Lyr Req: 'Banks of the Ohio' in Yiddish

Subject: 'Banks of the Ohio' in Yiddish
From: Paul S
Date: 29 Nov 99 - 04:40 PM

In the BS: BS thread, Blackcat2 wrote:

ya know - the reason why this has been such a reasonable discussion is the BS in the title - all the whiners who look precious seconds of their days checking out each thread in hopes of the ultimate musical answer (or whatever the HELL they're doing) aren't checking out this thread precisely because of the BS - do the threat over as a lyric req for Banks of the Ohio in Yiddish and see the "Fish" you reel in!

You may now consider yourself reeled in.

Paul

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Banks of the Ohio' in Yiddish
From: Blackcat2
Date: 29 Nov 99 - 04:46 PM

Can I get a AHMEN for Brother Paul!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Banks of the Ohio' in Yiddish
From: Paul S
Date: 29 Nov 99 - 04:46 PM

BS

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Banks of the Ohio' in Yiddish
From: Little Neophyte
Date: 29 Nov 99 - 05:06 PM

Reeled, sheemled. Vhat kind of shlomeel vood do such a ting. You should be ashamed of yourself. Dis isn't kosher. From a putz I vood expect dis, but not from you Paul. Oy vay, your mother will be so disappointed in you. You vant to give her a heart attack, is that vhat you vant?
I have no more to say
Rabbi Benjamin Banjenski

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Banks of the Ohio' in Yiddish
From: Joe Offer
Date: 29 Nov 99 - 05:16 PM

Aw, darn. I thought this was a job for The Dialectizer, but it doesn't do Yiddish. Here's how it thinks Elmer Fudd would do it:

BANKS OF DE OHIO
I asked my wove to go wif me,
Just to wawk a wittwe way.
And as we wawked, 'twas then we tawked
Of ouw appwoaching wedding day.

cho: Den onwy say that you'ww be mine
And in no othew awms entwine.
Down beside, whewe the watews fwow
Down by the banks of the Ohio.

-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Banks of the Ohio' in Yiddish
From: Susan of DT
Date: 29 Nov 99 - 07:18 PM

I can't find my Teddi Schwartz record - she did just that sort of thing in the 1970s: take American popular folk tunes and sing them in Yiddish. I remember she did "Won't You Come Home Bill Bailley"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Banks of the Ohio' in Yiddish
From: Little Neophyte
Date: 29 Nov 99 - 08:10 PM

Susan I think it was...........
"Von't You Come Home Bill Bailey to see your Mother!"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Banks of the Ohio' in Yiddish
From: John Hindsill
Date: 29 Nov 99 - 08:41 PM

Gosh, I wish I still had my old (obviously) Mickey Katz records. Hoo Hah, then I could get some real belly laughs. Happy Hanuka--Hanukah, Chanuka or Chanukah--to all; it starts this Friday p.m.--John

P.S. For all the marbles, who is Mickey Katz' son the broadway ector?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Banks of the Ohio' in Yiddish
From: Susan A-R
Date: 29 Nov 99 - 09:00 PM

WATS! I tought I'd weally get a chance to leawn Banks of de Ohio in Yiddish!! Oh Well, Gues i'll Just Have to stick wiv "Baby I Was Bown to Wun.

Susan Awnowitt Weid (who is vewy vewy disappointed, and feewing quite weeled in.)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Banks of the Ohio' in Yiddish
From: BSer
Date: 29 Nov 99 - 09:12 PM

I'm sure the good Jews that bring you the Digital Tradition and Mudcat Forum appreciate your thoughfulness. Moses Asch that brought you Folkways Records is probably turning over in his grave.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Banks of the Ohio' in Yiddish
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 30 Nov 99 - 10:23 AM

Yeah, but seriously, the actor Mandy Patenkin released a record a few years ago, featuring popular songs all in Yiddish... If you really want the words, try there, it might be on it.

And if this really is a wind up, you should be ashamed of yourself.

