Subject: RE: Origins: Pink Pajamas From: AllisonA(Animaterra) Date: 27 Oct 23 - 07:26 PM The version that Lighter posted on 18 October is exactly what my best friend's big brother used to sing when I was eight. 11 years later when I was dating him, he had no memory of singing it to us girls, though he did remember the song. It's good to see some of the sources of the song. I've lost track of him, so I don't know where he got it from. |
Subject: RE: Origins: Pink Pajamas From: Mo the caller Date: 23 Oct 23 - 09:58 AM "I do wonder how long it took to get from an "adult" song to a street song." I think I heard it at school in about 1960. |
Subject: RE: Origins: Pink Pajamas From: Mo the caller Date: 23 Oct 23 - 10:04 AM But then some 6th formers are very ready to think about such 'adult' subjects |
Subject: RE: Origins: Pink Pajamas From: Lighter Date: 18 Oct 23 - 05:51 PM Plain Dealer (Cleveland, O.) (May 23 1913), p. 14: "I wear my pink pajamas in the summer, when it's hot; I wear my flannel nightie in the winter when it's not. But sometimes in the springtime, and sometimes in the fall, I creep right in between the sheets with nothing on at all!" The Arkansas Democrat (Little Rock) (May 15, 1915), p. 6, has the same, but with "dive" for "creep." |
Subject: RE: Origins: Pink Pajamas From: Lighter Date: 18 Oct 23 - 06:13 PM Times-Leader (Wilkes-Barre, Pa.) (Dec. 3, 1932), p. 20: “[U.S. soldiers in France in 1917-18 sang] impromptu dulcet measures of ‘Where Do We Go from Here’ or ‘Eyes Right’ or ‘Yo, Ho, The Merry King of England’ or ‘I’ll Tell You Where the Captain Is’ or ‘She Wears Her Pink Pajamas in the Summer When It’s Hot,’ which latter gem was followed by the booming chorus of ‘Glory, Glory Hallelujah!’” |
Subject: RE: Origins: Pink Pajamas From: Lighter Date: 21 Oct 23 - 10:32 AM Not at all: https://lyricsplayground.com/alpha/songs/o/ohsirjasper.html But why Sir "Jasper"? That's a somewhat unusual name, isn't it? |
Subject: RE: Origins: Pink Pajamas From: Lighter Date: 21 Oct 23 - 03:40 PM The earliest reference I've found to the song "Oh, Sir Jasper" is in John Brunner's story, "The Number of My Days," in Nebula Science Fiction, 19 (Dec., 1956). |
Subject: RE: Origins: Pink Pajamas From: Lighter Date: 21 Oct 23 - 07:34 PM There's no text of either song in Harold Bennett's "Bawdy Ballads & Dirty Ditties of the Wartime R.A.F.," which suggests the popularity of "Sir Jasper" postdates WW2. |
Subject: RE: Origins: Pink Pajamas From: Mo the caller Date: 21 Oct 23 - 06:26 AM I didn't know the song but wondered why my memory insisted that the sheets were lily-white Then from 60+ years ago I dredged up this to a similar tune O Sir Jasper do not hurt me "As she lay between the lily white sheets with nothing on at all" |
Subject: RE: Origins: Pink Pajamas From: Mo the caller Date: 21 Oct 23 - 10:00 AM Or am I combining 2 memories |
Subject: Origins: Pink Pajamas From: matthewdechant Date: 18 Oct 23 - 04:22 PM I've been looking around for origins on this song (the Pink Pajamas parody of Battle Hymn of the Republic) and have been surprised to find absolutely nothing, considering it must be a fairly recent (within the last hundred years or so) song. Seems to be very common in boy scout camps and the like. Does anyone have any information on where it might have come from? |
