Songs about housework

Subject: Wanted. Songs about housework
From: Mo the caller
Date: 18 Jan 09 - 05:46 AM

I want to find the words of a song about the man who thought he worked harder than his wife....until he tried it.
I'd do a search but I don't know what it's called.
Thank you.

Subject: RE: Wanted. Songs about housework
From: peregrina
Date: 18 Jan 09 - 05:50 AM

Here's one from the Yorkshire Garland

Subject: RE: Wanted. Songs about housework
From: fat B****rd
Date: 18 Jan 09 - 05:53 AM

Leiber and Stoller's "I'm A Woman"

Subject: RE: Wanted. Songs about housework
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Jan 09 - 06:13 AM

Here, I think, is what you're looking for. It's DT#343. Bob

FATHER GRUMBLE

There was an old woman, there was an old man
Who never could agree
He said he could do more work in a day
Than she could do in three.

Now said the old woman unto the old man
If this you will allow,
Why you shall stay at home today
An' I'll go follow the plow.

But you must milk the teeny cow
For fear she will go dry,
An' you must feed the little pigs
That lay within the sty.

An' you must watch the speckled hen
For fear she'll go astray,
An' you must wind the bobbin of yarn
That I spun yesterday.

The old woman she picked up the shares
To go an' follow the plow,
The old man he picked up the pail
To milk the teeny cow.

Teeny she winked an' Teeny she blinked
An' Teny curled up her nose,
An' give' the old man such a kick in the face
That the blood streamed down to his toes

Whoa Teeny, haw Teeny,
My good little cow, stand still,
An' if ever I try to milk you again
It'll be against my will.

He went to feed the little pigs
That lay within the sty,
The old sow run up against his legs
An' knocked him ten foot high.

He went to watch the speckled hen
For fear she'd go astray,
An' forgot to wind the bobbin of yarn
That his wife spun yesterday.

He swore by the sun, he swore by the stars
An' the green leaves on the tree,
That his wife could do more work in one day
Than he could do in three!

From Ozark Folksongs, Randolph
Laws Q1

Subject: RE: Wanted. Songs about housework
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 18 Jan 09 - 06:14 AM

I doubt if either of the above is what is wanted. The first is too obscure, the second doesn't answer the question actually asked. Let's try something a bit more likely.

Roud 281, Laws Q1. 'The Old Man and His Wife', 'John Grumlie', 'The Old Man in the Wood' and other titles.

In the DT: FATHER GRUMBLE

Broadsides: The Churlish Farmer / The Churlish Farmer turn'd nurse

Plenty more at sites such as the Max Hunter Collection.

Subject: RE: Wanted. Songs about housework
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 18 Jan 09 - 06:17 AM

Peggy Seeger's Housewives Lament.
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Wanted. Songs about housework
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 18 Jan 09 - 06:23 AM

Again, that answers the thread title; but not the actual question.

Subject: RE: Wanted. Songs about housework
From: Mo the caller
Date: 18 Jan 09 - 07:00 AM

Thanks. The first one was the one I've heard most recently, I thought there might have been another I'd heard longer ago.
Malcolm is right, none of them are actually about housework in the modern sense, more about the work of a farmers wife as opposed to a farmer.
I wanted it to quote on another forum where we are discussing how to encourage an out of work husband to 'help' his working wife with the chores.

I suppose in another way it is relevant, it shows how in all ages 'womens work' has been undervalued. And the one Malcolm linked to is a story of a wife juggling work (dairy, pigs) with housework (children)

Subject: RE: Wanted. Songs about housework
From: Bob the Postman
Date: 18 Jan 09 - 08:51 AM

Though brother Douglas might grizzle, one must allude in this context to James Gordon's seminal Men Don't Clean Toilets (scroll down to the last set of lyrics on the page).

Subject: RE: Wanted. Songs about housework
From: Mo the caller
Date: 18 Jan 09 - 08:59 AM

I like those. Tell me more about James Gordon.

Subject: RE: Wanted. Songs about housework
From: Acorn4
Date: 18 Jan 09 - 10:16 AM

There's a song about ironing here:-


The "Welsh" Bill Jones on Myspace.


Good laugh this one!

Subject: RE: Wanted. Songs about housework
From: Bob the Postman
Date: 18 Jan 09 - 10:20 AM

James Gordon is this guy here. "Men Don't Clean Toilets" was much to be heard on CBC radio a few years ago. I'd thought it was an Arrogant Worms song when I went looking for it just now.

Subject: RE: Wanted. Songs about housework
From: Charley Noble
Date: 18 Jan 09 - 11:55 AM

I would second Jim Carroll's nomination of "The Housewife's Lament."

I'm also thinking that Malvina Reynolds composed some more contemporary ditties on this topic.

Then there is Lou and Peter Barryman's classic about cleaning the refrigerator "When Did We Have Sauerkraut?"

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Wanted. Songs about housework
From: GUEST,Jonny Sunshine
Date: 19 Jan 09 - 04:50 AM

"I'm a Woman" seconded!

Also, "Help me" by Sonny Boy Williamson II.

Subject: RE: Wanted. Songs about housework
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 19 Jan 09 - 07:22 AM

Did you ever hear the Ranting Sleazos do the Housewife's shanty?
"We're all bound for Tesco's in the (slap thigh) morning".

Subject: RE: Wanted. Songs about housework
From: Jack Campin
Date: 19 Jan 09 - 08:24 AM

The earliest one in this genre is probably the Scottish "The Wife of Auchtermuchty", in which man and wife swap jobs for a day (with neither doing very well, though the man makes the worse job of it).

