Subject: Lyr Add: ODE TO GRANNY AND THE LITTLE BROWN...
From:
raredance
Date: 28 Jan 01 - 12:41 PM
In the songbook "The Songs and Poetry of Billy Edd Wheeler" (1971, Big 3 Music Corp) the variable lines are printed:
It was not a castle fair, but I could dream my future there
And build my castles to the yellow jacket's drone.
The one recording I have of Billy Edd doing the song is "Billy Edd Wheeler Sings His Favorite Original & Traditional Folk Songs" (produced by BEW for The Southern Highland Handicraft Guild, Asheville, NC) has him singing the same words as the book. However in the chorus of this recording he adds an "n" to "another" so it comes out "another'n" as in a contraction of "another one"
"The Interstate is Coming Through My Outhouse" was written by R.C. Blankenship and H.G. Johe. At least one recording was by none other than Bill Edd Wheeler on his "Nashville Zodiac" album (United Artists UAS 6711). I guess a trilogy is completed when one adds in another song by Bill Edd Wheeler called "Ode to Granny and the Little Brown Shack Out Back". This is also from the songbook. As with a number of other BEW songs, most of it is spoken, except the "granny granny..." lines.
rich r
ODE TO GRANNY AND THE LITTLE BROWN SHACK OUT BACK
(Billy Edd Wheeler, 1965 Quartet Music, Inc.)
Granny, Granny, God bless my Granny
(Spoken)
When I got old enough to go out back,
Like the big folks to the little brown shack,
Who was right there to lead me back?
Old Granny.
I can see now it took somebody grand
To steady a boy by holding his hand
And still let him feel like, well,
he was a man.
But that was Granny. She was never too old
to have some fun, or she could get you told.
When God made her, I guess He busted the mold
on Granny
Granny, Granny, God bless my Granny
But let me get back to that little brown shed
I was talkin' about,And you can strike me dead,
if this ain't the truth.I was sleepin' in bed
there with Granny
I guess I was just about two and a half.,
And wide awake as a big-eyed calf,
So I got up and snuck out with a laugh,
from Granny
You see, I had me a plan, My nerve was aroused
As I slipped out just as quiet as a mouse
And opend the door of that little brown house.
I was a brave one then
As I looked in, how my heart beat,
gettin' ready to climb to the big folks seat
that seemed to tower a good two feet
above my little teentsy one there
But to be more proper I'll call them chairs,
And I got to the big one by climbing the stairs
of piled up catalogs, "Shakey affairs,"
said Granny.
Ah
When all of a sudden I started to slide
toward the seat of the nation. My arms flung wide,
But lucky for me, I caught on the side,
And didn't dare look down.
I tell you, I was scared as a boy could be
As I held on for that eternity
Till finally, there smilin' down at me
was Granny
She clucked just like an old mother hen,
As she gathered me back in her arms again,
sayin' "boys can't sit in the seats of men,
like Granny."
Well since that time, I've dug some ditches,
And in my own way come from rags to riches,
But when I get to feelin' too big for my britches,
I think of the good old days, it's a fact
and have the awfullest time holding back
the tears, when I think of that little brown shack
and Granny
Granny, Granny, God bless dear old Granny
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