The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #68057 Message #1197222
Posted By: GUEST,Art Thieme
30-May-04 - 03:41 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Add: Short Songs/Parodies
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Short Songs/Parodies
Missing from ALL of these are our sources. Where they came from. Why they came to be and when. What might've been happening then that made the little parody current. All the above. --------- The "Hangman Hangman" parody sited above is from the Smothers Brothers---as I the Streets Of Laredo parody.
That said, here are a few:
I'm gonna sit right down and write myself a Bible, And make believe it came from God...(Don't know where I heard that.) -------------
This land was made for you and me---------and my R.C. (From kids in the schoolyard at Morris School in Chicago---1977) -------------
We three kings from sloppy Joe's bar... (From my wife Carol's childhood in Toledo, Ohio.)
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One ton tomato, Don't ear a one ton tomato... (from a humorous singer/songwriter named Mike Farrow? in Chicago about 1979.)
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Fry me a live--fry me a liver, I fried a liver for you. (parody of a song that was a hit for Julie London in the 1950s.)
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I believe if I saw my wife again, I'd still be here with you. (from the Utah Phillips' song)
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Touch me when I'm bowling, Touch me when I'm snowmobiling, When I'm cleaning the cat litter, Surprise me with your hands, And lightly, With kung-fu, Touch me. (from Utah Phillips' song "Touch Me")
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It's knowing I can get some snatch Without having to commit to you at all, That makes me leave my sleeping bag Rolled up and stashed behind your couch...
(A one-verse parody I put together when I was the regular singer on the stemboat Julia Belle Swain. John Hartford, who piloted the boat quite often, and who wrote the original, did not think it was real funny.)
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Richard Nixon's the name and I won every damn campaign, Stonewalled congress's game and tore up the yapes again, In the summer of '74 they were angry and demanding more, By August 8th I had to tell 'cause a tape can remember all too well.
On the night that they drove old Dickie down, All the people were singing, On the night that they drove old Dickie down, Dan Rather was jeering,
He went, "Naaa,na,na,na,na--naaaa, na, na, na, na, Na, na, na,na, nan naaaa, na, na !!!"
(A tale of Watergate---1970s. I heard it sung around Chicago---maybe Freddy Holstein or Michael Cooney.)
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Oh your mother is old, Amd your father is dead, And your brother is dead, And your brother is dead, And your brother is dead, And your kid has one leg, And your wife is a drunk And your car doesn't float !
(I heard this from ....... ...... after an incident on Chappequidic Island off Massachusetts. tune: The Irish Washerwoman)
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This land is their land, It is not our land, From the plush apartments, To the Cadillac car land, From the Wall Street office, To the Hollywood star land, This land is not for you and me !
(from the BOSS'S SONGBOOK ---1960s
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The miners came in '49, The whores in '51, Ten they got together And they made a Native Son.
(A California song from the 19th century.)
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Yah, sir, he's my Arafat, No, sir, I don't mean chicken fat, Yah, sir, he's my Arafat now.
(tune: "Yes, Sir, She's my Baby" I got this from a couple in Minnesots---a Palestinian girl had married a Minnesotan. They named their kid "Yah,Sir, You Betcha" ;-)
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Don't cry ladies, I'll buy your goddam pencils, Don't cry ladies, Your apples too, Don't cry ladies, Take off those dark brown glasses, Hello, mother, I knew it was you.
(Frank Hamilton sang this in a concert for the University Of Illinois Folksong Club at Navy Pier--Chicago---1962.)
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If you've never been the lover of a landlady's daughter, Then you cannot have another piece of pie""
(I heard Jo Mapes sing this in Chicago as the shortesr song she knew. circa 1961.)
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You can give marriage a whirl If you've got enough in your purse, But no matter what you do marry a Texas gal, 'Cause no matter what happens -- she's seen worse.
(I heard Pete Seeger sing this around 1956 at a Northwestern University concert with Pete and Big Bill Broonzy.)
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What was your name in the states, Was it Jackson or Thompson or Bates, Did you flee for your life, Did you murder your wife, Oh, what was your name in the states.
(a song of early California referring to the fact that many of those in the gold fields were people with a past who were forced to go West.)