Subject: Lyrics Req. Hambone From: Night Owl Date: 26 Jan 00 - 03:21 AM This song has been in my head all week and WON'T leave until I get it right!!!! Think I'm missing lines, verses. Anyone know its origins....who wrote..performed...recorded it and when?? I remember and can do the "body drumming" ok....not sure if the lyrics I remember so far are accurate either. Any corrections/additional info is GREATLY appreciated!!! What I have so far is:
Hambone, hambone, have you heard Seems to me the song is much longer...and YES...I did check the DT...and Forum...found reference to "Willie Hambone Newbern" wondering if he's the author????????
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Subject: RE: Lyrics Req. Hambone From: Night Owl Date: 26 Jan 00 - 03:27 AM just checked my posting and realized that mockingbirds don't "shine"....they sing.....remembered "if the mockingbird don't sing.....momma's gonna buy you a diamond ring", after which I'm lost. |
Subject: RE: Lyrics Req. Hambone From: Amos Date: 26 Jan 00 - 06:06 PM These words are straightly germane to "Hush Little Baby", which Frank Warner and dozens of others used to sing.
Hush little baby, don't say a word Amos |
Subject: RE: Lyrics Req. Hambone From: Stewie Date: 26 Jan 00 - 07:39 PM There's a version recorded on a lovely CD: Various Artists 'Georgia Folk: A Sampler of Traditional Sounds' Global Village Music CD 03. It is performed by Ray Favors - with body patting, mouth popping etc - and was recorded by Dave Evans in 1970. HAMBONE
Hambone, hambone have you heard
Hambone, hambone where you aye (?) |
Subject: RE: Lyrics Req. Hambone From: Amos Date: 26 Jan 00 - 08:17 PM That does it nicely, Stewie -- I heard in the early 60's complete with the buttslap rhythm-making! This ties the two threads together perfectly in my wrinkled mind :>). 'Mazin the things a MudCat can learn! Amos |
Subject: RE: Lyrics Req. Hambone From: Bill in Alabama Date: 26 Jan 00 - 08:41 PM I was taught to hambone by friends who worked as "delivery boys" for a small neighborhood grocery store in Chattanooga, where you could telephone in your grocery list and have the goods delivered to your back door. The verses floated in from many other songs, I'm sure. A couple that I recall were "Hambone, Hambone, where ya been? Around the world and I a-goin' again. What you gonna do when you get back? I'm gonna take a little walk down the railroad track." Back in the 'fifties, Bo Diddely put the hambone rhythm to the guitar, replaced the name Hambone with his own name, and became a rock & roll icon. |
Subject: RE: Lyrics Req. Hambone From: harpgirl Date: 05 Jun 05 - 11:40 AM Here's another Hambone, hambone, pat him on the shoulder, If you get a pretty girl, I'll show you how to hold her. Hambone, hambone, where have you been? All round the world and back again. Hambone hambone, what did you do? I got a train and I fairly flew. Hambone hambone, where did you go? I hopped up to Miss Lucy's door. I asked Miss Lucy would she marry me. (In falsetto) "Well I don't care if Papa don't care!" First come in was Mr. Snake, He crawled all over the wedding cake. Next walked in was Mister Tick He ate so much that it made him sick. Next walked in was Mister Coon We asked him to sing us a wedding tune Now hambone.... Now hambone... |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Hambone From: Joe Offer Date: 07 Mar 12 - 07:55 PM Click here for a terrific YouTube recording of "Hambone" by Ed Huey, performing the Hambone at Folk School of Chattanooga. I received this e-mail today. Can anybody help?
