Lyr Req: Governor Al Smith for President

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Governor Al Smith for President
From: 12-stringer
Date: 04 Nov 06 - 05:31 PM

In verse 4, "Sugar that" is Sugarhead. This was whiskey made by adding lots more sugar, to accelerate the fermentation process and speed up the time it took to run a batch. Conventional wisdom (this was long before hyperactivity was being linked to sugar in the soda pop &c) was that it made the user drunker, and also seriously intensified the hangover. The term is sometimes used rather generically for moonshine whiskey, good and bad, but in Prohibition days it referred to an inferior product that was sometimes "all ya could get."

Buster Carter and Preston Young recorded "What Sugar Head Licker Will Do" a couple of years after the Night Hawks were in the studio.

Subject: Lyr Add: GOVERNOR AL SMITH FOR PRESIDENT
From: GUEST,Richie
Date: 04 Nov 06 - 08:01 AM

Thanks 12-stringer. Good ears! There was one correction and I filled in the blanks for you. Great job!

Lyr. ADD: GOVERNOR AL SMITH FOR PRESIDENT
Carolina Night Hawks
Sung to the tune of "Whitehouse Blues"

(Fiddle)

Down in the White House, preparing for his rest
Al and his buddies are doing their best
He'll win, bound to win

Hoover in the northland he's firing his guns;
Smith in Dixie is winning everyone.
Hard to beat, he's hard to beat.

(Fiddle)

You hear people shouting, "No booze!" they say,
It's running free now, you can get it any day,
From bootleggers and killers too

The sugar that they make now will make you bounce around
The brandy too will put you flat on the ground
Bad stuff, hard to drink

(Fiddle)

I won't be long now 'till she will be free
Then they'll make corn liquor as pure as can be
Free from lye and sugar too.

When booze went out, we didn't think then
That we would ever get together back again
She's coming back, back again.

(Fiddle)

Let's nominate Al Smith, nominate I say
That he'll find it through on election day
Yes through, all the way.

He made a good governor you'll have to agree
He'll make a good president as good as can be
Yes he will, yes he will.

(Fiddle)

Let's nominate Al Smith, nominate I say
That he'll find it through on election day
Yes through, all the way.

(Fiddle)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Governor Al Smith for President
From: kendall
Date: 04 Nov 06 - 05:53 AM

A campaign slogan from that time, "Hoover Hoover is the man, throw Al Smith in the garbage can."

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Governor Al Smith for President
From: 12-stringer
Date: 04 Nov 06 - 12:43 AM

The 78 of this is available at Juneberry78s.com, a pretty clean copy. The singer's voice is a little piercing and hard to understand, for me, and there are two partial lines I just can't hear at all, but here's what I get from it:

Down in the White House, preparing for his rest
Al and his buddies are doing their best,
He'll win, bound to win.

Hoover's in the northland, he's firing his gun
[...] is winning everyone,
Hard to beat, he's hard to beat.

We hear people shouting, No booze! they say
It's running free now, you can get it any day
From bootleg-gers [singer accents on "gers"] and killers too.

The sugarhead they make now will make you bounce around
The brandy too will put you flat on the ground,
Bad stuff, hard to drink.

It won't be long now till she will be free
Then we'll make corn likker as pure as can be
Free from lye, and sugar too.

When booze went out, we didn't think then
That we would ever get together back again
She's coming back, back again.

Let's nominate Al Smith, nominate I say
[...] on election day
Yes true [through?], all the way.

He made a good governor, you all will agree,
He'll make a good president, as good as can be,
Yes he will, yes he will.

Repeat verse 7

Subject: Lyr Req: Governor Al Smith for President
From: GUEST,Richie
Date: 03 Nov 06 - 11:53 PM

Anyone have the lyrics to Governor Al Smith for President by the Carolina Night Hawks? The tune is "White house Blues." Macon also wrote a song about Smith but it's a different song.

Here's an interesting story about the recording session:

The same day marked the recording debut of a third band from Ashe County known as the Carolina Night Hawks, who arrived in Atlanta prepared with an original song promoting the Candidacy of New York governor Al Smith in the upcoming 1928 presidential election. Smith was the leading contender for the Democratic nomination, and advocated the repeal of Prohibition. The song, entitled simply Governor Al Smith for President, was penned by the group's banjoist Donald Thompson, and sung in a high tenor by mandolinist Ted Bare to the tune of White House Blues.

Providing the instrumental lead was 15-year-old Howard Miller on fiddle, backed on guitar by his father, Charles Miller. Charles, born in 1887 along Stagg Creek near Comet, North Carolina, had learned to play fiddle from his father, Monroe Miller. By the mid-1920s, the Millers had teamed with Ted Bare, playing for box suppers and square dances throughout the Lost Provinces. In 1927 they were joined by Donald Thompson, a schoolteacher and talented songwriter from Laurel Springs, who played both fiddle and banjo.

Of the four songs recorded by the Night Hawks, only Thompson's composition was issued by Columbia, released in time to exploit Al Smith's wave of popularity. Donald Thompson later recalled the recording session:

"We went in a Buick and they paid all expenses. We got to Atlanta and went right to the studio building. We didn't know anything about recording, never even seen a studio. A fellow meet us and took us to a room and said we could start practicing, so we did. Finally the guy came back and took us into the studio. There was a whole jug of whiskey sitting there, and he said, "Do you all want a nip?"
Well, Ted took a nip, but the rest of us didn't. Ted took a little but not enough to hurt him. Then Ted, Howard, and Mr. Miller got up close to the microphone, and they put me about eight feet behind. That banjo was loud, you know. Then they said, "Now you watch the light. When the light comes on, you start."

So we watched, and when it came on we just started and went straight on through and never made an error. We never had to repeat a single song. I wasn't a bit nervous when we went in there, and the rest weren't either. Old Ted just went right into it!

After we got back home, they sent us checks. They paid us around $100 apiece and expenses and all that. We had to eat, you know. They paid that too. We had a good time!

I was a Democrat then, I'm a Democrat now! Dyed in the wool! I was hoping our record would help Al Smith, but I don't think it ever got far enough along to help him much. He got defeated. Even so, I think we did a pretty good job on our record. When we finished recording, they played it back to us, and it sounded mighty good.