Tune: The Preservation of Man/Liquor & Longevity

Subject: RE: Tune: The Preservation of Man/Liquor & Longevity
From: GUEST,Anan
Date: 11 Jan 20 - 06:04 AM

My grandfather had this one memorized. The best reference I've found is

http://www.cocktailchronicles.com/2005/08/31/longevity/

Subject: RE: Tune: The Preservation of Man/Liquor & Longevity
From: GUEST,Virginia
Date: 18 Mar 15 - 04:52 PM

Not knowing of this debate at the time, in July 2014 I found this exact poem (and scribbled it down on a bar napkin) on a wall in The Black Bull pub in Moffat, Scotland. The Black Bull dates to the 1500's. Maybe they copied onto the wall from the web. Dunno. But there it was. No tune attached...

Subject: RE: Tune: The Preservation of Man/Liquor & Longevity
From: GUEST
Date: 15 May 11 - 02:56 PM

Michael Hurd's songs 'nine of anon' is where you'll find a marvellous setting!

Subject: RE: Tune Req: The Preservation of Man - choon needed
From: Peace
Date: 03 Jul 07 - 05:03 PM

GOOD EYE. I didn't even think of that.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: The Preservation of Man - choon need
From: Joe Offer
Date: 03 Jul 07 - 04:49 PM

I'm guessing it was cut out from somewhere else, folded up, and left inside the McGuffey reader by some errant schoolkid of our grandfathers' generation.

-Joie-

Subject: RE: Tune Req: The Preservation of Man - choon needed
From: Peace
Date: 03 Jul 07 - 04:44 PM

HOWEVER,

I find the McGuffey reference suspect because the readers are for younger school kids and I would think that there would have been outrageous outcry over a toast/ditty of that nature.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: The Preservation of Man - choon needed
From: Peace
Date: 03 Jul 07 - 04:35 PM

http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/b

Subject: RE: Tune Req: The Preservation of Man - choon needed
From: Peace
Date: 03 Jul 07 - 04:26 PM

"Why I Drink DanTheMan 05-Feb-06
05:49 PM This long lost poem by Walt Whitman was found recently inside an old McGuffey reader in a Greenwich Village bookstore: The horse and mule live thirty years, And nothing know of wine and beers. The goat and sheep at twenty die, And never taste a Scotch or rye. The cow drinks water by the ton, And at eighteen is mostly done. Without the aid of rum or gin, The dog at fifteen cashes in. The cat in milk or water soaks, And then in twelve short years it croaks. The modest, sober, bone-dry hen, Lays eggs for nog, then dies at ten. All animals are strictly dry, They sinless live, then swiftly die. But sinful, ginful, rum-soaked men Survive for three-score years and ten. And some of us, a mighty few, Keep drinking 'till we're niney-two. registered"

That is from

www.jerrydouglas.com/f_BBDetail.cfm?MessArch__ID=8609

Subject: RE: Tune Req: The Preservation of Man - choon need
From: Peace
Date: 03 Jul 07 - 04:15 PM

Longevity - A poem by George C. Wailes [Archive] - ZGeekThe horse and mule live thirty years, And know nothing of wines and beers; The goat and sheep at twenty die, And never taste of scotch and rye; ...
www.zgeek.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-45187.html

I am unable to access that site just now. Looks promising.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: The Preservation of Man - choon needed
From: Peace
Date: 03 Jul 07 - 04:06 PM

A Google of

"The horse and mule live thirty years"

(Note the quotation marks) brings up about 215 sites.

I'll have a look through 'em and see what's what in there. But I think Joe nailed it. It seems to be a toast/ditty that got extended a bit and brought into the arena of song.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: The Preservation of Man - choon needed
From: Peace
Date: 03 Jul 07 - 04:00 PM

That's from

dspace.roblib.upei.ca:8080/dspace/bitstream/123456789/2214/1/17

Subject: RE: Tune Req: The Preservation of Man - choon needed
From: Peace
Date: 03 Jul 07 - 03:59 PM

'nother one to look at (Check p.3 on that link.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: The Preservation of Man - choon need
From: Joe Offer
Date: 03 Jul 07 - 03:08 PM

Hi, Andrea - did you get the lyrics right from the movie? This Google Search comes up with two pages of results - but so far, no credible information about the original source, or the tune. This page credits the quote to U.S. Chief Justice Harlan Fiske Stone (1872-1946), but I don't know about its credibility. This page, which seems more credible, calls it a barroom ditty titled Liquor and Longevity. There's another interesting reference on this page (click)
I did find it in print, titled "Liquor and Longevity," in an actual book: American Ballads (Compiled by Charles O'Brien Kennedy, 1952 - no tune) - exact words as above.
Google tells me it can also be found in a book called Everyman Book of Light Verse.

I'll betcha it was a recitation that was set to music for the movie.
I'm still looking....

-Joe-

Subject: Tune Req: The Preservation of Man - choon needed
From: GUEST,Andrea
Date: 03 Jul 07 - 01:56 PM

Does anyone have the tune for this song? The only place I've ever hear it is in the movie "Cat Ballou," where a drunken Frankie Ballou is singing it on the way home from a square-dance brawl. The words are as follows:

The Preservation of Man

The horse and mule live 30 years
And nothing know of wines and beers.
The goat and sheep at 20 die
And never taste of Scotch or Rye.

The cow drinks water by the ton
And at 18 is mostly done.
The dog at 15 cashes in
Without the aid of rum and gin.

The cat in milk and water soaks
And then in 12 short years it croaks.
The modest, sober, bone-dry hen
Lays eggs for nogs then dies at ten.

All animals are strictly dry:
They sinless live and swiftly die;
But sinful, ginful, rum-soaked men
Survive for threescore years and ten.

And some of them, a very few,
Stay pickled til they're 92.

~ Charles Duffy


Any and all help is gratefully accepted.