Lyr Req: Pogo's Songs

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pogo's Songs
From: GUEST,DavePhilips
Date: 06 Jan 17 - 12:14 PM

I remember an alternate couplet:

"Beware the snoo lay round about
All kerchoo achievin'"

which occasioned this exchange:
"What's snoo?"

"Dunno. What's snoo with you?"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pogo's Songs
From: EBarnacle
Date: 18 Dec 16 - 08:23 PM

Clearly, an overdose of Sauerkraut would have gassed on . . . but then he'd be French.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pogo's Songs
From: GUEST,Laura Beraha
Date: 18 Dec 16 - 06:35 PM

I remember seeing one strip where one character sings "Good King Sauerkraut...." and the other tells him it's "King Wenceslaus", whereupon the first puts his hat over his heart and says: "I didn't know that Sauerkraut had passed on." CAN'T FIND THE STRIP ANYWHERE!! Anyone?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pogo's Songs
From: Bill D
Date: 11 Dec 15 - 09:26 AM

Jes' one..

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pogo's Songs
From: clueless don
Date: 11 Dec 15 - 08:13 AM

How many were going to Altoona?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pogo's Songs
From: keberoxu
Date: 10 Dec 15 - 01:45 PM

I tried to learn "Parsnoops," which is a real jawbreaker. I didn't get very far. Ended up with a few soggy fragments in my memory:

Oh, the parsnips were snipping their snappers
While the parsley was parceling the peas....

The turnips were passing the time of the day
In the night of the moon on the porch
.....
That the scallions were screeched in the scorch.

Or something like that.


And Walt Kelly himself booming his way through "Go Go Pogo" which sounds like a gazette/map/atlas resume of placenames.

something-something Wheela-Barrow SOMEPLACE IN MEXICO!
Delaware, Ohio and you don't need the text to go
Wheeling, West Virginia
With everything that's in ya
Down the line you'll see the shine
From Oregon to Carolina

Eeny meeny miny Kokomo go Pogo....gasp.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pogo's Songs
From: dick.hamlet
Date: 10 Dec 15 - 01:10 PM

An update on the Fantagraphics reprint project. They have released
(I think) three of the projected 12 volumes that will include all
the published strips. I have the first two, and they sell in a
boxed set that would be a great present for any Pogophile. The
reproduction is beautiful.

Some of Kelly's best stuff appeared only in book form (e.g., Stepmother
Goose), and in the comic books, but some of these are very hard to get
and expensive.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pogo's Songs
From: GUEST,Jim Farwell
Date: 10 Dec 15 - 03:51 AM

[ this is in response to a post by Jeff Danziger, back in Oct '07 ]

"There's a star in the wind and the wind winds high...."

I agree. Porky's gentle song is lovely and poignant. Virtually all of Kelly's writings had at least a hint of humor or satire, but not that perfect little poem. It is soft and simple, as fragile as an April wildflower, and there is only wistful longing. I had not realized that it was written for a daughter who had died very young.

God, I miss Walt Kelly.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pogo's Songs
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Jul 15 - 02:09 AM

I came here looking for Fearless Fred the Footpad Dread. Is he a character? Part of a poem?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pogo's Songs
From: GUEST,KJ Starzinger
Date: 23 Jul 14 - 09:30 PM

Good King Sauerkraut looked out on his feets uneven
and the snew lay round about..

Snew? what's snew?

I dunno, whats snew with you?

KJ CHS 1948

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pogo's Songs
From: Thomas Stern
Date: 07 Apr 14 - 04:43 PM

Songs of the Pogo appeared as a book, LP, and CD.
A quick scan shows many copies available at a wide range of prices.
Best wishes, Thomas.

