Lyr Req: Yonkel the Cowboy Jew

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Yonkel the Cowboy Jew
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 09 Apr 18 - 02:29 PM

2013 links are dead.

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2004672477/

Summary: Proof of lantern slide that illustrates lyrics to the song Yonkle, the Cow-Boy Jew by Will J. Harris (composer lyricist) and Harry I. Robinson (composer) shows Yonkle Finkelstein standing in wilderness area, posed for camera with right foot on captured or dead Indian.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Yonkel the Cowboy Jew
From: Suzy Sock Puppet
Date: 29 May 13 - 07:46 PM

Thanks Jim, that's funny. Never heard that one.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Yonkel the Cowboy Jew
From: Thomas Stern
Date: 28 May 13 - 10:27 PM

Yiddisher Cowboy on CD -
http://www.amazon.com/Jewface-Various-Artists/dp/B000J3Q0Y8/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1369793898&sr=1-1&keywords=jewface


IN BOOKS:
Jewish Cowboy - Der Yiddisher Cowboy
by Isaac Raboy (Author) , Nathaniel Shapiro (Translator)
From Publishers Weekly
The title of this 1942 Yiddish novel holds out the delicious promise of adventure on horseback, with a touch of Isaac Bashevis Singer's wry wit. But the book, based on Raboy's own turn-of-the-century experiences and newly translated into English, is more like a slice of prairie life, with little derring-do and a lot of tedious chores. The hero, an immigrant horse-lover called Isaac who toils in New York City sweatshops, moves to North Dakota to pursue a career as a ranchhand and to serve as an example of a "constructive" Jew. But his boss turns out to be cruel, miserly and anti-Semitic to boot, and Isaac soon becomes disillusioned with the West. He is also unable to find romance, never quite consummating an on-again, off-again relationship with a servant, and greeting his boss's wife's admission of feelings for him with a flat, "That's very interesting." The novel makes easy reading, but Raboy's writing is a mixture of the pedestrian, the over-earnest and the shmaltzy, with only rare moments of drama or humor.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Also in FILM:

The Yiddisher Cowboy (1909)
no summaray available

The Yiddisher Cowboy (1911) More at IMDbPro »

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Ikey Rosenthal finds peddling a bum business in Wyoming. Consequently he is highly elated when John Darrow, foreman of the 'X Bar' outfit, offers him a job punching cows. He is fitted out at the ranch in chaps, spurs, sombrero, etc., and feels that he is a regular cowboy. On his first appearance in his new outfit the boys work their game of gun music on him and, in this instance, are treated to a genuine Yiddisher dance. Ikey is very angry, but bides his time until he can even up the score. He learns the work on the ranch and one day succeeds in roping a cow, thinking he has roped a steer. Payday the boys follow their time-honored custom and go to town to celebrate. Ikey, however, with true business instinct, remains at the ranch and, during the cowboy's absence, gets out his old peddling pack and sets up a pawn shop in a corner of the ranch yard. The boys return from town broke and when Ikey shows them his pawn shop they decide to 'hock' their guns. Ikey gets possession of every gun on the ranch and then starts to do a little shooting himself. The boys scatter at his approach and the Yiddisher cowboy is monarch of all he surveys. Written by Moving Picture World synopsis


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Subject: Lyr Add: YONKLE THE COW-BOY JEW
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 28 May 13 - 10:04 PM

YONKLE THE COW-BOY JEW
Words by Will J. Harris; music by Harry I. Robinson.
Chicago: Will Rossiter, ©1907.

1. A Jew named Yonkle Finklestein went out west one day,
Just to shoot wild Indians; that's what the neighbors say.
Didn't care a snap for home, left his wife and little child,
Met a pretty cowboy girl, then his Yiddish brain went wild.
To his friends he sent a note,
And this is what he wrote:

CHORUS: Western life is fine and dandy; I have got no kick.
When I think of the pawn-shop bus'ness, oi, it makes me sick.
Ev'ry time I see some Indians, I just kill a few,
So I've changed my name from Finklestein to Yonkle, the cow-boy Jew.

2. Now Yonkle made love to the girl that he met out west,
But she told her beau on him, and he then did the rest.
With a shooter in his hand, cowboy made poor Yonkle dance,
Then he yelled, "You tenderfoot, run while you have got the chance."
Yonkle then commenced to pray
And swore he'd never say: CHORUS


[If you go to YouTube and search for "cowboy jew" you'll find a couple of songs that I hope will be better than this one.]

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Yonkel the Cowboy Jew
From: Suzy Sock Puppet
Date: 28 May 13 - 09:18 PM

What about this one?

Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys.
Don't let 'em pick guitars or drive them old trucks.
Let 'em be DOCTORS and LAWYERS and such.
Mamas don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys.
'Cos they'll never stay home and they're always alone.
Even with someone they love.

Oy!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Yonkel the Cowboy Jew
From: GUEST,briann
Date: 28 May 13 - 02:12 AM

Mick,

Thank you!

Briann

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Yonkel the Cowboy Jew
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 27 May 13 - 08:59 PM

Briann

Here's a link to the sheet music: Yonkle the Cow-boy Jew. I haven't time to copy it out at the moment, but if you click on the images there, you'll get enlarged versions that you can read or you can download a pdf from here Yonkle the Cow-boy Jew (click the view pdf button).

Mick

Subject: Lyr Req: Yonkel the Cowboy Jew
From: GUEST,Briann shear
Date: 27 May 13 - 07:44 PM

I am looking for the full lyrics to this old song. My mother learned it as a little girl living in New Orleans. Her parents and Grandparents spoke Yiddish and she often sang it for the family. She told me she once performed it at school and was told to NEVER, Never sing that again. Far from politically correct, it was obviously Considered humorous when sung by a Jewish kid to a Jewish audience.

She remembered most of it after 80 years, but was missing a few lines.

HEre is what I have:

There was a Jew named Finkelstein
Who went out West one day
Just to shoot some Indians
That's what the neighbors say.
Left his wife and little child,
Didn't give a snap for home,
There he met a cowboy girl,
and to his wife he wrote a note.
And this is what he wrote:
"Western life is fine and dandy,
I ain't got no kick,
But when it comes to shooting Indians,
Oy, it makes me sick.

(MISSING LINES)

So I killed a few,
so I changed my name from Finkelstein,
To Yonkel the Cowboy Jew.