Origin: I'm a Nut

Subject: info on 'I'm a Nut'
From: Charcloth
Date: 17 Sep 00 - 08:28 PM

I Have been doing a kid's song for years that goes "I'm a little acorn round laying on the cold cold ground everybody steps on me that is why I'm cracked you see, I'm a nut" etc. does any one know who wrote this little ditty? or anything else about it?

Subject: RE: info on 'I'm a Nut'
From: Joe Offer
Date: 17 Sep 00 - 11:08 PM

Hi, Charcloth - I looked it up on the www.kididdles.com site - click. They list the songwriter as "unknown." They're pretty nervous about posting copyrighted songs, so if they post it as "unknown," it quite possibly is. The book called Wee Sing Silly Songs also has it unattributed.
I always thought it was something my obnoxious little sister made up in Girl Scout camp....
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: info on 'I'm a Nut'
From: Joe Offer
Date: 17 Sep 00 - 11:13 PM

Hi, again, Charcloth -
BMI (click) has five songs listed by that title, so maybe it IS a copyrighted song. ASCAP doesn't have any listing for that title.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: info on 'I'm a Nut'
From: rabbitrunning
Date: 18 Sep 00 - 08:49 AM

My mom taught me that one, years ago, and I took it with me to girl scout camp. But from what she said, I think it was also a song she heard on the radio. I'm not sure if that was before or after she learned it from the neighbor kids. She was a kid in Great Falls, Montana in the late twenties and the thirties. Next time I talk to her I'll find out if she remembers.

Subject: RE: info on 'I'm a Nut'
From: Giac
Date: 18 Sep 00 - 09:30 AM

I learned it on the school playground in the 1940s. We did a clapping hands thing to the cadence.

Subject: Lyr Add: THE NUT SONG
From: GUEST,rabbitrunning
Date: 18 Sep 00 - 12:14 PM

The DT has a slightly different version than the one I learned, and it's also a little different than the one at kididdles, so here goes:

THE NUT SONG

I'm a little acorn brown,
Lying on the cold, cold ground
Everybody steps on me
That is why I'm cracked you see

I'm a nut tch tch (sort of a clicky noise)
I'm a nut tch tch
I'm a nut I'm a nut I'm a nut tch tch

Took myself to the movie show
Sat myself in the very first row
Wrapped my arms around my waist
When I got fresh I slapped my face

Chorus

I can sing and I can dance
I wear ruffles on my...
sorry, boys, guess again
I wear ruffles on my dress

chorus

^^ CD

How do you sing it, Charcloth?

Subject: RE: info on 'I'm a Nut'
From: paddymac
Date: 18 Sep 00 - 12:44 PM

Glad this turned out to be an honest-to-goodness musical thread. I was afraid it was a new membership criterion, but I'm sure I could have passed the test. :>)

Subject: RE: info on 'I'm a Nut'
From: GUEST,rabbitrunning
Date: 18 Sep 00 - 02:16 PM

hmmm...

Come to think of it, I wonder if the one Mom taught me wasn't "I love me", and the one that my older sister taught me was "I'm a nut." They both have the line about wrapping my arms around my waist...

Think, think, think...

Subject: RE: info on 'I'm a Nut'
From: Charcloth
Date: 18 Sep 00 - 05:56 PM

thanks folks the "I can sing & I can dance" verse was new to me. The version I know is real close to what has been said but, here are some other verses I know. "Grandpa's beard is long & gray, growing grayer day by day, Grandma eats it in her sleep says it tastes like shreadded wheat, (Chorus) I'm an old antique car I travel near I don't go far, every time you're in my way this is what you'll hear me say, rattle, honk honk, ooggah, beep beep, whae,(Chorus)

Subject: RE: info on 'I'm a Nut'
From: Hotspur
Date: 19 Sep 00 - 01:27 AM

More verses my grandma used to sing:

Called myself on the telephone Just to see if I was home With myself I made a date Had to be there by half past eight.

Oh, I love me so, I love me so, I'll take myself to the picture show Wrap my hands around my waist If I get too fresh I'll slap my face.

Subject: Lyr Add: I'M A NUT
From: Tinker
Date: 19 Sep 00 - 12:18 PM

Thirty Years ago we sang the I'm a nut verse followed by.

I'm a little hunk of tin
Nobody knows what shape I'm in
Got four wheels and a running board
Just a little Model Ford

Honk, Honk, Rattle, Rattle, Rattle, Crash, Beep, Beep, 3x Honk Honk! 3x

This summer at Crossroads Outdoor Ministries I learnt this version

I'M A NUT
Unknown

I'm a little acorn round, lying on the dusty ground
Everybody steps on me
So I'm a little cracked you see
Chorus
I'm a nut.You're a nut
You're a nut. You're a nut. You're a nut.