SONGS OF THE POGO
by Walt Kelly with Norman Monath

Simon & Schuster ASCAP 150               LP 1956 with songbook
AA Records (Affiliated Publishers, div.Pocket Boos) AR-2    LP 1956
REACTION Recordings (Urbana, IL) CD-002   CD 2003 booklet (+6 tracks

SONGS OF THE POGO
lyrics by WALT KELLY
music by NORMAN MONATH and WALT KELLY
lyrics for EVIDENCE by Lewis Carroll
Orchestra and chorus under the direction of JIMMY CARROLL

A1 Go Go Pogo                  v Walt Kelly
A2 Whence That Wince?          v Mike Stewart, Fia Karin and Chorus
A3 Northern Lights             v Fia Karin
A4 Slopposition                v Bob Miller
A5 A Song Not For Now          v Fia Karin and chorus
A6 Twirl, Twirl                v chorus
A7 Parsnoops                   v chorus
A8 The Keen and the Quing      v Fia Karin and chorus
A9 Man's Best Friend          v Chorus, with recitative by Walt Kelly

B1 Don't Sugar Me             v Fia Karin
B2 Whither The Starling       v Mike Stewart and chorus
B3 Willow The Wasp             v Fia Karin
B4 Truly True                  v chorus
B5 Many Harry Returns          v Fia Karin and chorus
B6 Potlucky                   v chorus
B7 The Hazy Yon                v chorus
B8 Evidence (Lewis Carroll)    v Mike Stewart
B9 Lines upon a Tranquil Brow v Walt Kelly

19. No
20. Can't   
21. Tomorrow (Rehearsal)   
22. No ( Rehearsal)
23. Walt Singing
24. A Word To The Fore



SONGS OF THE POGO
Simon and Schuster NY, hb 1956, 152pp
Simon and Schuster NY, pb 1968.

Go Go Pogo
A Song Not For Now
Don't Sugar Me
Whither The Starling
Whence That Wince?
The Keen and the Quing
Parsnoops
Truly True
How Low Is The Lowing Herd
Slopposition
Many Harry Returns
Evidence
Lines Upon A Tranquil Brow
Mistress Plurry
Man's Best Friend
The Prudent Promisor
Song of the Shuttle or Smile, Wavering Wings
Filibeg Fair
Northern Lights
Lhude Sing Cuccu
One Small Score for Two Brown Eyes or Only The Lone
Twilr, Twirl
Mistily Meandering
This Is The Hunt
Wry Song
Potlucky
Willow The Wasp
Prettily Preen
The Hazy Yon
Deck Us All with Boston Charlie
index of first lines

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pogo's Songs
From: GUEST,Lalor
Date: 06 Apr 14 - 06:01 PM

I think it was King Winkelhof...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pogo's Songs
From: GUEST,Libby'smom
Date: 02 Jan 14 - 08:56 PM

Songs of the Pogo was released on cd...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pogo's Songs
From: GUEST,Doug Whelan
Date: 30 Nov 12 - 08:59 PM

Someone started the poem:

Once you were two,
Dear birthday friend,
   In spite of purple weather.

But now you are three
And near the end
As we grewsome together.

Here's the rest:

How fourthful thou,
forsooth for you,
For soon you will be more.

But ---'fore
one can be three be two
Before be five be four.

Doug

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pogo's Songs
From: GUEST,Doug Whelan
Date: 30 Nov 12 - 08:53 PM

After the elections, this one resounds:

Promulge the prating prim
Of the prudent promisor,
For the premise of the promise
Was the primogenitor
Of the primalaceous program
With the presbyopic door.

From Uncle Pogo So-So Stories
Doug

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pogo's Songs
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Nov 12 - 07:09 PM

This got me to checking some books that I still have from my you, 50 or more years ago.

This is how it was published:

I was stirrin' up a stirrup cup
In a stolen sterling stein
When I chanced upon a ladle
Who was once my Valentine.
(Natural, this was a ladle
I used to spoon with.)
"Oh, whence that wince, my wench?" quoth I.
She blushed and said, "Oh sir...
Old daddy isn't stirrin'
Since my momma's been in stir."

Great one!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pogo's Songs
From: GUEST,Doug Whelan
Date: 30 Nov 12 - 06:56 PM

I remember this one this way:

I was stirrin' up a stirrup cup in a stolen stirling stein
When I chanced upon a ladle who was once my Valentine.
(Natural, this was a ladle that I used to spoon with.)
"Oh, whence that wince, oh wench?" quoth I.
She blushed and said, "Oh sir!
My mama isn't stirring since my daddy's been in stir."

