Lyr Req: Dinah, Dinah show us a leg

Subject: lyrics request - Dinah, Dinah show us a leg
From: Sean MacRuaraidh
Date: 30 Mar 99 - 09:30 AM

I've searched but not found ...

Dinah, Dinah show us a leg, show us a leg, show us a leg.
Dinah, Dinah, show us a leg and we'll be satisifed.

A rich girl uses vaseline, A poor girl uses lard
But Dinah uses axle-grease because her ****'s so hard.

....

Sean MacR.

Subject: RE: lyrics request - Dinah, Dinah show us a leg
From: Bert
Date: 30 Mar 99 - 10:01 AM

Rich girl uses a brassiere
Poor girl uses string
Dinah uses nothing at all
Lets the blighters swing

Subject: RE: lyrics request - Dinah, Dinah show us a leg
From: Bert
Date: 30 Mar 99 - 10:03 AM

I just recalled another verse but "I'M" not going to be the one to post it here.
Sean, give me an address and I'll email it to you.

Bert.

Subject: RE: lyrics request - Dinah, Dinah show us a leg
From: Sean MacRuaraidh
Date: 30 Mar 99 - 11:43 AM

Here is the address to send the song lyrics to

[e-mail]

Cheers,

Sean MacR.

Subject: RE: lyrics request - Dinah, Dinah show us a leg
From: puzzled
Date: 30 Mar 99 - 01:09 PM

I Copied this from Jug Band Rag at http://nj5.injersey.com/~jugband/

Be There In The Morning... - We asked Mary Katherine Aldin for some help in identifying the composer of an old jug band tune. Kweskin recorded it as My Gal without any credit. It has also been known as Rich Gal, and by the first line of the the chorus, Be There In The Morning. Transcribed lyrics from Kweskin's version is elsewhere in this issue.

by Mary Katherine Aldin
Queen of the Obscure

First of all, from what I've always understood, this one is truly Public Domain (trad.). It's based in part on the old Black Gal, Yellow Gal blues tune, but it's also a take-off on the ancient (pre-1900) gospel tune Do, Lord, Remember Me. And one line of it is sung to the tune of Charmin' Betsy!!

The song is an internationally known dirty ditty. The British music hall version, titled Dinah Show Us Your Leg, includes the verse:

Rich girl wears a ring of gold,
The poor girl one of brass,
But the only ring that Dinah's got
Is the one around ----

...Well, I'm sure you get the picture. I think John Sebastian (or possibly somebody involved in his management) tried to copyright the song back in the Lovin' Spoonful days, but I don't see that could hold up now.

As to possible sources, the Kweskin Jug Band guys may have learned it from an old recording called Black Gal Swing by The Delta Boys (Sleepy John Estes & Son Bonds) recorded in 1941 and reissued on the LP Country Blues Classics Volume Three (Blues Classics 7), but in their case it's Black Gal and Brown Gal.

I also own an earlier version recorded in 1925 by Dora Carr as Black Girl Get There Just The Same, but it's more likely, given Muldaur's longtime fascination with Estes, that the 1941 track was their source.

Subject: RE: lyrics request - Dinah, Dinah show us a leg
From: Sean MacRuaraidh
Date: 31 Mar 99 - 04:08 AM

I've got the whole 4 verse now which is probably enough. Should I add them to the database or is too rude !

Sean MacR.

Subject: RE: lyrics request - Dinah, Dinah show us a leg
From: Bert
Date: 31 Mar 99 - 10:45 AM

Sean,

I didn't want to post the verse I sent you, but others might like it. Why not pass the buck and email the thing to Dick?

Bert.

Subject: RE: lyrics request - Dinah, Dinah show us a leg
From: Sean MacR.
Date: 01 Apr 99 - 04:49 AM

Bert,

what is his mail address and will he mind ?

Sean MacR.

Subject: RE: lyrics request - Dinah, Dinah show us a leg
From: Bert
Date: 01 Apr 99 - 09:08 AM

Go to your personal page (which you get if you join) click on 'send a message' and you will get a select list of all Mudcateers.

Will Dick mind if you send him a song? I think he would be delighted. It's all he lives for (well almost all)

Bert.

Subject: RE: lyrics request - Dinah, Dinah show us a leg
From: Roger in Baltimore
Date: 01 Apr 99 - 04:45 PM

Sean,

I am not above singing a rude song. Please e-mail me at [e-mail].

Roger in Baltimore

Subject: RE: lyrics request - Dinah, Dinah show us a leg
From: pavane
Date: 27 Jul 01 - 05:05 AM

Does anyone know the origins of the tune commonly used (UK, at least) for this song? Most bawdy songs seem to go to well known song tunes, (like Villikins, Coming round th mountain, and so on), but I have never heard this one used for any other song.

Subject: RE: lyrics request - Dinah, Dinah show us a leg
From: nutty
Date: 27 Jul 01 - 07:55 AM

you'll find a selection HERE and HERE

Subject: RE: lyrics request - Dinah, Dinah show us a leg
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 27 Jul 01 - 08:23 AM

I don't know about the original source of the tune, but there are strong similarities with, for example,  Goodnight Ladies.  I also suspect a connection with Buffalo Gals.

