Lyr Req/Add: Boss of the Section Gang

Subject: Lyr Req: boss of the section gang
From: mg
Date: 14 May 07 - 01:27 AM

anyone happen tohave the words? mg

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: boss of the section gang
From: Joe Offer
Date: 14 May 07 - 01:36 AM

Can you tell us anything more about it, Mary? Who wrote or recorded it, where did you hear it, etc?
-Joe-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: boss of the section gang
From: mg
Date: 14 May 07 - 02:24 AM

I happened across a thesis someone wrote about portrayals of railroad workers in theaters and songs etc...she mentioned it as being one that was thought to be thought up by the workers..mg

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: boss of the section gang
From: Padre
Date: 14 May 07 - 09:49 PM

Recorded by Mrs. Minta Morgan around 1940 for the LOC Archive of Folk Song "Railroad Songs and Ballads" - Folkways reissued it in 1997.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: boss of the section gang
From: Peace
Date: 14 May 07 - 09:58 PM

It is variously called, "Boss of the Section Gang", "I'm Boss of the Section Gang" and "The Boss of the Section Gang." I cannot locate words, but it has been recorded by a few folks.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: boss of the section gang
From: Peace
Date: 14 May 07 - 10:02 PM

CD with it is available here for about $20.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: boss of the section gang
From: Bob the Postman
Date: 14 May 07 - 10:27 PM

It's not the same as Jerry Go And Oil That Car, I suppose?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: boss of the section gang
From: Bob the Postman
Date: 14 May 07 - 10:30 PM

No, Bob, obviously not, since the two songs are adjacent in the track list of the CD Peace linked to.

Subject: ADD: The Boss of the Section Gang
From: Joe Offer
Date: 15 May 07 - 01:06 AM

Thank you, Padre, that's the lead I needed.

The Boss of the Section Gang
Sung by Mrs. Minta Morgan at Bells, Texas, 1937. Recorded by John A. Lomax. (AFS 922 B2)

I landed in this country
A year and a month ago.
To make my living at laboring work,
To the railroad I did go.
I shoveled and picked in a big clay bank,
I merrily cheered and sang,
For my work is o'er- you plainly see,
I'm the boss of the section gang.

Then look at Mike Cahooley,
A politician now,
Whose name and fame he does maintain
And to whom all people bow.
I'm the walking boss of the whole railroad,
For none I care a dang,
My name is Mike Cahooley
And I'm the boss of the section gang.

When the railroad president comes 'round
He takes and shakes my hand.
"Cahooley, you're tough, you bet you're the stuff,
You're an honest workingman.
They never shirk when you're at work
Nor at the boss will flang."
They shrink with fear when I am near,
I'm the boss of the section gang.

Then look at Mike Cahooley,
It's the last of him you'll see,
For I must go to my darling wife
And happy we will be.
Come one and all, come great and small,
And give the door a bang,
And you'll be welcomed surely
By the boss of the section gang.

notes by Archie Green:
The immigrant group which contributed most to American folklore was the Irish. Although numerous work songs are known from Irish broadsides, pocket songsters, and folios, this piece about a tough but honest workingman seems unreported as a folksong. Mrs. Morgan told collector Lomax in 1937 that "The Boss of the Section Gang" was carried to Texas by Kentucky boys about 45 years ago. Her sense of time was accurate. During 1893 J.K. Bell of Kansas City published "I'm Boss of the Section Gang' by "Cyclone" Harry Hart. However, I am uncertain that he was the song's original composer. Today Hart's sheet music is a rare bit of Americana, and it is unlikely that his song lives in the memories of traditional singers.

source: the CD booklet from Library of Congress Archive of Folk Song Railroad Songs and Ballads

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This is the only version of the song (other than the sheet music) mentioned by Norm Cohen in Long Steel Rail. I couldn't find the sheet music at either Levy or the Library of Congress.
-Joe-