Subject: RE: Origins: Pink Pajamas From: Robert B. Waltz Date: 18 Oct 23 - 05:17 PM I've been looking around for origins on this song (the Pink Pajamas parody of Battle Hymn of the Republic) and have been surprised to find absolutely nothing, considering it must be a fairly recent (within the last hundred years or so) song. Seems to be very common in boy scout camps and the like. Does anyone have any information on where it might have come from? It certainly seems like a scouting song, doesn't it? And, indeed, the traditional mentions mostly come from camps (see Patricia Averill's Camp Songs, Folk Songs, which cites it three times. And yet, it's not in that incredible source of silly camp songs, Harbin's Parodology, and it's very rare in camp songbooks, presumably because it's considered a little risque. I found it in a Boy Scout songbook from 1997, but not in any of the many early scouting books I checked. And Alice Kane claimed to have learned it in Belfast around the First World War. That's not absolute proof -- she was recalling her songs more than half a century later. Her memory was very good, but that isn't the same as being demonstrably perfect. Still, best bet is that the song was in existence in Ulster by the 1920s, but somehow ended up sung in American camps. Which I agree is strange. |
Subject: RE: Origins: Pink Pajamas From: Robert B. Waltz Date: 18 Oct 23 - 06:44 PM Lighter wrote: Plain Dealer (Cleveland, O.) (May 23 1913), p. 14 Thank you! Interesting that that matches the version I've always heard, and that Alice Kane's version had changed. |
Subject: RE: Origins: Pink Pajamas From: Robert B. Waltz Date: 21 Oct 23 - 02:45 PM Lighter wrote: But why Sir "Jasper"? That's a somewhat unusual name, isn't it? Maybe he was hard as a rock? (Growf. The things I think of when dealing with bawdy songs.) It's not a common name, but it's not extremely unusual; I believe I knew a man named "Jasper" half a century ago, and there is a radio host with a cat named "Jasper." The song is in the DT -- file SIJASPR. Roud mixes it with "Pink Pajamas" (both #10311), but I certainly wouldn't. Averill's Camp Songs, Folk Songs cites it three different times, so it likely was popular in camps although, of course, no camp songbook would include the thing. I have not found any early references to it, but there are some interesting notes which I derive in part from Averill: The trick here, of course, is that each time through, one more word is left out (perhaps with muffled sounds replacing it), until the final sounds are almost orgasmic. It really should end with a "Tee hee," at least if anyone knows Chaucer's "Miller's Tale." I would love to know what camps allowed this thing! Averill calls this sort of thing, where words are left out of a song, a "decremental song." All I can say is, in terms of cleverness, this stands head and shoulders above the rest, even if it is not usable in polite company. "John Brown's Body" seems to be a popular tune for decemental songs, being used for both this and "John Brown's Flivver." - RBW |
Subject: RE: Origins: Pink Pajamas From: Robert B. Waltz Date: 21 Oct 23 - 04:07 PM Lighter wrote: The earliest reference I've found to the song "Oh, Sir Jasper" is in John Brunner's story, "The Number of My Days," in Nebula Science Fiction, 19 (Dec., 1956). Thank you! Once again we see that folk/SF connection. |
Subject: RE: Origins: Pink Pajamas From: Robert B. Waltz Date: 21 Oct 23 - 08:08 PM Lighter wrote: There's no text of either song in Harold Bennett's "Bawdy Ballads & Dirty Ditties of the Wartime R.A.F.," which suggests the popularity of "Sir Jasper" postdates WW2. I wouldn't have expected "Pink Pajamas" in a serviceman's anthology -- it really does sound like a camp song -- but I agree about "Sir Jasper." I haven't seen it in any military anthologies, either. The earliest field collection I know of is Ritchie's (James Ritchie, not Jean) The Singing Street, from 1964. I do wonder how long it took to get from an "adult" song to a street song. |
Subject: RE: Origins: Pink Pajamas From: and e Date: 08 Mar 24 - 10:25 PM THE CLAM DIGGER Book of Songs by Associated Harvard Clubs. 1916. pg 32. See online here: https://www.google.com/books/edition/Book_of_Songs/tX0-AAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=%22pink%20pajamas%20in%20the%20summer%22 This combines "Mary Anne McCarthy (went to dig some clams)" with "Pink Pajamas". |
