Lyr Req: The Waterbed Polka (Larry Rand)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Waterbed Polka (Larry Rand)
From: GUEST,guest John Anthony La Pietra
Date: 19 Nov 21 - 04:20 AM

I think I still have a recording (on cassette!) of a WFMT "Midnight Special" performance of this number . . . complete with a dedication to "the Honorable -- that's a little nickname we give to all our politicians -- the Honorable Roman C. Pucinski . . . a man so beloved on the Nort'west side of Chicaguh that we don't even call him Roman C. Pucinski; we have a special name for him: the Magnetic Nort'west Pole. . . ."

I'll have to look for it now that I've found this -- and learned that I'd misunderstood the title. (I'd always thought that the title ended with the name of the subject/target of the song -- a woman named, however improbably, "Polga". . . .)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Waterbed Polka (Larry Rand)
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Mar 12 - 11:52 AM

Thank you all. I had this song stuck in the back of my head. I coul have almost sung the enitre song from memory. I had a tape from an Al Lerner broadcast that played this song. I don't know if that cassette still exists...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Waterbed Polka (Larry Rand)
From: GUEST,Larry Rand
Date: 15 Mar 12 - 05:37 AM

The song was finally recorded properly, with an accordion and oompah band rhythm section, on "Deep Dish Folk," the CD I recorded with Nicole Mendyk that's available @ CD Baby.

Subject: Lyr Add: WATERBED POLKA (Larry Rand)
From: frogprince
Date: 30 Oct 04 - 07:07 PM

Here are the lyrics to the Waterbed Polka, with one caveat: the song has never been commercially recorded (Bryan Bowers kept threatening to, but chickened out), so you would need my permission to do so.

Thirty years after its composition, it has a nice Ken Kesey acid flashback aura, and I believe it's as socially impertinent today as it was the evening I composed it.

No one may have gone broke underestimating the taste of the American public, but many of us have done so exposing it.

Best regards,

Larry Rand

"The Waterbed Polka"
Words & Music by Larry Rand
Copyright 1973

My name is Stash, I am hip,
I got class and pride,
I run the only head shop
On Chicago's Nort'west Side -
But now I sing a different tune,
Somethin' I been through:
CHORUS "The Waterbed Was Filled With Glue,
The Night That I Got Stuck With You,
Polka."

I thought you was a hippie,
Because you dressed that way -
I shoulda known, those shopping bags
Sure gave you away -
But a Peter Max babushka
Misled me, dear, it's true:
CHORUS

(THROBBING POLKA INTERLUDE)

When I talk about that evening,
Other people scoff -
About the time we got it on, and
Couldn't get it off!
I won't admit to bein' black, but
Boy, I sure am blue:
CHORUS, REPEAT CHORUS

Subject: RE: the water bed was filled with glue polka
From: GUEST,Larry Rand
Date: 30 Oct 04 - 06:28 PM

I gave "frogprince" the lyrics to "The Waterbed Polka." I'm at [e-mail] in sunny California if ever another profound libretto crisis requires intervention.

Subject: RE: the water bed was filled with glue polka
From: frogprince
Date: 29 Oct 04 - 06:03 PM

MMario, I didn't get them, but since you reminded me I just went with Phil Coopers suggestion above and e-mailed the Midnight Special crew to see if they'll send em.

Subject: RE: the water bed was filled with glue polka
From: MMario
Date: 29 Oct 04 - 02:35 PM

hey frogprince! did you ever get these lyrics, and if so, can you post them?

Subject: RE: the water bed was filled with glue polka
From: GUEST,frogprince
Date: 16 Jul 04 - 04:18 PM

Bingo, thanks! I've been out of reach of WFMT now for 20 years, and
don't have broadband net, but I have about 20 years of fond memory
of the "Midnight Special"; I sustain myself now on the Matt
Watroba's excellent "Folks Like Us" Saturday afternoons on WDET
Detroit.

Subject: RE: the water bed was filled with glue polka
From: Phil Cooper
Date: 16 Jul 04 - 03:35 PM

If you email [e-mail] you may get more information about Larry's song.

Subject: RE: the water bed was filled with glue polka
From: GUEST,GUEST,Tinker in Chicago
Date: 16 Jul 04 - 12:49 PM

It's "The Waterbed Polka" a.k.a. "The Waterbed Was Filled With Glue The Night That I Got Stuck With You Polka" by Larry Rand. As far as I know he never recorded it, but WFMT played it from a tape they made in 1972. I don't remember all the words but here are some:

I thought you was a hippie 'cuz you dressed that way.
I shoulda known them shopping bags sure gave you away.
But your Peter Max babushka misled me, dear, it's true.
The waterbed was filled with glue the night that I got stuck with you
polka.

I'm not in touch with Larry (if you're a Midnight Special fan, then you may have heard of my group, Molly & the Tinker) but a decent Google search might help, or maybe another Chicago folksinger knows.

Subject: RE: the water bed was filled with glue polka
From: GUEST,frogprince
Date: 16 Jul 04 - 12:40 PM

Thanks, Charlie, but that's not it; the entire song I'm
looking for is built around the goofy title premise.

Subject: RE: the water bed was filled with glue polka
From: Charlie Baum
Date: 15 Jul 04 - 01:01 PM

The website http://www.lyricsfreak.com/j/jimmy-buffett/71925.html attributes it to Jimmy Buffett.

Subject: the water bed was filled with glue polka
From: frogprince
Date: 15 Jul 04 - 12:51 PM

Honest, I didn't just make this title up; I used to hear the song somewhere, perhaps on WFMT Chicago. I thought I remembered that
it was by Steve Goodman, but if so he must not have recorded it on a
regular release; I can't find a sign of it anywhere. Who knows the lyric, and where it really came from?