Lyr Add: Shanty (town) Songs

Subject: Lyr Add: Shanty (town) Songs
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 16 Jan 14 - 11:41 AM

Like most raised in the West, the only maritime songs I had heard of were "Barnacle Bill" and "A Capital Ship."
Shanties were shacks, cabins or rude dwellings, either rural or on the edge of town; there are a number of songs celebrating them.

Lyr. Add: SHANTY TOWN^^^
Trad.

There's a shanty in the town
On a little plot of ground
Where the green grass grows all around, all around.
The roof's so worn,
So badly torn,
That it tumbles to the ground.
It's a little old shack,
and it's set right back
25 feet from the railroad track,
Lingers in my mind
Most all of the time,
Keeps calling me back
To my little old shack.

I'm feeling just as sassy
As Haile Selassie:
If I were a king,
'Twouldn't mean a thing,
Put my boots on tall,
read the writing on the wall,
And it wouldn't mean a thing,
Not a goddamn thing.

There's a queen waiting there
In a rocking chair,
Blowing her top on some Gator beer.
A-looking all around
And a-trucking on down,
How I want to get back to my shanty town!

www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/folk-song-lyrics/Shanty_Town.htm
Tune at www.audioaudio.com

---

Note from Joe Offer: traditionalmusic.co.uk copied its version from the Digital Tradition.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Shanty (town) Songs
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 16 Jan 14 - 01:42 PM

Lyr. Add: WILL SANTA COME TO SHANTY TOWN?
Sung by Eddy Arnold

Will Santy come to shanty town
To a poor little boy like me?
Will he bring me some toys
Like the other girls and boys?
Will Santy come to Shanty Town
If he sees our Christmas tree?
Mommy said he would
If I promised to be good.
For we don't have a fireplace
Or a chimney on our shack
Like the other lucky children have
Who live across the track.
Now if I say my prayers each day
When Christmas rolls around
Will Santy come to Shanty Town.

He didn't stop last Christmas Eve
Doesn't he know we live here
Will my mommy have to paint my toys
The way she did last year?
Now if I say my prayers each day
When Christmas rolls around
Will Santy come to Shanty Town.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Shanty (town) Songs
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 16 Jan 14 - 02:14 PM

Lyr. Add: PATCHES
Barry Mann & Larry Kobler; sung by Lee Dickie.

Down by the river that flows by the coal yards
Stand wooden houses with shutters torn down.
There lives a girl everybody calls Patches
Patches, my darling, of old Shanty Town.

We planned to marry when June brought the summer
I couldn't wait to make Patches my bride
Now I don't see how that can ever happen,
My folks say No, and my heart breaks inside.
Patches, Oh what can I do
I swear I'll always love you.

But a girl from that place would just bring me disgrace
So my folks won't let me love you
Each night I cry as I think of that shanty
And pretty Patches there watching the door.

She doesn't know that I can't come to see her
Patches must think that I love her no more.
I heard a neighbor telling my father
He said a girl named Patches was found
Floating face down in that dirty old river
That flows by the coal yards in old Shanty Town.

Patches, oh what can I do
I swear I'll always love you.
It may not be right but I'll join you tonight
Patches, I'm coming to you.

A teen age tragedy.

http://www.poemhunter.com/song/patches/

Not the same "Patches" as sung by Clarence Carter, about a po' boy named "Patches," in Alabama.

Subject: Lyr Add: SHANTYTOWN (Johnny Cash & June Carter)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 16 Jan 14 - 02:41 PM

SHANTYTOWN
As recorded by Johnny Cash and June Carter on "Carryin' On with Johnny Cash and June Carter

CHORUS: I live down in Shantytown
Where chicken's twenty cents a pound,
And if you live on such solid ground,
Whatcha doin' down in Shantytown?
Whatcha doin' down in Shantytown?

