Lyr Req: Let Her Sleep Under the Bar / Lady in Red

Subject: Lyr? "my mother never told me"
From:
Date: 21 Jul 97 - 02:34 PM

i would very much appreciate any assistance in finding the lyrics to an old bar song that goes something like... (with a lot of lines missing...) "...and clancy was closing the bar. when a gentleman dapper stepped out of the /phone booth/ and these were the words that he said... ... my mother never told me..."

thanks very much! [e-mail]

Subject: Lyr Add: LET HER SLEEP UNDER THE BAR / LADY IN RED
From: Bob
Date: 21 Jul 97 - 02:45 PM

That's the old classic, "The Lady in Red."

Let Her Sleep Under the Bar
(The Lady in Red)

'Twas a cold winter's evening, the guests were all leaving,
O'Leary was closing the bar,
When he turned and he said to the lady in red,
"Get out! You can't stay where you are!"
She shed a sad tear in her bucket of beer
as she thought of the cold night ahead,
When a gentleman dapper stepped out of the (phone booth)
and these are the words that he said:

"Her mother never told her the things a young girl should know.
About the ways of college men, and how they come and go, (mostly....go).
Now age has taken her beauty, and sin has left its sad scar;
So remember your mothers and sisters, boys, and let her sleep under the bar." ^^

Note from Joe Offer: This exact version is on page 64 of the 1958 printing of Song Fest, by Dick and Beth Best.

Subject: RE: Lyr?
From:
Date: 21 Jul 97 - 02:51 PM

thanks very much bob! 9 minutes from post to answer has to be a new record for anything i've ever done on the net!

Subject: ADD: Let Him Sleep Under the Car
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 21 Jul 97 - 03:57 PM

Which puts me to mind of the Sports Car Season of 1959--

'Twas a cold winter evening, the night before Sebring
McClellan was closing the shop
When he said to a Loafer spread out on the sofa
"Get out! this is no place to stop."
Well, he wept a big tear, he was missing first gear
And he still had to put back a head;
When a gentleman cleanly leaped from a Volpini
And these were the words that he sad:

Ooooh
His dealer never told him
These words one must take to heart.
About the ways of racing cars
And how they come apart
Now age has emptied his wallet
And racing has left its sad scar
So remember your sports car traditions, boys,
And let him sleep under the car.

Names, allusions etc. are local but accurate.

Subject: RE: Lyr?
From: rabbitrunning
Date: 30 Aug 00 - 05:31 PM

We sang "The Lady in Red" pretty much the same as above(learned it from my father in Omaha, NE, around 1974, but he'd known it since WW2 at least.) He taught us "phone booth" first, but was sozzled enough one night to sing it as "crapper" in my presence...

Subject: RE: Lyr?
From: Ferrara
Date: 31 Aug 00 - 11:48 PM

My cousin's husband taught it to their 3 year old son in around 1968. She was furious. At least he taught him to sing "phone booth" and not "crapper"!

Subject: Lady in Red
From: Joe Offer
Date: 01 Sep 00 - 12:38 AM

Oh, c'mon, you guys, do you mean to tell me there's only the one stanza? Give us more, please! A tune, too....
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr?
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 01 Sep 00 - 12:43 AM

Joe- All I ever heard.

Subject: RE: Lyr?
From: rabbitrunning
Date: 01 Sep 00 - 12:52 AM

I don't think most of the people singing it were sober enough to manage more than one stanza, actually.

I love the sports car version though! One to teach my autophile nephew.

Subject: RE: Lyr?
From: rabbitrunning
Date: 01 Sep 00 - 01:48 AM

Okay, Joe, I found a tune in Dick and Beth Best's "Song Fest" the 1958 printing, page 64, under the title "Let Her Sleep Under the Bar". (Four SHARPS? Are they NUTS?) Unfortunately, I have misplaced the printout I made of the ABC guide, and 2 a.m. is not my best thinking hour, so I will have to try to figure it out tomorrow. Unless you rescue me, of course. (Winning smile...)

