Lyr Req: A Change in Business (All Around)

Subject: ADD: A Change in Business (All Around)
From: tutor
Date: 15 Feb 99 - 02:31 PM

At the Old Time Fiddlers Gathering at Battleground IN in the mid-1970's, a very lively "old-time" string band with twin fiddles from Dayton? Ohio called the "Corn Drinkers" did a song called "A Change in Business." Fans and musicians alike are aquainted with the feeling of instant fascination with a song. I, foolishly perhaps, fell under the spell of their quaint rendition of "A Change in Business:"


I think it's nothing but right, to mention here tonight
To all you good folks in this here town;
If a man would stay at home, leave the single girls alone,
There'd be a change in business all around.

Chorus.
It's all around, (It's all around); It's all around, (It's all around);
Up in the air and on the ground (on the ground)
If every man's mother in law had a padlock on her jaw,
There'd be a change in business all around.

They come home drunk at night, cause a ruckus and start a fight;
And call you every thing except a clown;
If a man would stay at home, leave the single girls alone,
There'd be a change in business all around

Chorus.

The lyrics were quoted by memory and through the filter of a festival sound system so may have succumbed to the folk process! But, every time I dust off and play the old festival tapes, the song still "jumps out at me." Another one of their songs: "Sweet Sunny South" using the twin fiddles effectively, does the same.

In the folk process, I have tried to use the tune and rhyme scheme to add more lyrics, but I am still looking for words that rhyme twice in the first and third lines.

Jane Keefer catalogs a song, "A Change All Around" or "Changin' Business, (All Around)" in her database at: http://milton.mse.jhu.edu:8001/research/folkindex/index.html

A Change All Around - Mainer, Wade/Morris, Claud
1. Hutton, Bruce. Old-Time Music - It's All Around, Folkways FA 2402, LP (1978), cut# 14
2. Mainer's Mountaineers (J. E. Mainer's Mountaineers). J. E. Mainer's Crazy Mountaineer's, Vol. 1, Old-Timey LP 106, LP (197?), cut# 12

Changin' Business (All Around)
1. Thomas, Lois "Granny". In An Arizona Town, AFF AFF 33-3, LP (196?), cut# 18

The Folkways FA 2402 LP and Arhoolie Old Timey LP 106 listed below must be both out of print, and not released on CD as it didn't come up in a search of the Folkways or Arhoolie Websites.

Though I saw J. E. Mainer here in Chicago, I can't remember if he did "A Change All Around."
Does anyone have knowledge of, experience with, or opinion about the "Corn Drinkers" or about this song?

Tom Jones

Subject: RE: A Change in Business (All Around)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 19 Feb 99 - 04:16 PM

Sounds interesting. Any response?
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: A Change in Business (All Around)
From: Wally Macnow
Date: 20 Feb 99 - 04:08 PM

I have one copy of Bruce Hutton's cassette, FA 02402, "Old Time Music, It's All Around" remaining in stock. One of the tracks is "A Change All Around". Contact me if you're interested.

Wally Macnow - Camsco Music - - www.camsco.com - [e-mail]

Subject: RE: A Change in Business (All Around)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 22 Nov 03 - 01:24 PM

Another thread that never got answered...

Subject: RE: A Change in Business (All Around)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 26 Nov 03 - 09:59 PM

According to this list of Victor 40000 series 78rpm records, A CHANGE IN BUSINESS ALL AROUND, performed by the Carolina Twins, was released in 1929.

The various-artists' album "Songs of the Road" (Premium Music CD 6070, 1998) contains CHANGE IN BUSINESS performed by Highway Caravan.

You can hear a sound sample at Barnes & Noble:

...but right
That I should mention here tonight
What's a-goin' on right here in this ol' town.

Now them short filled (?) skirts are nice
That they wear on Saturday night
But it's a-runnin' them ol' men...

Subject: RE: A Change in Business (All Around)
From: Padre
Date: 14 Jan 08 - 10:28 PM

I sang with Bruce on the album,and I remember the verse going something like this:

Now them high-top skirts are nice
That they wear on Saturday night,
Driving the old men wiser every day,
If the married men stayed at home,
Leave the single girls alone,
It'd make a chnge in business all around

CHORUS:

It's all around (x2)
Up in the air and on the ground.
If every man's mother-in-law
Had a padlock through her jaw,
It'd make a change in business all around

Padre

Subject: RE: A Change in Business (All Around)
From: 12-stringer
Date: 15 Jan 08 - 12:20 AM

The 2 verses/chorus from the first post and the verse/chorus from the last are more or less the same as what I used to do in the 70s, learned from a reel-to-reel dub of the 1937 version by Mainer & Morris. A then-topical added verse from the 1976 rendition:

Times are harder than tough, I think we've had enough
Those politicians have our noses to the ground.
But next Election Day we'll tow that broke-down Ford away
We need a change in business all around.

