The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #53457 Message #823669
Posted By: GUEST,.gargoyle
11-Nov-02 - 05:41 PM
Thread Name: Lyr/Origins: O'Grady's Goat, Bill Grogan's, etc.
Subject: Lyr Add: PAPA'S BILLY GOAT and ROSENTHAL'S GOAT...
More than most of you really want to know. Lots of references to "classics" within the DT…i.e. "daddy is my own son-in-law." Read to the very bottom for "O'Grady's Goat"
Long Steel Rail – The Railroad in American Folksong Norm Cohen, University of Illinois Press, 1981.
p.28 "Recorded hillbilly music was slower to get off the ground than was the music recoded for "the race…. The event that opened industry's eyes to the potential market at hand was the recording in June, 1923, of Atlanta's Fiddlin' John Carson." ( p. 29 advertisement from Talking Machine World, September 15, 1924 King of the Mountaineer Musicians! Fiddlin' John Carson Seven Times Champion Fiddler of the South Records Exclusivly for Okeh Records)
p.30 "….At his second session, Fiddlin' John Carson recorded "Casey Jones" and "Papa's Billy Goat…."
p.74 Indicates that the first recording of John Henry was in March of 1924 by Carson. on an OKeh
p. 275 Chap 6 Asleep at the Switch " This very brief chapter is intended to provide respite between two rather somber portions of the book: a chapter of rail road accidents, and a chapter of tragedies, embracing a variety of the more sorrowful aspect of the human condition."
"…"Papa's Billy Goat" bring us to the level of the droll minstrel stage or music hall. It is the still-remembered song of a mischievous goat who ears his master's red shirts off the clothesline, is tied to a railroad track for punishment, but saves himself at the last minute by coughing up the shirts and flagging the train."
p.288 PAPA'S BILLY GOAT
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T:PAPA'S BILLY GOAT
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DD3D2DD D2b2a2Fa2 D3ED2(DA) D2b2a4 dd3(db)(af) a2 a (bb2)F2 D2D2F2F2 E2E2D4
Papa bought him a great big billy goat,
Ma(ma) she washed most every day;
Hung our clothes out on the line,
That durned old goat he come that way.
Now he pulled down the red flannelled shirt,
You oughta hear those button crack;
But I'll get even with the son-of-a-gun,
Gonna tie him across the railroad track.
Tied him across the railroad track,
And the train was a-comin' at a powerful rate;
He belched up that old red shirt,
Then flagged down that durned old freight.
Then I went to the deport and bought me a ticket,
And I walked right in and I sot right down;
Stuck my ticket in the brim of my hat,
And the doggone wind blowed it out on the ground.
The conductor come around, says, "Gimme your ticket."
Said I'll have to pay again or get left on the track;
But I'll get even with the son-of-a-gun,
Got a round-trip ticket and I ain't a-comin' back.
Then I acted an old fool, married me a widow,
And the widow had daughter and her name was Maude;
Father being a widower married her daughter,
And now my daddy is my own son-in-law. (Fiddlin' John Carson)
p. 289
ROSENTHAL'S GOAT
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T: ROSENTHAL'S GOAT
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GF2E B2GG2GG2EE2C D2Fa2aa2aa2F B2bD2FB2BE2F G2BC2BE2EF2E G2GG2ab2EF2G (ba)aa2bc2aF2F b2BDE(FF2)GG2F (GE2E2>E2)
There was a man named Rosenthal,
He bought a goat, it was last fall;
He did not buy this goat for fun,
He bought him for his only son.
Six red shirts hung out on a line,
When Billy saw these, says, "Now I dine."
He rolled them up in a small ball,
And swallowed shirts, clothesline and all.
When Rosen' saw what Billy had done,
He said, "Prepare, you son-of-a-gun."
He took him to a railroad track,
And tied him down and turned his back.
When Billy saw the approaching train,
He tried to think, but all in vain;
He gave a jerk, and awful strain,
Coughed up the shirts and flagged the train.
Now Billy's stomach was lined with zinc,
He swallowed a rock, then a bottle of ink;
And then a stick of dynamite,
To satisfy his appetite.
When Rosen' got a great big stick,
And gave the goat a terrible lick;
The dynamite went off, 'tis sad to tell,
The goat went to heaven, and Rosenthal went to…
[Spoken] Well, that's you business. (Mac and Bob)
p. 290 "Although its origins are still undiscovered, this song – or a close relation of it – is still vigorously alive in oral tradition, in fact, it is one of the few songs in this book that thrives as an urban as well as a rural folksong.
