The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #76704 Message #1361755
Posted By: Joe Offer
20-Dec-04 - 04:06 PM
Thread Name: Origins: The Good Boy
Subject: ADD Version: The Good Boy
Here is the verson from Carl Sandburg's The American Songbag (1927). It's almost identical to the first version (click) in the Digital Tradition, but I think the differences are worth noting.
THE GOOD BOY
I have led a good life, full of peace and quiet
I shall have an old age full of rum and riot;
I have been a good boy, wed to peace and study,
I shall have an old age, ribald, coarse and bloody.
I have never cut throats, even when I yearned to,
Never sang dirty songs that my fancy turned to;
I have been a nice boy and done what was expected,
I shall be an old bum loved but unrespected.
Pay attention to Sandburg's notes, which differ from the attribution given in the Digital Tradition:Lem Parton, a New York journalist who farms at Sneeden's Landing up the Hudson, gives the following version of a highbrow folk song which has several variants.
Note the tune, which is something like "Gambolier."
I think I like the Spaeth version of the lyrics best.
-Joe Offer-