Called myself up on the phone
Just to hear my golden tone
Asked myself out on a date
Better be ready by half past eight

Go to the movies hold my hand
Tell myself that I am grand
Put my arms around my waist
If I get fresh I'll slap my face.

Coca cola came to town
Pepsi cola shot 'em down
Dr. Pepper fixed him up
Now we all drink 7up

Seven up got the flu
Now we all drink Mt. Dew
Mt. Dew went up the mountain
Now we all drink from a fountain.

The car verse is in the Camp Loowit songbook data base under Pile of Tin. www.backyardgardener.com/loowit. ANd as I'm a Little Hunk of Tin in BoyScout Songs @ http://cac.psu.edu/~jxm181/songs. The last two seem to be more recent.

When the entire male staff stood up and taught this with motions, the grownups laughed til we cried. They looked great.

Tinker

Subject: RE: info on 'I'm a Nut'
From: rabbitrunning
Date: 19 Sep 00 - 08:18 PM

Well, I looked through every children's collection of songs my little branch library has without luck, but I'm down at the main branch tomorrow, so I may be able to come up with something.

Doubt it, though. It doesn't seem to be the sort of thing that gets into the "serious" anthologies.

;D

Subject: RE: info on 'I'm a Nut'
From: Susan of DT
Date: 19 Sep 00 - 09:02 PM

I pulled all these verses into one song as a variant on "I'm a Nut". The car verse is already there as "Baby Blue Ford"

Subject: RE: info on 'I'm a Nut'
From: L R Mole
Date: 20 Sep 00 - 11:38 AM

Wasn't there a Little Jimmy Dickens song with the chorus: "I'm a nut, I'm a nut, my mind don't ever get in a rut/The head on my shoulders is sorta loose; I ain't got sense god gave a goose, lord, I ain't crazy but/I'm a nut."? I seem to remember it with Doodles Weaver-like gargled interjections. And anyway NONE of this is politically correct, and the nuts are probably after us all. How circular.

Subject: RE: info on 'I'm a Nut'
From: rabbitrunning
Date: 20 Sep 00 - 11:55 AM

I've been thinking, and isn't the tune to this song similar to part of the routine that Shirley Temple did in one of her movies with Bill Robinson? (I think it was "The Little Colonel", but I haven't seen any of the Temple movies since I was a kid so I'm not sure.)

Subject: RE: info on 'I'm a Nut'
From: GUEST,I really wish I could find this song on cd
Date: 27 Jun 10 - 07:05 PM

I don't know why the squirrels love me so,
I'm a descendant to the oak,
Nuts to you and that's no joke

Subject: RE: info on 'I'm a Nut'
From: maple_leaf_boy
Date: 27 Jun 10 - 07:12 PM

Tiny Tim sings a song called "I'm A Nut". ?

Subject: ADDPOP: I'm a Nut(attributed to Leroy Pullins)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 27 Jun 10 - 07:25 PM

Of course, then there's this country classic:

I'M A NUT
(attributed to Leroy Pullins)

I'm a Nut, I'm a Nut,
My life don't ever get in a rut
Woop Woop Woop Woop
The head on my shoulders is sore and loose
And I ain't got the sense God gave a goose
Lord, I ain't crazy but, I'm a nut

Is it wetter underwater if you're there when it rains
Is it shorter to New York, than it is by plane
Between myself and I, I wonder who's the dumber
Is it hotter down south than it is in the Summer

I'm a Nut, I'm a Nut,
My life don't ever get in a rut
The head on my shoulders is sore and loose
And I ain't got the sense God gave a goose
Lord, I ain't crazy but, I'm a nut

I drove my Cadillac to Vegas to satisfy my lust
Wheelin', Dealin', left old Vegas on a Greyhound Bus
I sure didn't set the woods on fire while I was there
But remember, only forest fires prevent bears

(Interlude)

I'm a Nut, I'm a Nut,
My life don't ever get in a rut (ba ba di di etc)
The head on my shoulders is sore and loose
And I ain't got the sense God gave a goose
Lord, I ain't crazy but, I'm a nut

The poverty war will be over, when I begin to fight
If it took a dime to go around the world, I couldn't get out of sight
I don't mind to take the girls out, if they don't mind to go Dutch
When you feel like a million dollars, and I bet I ain't worth half that much

I'm a Nut, I'm a Nut,
My life don't ever get in a rut
Woop Woop Woop Woop
The head on my shoulders is sore and loose
And I ain't got the sense God gave a goose
Lord, I ain't crazy but, I'm a nut

Oh, crazy man, I'm a nut, Oh Lordy, Lordy, Lordy, Lordy, Lordy, Lordy I'm Crazy! I'm a Nut!... (Marcus Tee)

Leroy Pullins recording release date: 1966
http://www.themadmusicarchive.com/song_details.aspx?SongID=386

---

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCKj0sssuGk

Subject: RE: info on 'I'm a Nut'
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Jul 10 - 07:33 PM

and then there is a classic: Going in the garden to eat worms! My mom would sing both to me to cheere me up when I was blue and she didn't know what to do.