"Because they are so different in both tune and text, two version of the song are transcribed in full here.
The first, "Papa's Billy Goat," is taken from a hillbilly recording by Fiddlin' John Carson, the Atlanta fiddler whose June, 1923 recording of the "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" / "The Old Hen Cackled and the Rooster's Going to Crow" launched the hillbilly phonograph industry….in a second session… November 8, Carson recorded "Papa's Billy Goat….."
"Papa's Billy Goat" was recorded in July, 1924 by Tennessee-born hillbilly entertainer Uncle Dave Macon for the Vocalion Company…."
"Carson song is set to the familiar tune of "Reuben and Rachel" (now generally mistitled "Reuben, Reuben") a ditty written by Harry Bush and William Gooch and presumably copyrighted in 1871…."
"….The impression is given that this song was used as a vehicle for a series of humorous anecdotes, perhaps added or omitted at the performer's will."
p.291 "A second class of variants of the goat song is represented by the transcribed text and tune of "Rosenthal's Goat." In many of these, the goat's owner is given a name, often Irish: generally, Bill Grogan; less frequently, Bill Hogan, Rosenthal, Casey, Mike Riley, William Tell, Timon Thall, Angeline, Isaac Small. The persistent Irish association suggests that the piece dates from the 1880's, when jokes and songs about immigrant ethnic groups were at their zenith (or nadir, depending on one's attitude). The version given of "Rosenthal's Goat" is transcribed from a recording by Lester McFarland and Robert Gardener, which they made for the Brunswick Company on August 15, 1928. Gardner learned the song about 1920 from Charlie Oaks, a blind minstrel from Kentucky "Bill Grogan's Goat is the form that still survives in the city; because of its currency I give here a text from oral tradition:
Bill Grogan's goat was feeling fine,
Ate three red shirts right off the line.
His master came and beat his back,
And tied him to the railroad track.
The whistle blew, the train drew night,
Bill Grogan's goat knew he must die,
He gave three bleats of mortal pain,
Coughed up the shirts and flagged the train.
The engineer looked out to see
What in the world this thing could be.
And when he saw 'twas but a goat,
He drew his knife and slit its throat.
When Billy got to heaven, Saint Peter said,
"My darling Bill, where is your head?"
"I do not know and cannot tell,
For all I know, it may be in….
(Way down yonder in the cornfield)."
"The text is a little unusual because of the last two stanzas, which do not always occur and which seem clearly to be a latter addition….
"The earliest text that can be dated with certainty is a 1904 sheet-music version entitled "The Tale of a Shirt," words by W.W. Brackett…
p.292 "The most elaborate text of this song family is the one title "Riley's Goat" and printed by Ira W. Ford. Unfortunately, Ford, who drew from printed as well as oral sources, gave no data on the origin of the text. "Riley's Goat" clearly sounds like and Irish vaudeville song; however, the use of a green light as a clear signal suggests that that version is of twentieth-century origin….."Riley's Goat" is almost too good a text; it bears many elements that appear nowhere else….
"In our search for origins of this song/story, we should consider a poem by Will Hays, the successful composer of the 1960's and 1870s who gave us such popular hits as "The Little Old Cabin in the Lane,"…. Entitled O'Grady's Goat" and published in 1890 (if not earlier), the poem is an Irish dialect piece relating the various troublesome deeds perpetrated by Tim O'Grady's goat. Here is the third verse, which is appropriated to the problem at hand:
Pat Doolan's woife hung out the wash
Upon the line to dry.
She wint to take it in at night,
But stopped to have a cry.
The sleeves av two red flannel shirts,
That once were worn by pat,
Were chewed off almost to the neck,
O'Grady's goat doon that.
"Although it would wrap things up nicely to conclude to Hays's poem was the original source of the billy goat songs, I think such a conclusion would be too hasty."
9. "O'Grady's Goat" by Will S. Hays appears in Shoemaker's Best Selections, No. 18, compiled by Silas Nef (Philadelphia: Pennsylvania Publishing, 1890)
Newport Bard - May I suggest Granger's Index to Poetry" if you want to locate a copy of "O'Grady's Goat" in an anthology collection.
Sincerely,
Gargoyle