Subject: Let Her Sleep Under The Bar
From: Joe Offer
Date: 01 Sep 00 - 02:23 AM

Dang. You knew I had that 1958 Song Fest, didn't you??
I shouldn't have opened my yap in the first place. OK. I give up. As penance, I'll transcribe a MIDI and send it to Mudcat MIDIs. Those who can't wait can send me a personal message, and I'll e-mail it.
Dang.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: Tune ADD: Let Her Sleep Under the Bar
From: Joe Offer
Date: 01 Sep 00 - 04:00 AM

Hey, did you guys all go to sleep or something?Last time, you were all clamoring for a tuneas I was diligently clicking away. these Song Fest tunes are really tough - the scores are small and not perfectly aligned, and the lyrics aren't under the score. -Joe Offer

---

Click to play

ABC format:

X:1
T:LET HER SLEEP UNDER THE BAR
M:3/4
Q:1/4=120
K:E
B2B2B2|G2G2G2|E2E2E2|B,2E2G2|E2G2B2|G2B2c2|
A2c2B2|-B4B2|-B2B2B2|G2G2G2|E2E2E2|B,2E2G2|
E2G2B2|-BcB2A2|G2F2E2|-E6|B6|-B2B2B2|G2G2G2|
E2E2E2|B,2E2G2|E2G2B2|G2B2c2|A2c2B2|-B4B2|
-B2B2B2|G2G2G2|E2E2E2|B,2E2G2|E2G2B2|-BcB2A2|
G2F2E2|-E6|E2B4|-B4B2|G4A2|-A2c2B2|G6|-G2F2E2|
-E2E2F2|E2C2E2|-E6|E2E4|-E4E2|-E2E2F2|E2C2B,2|
E4A2|-A2G2G2|-G2F2F2|-F2G2F2|B2^A2A2|-A2G2G2|
-G2G2F2|G2F2E2|G6|-G2F2E2|-E2E2F2|E2C2E2|
-E6|E6|-E2E2E2|E2E2F2|E2C2B,2|E4A2|-A2G2GF|
-F2C2D2|E2F2E2|-E23/4||

Subject: RE: Lyr?
From: rabbitrunning
Date: 01 Sep 00 - 09:26 AM

Oh how nice! I guess toppling over from sheer exhaustion does have it's uses. I sure agree about trying to read the notation in Song Fest. Small indeed. Even my "picking it out on the piano" minimal musical skills are challenged, and that's hard when there aren't any chords.

I think it's pretty close to the version my Dad taught me. Close enough for bar singing, anyway,

Thanks, Joe

Subject: Tune ADD: Let Her Sleep Under the Bar
From: Alan of Australia
Date: 09 Sep 00 - 09:52 AM

G'day,
Thanks to Joe the tune for "Let Her Sleep Under The Bar" can be found here at the Mudcat MIDI site.

Cheers,
Alan

Subject: RE: Lyr ADD Let Her Sleep Under the Bar
From: Haruo
Date: 09 Feb 02 - 08:52 PM

Four and a half years later, still not in the DT. And well over a year since Joe did up the MIDI. I gave the lyrics as I know them in the Wanted: Songs for Alcoholics! thread this past week, having been shocked not to find it in the DT. Only cosmetic differences.

Liland

---

Also posted here

Subject: RE: Lyr?
From: Midchuck
Date: 09 Feb 02 - 09:40 PM

Sometimes I prefer to sing:

"...and how they come and go, Mostly co...ah...go..."

P.

Subject: RE: ADD: 'my mother never told me'/Sleep Under the Bar
From: GUEST,h2ou8n4
Date: 23 Sep 07 - 04:03 PM

My mother sang it this way from her college days in the 40's.....

