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Origins: A Dollar a Day Is All They Pay for Work..
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Origins: A Dollar a Day Is All They Pay for Work.. |
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Subject: Dollar a Day Is All They Pay for Work on the Blvd From: Joe Offer Date: 13 Apr 01 - 08:43 PM My friend Mrs. Lev has another puzzler for us. She's wondering if there's anything more to this song. Hush-ta-ra-ra-rayWe do have one song, Last Winter Was a Hard One (Rise Up Mrs. Reilly), that has the phrase "work on the boulevard." No connection I can see, though. -Joe Offer- |
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Subject: RE: req: Dollar a Day Is All They Pay For Work On The Blvd From: Joe Offer Date: 17 Apr 01 - 10:38 PM still need help.... Help? |
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Subject: RE: req: Dollar a Day Is All They Pay For Work On The Blvd From: Joe Offer Date: 18 Apr 01 - 12:55 PM |
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Subject: RE: req: Dollar a Day Is All They Pay For Work On The Blvd From: Joe Offer Date: 21 Apr 01 - 04:20 AM still nobody? |
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Subject: RE: req: Dollar a Day Is All They Pay For Work On The Blvd From: Joe Offer Date: 16 Jul 01 - 01:37 AM Mrs Lev is going to be very disappointed if we can't come up with this one... |
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Subject: RE: req: Dollar a Day Is All They Pay For Work On The Blvd From: Liam's Brother Date: 16 Jul 01 - 05:54 AM "When McGuiness Gets A Job," which is the vaudeville original of "Last Winter Was A Hard One" dates from 1880 when Italian immigrants were challenging the Irish in New York with cutthroat wage competition for manual labor jobs. For a few reasons, "Dollar A Day" would seem to come from the same time and background. I have not run across "Dollar A Day" in looking through 19th century American songsters but that's one place Mrs. Lev might like to look.
All the best to you and yours,
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Subject: RE: req: Dollar a Day Is All They Pay For Work On The Blvd From: GUEST Date: 14 Nov 07 - 04:26 PM I remember this song from grade school in Upstate New York in the mid '60s. I think this is all there was to this song. I still remember the tune. |
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Subject: ADD: SH-TA-RA-DAH-DEY From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 14 Nov 07 - 04:57 PM Printed with musical score in Carl Sandburg, 1927, "The American Songbag," pp. 36-37. Heard by Robert E. Lee of the Chicago Tribune from an Irishman in charge of the railroad station at Wallingford, Iowa. SH-TA-RA-DAH-DEY (Irish Lullaby) [With a sigh] Sh-ta-ra-dah-dey, sh-ta-dey, Times is mighty hard. A dollar a day is all they pay For work on the boulevard. Sh-ta-ra-dah-dey, sh-ta-dey, Times is mighty hard. A dollar a day is all they pay For work on the boulevard. Sh-ta-ra-dah-deh, sh-ta-dey, Times is mighty hard. A dollar a day is all they pay For work on the boulevard. Score in 6/8 Arr. E. C. Click to play(from Sandburg) |
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Subject: RE: req: Dollar a Day Is All They Pay For Work On The Blvd From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 14 Nov 07 - 04:59 PM Song was reproduced in "Songs for Tomorrow." |
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Subject: RE: req: Dollar a Day Is All They Pay For Work On The Blvd From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 14 Nov 07 - 05:08 PM Also titled "Times Is Mighty Hard," www.freehandmusic.com. Listed with many other songs, camp, scout, etc., in "Index of Songs in Songbooks," Index of Songbooks |
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Subject: RE: req: Dollar a Day Is All They Pay For Work On The Blvd From: Janie Date: 14 Nov 07 - 07:57 PM We did this as a round in the little folk group I sang with in high school. |
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Subject: RE: req: Dollar a Day Is All They Pay For Work On The Blvd From: Joe Offer Date: 14 Nov 07 - 08:07 PM Thank you, Q. Mrs. Lev will be so pleased. I'm a little annoyed with myself, because Sandburg's Songbag sits less than three feet from my chair, and I didn't find it. Here's the entry from the Traditional Ballad Index: Sh-Ta-Ra-Dah-Dey (Snagging the Klacking)DESCRIPTION: "Sh-ta-ra-dah-dey, sh-ta-dey, Times is mighty hard. A dollar a day is all they pay For work on the boulevard." Alternately, "Hip-fa-lad-di-dee/Graybacks/Are mighty thick/A dollar a day/Is all they pay/For snaggin'/The Klacking Creek."AUTHOR: unknown EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg) KEYWORDS: work lullaby hardtimes lumbering nonballad logger worksong FOUND IN: US(MW) REFERENCES (2 citations): Sandburg, pp. 36-37, "Sh-Ta-Ra-Dah-Dey" (1 short text, 1 tune) Beck 23, "Snaggin' the Klacking" (1 short text) Roud #6515 and 8861 NOTES: While Beck gives no information about the circumstances under which the song was sung, it sounds enough like a worksong that I've given it that keyword. - PJS Whereas Sandburg lists his as a lullaby. I can't prove that these two are the same song -- but they're too similar to separate until fuller versions come along. - RBW File: San036 Go to the Ballad Search form Go to the Ballad Index Instructions The Ballad Index Copyright 2016 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle. Click to play(from Sandburg)The song is also in Songs of Work and Protest, by Edith Fowke and Joe Glazer - title is "Times Is Mighty Hard," but it's taken direct from American Songbag. Instrumental: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Caoz-HDHiiw |
