The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #63874   Message #1041674
Posted By: Joe Offer
25-Oct-03 - 01:38 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: In Mobile / In Kansas
Subject: RE: In Mobile/In Kansas/In & Around Nashville
I guess the best-known version of the song is "In Kansas," although I'm partial to Art Thieme's "In and Around Nashville." Here's what the Traditional Ballad Index says about it.
-Joe Offer-

In Kansas

DESCRIPTION: A quatrain ballad, this describes the unseemly, unsanitary, unhealthy conditions and people in that state, at Yale, in Mobile, in Zamboanga or any other place disliked by the singer.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1844, when a version of the song was published in New York City by Atwill. Said to date from a song about the Irish famines, "Over Here."
KEYWORDS: bawdy scatological humorous
FOUND IN: Australia Canada Britain(England) US(MA,MW,NE,So,SW) New Zealand
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Cray, pp. 49-53, "In Kansas" (4 texts, 1 tune)
Belden, pp. 428-429, "Kansas" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph 344, "In Arkansas" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 280-282, "In Arkansas" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 344A)
Randolph-Legman I, pp. 265-267, "In Kansas" (4 texts, 1 tune)
Fife-Cowboy/West 32, "In Kansas" (2 texts, 1 tune; the first belongs here, while the second is "Way Out West in Kansas")
Lomax-FSNA 204, "In Kansas" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Greenway-AFP, pp. 212-213, "In Kansas" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 43, "In Kansas" (1 text)

ST EM049 (Partial)
Roud #4455
RECORDINGS:
Chubby Parker, "In Kansas" (Conqueror 7894, 1931)
Art Thieme, "In and Around Nashville" (on Thieme06)

CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Over There (I - The Praties They Grow Small)" (tune & meter, floating lyrics)
cf. "Way Out West in Kansas" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The 'Taters They Grow Small
Notes: Cray and Legman have historical notes, disagreeing on the origin of the American bawdy song. - EC
Given that this appears to be a clear parody of "The Praties They Grow Small," but that the 1844 version precedes the worst of the potato blights, the song origins are indeed mysterious. One suspects that the 1844 text is not the "full version," but a predecessor (the more so as Kansas was beyond the usual settlement line in 1844).
Randolph reports that "several old-timers have told me that this piece was written by an Missourian named Beecham or Beecher, shortly after the Civil War." He does not believe the story, however, and certainly this can only refer to the local adaptation.
There is no clear dividing line between this and "The Praties They Grow Small"; there are versions of this piece that are short enough and clean enough to belong with either. But, as often happens, we must classify them separately because the extremes are so distinct. - RBW
File: EM049

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Bibiography
Go to the Discography

The Ballad Index Copyright 2009 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.


Here are the lyrics Gargoyle posted. Can anybody fill in the "illegable" words?

Thread #4377   Message #614605
Posted By: GUEST,.gargoyle
22-Dec-01 - 12:48 AM
Thread Name: Rugby Football Songs
Subject: ADD: In Mobile

MOBILE

CHORUS:
In Mobile, in Mobile, in-so, in-mo, in Mibile,
Arse holes, arse holes, arse holes, in Mobile.

Oh the seagulls they fly high in Mobile,
Oh the seagulls they fly high in Mobile,
Oh the seagulls they fly high and they shit right in your eye,
Thank the Lord that cows don't fly in Mobile.

There's a man by the name of Hunt in Mobile,
There's a man by the name of Hunt in Mobile,
There's a man by the name of Hunt and he thought he had a cunt,
But his arse was back to front in Mobile.

There's a shortage of good bogs in Mobile,
There's a shortage of good bogs in Mobile,
There's a shortage of good bogs, so they wait until it clogs,
Then they saw it off in logs in Mobile.

There's a shortage of bagpaper in Mobile,
There's a shortage of bagpaper in Mobile,
There's a shortage of bagpaper so they wait until it's vapor,
Then they light it with a taper in Mobile.

There's a man by the name of Smith in Mobile,
There's a man by the name of Smith in Mobile,
There's a man by the name of Smith and he thinks the he can't sniff,
Foul odor from the syph in Mobile.

Oh they teach the babies tricks in Mobile,
Oh they teach the babies tricks in Mobile,
Oh they teach the babies tricks and by the time that they are six,
The suck their father's pricks in Mobile.

It's a fuck of a (illegable)….. in Mobile,
It's a fuck of a (illegable)….. in Mobile,
It's a fuck of a (illegable)….. and they're sunk in masterbation,
For their (illegable)………… in Mobile.