Subject: RE: lyrics request - Dinah, Dinah show us a leg
From: pavane
Date: 27 Jul 01 - 11:41 AM

Thanks Nutty, but I already know the song. I was looking for the origins of the tune. Maybe I should have started a new thread.
Malcolm, perhaps I should post the tune I know, in abc, as it doesn't seem to resemble the tunes above (or at least the tunes I know under those names!)

Subject: RE: lyrics request - Dinah, Dinah show us a leg
From: JohnB
Date: 27 Jul 01 - 11:42 AM

The rich girls drive in Limousines,
The poor girls drive in Trucks,
Dinah she just walks around,
unless she's getting #$%^^&.

All together now, Dinah, Dinah::

It couldn't be that verse you would not print. There are two more verses, just as bad earlier in the thread. Someone please put the fourth verse in and put my poor tired brain out of it's misery.

JohnB

Subject: RE: lyrics request - Dinah, Dinah show us a leg
From: Jeanie
Date: 27 Jul 01 - 01:27 PM

Hoping not to be the only female on this website to disgrace herself by knowing the words and tune to this song: When we used to sing this at the (Anglican) church youth club, we sang: "show us your leg" instead of "show us a leg" and "a yard above your knee" instead of "and we'll be satisfied".

The tune I know (East London, Essex) is played by all primary school recorder learners under the title "Mary Had a Little Lamb" or "Merrily We Roll Along".

I will leave it to all you learned folksong archivists to decide how apt these tune titles are to the lyrics in question!

Subject: RE: lyrics request - Dinah, Dinah show us a leg
From: pavane
Date: 27 Jul 01 - 02:04 PM

Yes Jeanie I agree with your words, but not to those tunes!

Subject: ADD: Dinah show us your leg ^^
From: Micca
Date: 27 Jul 01 - 02:08 PM

Here ya go as complete as I can make it... Dinah

(First verse and *Chorus*)
Dinah, Dinah show us your leg,
Show us your leg,
Show us your leg
. Dinah, Dinah show us your leg,
A yard above your knee.

I wish I were the diamond ring,
On Dinah's dainty hand.
Then every time she wiped her a***,
I'd see the promised land
Alternately ( the Rich girl has a ring of gold
The poor girl one of Brass
The only ring that Dinah has
Is the brown one round her a***)

(Chorus)

The rich girl rides a limousine,
The poor girl rides a truck.
But the only ride that Dinah has,
Is when she has a f***.

(Chorus)

The rich girl uses a sanitary towel,
The poor girl uses a sheet.
But Dinah uses nothing at all,
Leaves a trail along the street.

(Chorus)

The rich girl wears a brassiere,
The poor Girl uses string,
But Dinah uses nothing at all,
She let's the bastards swing.

(Chorus)

The rich girl uses Vaseline,
The poor uses lard.
But Dinah uses axle grease,
Because her c***'s so hard.

(Chorus)

The rich girls work in factories,
The poor girls work in stores.
But Dinah works in a honky-tonk,
With forty other whores!

^^

Subject: Tune Add: DINAH DINAH (SHOW US YOUR LEG)
From: pavane
Date: 27 Jul 01 - 02:43 PM

Here is the only tune I have ever known for it, both in London and in Wales.
X:1
M:4/4
T:Dinah Dinah (Show us your leg)
L:1/8
Q:140
K:CMaj
C2 C2 C2 D2|E E2 E E4|D D2 D D4|E G2 G G4|*
C2 C2 C2 D2|E E2 E E3 E|D2 F2 E2 D2|C4

^^

Subject: RE: lyrics request - Dinah, Dinah show us a leg
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 27 Jul 01 - 03:27 PM

Yes, that's the one I meant; Jeanie too, I think.  I learnt it in South London in the '70s.

Subject: RE: lyrics request - Dinah, Dinah show us a leg
From: nutty
Date: 27 Jul 01 - 03:36 PM

Wasn't it recorded about that time by the famous Jock Strap Ensemble???

Subject: RE: lyrics request - Dinah, Dinah show us a leg
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 27 Jul 01 - 05:00 PM

I have a nasty feeling that it was...

Subject: RE: lyrics request - Dinah, Dinah show us a leg
From: pavane
Date: 27 Jul 01 - 06:14 PM

What I was interested in, was where did the tune come from?

Subject: RE: lyrics request - Dinah, Dinah show us a leg
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 27 Jul 01 - 07:03 PM

fROM: Lion Aaah, Dinah,Dinah. That takes me back. As I recall that was on an album by Jock Strapp and the Ensemble. Rugby songs to capture the imagination!

Subject: RE: lyrics request - Dinah, Dinah show us a leg
From: Gareth
Date: 27 Jul 01 - 07:15 PM

Malcom Douglas / LEJ - You are correct It was recorded by the Jock Strap Ensemble on thier LP "Rugby Songs". 1960's ?

I must confess in my younger and nore fitter days I enjoyed my Rugby at Extra B level. 90 minutes of running up and down before the seroius drinking.

But no way do all, or any verses of Dinah get posted by me.

Gareth

Subject: RE: lyrics request - Dinah, Dinah show us a leg
From: Joe Offer
Date: 28 Jul 01 - 04:51 AM

For those of you who have lyrics you'd rather not post here, please e-mail them to me. I've harvested what's here, but I'd like to have everything together, instead of having part go to Dick.
Thanks.
-Joe Offer (click to e-mail)-