Subject: Lyr Add: MAX GOOLIS (from Limeliters)
From:
Roger the zimmer
Date: 07 May 99 - 07:31 AM
MAX GOOLIS
Lyrics, Bernie West & David Panick. Tune, JOHN HENRY.
Recorded by the Limeliters on LP "Our Men in San Francisco"
(Transcribed by RMS).
A long spoken intro ends: "Well, John Henry might have been a steel drivin' man but Max Goolis was a street sweepin' man
(SINGS:) Lord, lord
Max Goolis was a street sweepin' man.
Max Goolis was a street sweepin' man, lord, lord.
Max Goolis was a street sweepin' man.
When Max Goolis was a little bitty babe,
The first words he did utter
Were: "Listen, Mum & Dad, I plan to spend
My whole life in the gutter, lord, lord,
My whole life in the gutter.
(SPOKEN): Well, one day the boss came out on the job and he brought an automatic garbage truck around. He said:" Alright, Max, turn in your white ducks, fella. You're through."
Imagine it: Goolis, foremost name in refuse, cast up on the heap, destitute. He said: "Just a minute, sir. I deserve another chance. I propose a race: me against the automatic garbage truck. What do you say?"
Well, the entrepreneur was of the imaginative sort, always looking for some kind of incentive proposal, short of profit-sharing, and he said: "Alright, Maxie, in view of your years of devoted service, I'll tell you what I'm gonna do. You take one side of the street and the automatic garbage truck will take the other. To the victor belong the spoils!"
(SING): They started down the avenue, the scene it really looked bad
The automatic truck was sweeping up a storm
And Max was shoveling like mad, lord, lord,
And Max was shoveling like mad.
Max poured on speed and then he said:
"I've only saved a couple o' dimes.
I'm behind by thirteen orange peels and a copy of the New York Times, lord, lord,
A copy of the New York Times."
(Spoken) West Coast edition. Well eyewitnesses tell us that Max wasn't behind at all. As a matter of fact, he was pulling ahead, slowly but surely, in an epic of human labor when someone said suddenly: "Hey, look, there's a parade a-comin'!" Sure enough it was the United States mounted cavalry. I'm certain that no-one expects us to include the next verse [sotto voce: Certainly not our Aunt David ?Davis?]. Suffice it to say that the wind blew, and quite a few objects were airborne. Well, some say it broke poor Max's heart and he died. And others say: "Not a bit of it: his spirit lives on in keeping things neat and clean right here in San Francisco, because Max Goolis was a street sweepin' man.
(SINGS) Lord, lord,
Max Goolis was a street sweepin' man.
He broke his poor heart and then he died,
But Max is really not gone.
On every single street where garbage lies
His soul goes shoveling on, lord, lord,
His soul goes shoveling on...and on... and on...
His soul goes shoveling on....
[Sorry about the line breaks, Joe, trying to get it done in my lunch break, in a hurry]
No genital references, but mildly scatological narrative for those so inclined. Hope Big Mick enjoys this edition to the struggle of honest working men against the boss class!
Roger
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sj
