threads with these songs or parts thereof.
There must be dozens or reports of the 'knees-chicken sneeze' and 'way down yonder' verses from the late 19th-early 20th c, both white and black sources.

Songs from Christy's Minstrels (Songster, 1850), like:
Opossum up a gum tree
Cum Along John (chicken sneeze verse here, also milk in the dairy nine days old, jaybird jump..., just come down from ..., )
Uncle Gabriel (animal characteristics in verse)
Several other minstrel songsters, have similar verses.

Some seem to be based on stories told by blacks and whites, e. g.
Uncle Remus, etc.

Trying to impose some sort of order on these songs isn't a job I would like to have. So many people have added to, combined,
or rearranged these verses.

Subject: RE: Origins: Shanghai
From: Goose Gander
Date: 17 Jun 08 - 04:27 PM

Alright, I guess the second verse of Brewer's song should go as follows:

Now, I know a doctor by the name of Peck
Fell into a well and broke his doggone neck
Served him right, he was in the wrong
He ought to tend the sick and leave the well alone.

Subject: RE: Origins: Shanghai
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 17 Jun 08 - 04:43 PM

That probably is the best way to sing the 'Peck' verse; the one from Scarborough just posted to thread 95777- The story the crow told me- is not acceptable now.

Subject: RE: Origins: Shanghai
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Jun 08 - 01:15 AM

http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/eggs/res10-breedhistory.html

The Chinese Shanghai fowl came to England and America in 1845.