Lyr Req: The Ladies (Rudyard Kipling)

Subject: I Learned About Women From Her
From: Moleskin Joe
Date: 18 Sep 00 - 09:02 AM

Many years ago I had an LP by Alex Harvey before he bacame "the sensational". It was made in Holland or Belgium and contained a variety of Woody Guthrie and American country songs. One of the songs I have never come across since. It starts "When I was a young man in ..." and each verse ends "And I learned about women from her." I would welcome any information about this song.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Learned About Women From Her
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 18 Sep 00 - 05:26 PM

sUre you don't mean the Kipling verse?

Subject: Lyr Add: THE LADIES (Rudyard Kipling)
From: The Walrus
Date: 18 Sep 00 - 06:16 PM

Moleskin Joe.

I think Dick may be right, your description sounds like Kipling's "The Ladies". I've lifted the text straight off the Poetry Lovers' Page, I hope it turns out OK

Regards

Walrus

THE LADIES

I've taken my fun where I've found it;
I've rogued an' I've ranged in my time;
I've 'ad my pickin' o' seethearts,
An' four o' the lot was prime.
One was an 'arf-caste widow,
One was a woman at Prome,
One was the wife of a jemadar-sais
An' one is a girl at 'ome.

Now I aren't no 'and with the ladies,
For, takin' 'em all along,
You never can say till you've tried 'em,
An' then you are like to be wrong.
There's times when you'll think that you mightn't,
There's times when you'll know that you might;
But the things you will learn from the Yellow an' Brown,
They'll 'elp you a lot with the White!

I was a young un at 'Oogli,
Shy as a girl to begin;
Aggie de Castrer she made me,
An' Aggie was clever as sin;
Older than me, but my first un --
More like a mother she were --
Showed me the way to promotion an' pay,
An' I learned about women from 'er!

Then I was ordered to Burma,
Actin' in charge o' Bazar,
An' I got me a tiddy live 'eathen
Through buyin' supplies off 'er pa.
Funny an' yellow an' faithful --
Doll in a teacup she were --
But we lived on the square, like a true-married pair,
An' I learned about women from 'er!

Then we was shifted to Neemuch
(Or I might ha' been keepin' 'er now),
An' I took with a shiny she-devil,
The wife of a nigger at Mhow;
'Taught me the gipsy-folks' bolee;
Kind o' volcano she were,
For she knifed me one night 'cause I wished she was white,
And I learned about women from 'er!

Then I come 'ome in a trooper,
'Long of a kid o' sixteen --
'Girl from a convent at Meerut,
The straightest I ever 'ave seen.
Love at first sight was 'er trouble,
She didn't know what it were;
An' I wouldn't do such, 'cause I liked 'er too much,
But -- I learned about women from 'er!

I've taken my fun where I've found it,
An' now I must pay for my fun,
For the more you 'ave known o' the others
The less will you settle to one;
An' the end of it's sittin' and thinking',
An' dreamin' Hell-fires to see;
So be warned by my lot (which I know you will not),
An' learn about women from me!

What did the Colonel's Lady think?
Nobody never knew.
Somebody asked the Sergeant's Wife,
An' she told 'em true!
When you get to a man in the case,
They're like as a row of pins --
For the Colonel's Lady an' Judy O'Grady
Are sisters under their skins!



My copy of Kipling notes that a "jemadar-sais" is a head groom
W

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Learned About Women From Her
From: Stewie
Date: 18 Sep 00 - 07:17 PM

There was an earlier thread in which versions of this were posted. It related to Frank Crumit who also recorded it. Art Thieme posted the Kipling lyrics and I posted the lyrics as sung by Goebel Reeves, the Texas Drifter.

Click here

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Learned About Women From Her
From: Moleskin Joe
Date: 19 Sep 00 - 05:22 AM

Many thanks Dick, Walrus and Stewie. This is indeed the song. I would never have associated it with Rudyard Kipling. The earlier thread was very interesting as I did not know of Frank Crumit or Goebel Reeves. I presume Alex Harvey got the song from one of their records. He only sang three or four verses and Americanised the words.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Learned About Women From Her
From: Art Thieme
Date: 19 Sep 00 - 04:36 PM

The first time I ever heard this song was when I opened a week of shows for Jim Kweskin (solo) back around 1974 (?). Jim said that he had learned it from Crumit's 78 rpm record. I did manage to find the Crumit version eventually. It's a great song. Fred Holstein sang it around Chicago for many years after learning it from Kweskin.

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Learned About Women From Her
From: GUEST,Giac, not at home
Date: 20 Sep 00 - 07:22 PM

I think I might cry, or otherwise display emotion!

I've been trying to find out Frank Crumit's last name for more years than I care to count. When I was so little I had to have a stool to reach the Victrola, we had a 78 with Billy Boy on one side and Grandfather's Clock on the other. I obcessed on Billy Boy and played it over and over and over and .... It was during the war (WWII) and I used so many needles that my dad started making needles out of Locust thorns. They worked perfectly and gave the music a nice, mellow sound.

However, I was forbidden to play Grandfather's Clock in my father's presence, because he considered the phrase, "old man died," to be disrespectful. So, I just didn't play it when he was home, but when he was at work, another story.

The record was broken some time in the 50s and I promptly forgot the singer's last name, only knew his first name was Frank.

Mudcat strikes again! Thanks to the link to the previous thread, and the link there to another page, maybe I can find that CD and once again hear those delicious sounds!

Yeeee Haaaaa!

Giac (wandering off singing Grandfather's Clock, but leaving out the "old man" part)