Subject: RE: info on 'I'm a Nut'
From: open mike
Date: 27 Jul 10 - 04:08 AM

some of the lines above match a song we used to sing
about father's whiskers.. (the shredded wheat line...)
they hide the dirt on father's shirt, they're always in the way...

Subject: RE: info on 'I'm a Nut'
From: Cool Beans
Date: 27 Jul 10 - 02:29 PM

Romeo and Juliet,
On the balcony they met.
"Gotta get dressed, I've got a date.
Shakesperare's coming at half past eight."
   
My daughter learned this verse in school in the late 80s. I learned "I'm a Nut" at camp in the 50s from the music counselor Bob Enright, who also taught us "Be Kind To Your Parents."

Subject: RE: Origin: I'm a Nut
From: CapriUni
Date: 22 Oct 10 - 02:44 PM

Cool Beans -- Speaking of Shakespeare... There's a scene in As you Like It, where the heroine (Rosilind) finds bad love poetry written in her honor hanging from the branches of trees. And the Jester (Touchstone) teases her with his own version, including these lines:

Sweetest nut hath sourest rind,
Such a nut is Rosalind

And I've always wondered: exactly how modern is our modern meaning of the word "nut" as a foolish, or mad, person? This wonderment woke up in my head the other day, and I've had the song "I'm a nut" floating in my head ever since...

Subject: RE: Origin: I'm a Nut
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 09 Nov 10 - 02:21 PM

NUT. To please a person by any little act of assiduity, by a present, or by flattering words, is called nutting him; as the present, &c. by which you have gratified them, is termed a nut.
NUTS. It was nuts for them; i. e. it was very agreeable to them.
NUTS. Fond, pleased. She's nuts upon her cull; she's pleased with her cully. The cove's nutting the blowen; the man is trying to please the girl.
NUTS UPON IT. To be very much pleased or gratified with any object, adventure, or overture; so a person who conceives a strong inclination for another of the opposite sex, is said to be quite nutty, or nuts upon him or her.
NUTS UPON YOURSELF. A man who is much gratified with any bargain he has made, narrow escape he has had, or other event in which he is interested, will express his self-satisfaction or gladness by declaring that he is, or was, quite nuts upon himself.

--from Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue by Francis Grose, 1823.

Subject: RE: Origin: I'm a Nut
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Nov 10 - 12:35 AM

When I was at Girl Scout camp, there was a song that began,

I'm wild about horns on automobiles that go wha a ah ah Beep beep!
I'm a nut, I'm a pest, but the things I like the best,
I'm wild about horns on automobiles that go etc.

Subject: RE: Origin: I'm a Nut - Girl Scout Camp Song
From: GUEST,Another guest
Date: 30 May 13 - 01:03 AM

In response to the "10 Nov 10 - 12:35 AM" post - I learned that song in Girl Scout Camp, too. It is a modified version of an ooooold, OLD song from 1928 (?) called: "I'm Wild About Horns".
As I remember the song from Girl Scout Camp (in 1982), it went like this:

I'm Wild about horns on automobiles that go wah ah ah ah ah ah ah ooga ooga! (Repeat again)
I used to own a funny little car that I got from a guy named Greg
And every-time I honked that horn, this is what it said
I'm a pest, I'm a pest, I'm a pest, I'm a pest
But the things I like the best.....
(Repeat first line)

Subject: RE: Origin: I'm a Nut
From: GUEST,Guest
Date: 12 Jul 14 - 09:17 PM

There was a song that I learned at a leader training that went like this:

I once had a friend who owned a model A
and every time he beeped the horn this is what he'd say
"I'm a nut I'm a pest but the thing that I like the best
are old fashioned horns on Automobiles that go
an an an an, an an an an, an an an an Beep Beep.

Can't find this anywhere it was at Camp Kirkwold in Maine

Subject: RE: Origin: I'm a Nut
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Feb 24 - 03:11 PM

I'm a little piece of tin,
Nobody knows what I might have been.
I got four wheels and a running board
I'm a four-door I'm a Ford...
Honk honk rattle rattle crash crash bang bang
Honk honk rattle rattle crash crash bang bang
Honk honnnkkkk