Well, I'm back on your side of the tracks.
Have you come back for me to take you back?
Back to your high society to your cocktails and your teas
I'll look up but don't look down, 'cause we got pride in Shantytown. CHORUS

Behind the walls of your shackled heart beats pure
While the rich have a love to endure.
Well, is the gold in your crown turnin' black?
Is there something here in Shantytown that keeps you comin' back? CHORUS

Copyright Warner-Chappell, EMI.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Shanty (town) Songs
From: Joe_F
Date: 16 Jan 14 - 08:02 PM

For more information on the first song mentioned, see
this thread.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Shanty (town) Songs
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Jan 14 - 10:02 PM

Correcting some of Q's line breaks:

Lyr. Add: PATCHES
Barry Mann & Larry Kobler; sung by Lee Dickie.

Down by the river that flows by the coal yards
Stand wooden houses with shutters torn down.
There lives a girl everybody calls Patches
Patches, my darling, of old Shanty Town.

We planned to marry when June brought the summer
I couldn't wait to make Patches my bride
Now I don't see how that can ever happen,
My folks say No, and my heart breaks inside.

Patches, Oh what can I do
I swear I'll always love you.
But a girl from that place would just bring me disgrace
So my folks won't let me love you

Each night I cry as I think of that shanty
And pretty Patches there watching the door.
She doesn't know that I can't come to see her
Patches must think that I love her no more.

I heard a neighbor telling my father
He said a girl named Patches was found
Floating face down in that dirty old river
That flows by the coal yards in old Shanty Town.

Patches, oh what can I do
I swear I'll always love you.
It may not be right but I'll join you tonight
Patches, I'm coming to you.


And the Youtube link is

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3PL7vvWbng

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Shanty (town) Songs
From: Joe Offer
Date: 16 Jan 14 - 11:50 PM

It seems like I should know the first song, which is in the Digital Tradition. I can't find a recording of it. Can anybody point me to one?

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Shanty (town) Songs
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 17 Jan 14 - 01:42 PM

"(Growlin') Gator Beer" was produced by Florida Brewery, Auburndale, Florida.
Not sure if this is the beer mentioned in the song "Shanty Town."

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Shanty (town) Songs
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Jan 14 - 01:56 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MBFuJjzQxY

Takes a few seconds to load, Joe. It matches the lyrics but the title on the record is "In a Shanty in Old Shanty Town"

---

Very interesting discovery, Guest. The melody played by the band is the big band hit, "Shanty in Old Shanty Town," but the lyrics are the ones in the Digital Tradition - chanted. I wonder if that was the original form of the DT lyrics, or an adaptation to make it fit with the big band hit. Or could the DT lyrics be the "lyric" introducing the big band song?

Here are the notes from this YouTube recording, which was recorded in 1946 by Johnny Long:
Far-and-away Long's most famous number is heard here In his more commonly reissued 1946 update of the depression era song hit, previously recorded by the band back in 1940 with a similar arrangement.

Transferred from LP, originally issued on 78rpm: Decca 23622 - In A Shanty In Old Shanty Town (Little-Siras-Young) by Johnny Long & his Orchestra, with vocal ensemble, recorded February 4, 1946

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Shanty (town) Songs
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 17 Jan 14 - 02:00 PM

"Shanty Town" gets little attention in Google; anyone know the origin?

("Shanty Town" failed to get a hit in "Filter," I should have checked the DT Lyrics as well.)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Shanty (town) Songs
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Jan 14 - 03:10 PM

Tripped over this 1932 version with a Google of

"Shanty Town", songs about


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPglrATM4mg

Some song history is on there, too.