The weather was freezing, the guests were all leaving,
O'Leary was closing the bar,
Then the bartender said to a lady in red,
"Get out! You can't stay where you are!"
She shed a sad tear in her bucket of beer
as she thought of the cold night ahead,
When a gentleman dapper stepped out of the (phone booth)
and these are the words that he said:

"Her mother never told her the things a young girl should know.
The ways of fancy gentlemen, and how they come and go,
Life has left her weary, and love has left her a scar;
So remember your mothers and sisters, boys, and let her sleep under the bar."

Subject: RE: ADD: 'my mother never told me'/Sleep Under the Bar
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego
Date: 24 Sep 07 - 12:58 PM

Subject: RE: ADD: 'my mother never told me'/Sleep Under the Bar
From: GUEST,Rollo in Berzerkeley
Date: 24 Sep 07 - 05:27 PM

That was a hoary old fraternity chestnut when I first heard it back in 1958 at Cal. The "gentlemen's" version was often a bit more ribald, as you can imagine. Suffice it to say that the phrase, "What a gash" was appended to one of the lines - etc., etc.

Subject: Lyr Add: MORE TO BE PITIED THAN CENSURED
From: chazkratz
Date: 24 Sep 07 - 07:55 PM

Another song on a similar theme--more serious, but kind of 1890s bathetic--and also in Song Fest:

MORE TO BE PITIED THAN CENSURED

At the old concert hall in the Bow'ry
Round a table were seated one night
A group of young fellows carousing;
Their outlook was carefree and bright.
At the very next table was seated
A young girl who'd fallen to shame;
How the young fellows laughed at her downfall
'Til they heard an old lady explain:

CHORUS: She is more to be pitied than censured
She is more to be helped than despised
She is only a young girl who ventured
Down life's stormy path ill-advised
Do not scorn her with words fierce and bitter
Do not laugh at her shame and downfall
For a moment just stop and consider
That a man was the cause of it all.

There's an old-fashioned church 'round the corner
Where the neighbors all gathered one day,
While the parson was preaching a sermon
O'er a soul that had just passed away;
'Twas this same wayward girl from the Bow'ry
Who a life of adventure had led.
Did the clergyman jeer at her downfall?
No! He asked for God's mercy, and said:

Not having at hand my copy of Song Fest, I wrote out the first verse and chorus from memory, then Googled the song and found the second verse in the third link--the first two being references to the murder of a pregnant young prostitute, Sarah Cornell, and the trial of the Methodist minister she implicated. After a long trial, the minister. Ephraim Avery was acquitted. This happened in Fall River, Massachusetts, where Lizzie Borden was acquitted of taking an ax to her father and mother--and where the Catholic bishop a few years ago refused to grant a dispensation for his Irish parishioners to eat corned beef on St. Patrick's Day--so many of them rented a bus to travel to New York where the bishop did allow the consumption of the traditional feast. This event inspired a Mudcat song challenge.

Charles

Subject: RE: ADD: 'my mother never told me'/Sleep Under the Bar
From: chazkratz
Date: 24 Sep 07 - 08:00 PM

The above post shows how little I get around here these days--it used to be that if you didn't put a < br> after each line when posting a song, all the lines ran together. (space added to invalidate the html command)

Charles

Subject: RE: ADD: 'my mother never told me'/Sleep Under the Bar
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Oct 07 - 02:56 PM

as far as the phone booth line goes, my grandmother sings it, a gentleman handsome stepped over the transome, while the rest of the family sings the other version.

Subject: RE: ADD: 'my mother never told me'/Sleep Under the
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Apr 08 - 04:21 PM

My dad use to sing this to me as a night time lullaby...and of course, he use to sub phonebooth in place of crapper as well...until i learned better

i think its rather funny that this was the childhood i grew up with....:P

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Let Her Sleep Under the Bar / Lady in Red
From: GUEST,Hobbitt
Date: 08 Jul 08 - 11:24 AM

Thanks for the lyrics and discussion. It was bugging me cause I had forgotten them.
I learned the song in 1952 while tending bar part-time at the officers club in Suwon Korea. The pilots who flew missions during the day would get pie-eyed every night and ultimately end the night singing the song. Boy, did they sing loud.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Let Her Sleep Under the Bar / Lady in Red
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 08 Jul 08 - 12:31 PM

Hobbitt, what else did they sing?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Let Her Sleep Under the Bar / Lady in Red
From: Amos
Date: 08 Jul 08 - 01:26 PM

I dunno about no phione booth, blokes. The version I always heard and sang had "a gentleman dapper" stepping out of the Crapper.


