Lyr Req: green eyed dragon with fourteen tails

Subject: Lyr Req: green eyed dragon with fourteen tails
From: GUEST,sandynewlap
Date: 05 Feb 08 - 04:19 PM

My mom used to sing this song, and we all giggled and shivered with delight. Anyone know this song?
Part of the chorus goes something like this:

He'll feed, with greed,
on little (boys? girls?)
And puppy dogs
And big, fat snails.
So hurry upstairs
And say your prayers
And tuck your heads
Your pretty curly heads
Beneath the clothes, the clothes, the clothes.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: green eyed dragon with fourteen tails
From: Joe Offer
Date: 05 Feb 08 - 04:38 PM

Hi, Sandy -
It was published in 1926, so it's not quite in public domain in the U.S. (thanks to Sonny Bono). Words by Greatrex Newman, music by Wolseley Charles, made popular by thwe inimitable Stanley Holloway. We have the lyrics in our Digital Tradition - you'll find the links up above.
You can buy sheet music here (click).

Anybody have corrections to the Digital Tradition version(s), or are they pretty good?
-Joe-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: green eyed dragon with fourteen tails
From: Peace
Date: 05 Feb 08 - 04:54 PM

Ya might want to have a look at this site.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: green eyed dragon with fourteen tails
From: Peace
Date: 05 Feb 08 - 05:05 PM

Note: On that site linked above, the line in the song is "Green-eyed dragon with the 13 tails".

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: green eyed dragon with fourteen tails
From: GUEST,sandynewlap
Date: 05 Feb 08 - 05:08 PM

Thanks! This is exactly the thing.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: green eyed dragon with fourteen tails
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 05 Feb 08 - 05:17 PM

When I was in high school, say sixty-odd years ago, I remember hearing a rendition of this repeatedly on my hometown radio. I always looked (listened?) forward to hearing it again.

It was "Thirteen Tails" in that version.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: green eyed dragon with fourteen tails
From: GUEST,sandynewlap
Date: 05 Feb 08 - 05:20 PM

I'm sure I just remembered wrong. Its been at least 30 years. Thirteen tails sounds right...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: green eyed dragon with fourteen tails
From: Peace
Date: 05 Feb 08 - 05:30 PM

Glad I'm not the only one with memory lapses.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: green eyed dragon with fourteen tails
From: Joe Offer
Date: 05 Feb 08 - 09:20 PM

I didn't find a Stanley Holloway recording, but I found another one - and I had to buy it. Sound samples here (click). It was recorded by Rosalie Sorrels, which give it a reasonably good folk pedigree. Still, I'd like to hear Holloway sing it.
Interesting song.
-Joe-