Christmas in my Overalls

Subject: RE: Christmas in my Overalls
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 30 Nov 12 - 08:27 PM

Please feel free to use/abuse the above.
Any improvements, please post them.
Anyone does it & goes down well, donations to Mudcat please!
(see the other thread)

Subject: Lyr Add: Santa's (reds) Blues
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 30 Nov 12 - 04:20 PM

Isn't it strange how just the title of a thread can strike a chord?

SANTA'S (REDS) BLUES
Nigel Parsons 30/11/12
ttto Winter Wonderland: Felix Bernard (1897-1944)

From the whole of December.
There's some things I'll remember.
A cute little elf
Amusing himself
(I'm) spending Christmas in my overalls.
I'm on show in a grotto
They won't let me get blotto.
With cotton wool snow,
And my red 'babygrow'
(I'm) spending Christmas in my overalls.

Last year I though I'd give this job a go, man.
Spend the whole of Christmas sitting down.
The grotto has some robins and a snowman
And me in a bright scarlet dressing-gown.

Later on I'll perspire
As I sit by the fire
I'm getting quite wet
From the build-up of sweat
Spending Christmas in my overalls

Next year I think I'd rather be the snowman,
With carrot nose and overalls of white.
The kids don't pull the beard of Mr Snowman,
But Snowman says the pay is really light!

When it snows, ain't it thrilling,
That the kids are so willing,
To suspend disbelief
And cause Santa grief,
Playing in my Winter Wonderland?

As I wait for the New Year,
There'll be nothing to do here.
But somehow I fear,
That this time next year
I'll be spending Christmas in my overalls.

Subject: RE: Christmas in my Overalls
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 29 Nov 12 - 01:42 PM

Beautiful songs by Frank Proffit called (I think) Poor Man, which goes:
Worked all the Summertime,
Worked in the Fall,
Spent my Christmas
In a pair of overalls.
There ain't nothing for a poor man in this world

Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Christmas in my Overalls
From: GUEST,jk attra
Date: 29 Nov 12 - 06:05 AM

actually i think you're remembering a song that goes,

i worked hard all last summer, and i worked all fall
yes, i worked hard all last summer and i worked all fall
now i got to take my christmas, ooh well, well, in my overalls

i told myself last summer i was gonna save my nickels and dimes
but i had a good time with my good women and wine
i spent all my money on them no good friends of mine
now christmas done come, ooh well, well, i aint got a dime

now if i ever play lucky in this wicked old world again
i aint gonna let christmas catch me in the fix i'm in
i'm gonna save my money all the summer and fall
so christmas won't catch me, ooh well, well, in my overalls

Subject: RE: Christmas in my Overalls
From: Fred McCormick
Date: 01 Dec 09 - 04:40 AM

Thanks folks. Sittin' On Top Of The World is obviously what I was thinking of. I could have sworn that line cropped up in something else as well. But perhaps not.

Subject: RE: Christmas in my Overalls
From: Dave Sutherland
Date: 30 Nov 09 - 02:49 PM

"Wheels of Fire" attributes that version to Chester Burnett- so its down to The Wolf!!

Subject: RE: Christmas in my Overalls
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 30 Nov 09 - 04:31 AM

Mississippi Sheiks started this one, I believe. I certainly use this verse but can't place which version I took it form.

RtS
(My singing more Virginia Woolf than Howlin' Wolf)

Subject: RE: Christmas in my Overalls
From: Mavis Enderby
Date: 30 Nov 09 - 04:17 AM

Interesting - looks like the Overalls line is in Ray Charles and Howlin Wolf versions (as well as Jack Bruce), but not earlier ones?

The line also appears in a couple of Leadbelly songs: I'm All Out and Down and You Don't Know My Mind.

That takes it back to the thirties - before that, who knows?

Pete.

Subject: RE: Christmas in my Overalls
From: Dave Sutherland
Date: 29 Nov 09 - 04:33 PM

It certainly appears in the version that Jack Bruce did with Cream and subsequently performed as a solo artist.
I'll have to check up on the source that he quotes.

Subject: RE: Christmas in my Overalls
From: Mavis Enderby
Date: 29 Nov 09 - 04:07 PM

One song its in is Sitting On Top Of The World:

Worked all summer, spring and fall,
Had to take Christmas, in my overalls,
But now she's gone, I don't worry
'Cause I'm sitting on top of the world

Hope this helps,

Pete.

Subject: RE: Christmas in my Overalls
From: catspaw49
Date: 29 Nov 09 - 04:04 PM

I'll ask Cletus...........

Spaw

Subject: Christmas in my Overalls
From: Fred McCormick
Date: 29 Nov 09 - 03:58 PM

Sorry folks, I'm having a senior moment. I'm trying to recall an old-time country music song which has the line "I had to take Christmas in my overalls". In fact I suspect that it occurs in several different songs.

Can anyone bring any of them to mind?

Many hopefuls.