The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #65298 Message #2168009
Posted By: GUEST,leeneia
10-Oct-07 - 10:07 AM
Thread Name: Origins: Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah
Subject: RE: Origins: Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah
The reason it's hard to figure Dinah out is that the song is a medley, a combination of two different songs. In the first song, Dinah has something to do with the horn. In the second, she's in the kitchen, listening to a banjo. Could be the same person, or not.
When I was in grade school, our songbooks had similar medleys. They consisted of short, old songs artfully strung together. We enjoyed singing them, and I still remember them.
'I've been working on the railroad' first appeared in 'Carmina Princetonia." This means 'Songs of Princeton.' I picture some Princeton students putting on a revue and stringing these two songs together in order to make a more satisfying act.
The song linked above, about the Levee, is obviously a medley of that nature.
I also picture them cleaning it up. I bet the original was something like
I been workin on the railroad,
all the goldern day!
I mean, has the word 'livelong' ever occurred anywhere else? No. They made it up, probably to replace 'goddamn.'