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pogo's Songs
From: PHJim
Date: 27 Dec 11 - 06:59 PM

I've been a long time Pogo fan. For my 50th birthday I received a poster of Pogo with "We Have Found The Enemy..." That hangs proudly in our family room. I also have a Pogo mug that I was given by a friend who knows my passion for Pogo. I taught our Ukulele club "Deck Us All With Boston Charlie" this Christmas.

Pogo Poster

When we were kids we had a pet raccoon named "Rackety Coon Chile" and when I moved to Port Hope, my roommate and I had a pet ground hog named "Grundoon".

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pogo's Songs
From: GUEST,Songbob
Date: 27 Dec 11 - 02:46 PM

I have seen recent (last 10 years?) reissues of the strips Kelly did called "Bumbazine and Albert the Alligator," which featured a human among the animals. Bumbazine was a little black boy (this was the 1940s, so we can call him a "pickaninny") who could talk to the animals. He mainly talked to Albert, and Pogo wasn't much in it. Eventually, Ol' Bumbazine left for greener pastures or high school or got drafted, and the animals kept on, with Pogo moving up to be Abbott to Albert's Costello.

It's better that Bumbazine left. He wasn't as believable as the rest of the cast.

Bob

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pogo's Songs
From: Thomas Stern
Date: 26 Dec 11 - 10:00 PM

for the Pogophile - Fantagraphics has released Vol.1 of the
syndicated Pogo strips May 16 1949 - Dec 31 1950, the Sunday pages
for 1950, and the New York Star strips 1948-1949.

Best wishes, Thomas.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pogo's Songs
From: Whippoorwill
Date: 26 Dec 11 - 04:43 PM

Hmm. Didn't know when I started this thread that it would live forever. Thanks to all of you for the fond memories.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pogo's Songs
From: EBarnacle
Date: 11 Dec 10 - 12:48 PM

On rereading this thread, I am surprised not to find mention of the Statue to Beauregard, the Noble Hound.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pogo's Songs
From: GUEST,guest, soraberdav
Date: 10 Dec 10 - 06:28 PM

Another "memory" of Kelly's "Good King Wencelas" lines, excavated from something like 50 years ago...

Good King Wencelas looked out
on his feets uneven
As the snoo lay round about
All kerchoo achieven.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pogo's Songs
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Nov 10 - 09:39 PM

There was half a third line to 'Mamie', viz:

'Then Mamie grabbed a hammer and a bucketful of...HEY!'

Also Fiercely Fred (NOT Fearless Fred) never extinguished his Ma but he did go on some travels, viz:

Fiercely Fred, the footpad dread
Went to Wainscoting no sooner than said
Went to Wainscoting, PA did he,
All in the height of the Bumble Bee
'Fall with the flight of the slumber tree,'
cried Fred, the dread of the Seminaree.

I wish I could get these out of my head but they're stuck.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pogo's Songs
From: Bill D
Date: 27 Jun 10 - 07:38 PM

hmmm...*I* have only 8-9 old Pogo books...but I do have "The Jack Acid Society Black Book"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pogo's Songs
From: Reiver 2
Date: 27 Jun 10 - 07:26 PM

Wonderful memories indeed!! Pogo is my all-time favorite comic strip. I have 16 different Pogo books, but didn't know about the song books. I see that used copies are available through Amazon and other outlets, so I can start buying more Pogo books! Great thread!! Thanks to all who've contributed.

Reiver 2

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pogo's Songs
From: GUEST,W1027
Date: 26 Jun 10 - 09:34 PM

How come I remember:
"Oh Mamie minded Mama 'til one day in Singapore
A sailor lad from Trinidad came knocking at her door."
What wonderful memories have come from this thread!
W1027

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pogo's Songs
From: GUEST
Date: 13 May 10 - 02:13 PM

(with Albert and the bats singing Bum Bum Bum in the background)
Good King Sauerkraut, look out!
On yo' feets uneven.
While the snoo lay roun' about,
All kerchoo achievin'."

'Kerchoo'?
Gesundheit. Uh, what's 'snoo'?
I dunno. What's new with you?

Hold it. It's King Wenceslas
Hear that? Winklehof is King.
What happened to Sauerkraut?
I dunno, he must of died
Died? I didn't know he was sick.

