Lyr Add: Mixed Up Family (Jimmy Driftwood)

Subject: Lyr Add: MIXED UP FAMILY (Jimmy Driftwood)^^
From: Arkie
Date: 16 Jun 99 - 12:15 AM

This is a song by Jimmy Driftwood. There are two related songs in the database, Shame and Scandal, a calypso version and Johnny Be Fair by Buffy Ste. Marie. I have been told Robert Service wrote a poem on the same subject, but have yet to find that particular poem. I did make a foray into the RS page on the Internet and stumbled around a bit without success. Does anyone know which version came first? Or what the origin of the songs may be? I am a little surprised that Mike Cross has not written a version of this particular song or has he?

MIXED UP FAMILY
(Jimmy Driftwood)

Father, oh dear father, get off of your lazy bones
Tomorrow I will marry my lover Jimmie Jones

Daughter, oh dear daughter, you'll have to find another
You cannot marry Jimmie Jones for he is your half brother

Father, oh dear father, I hope that you won't care;
Tomorrow I will marry my lover John O'Dare.
Daughter, oh dear daughter, you'll have to find another,
You cannot marry John O'Dare for he is your half brother.

Father, oh dear father, I hope that you won't frown,
Tomorrow I will marry my lover Jimmie Brown.
Daughter, oh dear daughter, you'll have to find another,
You cannot marry Jimmie Brown for he is your half brother.

Mother, oh poor mother, my poor heart is undone,
Every boy I love, turns out to be my father's son.
Daughter, oh dear daughter, go on and make your vow,
It ain't no sin, for you're no kin to your father anyhow!
^^

---

Related threads:

• Scandal in the Family
• Girl With Promiscuous Father
• Father Oh Father

Also see "Shame and Scandal" and "Johnny Be Fair" in the Digital Tradition Database.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Mixed Up Family
From: Dale Rose
Date: 16 Jun 99 - 04:20 AM

Here is an earlier thread ~~ hard to find since it is more than a year old. Scandal in the Family

Subject: RE: Mixed Up Family
From: Roger in Baltimore
Date: 16 Jun 99 - 06:06 AM

Arkie,

Yes, Mike Cross does his own version. It is called "Elma Turl." Sample lines: "Elma Turl is a beautiful girl, and I want to have her for my wife." "My dad said son there's somethin' you don't know and it's somethin' that I think you 'oughter'. Elma Turl is a beautiful girl, but, son, she's mydaoughter."

Roger in Baltimore

Subject: RE: Mixed Up Family
From: arkie
Date: 16 Jun 99 - 01:13 PM

Dale and Roger; Thanks!

I could not imagine Mike Cross letting something like this get past him.