I am trying to verify that the song "Hambone" is public domain. Red Saunders did record a version of it in 1952 and it may be copyrighted. Wayne Erbsen in Front Porch Songs, jokes, & Stories lists it and he told me by e-mail the songs are traditional --but there have been some questions about one or two songs he listed. He reports that it goes back to slavery days when slaves used their bodies for instruments, and the results were called "Patting Juba" or "Hambone." He says his version is a variation of the British Nursery Song, "Hush Little Baby, Don't Say and Word" and was collected from Frank A. Hall. Wikipedia has similar information. I want to use the song in a play I am writing and would be able to create some original lyrics. Thanks for your help. It's clear the song has traditional roots, but I'll betcha there are lots of copyrighted versions. |
Subject: RE: Origins: Hambone From: GUEST,is Hambone publid domain? Date: 08 Mar 12 - 03:04 PM Is the song "Hambone" public domain? Red Saunders did a recording of it about 1952 but it apparently goes back much further. One source indicates it was pre-civil war, when slaves did not have musical instruments but used their own bodies. I want to use it in a play and would be glad to make up original lyrics. Mr. Ludy Wilkie ludy@shelby.net |
Subject: RE: Origins: Hambone From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 08 Mar 12 - 05:18 PM Hambone, as a term, was applied to itinerant, unpaid actors in the 1890s (quote from 1895 in Lighter*). Application of the term to juba patting or juba dancers (body music)seems to be fairly recent; the earliest quote* in 1921. Articles on the net and in literature put the term as equivalent to juba patting, and then mention the antiquity of body music, but use of the term for the action-song has not been traced back before the quotes in Lighter. There seems to have been a transference of the term from the itinerant actor to juba patting or body music, perhaps in the 1930s. *Lighter, Historical Dictionary of American Slang. |
Subject: RE: Origins: Hambone From: GUEST Date: 19 May 12 - 08:23 AM ham bone ham bone where you been? down the road and up again. ham bone, ham bone what did you see? i saw a little girl looking at me. |
Subject: RE: Origins: Hambone From: Stewie Date: 19 May 12 - 09:23 PM This clip is worth a look: Ron Thomason - Hambone. There are other clips available. --Stewie. |
Subject: RE: Origins: Hambone From: Bobert Date: 19 May 12 - 10:12 PM Hambone is a generic term to playing one's body, or with spoons or bones (curved pieces of wood)... Yeah, there is the song, as well but... ... I've known at least 3 players, all called "Hmabone" who have benn body percussionists... But great song, too... Played it hundreds of times in the 70s with my band... B~ |
Subject: RE: Origins: Hambone From: Amos Date: 20 May 12 - 02:43 AM The general pattern of Hambones--the rhythm and chant style--and probably the refrain "where you been? ROund the world an I m going again" are probably public domain. Specific arrangements may be copyrighted but the generic patterns have been around for longer than Methuselah, I think, and can't be. YYMV, IANAL and all that. A |
Subject: RE: Origins: Hambone From: GUEST,leeneia Date: 20 May 12 - 08:37 AM Thanks, Joe and Stewie, for the excellent links! |
Subject: RE: Origins: Hambone From: GMGough Date: 20 May 12 - 11:19 AM On a 1962 Cameo recording "Camp Favorites" by The Campers, There is a recording of Hambone (traditional) Wyncote Music ASCAP The first verse is: you can have your apples your peaches and your pears your cherries growing on the cherry tree but bless your heart my honey of all the things there be that watermelon is the fruit for me oh hambone is good chicken is sweet possum meat is very very fine (ain't it so) but give me, oh give me I really wish you would some of that watermelon hanging on the vine Banjo player Dick Weissman is the only musician given credit on the sleeve. The recording was made by a chorus of un-named singers and musicians. The recording has become historically interesting because Phil Ochs' voice can be distinguished occasionally in the chorus. |
Subject: RE: Origins: Hambone From: Tug the Cox Date: 20 May 12 - 11:58 AM I remember a documentary on the late comedian Arthur haynes, who described part of his routine as hambone. |
Subject: RE: Origins: Hambone From: GUEST Date: 11 Jun 15 - 11:52 PM I remember from college in 1960: Hambone Hambone where you been? Down to the corner to get a little gin Watcha goin to go when you get back? Take me a walk on the railroad track. |
Subject: RE: Origins: Hambone From: GUEST,Joseph Scott Date: 12 Jun 15 - 12:15 PM "oh hambone is good chicken is sweet possum meat is very very fine (ain't it so) but give me, oh give me I really wish you would some of that watermelon hanging on the vine" "The Watermelon Smiling On The Vine," Thomas P. Westendorf, 1882, is different from the patting song. |
Subject: RE: Origins: Hambone From: GUEST,Rich Date: 13 May 19 - 06:00 PM Back in the 1940's in Pittsburgh my neighborhood was half white and have black. The black kids taught me the Hambone. We did a lot of leg and chest slapping and sang (shouted) many of the lyrics on this site. We always had "where you been", "diamond ring", "billy goat" and many more. Having those friend got me into their homes and I heard a radio station that played mostly black music that were not playing on the other stations. Open my eyes to blues and R&B that I collected from an early age (when I could find enough soda bottle to turn in for cash). Great way to grow up - too bad my best friends Gus and TC are no longer around. |
Subject: RE: Origins: Hambone From: GUEST,Mary Date: 21 Jul 23 - 12:53 PM Has anyone ever heard a song that went like this: "Hambone, hambone, 20 cents a pound. Eatin' hambone til the deal goes down. Put my hambone in a pot. Ain't gonna eat it til the soup gets hot." |
Subject: RE: Origins: Hambone From: cnd Date: 21 Jul 23 - 01:23 PM Minor correction to some 20 year old lyrics, but Roy Favors sings: "Hambone, hambone, where you at? / In the chicken house cooking fat" I am not familiar with your lyrics, Mary, sorry to report. |
Subject: RE: Origins: Hambone From: Nigel Parsons Date: 21 Jul 23 - 07:42 PM Seems similar to the 'filler' 'Crambone' used in: Tom & Jerry |
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