A

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Let Her Sleep Under the Bar / Lady in Red
From: SINSULL
Date: 08 Jul 08 - 01:31 PM

And of course Crapper was a polite term being named after Lord Crappe, the inventor of the flush toilet...




Maybe not.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Let Her Sleep Under the Bar / Lady in Red
From: Joe_F
Date: 08 Jul 08 - 09:08 PM

In my college days (1950s), we sang "phone booth", but with a slight pause before, to help slower listeners get the point of the bad rhyme.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Let Her Sleep Under the Bar / Lady in Red
From: GUEST
Date: 06 Aug 08 - 12:22 PM

Lighter:
I can't remember what else they sang but that tune was the loudest and was a must sometime during the evening. It was understandable why they had to unwind every night and get smashed. They were alive another day.
I still can't figure how they got drunk every night then rose early to fly into combat....

---

Please note that anonymous posting is no longer allowed at Mudcat. Use a consistent name [in the 'from' box] when you post, or your messages risk being deleted.
Thanks.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Let Her Sleep Under the Bar / Lady in Red
From: Mark Ross
Date: 06 Aug 08 - 02:11 PM

Why do I remember it as being sung as
"Let NELLIE sleep under the bar."?

Mark Ross

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Let Her Sleep Under the Bar / Lady in Red
From: GUEST,Donna D
Date: 08 Jan 09 - 10:06 PM

Didn't anybody else sing the last bit after "let her sleep under the bar"?


BENEATH THE SPIGOT


Also, the crapper version went along with Navy men and the phone booth version went with college men...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Let Her Sleep Under the Bar / Lady in Red
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego
Date: 09 Jan 09 - 11:32 AM

I was working on a summer camp staff in 1958 when I learned that song from a buddy who was attending the University of California. He heard it from friends in a fraternity the previous fall, which would have put it one year prior to the printing of my copy of the Best book, "Sing Out." It likely has a long and traditional history, perhaps associated with academia. I lost that book for a time, but have recovered it after a long search. There are several gems in that publication and I have no idea if it is replaceable.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Let Her Sleep Under the Bar / Lady in Red
From: GUEST,John, Toronto.
Date: 18 Jan 09 - 01:37 AM

A friend of mine was in the R.C.A.F. and his version was similar to some of the others but after many an ale an argument we settled on this ( by no means correct ) revised version.


Twas a cold winter's evening, the guests were all leaving,
And Clancy was closing the bar,
When he turned and he said to the lady in red,
"Get out! You can't stay where you are!"
She shed a sad tear in her bucket of beer
as she thought of the cold night ahead,
When a gentleman dapper stepped out of the crapper
and these are the words that he said:

"Her mother never told her the things a young girl should know.
About the ways and wares of big city men
and how they come and go
Now age has taken her beauty, and sin has left its sad scar;
Now remember your mother and sisters ( said to everyone )
So be a good fellow O'leary and let her sleep under your bar." ( and here you get everyone to join in the plea)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Let Her Sleep Under the Bar / Lady in Red
From: GUEST
Date: 12 Feb 09 - 10:38 PM

Didn't anybody else sing the last bit after "let her sleep under the bar"?


