Tune Req: No tengo tabaco

Subject: Tune Req: No tengo tabaco
From: Artful Codger
Date: 30 May 08 - 07:57 PM

Bill Pronzini, in his book Nightcrawlers, has a character reciting the words to a ditty that goes:

No tengo tabaco,
No tengo papel,
No tengo dinero,
Goddammit to hell.

I've found two quotations of this on the net, with variants on the last line, but no mention of its origin or the tune it is sung to (if it is sung). Can anyone help out with the tune, background info, or more of the song/poem (without exercising one's own creativity)?

Thanks, y'all!

Subject: RE: Tune Req: No tengo tabaco
From: Midchuck
Date: 31 May 08 - 04:15 PM

It would work as a "zipper verse" to "Rye Whiskey" or any of the other titles that song family goes by. See that thread.

Peter

Subject: RE: Tune Req: No tengo tabaco
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 31 May 08 - 05:04 PM

We knew that ditty in New Mexico; as a kid in the late 1930s we sang it.
No idea where it came from, or if it was based on some song.

I'll look around and see what I can dig up.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: No tengo tabaco
From: Peace
Date: 31 May 08 - 05:11 PM

'Quotable Comment
"Congratulations on the excel-
lent copy of Badger Chemist which
I have just finished reading with
the greatest pleasure. I feel it is
about the best 'house organ' of its
kind I've ever seen and enclose a
small check (understatement that,
Ed.) to help with the expenses....
On this trip to Mexico I'm driving
much less and working much
harder on Spanish than on earlier
trips and find my conversational
efforts more rewarding than usual,
but I always remember your
quatrain
'No tengo tabaco,
No tengo papel.
No tengo dinero,
Dog gone it. The hell.'
as one of the finest examples of
pure Castilian that I know."

Norris F. Hall'

That is from

The University: Badger chemist : a newsletter from the Department ...... my conversational efforts more rewarding than usual, but I always remember your quatrain 'No tengo tabaco, No tengo papel. No tengo dinero, Dog gone it. ...
digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/UW/UW-idx?type=turn&entity=UW.BCwin1961.p0024&isize=text - 16k - Cached - Similar pages

Subject: RE: Tune Req: No tengo tabaco
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 31 May 08 - 05:12 PM

I should have said we recited it- never heard a tune for it.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: No tengo tabaco
From: GUEST,Lynn Stone
Date: 03 Jan 21 - 11:24 AM

I am from Los Angeles where there were plenty of Mexicans, but my own family's origins in Mexico were Spanish and German. My grandmother taught me to recite it with the 'godammit to hell' ending.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: No tengo tabaco
From: Monique
Date: 03 Jan 21 - 03:28 PM

There's a version sung at the end of the song at this page but the request is 12 years+ and it doesn't seem Artful Codger still comes visit now and again, his last post is 3 years+ old.