Subject: RE: Wanted. Songs about housework
From: Stu
Date: 19 Jan 09 - 09:52 AM

Dashing Away with the Smoothing Iron.

Subject: Lyr Add: TAKE THIS JOB AND SHOVE IT (David A Coe)
From: Peace
Date: 19 Jan 09 - 09:14 PM

TAKE THIS JOB AND SHOVE IT
Written by David Allan Coe

Substitute genders, etc, where applicable.

CHORUS: Take this job and shove it. I ain't workin' here no more.
My woman done left and took all of the reasons I was working for.
You better not try to stand in my way when I walk out the door.
Take this job and shove it. I ain't workin' here no more.

I been working in this factory pretty close to 15 years.
I've seen some of my best friends' women standing in a pool of tears.
I've seen a lot of kinfolks dying. I had a lot of bills to pay.
Lord, I'd give the shirt right off'n my back if I had the nerve to say:

REPEAT CHORUS

The foreman is a regular S.O.B. and the night boss, he's a fool.
He got himself a brand new flattop haircut. Lord, he really thinks that's cool.
One of these days I'm gonna blow my top and there's gonna be hell to pay.
I can't wait to see their faces when I get the nerve to say:

REPEAT CHORUS

Take this job and shove it....

Subject: RE: Wanted. Songs about housework
From: Howard Kaplan
Date: 20 Jan 09 - 12:07 AM

Marie-Lynn Hammond's song "Mothers, teach your sons" has this chorus:

oh mothers teach your sons how to cook and how to clean
in the arts of housework educate them
or else your sons poor wives will curse you all their lives
as they labour to housebreak and domesticate them

You can follow the clicky for the complete lyrics and a sound clip

Subject: RE: Wanted. Songs about housework
From: topical tom
Date: 20 Jan 09 - 12:36 AM

This song by Stan Rogers has never failed to move me:
"Lies" though this is not my favourite version. Stan sang it beautifully in a most touching manner.

Subject: RE: Wanted. Songs about housework
From: topical tom
Date: 20 Jan 09 - 12:42 AM

Here are the lyrics to "Lies" by Stan Rogers.

Subject: RE: Wanted. Songs about housework
From: Barry Finn
Date: 20 Jan 09 - 01:16 AM

I love singing Peter Bellamy's

I Once Lived In Service

I once lived in service to a lady so fine
I've served her by night and by day-O
I've carried the dishes when the lady would dine
And after, I cleared them away

Oh dear me, how can it be?
The life of a servant is all slavery.

I've made up her bed and I turned down her sheets
I ironed the dresses she wore-O
I've peeled her potatoes, I've roasted her meats
And 'twas I, with me broom, swept her floor


Oh dear me, how can it be?
The life of a servant is all misery.

I scrubbed her front doorstep, I polished her plate
I put coals in the pan for her bed-O
I've rose before sunlight to blacklead her grate
And at midnight I've laid down my head

Oh dear me, how can it be?
The life of a servant is all drudgery.

I've carried her water, I've answered her door
I've polished the shoes for her feet-O
And when she went to church, then her prayer-book I bore
Behind as she marched down the street

Oh dear me, how can it be?
The life of a servant's a penance to me.

Now, I met a young man in the village one day
As I run to the shop for her bread-O
He's asked me my name, but I had to away
Lest me mistress should break me poor head

Oh dear me, how can it be?
The life of a servant has no liberty.

So that night as I lay in my attic so bare
I resolved that I would run away-O
And all for to honour the waggoner's fare
Some silver spoons took for me pay

Oh dear me, how can it be?
The life of a servant is melancholy.

Now I lie in prison but I will not weep
Who knows what tomorrow may hold-O
There's some fine lads in here for me company to keep
There's strong arms to keep me from cold

Oh dear me, how can it be?
The life of a convict is all chivalry!

Now I've known confinement the most of me years
Small freedom did I ever ken-O
Some prisons, sure, they have no cold iron bars
But some prisons, why, they have no men!

Oh dear me, how can it be?
The life of a convict's a pleasure to me
Dear me, how can it be?
The life of a servant was never so free!

Barry

Subject: RE: Wanted. Songs about housework
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 Jan 09 - 02:58 AM

Jack Campin seems to have offered a name of a song in response to the actual request in the thread (not the thread title), but I don't find those words in the DT.

The Wife of Auchtermuchty -

Google Books offers a text of The Wife of Auchtermuchty, An Ancient Scottish Poem.

With a translation into Latin Rhyme.

Printed by A. Niell and Co in Edinburgh in 1803.



You can read the text online.

SRS

Subject: RE: Wanted. Songs about housework
From: Mo the caller
Date: 20 Jan 09 - 05:38 PM

Thanks. I knew there must be lots of them.

Subject: RE: Wanted. Songs about housework
From: cetmst
Date: 23 Jan 09 - 03:30 PM

Did Beethoven Do the Dishes? by Ginny Reilly, Sing Out! v. 31, #4

Subject: RE: Wanted. Songs about housework
From: Joe_F
Date: 23 Jan 09 - 09:31 PM

The Housewife's Lament (Life is a Toil)

Subject: RE: Wanted. Songs about housework
From: T in Oklahoma (Okiemockbird)
Date: 23 Jan 09 - 09:51 PM

Here's a blue clicky: The Housewife's Lament