BENEATH THE SPIGOT

No, I learned it (from my mother) as:
"...let her sleep under the bar" (...Next to the gin!) -- in a very high tenor.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Let Her Sleep Under the Bar / Lady in Red
From: GUEST
Date: 12 Feb 09 - 10:48 PM

Also, I learned it as:

When a gentleman dapper stepped out of the (restroom)...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Let Her Sleep Under the Bar / Lady in Red
From: GUEST,Mary C
Date: 17 Mar 09 - 11:47 AM

This was one of many of the old college songs my parents taught me and my siblings years ago (60s 70s) and which we sang mainly on the long drives up North during the summer packed in the old station wagon. We sang it with the "gentleman dapper stepped out of the crapper" version which of course resulted in many giggles.   I just learned that my brother's 7-yr old daughter sang this song at school today for St. Paddy's day passing on the proud tradition of loudly singing old drunken college songs.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Let Her Sleep Under the Bar / Lady in Red
From: GUEST,From My Dad..............
Date: 19 Dec 09 - 08:36 PM

OHHHH...Casey was loaded,
He nearly exploded,
Ole' Barney was lit to the ears,
O'Leary was cheery,
O'Brien was cryin',
And Kelley was wipin' his tears.

The gang was all leavin',
That cold wintry evenin',
O'Malley was closin' the bar,
He turned as he said to the lady in red,
You must go, you can't stay where you are.

She shed a sad tear in her bucket o' beer,
As she thought of the cold night ahead,
When a gentleman dapper stepped out of the crapper,
And these are the words that he said:

OHHHH....Her mother never told her
The things a young girl should know......
Of the ways of college men,
And how they come and go....Mostly go.....
She's lost her youth and beauty,
And life has left it's deep scar,
So remember your mothers and sisters, boys.....
And let them sleep under the bar....Under the bar........

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Let Her Sleep Under the Bar / Lady in Red
From: GUEST,Hall in Paris
Date: 03 Apr 10 - 05:03 PM

We sang it every evening on the steps of Great Hall at Oglethorpe University just north of Atlanta from my freshman year in 1947 through 1951. The crapperc

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Let Her Sleep Under the Bar / Lady in Red
From: GUEST,Guest
Date: 31 Oct 10 - 11:57 PM

Our quartet sang this at Bidwell's and Kam's at University of Illinois as far back as 1943.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Let Her Sleep Under the Bar / Lady in Red
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Nov 10 - 04:58 AM

how they come and go... (mostly cum!)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Let Her Sleep Under the Bar / Lady in Red
From: GUEST
Date: 27 Dec 10 - 06:53 PM

Now age has stolen her beauty
and sin has left it's cruel scar

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Let Her Sleep Under the Bar / Lady in Red
From: KathyW
Date: 28 Dec 10 - 09:16 PM

My father learned the song when he was in a fraternity in Chicago in the late 1950's. The way he taught it to me went like this:

'Twas a cold winter's evening, the guests were all leaving.
O'Leary was closing the bar.
He turned as he said to the lady in red,
Get out, you can't stay where you are.

She wept a sad tear in her bucket of beer
As she thought of the cold night ahead.
When a gentleman dapper stepped out of the crapper
And these are the words that he said:

Her mother never told her
The things a young girl should know
About the ways of college men, and how they come and go
(Mostly go!!)
Age has stolen her beauty, and sin has left its sad scar
So remember your mothers, and sisters, boys,
And let her sleep under the bar.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Let Her Sleep Under the Bar / Lady in Red
From: GUEST,Ray B
Date: 12 Jul 11 - 11:41 AM

The way I always heard it, since the mind fill in the word "crapper" anyway:

"when a gentleman dapper stepped out of the (dramatic pause)... phonebooth, and these are the words that he said"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Let Her Sleep Under the Bar / Lady in Red
From: GUEST,Dave
Date: 31 Jul 11 - 11:24 PM

I heard it sung during a production of Love Rides the Rails
A gentleman dapper stepped out of the crapper and this is what he said;
Her mother never told her the things a young girl should know
about the ways of railroad men and how they come and go, mostly go...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Let Her Sleep Under the Bar / Lady in Red
From: GUEST,guy
Date: 02 Sep 11 - 03:56 PM

I have had the lyrics from many years ago but would like the music for piano for a coming reunion

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Let Her Sleep Under the Bar / Lady in Red
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 02 Sep 11 - 04:10 PM