Wenceslas! Wenceslas was king! And they is too many bums in your song.
We is not bums and we'll just take our singing elsewhere.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pogo's Songs
From: JesseW
Date: 09 Dec 09 - 11:21 PM

As a representative of the younger generation, I must pipe up that I love Pogo too! Got the bug (and copies of the books) from my mom, who read them when she was a child -- such skill, and joy and humor!

As for the claims about most of the books being out of print -- there are active efforts afoot to get *all* the strips back in print, and there were reprints as recently as the 90s, from Fantographics. See the Wikipedia entry for details.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pogo's Songs
From: beeliner
Date: 09 Dec 09 - 10:20 PM

If I remember correctly, and contrary to an earlier post, the "Songs of the Pogo" LP came first and the sheet music was an afterthought.

The song book may be found used from time to time on eBay or Amazon, but the recordings are now available on CD, VERY recently released, and available for as little as $10, depending on the retailer.

The songs are quite entertaining and Kelly had a vocal range that extended to a really fine Irish tenor.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pogo's Songs
From: Hollowfox
Date: 09 Dec 09 - 09:22 PM

That's the entire piece in my copy of Deck Us etc. It's called Digitalis.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pogo's Songs
From: GUEST,Matt
Date: 06 Dec 09 - 11:25 PM

I found this page after googling the last line of Digitalis -- Alas, another was hoping to find the entire poem! What I can recall is below, but I'm sure it's not complete. The poem appears in "Deck Us All With Boston Charlie" according to www.igopogo.com book index page.

I'll have to re-read the book when I visit my parents. Alas! I'll only inherit my father's Pogo collection when my eyes are too teary to read.


There's a nominal number of numbers you know
and the more that they number the number I grow

My noggin is nimble though normally numb
My hat is a thimble, my counter a thumb

I fumble and figure and fidget and fret
and fearfully fly from the digital wet

My tax form is formless - I quiver and quail
I'll junk it and jaded go joyful to jail!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pogo's Songs
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 22 Dec 08 - 01:18 PM

My banjo and me is completely unstrung
The rungs on the ladder rung three;
Do no rangle the wrongs of Rangoon, dear
For the Gangrene has set off to sea.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pogo's Songs
From: Amos
Date: 22 Dec 08 - 12:52 PM

I was stirrin' up a stirrup cup
With a stolen sterling stein,
When I chanced upon a ladle
Who was once my Valentine.
             (Natural, this was a ladle I used to spoon with.)
"Oh, whence that wince,
My wench?" quoth I.
She sighed and said, "Oh Sir,
My papa ain't been stirrin'
Since my mama's been in stir."

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pogo's Songs
From: Amos
Date: 22 Dec 08 - 12:49 PM

How pierceful grows the hazy yon!
How myrtle petaled thou!
For spring hath sprung the cyclotron,
How high browse thou, brown cow?
...

and:

Once you were two, dear birthday friend,
In spite of purple weather.
But now you are three and near the end
As we grewsome together.

How fourthful thou, forsooth for you,
For soon you will be more.
But 'fore one can be three be two;
Before be five be four.


and:


Oh, roar a roar for Nora,
Nora Alice in the night.
For she has seen Aurora
Borealis burning bright.

A furore for our Nora!
And applaud Aurora seen!
Where, throughout the summer, has
Our Borealis been?

and

The Keen and the Quing were quirling at quoits
In the meadow behind of the mere.
Tho' mainly the meadow was middled with mow,
An heretical hitherto here.

The Prince and the Princess were plaiting the plates
And prating quite primly the peer.
And that's why the Duchess stuck ducks on the Duke
For no one was over to seer.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pogo's Songs
From: EBarnacle
Date: 22 Dec 08 - 12:32 PM

The season approaches.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pogo's Songs
From: Ferrara
Date: 31 Oct 07 - 11:01 PM

Thanks for posting the poem, Jeff. Porky always had a way with him.... It is beautiful.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pogo's Songs
From: Midchuck
Date: 31 Oct 07 - 10:15 PM

Are you actually Danziger? He who had Pa Tweed and Nick looking for sonny who was lost in the woods, and one said to the other, "Maybe he ain't the only one who's lost." and the other said "Who else is lost?" and the reply was...?

