Lyr Add: Gasoline Gus and His Jitney Bus

Subject: Lyr Add: GASOLINE GUS AND HIS JITNEY BUS
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 29 Nov 10 - 01:42 PM

GASOLINE GUS AND HIS JITNEY BUS
Sung by George O'Connor

1. Did you ever hear the story? Did you ever hear the yarn?
('Bout what?) 'Bout Gasoline Gus.
He saved up a dollar and he borrowed twenty cents.
(Then what?) Bought a jitney bus.
His coffee mill was made of tin,
But tin was made to pack things in.
He hung a sign and it read thus:
"This is Gasoline Gus and his jitney bus."

CHORUS 1: Gus, Gus, Gasoline Gus,
Gasoline Gus and his jitney bus.
He packed them on the fenders and he packed 'em on the hood.
He packed 'em by the dozen and another dozen stood.
From out the heap there came a cry:
"Please take that suitcase out of my eye."
Gus, Gus, Gasoline Gus,
Gasoline Gus and his jitney bus.

2. Did I tell you what he purchased? Did I tell you what he used?
(Who used?) Why, Gasoline Gus.
He bought a ton of dynamite, He bought a pint of gin.
(For what?) For his jitney bus.
"It's got a bigger kick than gasoline,"
Said Gus as he loaded his tin machine.
A lady said, "Don't go too far."
Said Gus, "It's not that kind of a car."

CHORUS 2: Gus, Gus, Gasoline Gus,
Gasoline Gus and his jitney bus.
He turned a dozen somersaults, then he looped the loop.
He made a bigger noise than the devil eating soup.
How far he went I quite forget,
But, according to Hoyle, he's not back yet!
Gus, Gus, Gasoline Gus,
Gasoline Gus and his jitney bus.

3. Do you want to hear the finish? Do you want to hear the end?
('Bout what?) 'Bout Gasoline Gus.
He bumped into the devil and he got the devil's goat.
(With what?) With his jitney bus.
The devil frowned; said, "Take him out
And let him ride my imps about."
In fifteen minutes, big as life,
He was making love to the devil's wife.

CHORUS 3: Oh, Gus, Gus, Gasoline Gus,
Gasoline Gus and his jitney bus.
They telephoned the devil that his wifey had eloped
With a funny looking fellow in a funny little boat.
The devil never turned a hair.
He smiled and said, "They're a darned good pair."
Gus, Gus, Gasoline Gus,
Gasoline Gus and his jitney bus.

W. A. Quincke & Co., Los Angeles. CA.

Hear George O'Connor: http://www.archive.org/details/GeorgeOConnor-GasolineGusAndHisJitneyBus1915

Hear Billy Murray sing the same song: American Memory, Early Motion Pictures. 1897-1920
Published by Edison, Orange, NJ, 1915
American Memory
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html

Lyrics in The Phono-Bretto, 1919, pp. 396-397.

Like to hear these old routines.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Gasoline Gus and His Jitney Bus
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 29 Nov 10 - 01:48 PM

Gasoline Gus and His Jitney Bus composed by Byron Gay and Charley Brown.

Sheet Music in University of Colorado, Digital Sheet Music Collection.
http://uclibraries.colorado.edu/cgi-bin/sheetmusic.pl?RagGasoline&Rag&main

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Gasoline Gus and His Jitney Bus
From: Artful Codger
Date: 03 Jan 12 - 06:07 PM

(Since I decided to learn this delightful little song, I thought I should learn what a "jitney bus" was. Here's that I turned up.)

Jitney buses (or taxis) provided a service midway between taxis and buses: they were independently owned transport that ran along established routes but without set schedules, waiting until vehicles were full before starting off, and making stops wherever needed. They are now known as dollar vans or share taxis.

"Jitney" was slang for a nickel, the original fare price. Jitney buses originated in Los Angeles in 1914; the song was written the following year in the same place, by which time the jitney bus model had taken off like wildfire in many metropolitan areas and in smaller towns lacking adequate bus or streetcar services. The streetcar companies used their clout to get legislation passed restricting or banning this competitive form of service, since jitney buses often travelled the same routes as streetcars, offering lower fares.

The song (in instrumental form) was featured in the Ken Burn's documentary Horatio's Drive, about the first automobile trip from coast to coast in the U.S. (The trip was accomplished in 1903 by a physician, Horatio Nelson Jackson, his mechanic Sewell K. Crocker, and a pit bull named "Bud" that they picked up along the way.) Bobby Horton's rendition of the song is included on the Horatio's Drive soundtrack album.