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GUEST,Colin Baptist Sunday School words offensive? (105* d) RE: Baptist Sunday School words offensive? 04 Jan 10


Interesting thread, and still going. I remember singing this in sessions in the Kings Arms, Bangor, N Wales and this is how it was given to me by the singer, Derek Froome of Cheshire:

The Darkies' Sunday School
This may be in print, possibly in a Song Book issued by Hackney (London) Scouts, who were famous for their singing between the wars: no further suggestions. I learnt it orally from several sources.

Those who have no feeling for blason populaire may cavil at the title, & the use of the term in the chorus: let them corrode in corners: we know what we mean, & what we do not mean.

Chorus

Old folks, young folks, everbody come,
Join the darkies' Sunday School & make yourselves at home:
Bring your sticks of chewing gum, sit down upon the floor,
And we'll tell you bible stories that you never heard before.

Sung as an introduction, & between each verse. May also be used after the last verse has been sung by the singer, or after additions by bystanders, which should be carefully recorded, together with variants. I usually begin with Adam for 'historical' reasons, but the rest usually come as remembered rather than as a true chronological series. Chacun a son gout. Punctuation omitted.

Oh Adam was the first man, & he lived all alone
Till Eve was manufactured out of his left funny-bone
Then old Adam had no cause to fret & grieve
For he flirted all day long in the Garden of Eden with Eve

Esau was a cowboy from the wild & woolly west
His father gave him half the farm, his brother Jake the rest
But Esau didn't like it, the title deeds weren't clear
So he swapped the whole caboodle for a sandwich & a beer

Goliath was a strong man, a mighty man of power
Whose head was on a level with the top of Blackpool tower
He swanked about an awful lot & swore he'd never die
Till David came with half a brick & hit him in the eye.

Shadrach, Meshach & Abednego
They none of them could please the King, so of course they had to go
He put them in the furnace to burn them up like chaff
But they wore asbestos underpants & gave the King the laugh

Job was a patriarch who suffered many toils
He wrote a book to tell us he was covered all in boils
But when the Jewish doctors had given up all hope
Job went and cured himself with Cuticura Soap

Solomon & David lived most immoral lives
They used to gad about the place with other people's wives
But when they got to middle age they suffered from the qualms
One of them wrote The Proverbs & the other wrote The Psalms

Elijah was a prophet of very great renown
He ran a travelling circus which he took from town to town
He worked a lot of magic on a Sunday afternoon
And went up in the evening in a patent fire-balloon

Ruth was a flapper of a very modern type
She often smoked Wild Woodbines & at other times a pipe
Her skirts were of the shortest & she often 'gave the glad'
Till the Salvation Army came & saved her from the bad

Jehu had a chariot of seven horse-power
He used to dash about the place at ninety miles an hour
But he had to put the brakes on when going through Jezreel
For little bits of Jezebel were sticking to the wheel

Samson was a boxer of the Jackie Johnson school
He slew ten thousand Philistines with the jawbone of a mule
But a lassie called Delilah came & filled him up with gin
And when she'd shaved his whiskers off the Peelers ran him in

Only partially known or remembered

Moses was the leader of the Israelitish flock
They hadn't any water ..?. rock
Moses didn't like it so he gave the rock a smite
And out came flowing Buchanan's Black & White

Joseph was a dreamer who suffered from swelled head
He used to wear jazz pullovers in yellow, green & red
... [much desired]

Cain & Abel... Cain wasn't able so Abel got the cane [final line]


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