I have never ceased wondering if the Pogo lines turning up in your cartoons (if you're actually you) were plagiarism or homage. (One could wonder the same about us Woodchucks' rendition of "Pride of Petrovar" or "Eileen Orgh," The arrangement being stolen directly from Ian and Sylvia's first album - but we never get called on it because no one else remembers it.)

Peter

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pogo's Songs
From: GUEST,Jeff Danziger
Date: 31 Oct 07 - 09:12 PM

Walt Kelly had a daughter who died at about 6 months, if I have this right. He wrote this poem for his wife. (I have the original lettering.)

For the Mother of Kathryn Barbara

There's a Star in the wind
and the wind winds high,
Blowing alight
thru fog, thru night.
Thru cold, thru cold
and the bitter alone...
There high in the wind
rides a Star, my own.
And the Star is a Word...
of white, of white...
And the Star in the wind
is a a Word.

Porkypine
1953

I think this is the most beautiful thing Kelly ever wrote, and I find it impossible to get through without tears.

Jeff Danziger

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pogo's Songs
From: bigchuck
Date: 14 Feb 07 - 06:22 PM

Have you ever while pondrin'
The ways of the morn
Thought to save just a bit
Just a drop in the horn

To sup in the morning
Or late afternoon
Or during the evening
While we're shining the moon

Have you ever cried out
While counting the snow
Or watching the tomtit
Warble hello

Break out the cigars
This life is for squirrels
We're off to the drugstore
To whistle at girls

I may perish of nostalgia.

Sandy

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pogo's Songs
From: Songster Bob
Date: 13 Feb 07 - 11:57 PM

By the way, Wiley Catt was NOT Joe McCarthy. His cousin, Simple J. Malarkey, was.

Bob

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pogo's Songs
From: Fred Maslan
Date: 13 Feb 07 - 10:39 PM

I remember saurkraut as

Good king Saurkraut looked down
On his feet uneven
And the people roundabout
Called them even Steven

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pogo's Songs
From: GUEST,WGP
Date: 13 Feb 07 - 10:36 AM

I remember the second line, deliberately truncated by Kelly, as "Then Mamma grabbed a hammer and a bucket full of . . ."

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pogo's Songs
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Feb 07 - 11:08 AM

I remember Bugleboy. We followed Pogo faithfully and named our dog after him.... Beauregard de Mont Mingle Frontinac Bugle Boy the Third. Or, "Bo", as he liked to be called. Does anyone have the words to "Digitalis"? The ode to paying taxes.. The only line I remember was the last one: "I'll junk it, and jaded, go joyfully to jail"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pogo's Songs
From: Charley Noble
Date: 20 Nov 06 - 09:31 PM

GG-

'Tis the season to go for Pogo!

Leeneia-

Thanks for the extra verse to "Oh, Mamie minded Mama." I was thinking there was another one and that one really fills the song out. We have a shelf of ALL the Pogo books back at my mother's farm but I haven't looked at them for years!

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pogo's Songs
From: Gorgeous Gary
Date: 20 Nov 06 - 09:19 PM

Heh...well timed revival of this thread. I'm reading a three-book compilation of I GO POGO, THE POGO PARTY and POGO EXTRA which I picked up at Powell's in Portland during a business trip. Don't think I've hit a song yet though (political or otherwise).

-- Gary

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pogo's Songs
From: leeneia
Date: 20 Nov 06 - 12:13 PM

Oh, Mamie minded Mama till one day in Singapore,
A sailor man from Turkistan came knockin' at the door.


(to continue)

"Oh, whence that wince, fair maid?" he cried.
She blushed and said, "Oh sir. My mama isn't
stirring since my daddy's been in stir."

in stir = in jail

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pogo's Songs
From: Charley Noble
Date: 20 Nov 06 - 11:58 AM

Bill D-

Figures!

Charley

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pogo's Songs
From: Bill D
Date: 20 Nov 06 - 11:11 AM

Charlie...it's right there with the 'true' version of Barb'ry Allan and "Rolling Home"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pogo's Songs
From: Charley Noble
Date: 20 Nov 06 - 08:02 AM

But what is the true version?

Charley Noble