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Subject: ADD: Snaggin' the Klackin' From: Joe Offer Date: 14 Nov 07 - 08:20 PM Snaggin' the Klackin' Hip-fa-lad-di-de! Hip-fa-lad-di-de! Graybacks, they are mighty thick. A dollar a day Is all they pay For snaggin the Klackin' Crick source: Beck, Lore of the Lumber Camps, #17, p 47. singer: Fred Scribner (no tune available) Klacking Creek is one of several smaller streams flowing through the Ogemaw Hills timberland of Michigan (northwest of Saginaw). -Joe- |
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Subject: RE: req: Dollar a Day Is All They Pay For Work On The Blvd From: Joe Offer Date: 16 Nov 07 - 01:57 PM Anybody know of recordings of this song? Anybody sing it? The first note of the "sh" is interesting, and I didn't know how to turn it into a MIDI. You know how a quarter note is usually a circle and a stem? Well, this one has an "x" instead of a circle. I think I remember from long-ago music theory class that the symbol means the note is spoken instead of sung, right? In this case, I think the "sh" is supposed to be whispered at "C" for two beats. -Joe- |
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Subject: RE: req: Dollar a Day Is All They Pay For Work On From: GUEST,Mary Ratcliff Date: 16 Jun 09 - 10:28 PM I heard this song alot when I was a kid. I didn't know what a boulevard was but the song sounded very soothing. It just went sh ta ra ta dey sh ta dey times is mighty hard, a dollar a day is all they pay for work on the boulevard. Heard it from my grandma. Yes she was Irish. Interesting, isn't it? It still rings in my head after all these years. It was going through my head today, so I looked this up on google. Must be going through some other people's heads too still. I was wondering if there was more to it also, but I guess perhaps there wasn't. |
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Subject: RE: req: Dollar a Day Is All They Pay For Work On From: Rowan Date: 16 Jun 09 - 10:48 PM It's not likely that the song has currency in Oz, but, during the 1930s depression, the dole was given to "susso" workers, ie, workers receiving sustenance pay. Two major projects involving susso workers were construction of "The Great Ocean Road" west along Victoria's coast west from Airey's Inlet (a great scenic drive and recently in the news when part of the Lochard Gorge pillars collapsed due to wave action; it's an extremely "high energy" coastline) and "The Boulevarde" along the Yarra River at Kew (a suburb of Melbourne); The Boulevarde used to be a favoured parking spot for courting couples when I was a lad. Alas, I had no car. In Oz slang for the first half of the 20th C, a dollar was the alternative name for "five bob" (ie, five shillings); I'll have to do a bit of researching to find out the amount susso workers got per diem but it might have been five bob. Cheers, Rowan |
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Subject: RE: req: Dollar a Day Is All They Pay For Work On From: GUEST,O'Connor Date: 14 Nov 09 - 08:20 PM This is an Irish folk song. I sang it as a child in school. |
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Subject: RE: req: Dollar a Day Is All They Pay For Work On The Blvd From: GUEST,GUEST, Kelly Date: 02 Feb 10 - 10:21 PM I sang this song in grade school in the mid '70s. I don't recall any more verses, although it would lend itself to that. The initial "sh" scored with the x-note was indeed spoken--like shushing someone in a library, only shorter, quarter-note duration. I recall from our music book that it was a song sung by Irish workers in America. I have used it as a lullaby to all three of my daughters, who love it. |
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Subject: RE: req: Dollar a Day Is All They Pay For Work On The Blvd From: GUEST,999 Date: 02 Feb 10 - 10:32 PM If someone with a fast machine could Google Full text of "The American Songbag" the song should be there. This machine I'm on is so slow I'm still downloading yesterday's stuff. |
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Subject: RE: req: Dollar a Day Is All They Pay For Work On The Blvd From: GUEST Date: 25 Mar 11 - 03:15 PM Just heard this on the CBC series Canada: A People's History, in the episode on the Depression. A lovely choral version, with viola reprise. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Dollar a Day Is All They Pay for Work.. From: GUEST,Lisa Date: 15 Jul 17 - 07:37 PM When I was a kid, I was told it was a lullaby. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Dollar a Day Is All They Pay for Work.. From: Joe Offer Date: 16 Jul 17 - 02:07 AM Looking around YouTube, I found an Instrumental under the title Sh-Ta-Ra-Da-Dey Irish Lullaby: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Caoz-HDHiiw I wasn't able to find a sung version, looking particularly for a sung version with the "dollar a day" lyrics. Can anybody find it? -Joe- |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Dollar a Day Is All They Pay for Work.. From: GUEST,cindy Date: 15 Nov 17 - 11:08 AM my music teacher taught us this and said it was a "sweeping song" for those who had to sweep the boulevard to keep it clean. Makes sense |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Dollar a Day Is All They Pay for Work.. From: GUEST Date: 24 May 24 - 03:26 AM We sang it as a round in grade school. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Dollar a Day Is All They Pay for Work.. From: GUEST Date: 02 Nov 24 - 04:26 PM That’s crazy I remember this too. Grade school in Cortland NY early 70s. |
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