Lyr Add: Ten Penny Nail (mento)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Ten Penny Nail (mento)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 10 Aug 11 - 03:58 PM

I think both of you have got the gist of the song.
I can add that 'coolie red' is a cheap cloth worn on their heads by East Indian immigrants, who were called coolies in the BWI.

A ten penny nail is 3 inches long. (a 6 penny nail is two inches long).
A nail should be three times as long as the wood it is holding. Two-thirds of its length should be driven into the other piece of wood for proper fastening.

When I was a child, bulk containers for nails were common in stores. One filled a sack with the size desired and it was weighed to determine the price. The penny" designation used to be common. Smaller nails were designated by their actual length.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Ten Penny Nail (mento)
From: GUEST,Doug Saum
Date: 10 Aug 11 - 01:45 PM

Add to that the need to safegaurd againt the spooky skull by tying up one's hair in little bundles to prevent harm to the cook. BTW a ten penny nail is a large one; here carpenters call it a "spike."

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Ten Penny Nail (mento)
From: mayomick
Date: 10 Aug 11 - 06:12 AM

Q, is this roughly what the calypso is about?

A poor man was cooking a cow's head when the head started moaning and gave him a terrible fright . In the future nail the cow's head down and tie it up before you begin cooking it.

Subject: Lyr Add: Ten Penny Nail (mento)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 09 Aug 11 - 08:25 PM

Lyr. Add: TEN PENNY NAIL
Hubert Porter; Mento (calypso)

Any time you goine to cook an ole cow-head,
Get hammer, tie yo head wid coolie red,
for it mek a poor man nearly lose 'im life,
lef 'im house an' picanin nearly lose 'im life.

De cowhead get up, raise up 'im horn,
open 'im mout' and start to gwan;
De poor man holler until 'im hoarse,
'im run from Clarendon to Racecourse.

Chorus:
Nail, Nail, ten penny nail,
Get yo hammer and a ten penny nail
Nail, Nail, ten penny nail
Get yo hammer and a ten penny nail.

De cow head get up, raise up 'im horn,
Open 'im mout' and start to gwan;
De poor man holler until 'im hoarse,
'im run from Clarendon to Racecourse.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAKMOaj8RvO
Hubert Porter and Jamaican Calypsoans

Race Course is a settlement in Clarendon Parish, Jamaica.

Hubert Porter also sang this song with "The Tower Islanders." (Same musicians?). C. 1950.