Subject: Lyr Add: A CHANGE IN BUSINESS ALL AROUND
From: GUEST,Bob Coltman
Date: 15 Jan 08 - 08:18 AM

The original goes back a bit further than Mainer & Morris. They learned it from a 1929 recording by David Fletcher and Gwen Foster, who recorded as the Carolina Twins. It's been a favorite of mine since I first heard it back in the 60s.

I think it may have been written by David Fletcher, since he was first to record it under his own name, but the recording was unissued. Here are the Carolina Twins' lyrics:

A CHANGE IN BUSINESS ALL AROUND

Carolina Twins, Victor 40243, Atlanta, November 28, 1929

Folks, I think it's nothin' but right for me to mention here tonight
The things that's a-goin' on in your town,
If the married men'd stay at home, and leave the single girls alone,
That'd make a change in business all around.

CHO
All around, all around,
Up in the air and on the ground,
If the married men'd stay at home, and leave the single girls alone,
That'd make a change in business all around.

Now, women, take my advice, I know your short-tailed skirts looks nice,
But it's runnin' yo' men wilder every day,
They'll stay out late at night, then come in and raise a fight,
That makes a change in business all around.

CHO2
All around ...
Stop wearin' your short tail skirts, and don't be such durn big flirts, That'll ...

If the men could have their way, they'd keep their wives from goin' astray,
'Cause the women are gettin' wilder every day,
Keep your wives out of automobiles, make 'em stay home and serve you meals,
That'd make a change in business all around.

CHO3
... Keep your wives etc.

Just give the women a chance, I be durned if they don't wear yo' pants,
They'll run everything right in the ground,
If every man's mother-in-law had a padlock on her jaw,
That'd make a change in business all around.

CHO4
... If every man's etc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qC7FRYBF0r0

Subject: RE: A Change in Business (All Around)
From: GUEST,Bob Coltman
Date: 15 Jan 08 - 08:43 AM

I spoke too soon.

Gus Meade's Country Music Sources identifies an original: "Just to Make a Change in Business All Around" by an unknown composer c. 1887. The same title was then claimed by Ezra Kendall in 1895, but in a changed version. Meade says the recordings mentioned below more closely resemble the 1887 version.

The Carolina Twins' version was one descendant in 1929. The other, though, was done five months earlier: Uncle Dave Macon and Sid Harkreader's "We Need a Change in Business All Around," recorded in Chicago June 20, 1929 and released as Vocalion 5374.

Recordings of the song followed: Roy Harvey in 1930, Jess Hillard in 1932, Duke Clark in 1932 and then Mainer & Morris in 1937, also Claude Casey Trio in 1937.

So it looks like the Twins were covering Macon and Harkreader. And once again Uncle Dave Macon, who knew 19th-century pop song better than anyone, can be credited with pulling a fine old chestnut out of obscurity.

Bob

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Change in Business (All Around)
From: GUEST,George Mercer
Date: 31 Mar 20 - 09:57 PM

The Corn Drinkers recorded several CDs. I'll try to dig them out. Barb Kuhns and Doug Smith were in the band

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Change in Business (All Around)
From: GUEST,Starship
Date: 31 Mar 20 - 11:50 PM

http://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/songster/16-just-to-make-a-change-in-business-all-around.htm

The St Louis Strike was in 1877, so the linked version was after that. (It's late and I'm tired, so pardon me if I just leave it here and hopefully remember tomorrow that I did.)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Change in Business (All Around)
From: GUEST,Starship
Date: 05 Apr 20 - 08:56 AM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXzOll1rCJA&list=RDiXzOll1rCJA&start_radio=1

That's by Buddy Jones.

Subject: Lyr Add: GONNA CHANGE MY BUSINESS ALL AROUND
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 06 Jun 20 - 06:58 PM

My transcription from the recording on YouTube:


GONNA CHANGE MY BUSINESS ALL AROUND
(Buddy Jones)
As recorded by Buddy Jones on Decca 5967 A, 1941.

Gotta change my bid'ness all aroun'.
Gonna move out in a little country town,
Get me a mule an' a turnin' plow somehow.
I'll raise the cornbread that I eat.
Gonna fill my smokehouse full of meat,
For I'm changin' bus'ness all aroun'.

I'll get me a pig an' a Jersey cow,
Dominicker hen an' an old Shanghai.
I'll build my henhouse ten foot from the groun'.
When the cowbells ring, the pig will squeal,
The old Shanghai'll do the chicken reel,
For I'm changin' bus'ness all aroun'.

I'll plant me a patch of sorghum cane,
Get me a wife this comin' spring.
I'll run molasses down them 'tater rows,
And when them 'taters begin to sprout,
My humpback wife can dig 'em out,
For I'm changin' bus'ness all aroun'.

I'll get me a sly(?) an' humpback mule,
Send my kids right on to school.
I'll educate them in this country life.
I'll dress 'em up in the latest style
From the youngest one to the oldest chil',
For I'm changin' bus'ness all aroun'.

I'll plant my pea patch on a hill,
The old blackeye an' the whippoorwill,
My turnip greens can grow in my backyard.
I'll make a livin' if I try.
To the city life I'll say goodbye,
For I'm changin' bus'ness all aroun'.