---

3-15-1932 Columbia 2652-D. "In a Shanty in Old Shanty Town" is a popular song written by Ira Schuster and Jack Little with lyrics by Joe Young, published in 1932. Ted Lewis performed it with his orchestra in the film "The Crooner" in 1932. His version was released as a single and it went to number one, where it remained for 10 weeks. Theodore Leopold Friedman, better known as Ted Lewis (June 6, 1892 -- August 25, 1971), was an American entertainer, bandleader, singer, and musician. He led a band presenting a combination of jazz, hokey comedy, and schmaltzy sentimentality that was a hit with the American public. He was known by the moniker "Mr. Entertainment" or Ted "Is Everybody Happy?" Lewis. Ted was from Circleville, Ohio.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Shanty (town) Songs
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Jan 14 - 06:37 PM

"Shanty in Old Shanty Town"

If YouTube is correct, there was an earlier Johnny Long release in 1940.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9-sW8JDr2w

---

This is Long's earlier and less frequently heard version of "Shanty Town," which he would record twice for the Decca label during the 1940s. It became his signature tune and reappeared in a new and somewhat brighter-sounding remake six years later.

Transferred from the original 78rpm: Decca 3409 - In A Shanty In Old Shanty Town (Little-Siras-Young) by Johnny Long & his Orchestra, with vocal ensemble, recorded September 12, 1940

...and then the second recording by Long was 1946. -Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Shanty (town) Songs
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 17 Jan 14 - 07:14 PM

Looking for origin of "Shanty Town" as posted first in this thread; not "In a Shanty in Old Shanty Town" which is a different song.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Shanty (town) Songs
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 20 Jan 14 - 11:13 AM

AS far as I can tell, the first-posted lyric was not part of the original song, but was added (possibly by Johnny Long's band). It's in the same vein as "Down by the old (not the new, but the old) mill stream( not the river but the stream)..." or "Direct me to the route to my abode, I'm fatigued and I desire to retire..."

Subject: Lyr Add: THE SHANTY-TOWN BRIGADE (Mitchell)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 22 Jan 14 - 06:21 PM

I don't see any merit in this song, except as a curious historical artifact.

From the Library of Congress:


THE SHANTY-TOWN BRIGADE
Words and music by J. F. Mitchell
New York: Benj. W. Hitchcock, ©1885.

1. "Shanty-town's a famous place, full of life and full of vim.
Water there is very scarce, so the people never swim.
Hungry kids and noisy goats meet ev'rywhere you go.
Once the people used to work, but it's very long ago.
Now the only thing that works is an old "tomato can,"
And it's nearly work'd to death, by ev'ry woman, child, and man.
Sometimes if a man by chance works a day and then gets paid,
He is met by all the gang called the "Shanty-town brigade."

CHORUS: For the goats go "Mah-ma-ah," and the flags and banners fly,
Be civil and discreet to ev'ryone you meet, or you may get a wallop in the eye.
They have no respect for law, and of jail they're not afraid.
The devil is about when the gang turns out, in the "Shanty-town brigade."

2. If they go to jail today, by tomorrow they'll be back.
All the ladies' eyes are blue, 'till their husbands paint them black.
Ev'ry house is built alike; ev'rything is on one floor.
If you want to go inside, strike the "chimney;" that's the door.
Flags from ev'ry housetop fly, with the balmy breezes flirt:
"Mary's" Sunday petticoat, or maybe "Patsy's" Sunday shirt,
There's no "Vassar college girls," or fashionable parties there.
When the ladies want some fun, they just pull each other's hair.

Subject: Lyr Add: THE LITTLE GRAY HOUSE (Anderson/Weill)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 22 Jan 14 - 07:16 PM

From the sheet music in The Levy Collection:

THE LITTLE GRAY HOUSE
Words by Maxwell Anderson; music by Kurt Weill.
From the musical "Lost in the Stars" *
New York: Chappell & Co., Inc., ©1949.

What are you thinking, old man among the broken boxes of Shanty-town?
What do you see, child with the shining eyes, among the broken hopes of Shanty-town?

There's a little gray house in a one street town,
And the door stands open, and the steps run down,
And you prop up the window with a stick on the sill,
And you carry spring water from the bottom of the hill,
And the white Star of Bethlehem grows in the yard,
And I can't really describe it, but I'm trying hard.
It's not much to tell about; it's not much to picture out,
And the only thing special is, it's home.
It's not much to sing about; it's not much to picture out,
And the only thing special is, it's home.


[* based on the novel Cry, the Beloved Country (1948) by Alan Paton]