I always felt that the dramatic pause before phonebooth was unnecessary and sophomoric.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Let Her Sleep Under the Bar / Lady in Red
From: GUEST,Laura
Date: 07 Jan 12 - 01:37 PM

Delightful to find this thread on my childhood lullaby! My mom, who sang the "phonebook" version to us, ended with:

And let her sleep under the bar ... It's warmer thar!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Let Her Sleep Under the Bar / Lady in Red
From: GUEST,DavyJo
Date: 10 Jan 12 - 12:26 AM

My thanks to Bob (21 Jul 97) for the first version, which is almost identical to the one I heard in the early 50's from a fellow college man in our group of S&P (Scientific & Professional) draftees. Of course, that word in the seventh line rhymed with "dapper". And isn't the last line addressed to O'Leary? Shouldn't it read, "So remember your mother and sisters, lad, and let her sleep under the bar."?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Let Her Sleep Under the Bar / Lady in Red
From: GUEST,Hibernian'sdaughter
Date: 12 Mar 13 - 05:06 PM

Thank you for posting these lyrics. My father sang this song to all of us kids as a lullaby in the 80's and now we all sing it to our own chilren.... Our version is slightly different from the ones i've read above... but i'm not surprised My Pop never had a problem with modifying (making up) any lyrics he couldn't quite remember. He passed away this past December and we are planning a burial service for him at a national cemetery in July. I trying to find a bagpiper and have him play the tune to this song at the service. It might have been a drinking song at its origin, but for me and my siblings it is a sweet memory of my Dad singing us to sleep each night.

- Sarah

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Let Her Sleep Under the Bar / Lady in Red
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 12 Mar 13 - 05:54 PM

When you're seven, "crapper" is funny. When you're 12, "phonebooth"--preceded by a meaningful pause ---is funny.By 17, when I learned the song, "phonebooth", with no pause was was funnier. Still is.
De gustibus etc.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Let Her Sleep Under the Bar / Lady in Red
From: GUEST,Granny Gruntz
Date: 08 Sep 14 - 11:19 PM

09/08/2014 - I think I first heard "The Lady In Red" when I attended
Indiana University, Bloomington, IN - BACK IN 1948. *AND - it was a pretty old drinking song THEN! *Never knew when it originated. *Just one, among many, "songs" one hears and learns at the "places of higher learning" - *AND passes on to future generations to be. ;-) *I am NOW a great-grandmother of four and 3/9ths great-grandchildren. *AND - I still like to sing the "old songs" at the top of my voice when taking a shower! ;-)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Let Her Sleep Under the Bar / Lady in Red
From: Lighter
Date: 09 Sep 14 - 07:54 AM

You go, girl!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Let Her Sleep Under the Bar / Lady in Red
From: GUEST,CarolinaJacket
Date: 26 Oct 14 - 04:20 PM

The Sigma Nus at Presbyterian College were singing it back in the '50s. Our version ended with "beside the gin". Great song.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Let Her Sleep Under the Bar / Lady in Red
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 28 Oct 14 - 01:39 PM

This article in Life, from Feb. 1, 1963, called "Just a Home Where Squares Get Lost" is about Bill Baird (who professionally spelled his name "Bil") and Cora Baird. The Bairds were probably the world's most famous puppeteers until Jim Henson came along. It says:

[Bill] also wrote, but never bothered to copyright, the college classic, Her Mother Never Told Her (with that part about "Let her sleep under the bar").

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Let Her Sleep Under the Bar / Lady in Red
From: GUEST,K. Canning
Date: 25 Mar 15 - 02:08 PM

Like a post above, this was a song our family sang on car rides in the 1970's, taught by my mother who likely learned it from her father who was in a fraternity at Union College,NY in the late 1920's. We learned the "gentleman handsome stepped over the transom" line, as well as "ways of college men, and how they come and go, [mostly go]." Also at the last lines, it was, "Let her sleep under the bar ["between the bottles" added a la barbershop style], Let her sleep under the bar."