Origins: Melody: 'I Was Born 100,000 Years Ago'

Subject: Origins: Melody: 'I Was Born 100,000 Years Ago'
From: GUEST,Autoharper
Date: 12 Oct 10 - 09:50 PM

Does anybody know the origins of the melody for the song "I Was Born 100,000 Years Ago" (aka "Put Your Finger In Th Air"). Was it once a hymn?

-Adam Miller

Subject: RE: Origins: Melody: 'I Was Born 100,000 Years Ago'
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Aug 16 - 10:39 AM

i WAS BORN 100,000 YEARS AGO,
THERE IS NOT ONE THING IN HISTORY I DO NOT KNOW,
I SAW PETER, PAUL AND MOSES PLAYING RING AROUND A ROSIES
I CAN PROVE IT I'M THE MAN THAT KEPT THE SCORE.

THIS IS PART OF A VERSE I USED TO RECITE IN THE 1930'S
BUT DOES NOT APPEAR TO BE A VALID VERSION. I AM 95 NOW.

Subject: RE: Origins: Melody: 'I Was Born 100,000 Years Ago'
From: leeneia
Date: 04 Aug 16 - 11:39 AM

Thanks for the info, Guest.

Adam, the melody also sounds like this ditty:

If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands (clap clap) (2x)

If you're happy and you know it, then your life will surely show it.
If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands.

I associate this song with Sunday-school teachers.

Subject: RE: Origins: Melody: 'I Was Born 100,000 Years Ago'
From: Will Fly
Date: 04 Aug 16 - 11:40 AM

I don't know the origin, but I do know "6,000 Years Ago" by Doc Watson. I believe there's a tradition of old men spinning yarns about their huge age in various sections of North American culture. S.J. Perelman wrote a short story about having his hair cut by a barber who kept telling tall stories about the famous hair that he'd cut.

Mel Brooks used to do a comedy routine called, I think, "The 2,000 year-old man".

As for the song, "100,000 years ago" - did Elvis do a version?

Doc sings:

I was born about six thousand years ago.
There ain't nothing in this world that I don't know.
I saw old King Pharaoh's daughter pull little Moses from the water.
I can whip the man that says it isn't so.

[Chorus]
I'm an educated man, to get more sense into my head I plan.
I've been on earth so long, and I used to sing this song
While all those old-timers took their stand.

I saw Noah when he built his famous ark.
I got into it one night when it got dark.
I saw Jonah swallowed by the whale, and I pulled the lion's tail.
I can whip the man that says it isn't so..

[Chorus]

Queen Elizabeth fell dead in love with me (yes she did).
We was married in Milwaukee secretly.
Then I took her out and shook her, and I went with General Hooker
To fight mosquitoes down in Tennessee..

[Chorus]

I saw Satan when he walked that Garden o'er, (old booger)
And Adam and Eve were driven from the door.
While the apple Eve was eatine, old Adam he was a'cheatin'.
I can prove it for I'm the man that ate the core..

[Chorus]

I saw Abel when Cain hit him with a spade,
And I know the game was poker that they played.
I was hid behind a shrub when Cain slapped him with that club,
Poor old Abel caught him a-cheatin' and now he's dead..

[Chorus]