Subject: RE: Origins: Pink Pajamas From: and e Date: 11 Mar 24 - 10:42 AM 113. She Wears The Bawdy Beautiful by Alan Bold. 1979 See online here: https://archive.org/details/bawdybeautiful1979unse/page/202/mode/2up?q=%22her+silk+pyjamas%22+summer |
Subject: RE: Origins: Pink Pajamas From: and e Date: 11 Mar 24 - 10:44 AM 71. GORBLIMEY Kiwi Youth Sings by Conrad Bollinger and Neil Grange. 1951 See here: https://archive.org/details/kiwiyouthsings/page/n41/mode/2up?q=%22sheets+with+nothing+on+at+all%22 |
Subject: RE: Origins: Pink Pajamas From: and e Date: 11 Mar 24 - 10:46 AM PINK PAJAMAS IOCA Song-Fest. [Undated (1938)]. Pg 74. See online: https://archive.org/details/1938iocasongfest/page/73/mode/2up?q=%22sheets+with+nothing+on+at+all%22 |
Subject: RE: Origins: Pink Pajamas From: and e Date: 11 Mar 24 - 10:47 AM Parody: Good-Will Songs 1936 Listed in the "Irish Songs" section. See online here: https://archive.org/details/N029629/N029629/page/6/mode/2up?q=%22sheets+with+nothing+on+at+all%22 |
Subject: RE: Origins: Pink Pajamas From: and e Date: 11 Mar 24 - 10:47 AM (I) My Flannel Shirt Songs of Lions. Lions International. 1926. See here: https://archive.org/details/songs-for-lions/page/126/mode/2up?q=%22sheets+with+nothing+on+at+all%22 |
Subject: RE: Origins: Pink Pajamas From: and e Date: 11 Mar 24 - 10:48 AM 22 FLANNEL NIGHT SHIRT (Key F) Song Sheet. O.E.S [Order of the Eastern Star] General Grand Council. Toronto, 1925. See online here: https://www.google.com/books/edition/Eastern_Star_World/ASnnAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22pink+pyjamas%22+summer&pg=RA7-PP4&printsec=frontcover |
Subject: RE: Origins: Pink Pajamas From: and e Date: 11 Mar 24 - 10:49 AM PINK PAJAMAS The Aggie Squib. Massachusetts Agricultural College. December, 1915. pg 29. See online here: https://archive.org/details/squib23mass/page/29/mode/1up?q=%22nothing+on+at+all%22 |
Subject: RE: Origins: Pink Pajamas From: and e Date: 11 Mar 24 - 10:50 AM 158.--THE MERRY WIDOW. Jolly Song Book of the Queen's Own Rifles of Canada. May 24, 1913. Pg 42. See online here: https://archive.org/details/jollysongbookofq00unse/page/n43/mode/2up?q=flannel+night |
Subject: RE: Origins: Pink Pajamas From: and e Date: 11 Mar 24 - 01:28 PM "The Merry Widow Waltz" was song in the The Merry Widow (German: Die lustige Witwe) an operetta by the Austro-Hungarian composer Franz Lehár. In its English adaptation by Basil Hood, with lyrics by Adrian Ross, The Merry Widow became a sensation at Daly's Theatre in London, opening on 8 June 1907. The first American production opened on 21 October 1907 at the New Amsterdam Theatre on Broadway for another very successful run of 416 performances, and was reproduced by multiple touring companies across the US, all using the Hood/Ross libretto. The "Merry Widow" versions of "Pink Pajamas" song fit the opening stanzas of the Waltz. Listen here: https://archive.org/download/a_20220711_20220711_0713/Orchestre%20ODEON%20%E2%80%93%20Merry%20Widow.mp3 |
Subject: RE: Origins: Pink Pajamas From: and e Date: 12 Mar 24 - 12:02 AM (Tune: "Yes, We Have No Bananas") Foresters Songbook. [Undated (1930s)]. Untitled song. Pg 7. See online here: https://www.horntip.com/html/books_&_MSS/1930s/1935ca_foresters_songbook_(mimeo)/1930s_foresters_songbook_(ccc_and_iowa_state_university).pdf |
Subject: RE: Origins: Pink Pajamas From: GUEST,.gargoyle Date: 16 Mar 24 - 07:37 PM It pains me DEEP ... Many of the traditional campfire songs ... Are recently, BANNED. 2020. Over 100 songs. Pink Skunk Captain's D 100 Bottles of Beer ETC ... Sincerely, Gargoyle Google/Bing/Duck/ for the info. "Things will not be the same ... this time ... next year. |
Share Thread: |
Subject: | Help |
From: | |
Preview Automatic Linebreaks Make a link ("blue clicky") |