Lyr Req: Oh Florie + Sailorman (Jimmie Driftwood)

Subject: Lyr Req: Oh, Florie, and Sailorman by Driftwood
From: katlaughing
Date: 13 Oct 04 - 01:10 AM

From the Newcomer's Guide thread:

Subject: RE: LYRICS TO OH FLORIE
From: GUEST,PAT BUCK - PM
Date: 13 Oct 04 - 12:13 AM

Looking for the lyrics to "Oh Florie" and "Sailor Man" by Jimmy Driftwood. Thanks

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Oh, Florie, and Sailorman by Driftwood
From: Sorcha
Date: 13 Oct 04 - 08:53 PM

No luck with either. Sorry.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Oh, Florie, and Sailorman by Driftwood
From: Arkie
Date: 13 Oct 04 - 11:24 PM

I might be able to find these lyrics but it may take a couple of days.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Oh, Florie, and Sailorman by Driftwood
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 15 Oct 04 - 07:41 AM

OH FLORIE appears on Jimmie Driftwood's "Songs of Billy Yank and Johnny Reb," RCA Victor LP SP-2316, 1961; and on "Americana," Bear Family 3-CD box set BCD-15465, 1991.

I was able to transcribe one verse from a sound sample. He sings it with a German accent:

They gives me hardtack bread to eat but likes to broke my jaw.
Sometimes I split him mit an iron ... (?) and sometimes mit a saw.
The beef he was so salty, Lot's wife killed him, I know;
And the general says they put him in the brine ten thousand years ago.

* * *

SAILOR MAN appears on Jimmie Driftwood's album "Newly Discovered Early American Folk Songs," RCA Victor LP PM-1635, 1958; "The Best of Jimmy Driftwood," Monument LP SP-18043, 1966; and "Americana," described above.

This is from a sound sample:

When I went away, she said goodbye,
And gave that key to another guy.
That's the life of a sailor man.
He has to do the best he can.
That's the life of a sailor man.
He has to do the best he can.

I found me a babe in New Orleans.
She was one o' them Cajun queens.
We danced all night....

Subject: Lyr Add: SAILOR MAN (Jimmie Driftwood)
From: GUEST,Arkie
Date: 17 Oct 04 - 04:14 PM

Sailor Man
        By Jimmy Driftwood

When I first went with Uncle Sam
I thought I was a mighty man.
I jumped up on a big Marine
He whipped me till my face turned green.

Chorus:         That's the life of a sailor man
        He has to do the best he can.
        That's the life of a sailor man
        He has to do the best he can.

I found me a girl in Baltimore
She gave me the key to her back door.
When I went away she said "Goodbye"
And gave that key to another guy.

I found me a babe in New Orleans
She was one them Cajun queens.
We danced all night at the Roosevelt
I lost my girl and my money belt.

When I was in Los Angeles
I found a blonde that I loved to squeeze.
I asked her if she's marry me
But she had a husband on the sea.

We landed in Urega Bay
I found me a lovely Moosomae.
She said she never like Japan
Until she met a sailor man.

When I've put up my twenty years
I ain't a-gonna shed no salty tears.
I'll find me a woman if I can
Who understands a sailor man.

Courtesy of the Ozark Folk Center Archive.

So far as I know the words are Jimmy's. Possibly the tune. But I suspect that the tune may have been around. I've heard snatches of it in various other places. Mason Williams inserted the tune in one of his pieces, but I cannot remember now if it was in Classical Gas or another composition. Johnny and Jack and Stevie Earl have recorded versions of this song.

I'm still looking for Florie.

Subject: Lyr Add: OH FLORIE (Jimmie Driftwood)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 12 Jan 12 - 03:21 PM

This is my transcription from the recording. Driftwood sings this in a mock German accent. To make the lyrics easier to understand, and easier to find with a search engine, I have usually not attempted to represent his pronunciation with phonetic spelling. Suffice it to say that he sings "mit" for "with", "mein" for "my", "v" for any "w" or "wh" sound, and so on.


OH FLORIE
As sung by Jimmie Driftwood on "Tennessee Stud: The Best of" (2011)

1. My heart it broke in one little bits and I tell you all what for.
My sweetheart was a very patriotic girl and she runs me off with the war.
I fight for her the battle of the flag as brave as ever I can,
But a long time ago she nixes me and runs off with another man.

CHORUS: Oh, Florie (Florie, Florie), what makes you so unkind?
You went with Hans to Germany and left poor Schnapps behind.

2. We marched all day and the rain come down just like old Noah's flood.
I sleeps all night with my head on a rock and my feet all stuck in the mud.
The nightmare come and I cotch him by the tail; I dreams I sleep with a ghost.
Next day I was frozen in the mud just like a barnyard goat.

3. They gives me hardtack bread to eat but likes to broke my jaw.
Sometimes I split him with an iron wedge and sometimes with a saw.
The beef he was so salty, Lot's wife killed him, I know;
And the general says they put him in the brine ten thousand years ago.

4. At last we takes a southern town and hold him for one year.
They puts red pepper in the sauerkraut and vinegar in the beer.
I meets a lady on the street as pretty as one could be.
I tries to kiss her rebel lips and hoch! she spit on me!