LTS

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Banks of the Ohio' in Yiddish
From: Philippa
Date: 30 Nov 99 - 01:24 PM

This makes a welcome change from Jingle Bells and Amazing Grace in Gaelic (You wouldn't be wanting Christmas carols and hymns in Yiddish??). So here's a serious request; the translation of MAYN RUE PLATS (sung by June Tabor) is in the DT; can someone supply the original Yiddish poem written by Morris Rosenfeld?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Banks of the Ohio' in Yiddish
From:
Date: 30 Nov 99 - 03:13 PM

A search on 'Yiddish' in the Levy collection gives a mixed bag, from songs in Yiddish to a Yiddish cowboy.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Banks of the Ohio' in Yiddish
From: RiGGy
Date: 30 Nov 99 - 05:24 PM

Mickey Katz's son is Joel Grey.

I still love his "Hame, Hame, affen Range", where he explains that a mountain lion is an "alta-couger"...

RiGGy

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Banks of the Ohio' in Yiddish
From: Sarah-HS
Date: 30 Nov 99 - 05:31 PM

Oy Vay! Gevalt! I'd love to get my hands on this record, Nu? What's it called already? If you tell me I'll prepare you such a stack potato latkes that would make you kvell!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Banks of the Ohio' in Yiddish
From: Charlie Baum
Date: 30 Nov 99 - 10:30 PM

I've posted the all-Yiddish version of Main Rue Platz. (A version partly in English is already in the DT database; this is the all-Yiddish version sung by the Pennywhistlers on "A cool day and crooked corn" Nonesuch, H-72024.

--Charlie Baum

Subject: Lyr Add: TOIZNTER MENCHN SHPATZIRN GEGANGEN
From: Charlie Baum
Date: 30 Nov 99 - 10:59 PM

Well, the tune is different, but the subject matter is similar enough:

In 1934, Moshe Beregovski collected "Toiznter menchn shpatzirn gegangen" and published it in Evreiiski muzykal'nyi fol'klor {Jewish Folk Music], vol. 1 (Moscow; Gosmuzizdat, 1934)
Even if it isn't a Yiddish version of "Banks of the Ohio," it has some similar images.

A translation first, by Mark Slobin, who edited translated Moshe Beregovski's works as Old Jewish Folk Music (University of Pennsylvania Press, Phildelphia, 1982):

Thousands of people went walking
They all went at the same time
Then suddenly you hear a commotion
That someone fell into the river

As he fell into the river, the sun suddenly went down.
Then they made a plan
Thousands of people seeking a good deed
Ran to rescue a young man

When they pulled him out of the river
His feet were bitten
When they laid him on his bier
They tore up his engagement contract

Weep, all you people, weep and wail
Make a row
I thought I'd go to the altar [wedding canopy]
But at the end I must go to the funeral.

Transliteration (not Beregovski's original system, since I can't do c-hacheks and s-hacheks in html, and he uses c, x, and j in Eastern European ways.)

(Last 2 lines of each stranza repeat)

Toiznter menchn shpatzirn gegangen
Gegangen zainen zei ale glaikh
Un mit der vaile derhert men a rash
Az a mench iz arain in taikh.

Vi er iz arain in taikh, di zun iz arop mitamol
Azoi hot men gemakht a plan
Toiznter menchn far mitzves gelofn
Tsu rateven a yungechkn man.

Vi me hot im fun taikh aroisgenumen
Di fis zainen geven tsebisn
Vi me hot im afn tare-bet geleigt
Azoi hot men di tnoyim tserisn.

Veint, ale menchn, veint un klogt
Nemt zikh arop ain raye
Ikh hob gemeint tsu der khupe gein
Tsum sof darf ikh gein tsy der levaye.

--Charlie Baum

(I'll keep searching for a translation of the real Banks of the Ohio into Yiddish. If I can't find it, I'll have to translate it myself.) "Kum gei shpatziern, a bissel shpatz mit mikh..."

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Banks of the Ohio' in Yiddish
From: Blackcat2
Date: 01 Dec 99 - 01:13 PM

JUST CHECKING: Everyone does realize that the tread was not a serious request, right?

If you didn't realize that - consider yourself caught!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Banks of the Ohio' in Yiddish
From:
Date: 01 Dec 99 - 01:25 PM

It isn't often we get to turn a BS thread into a rellevant one.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Banks of the Ohio' in Yiddish
From: Paul S
Date: 01 Dec 99 - 01:27 PM

I was just wondering the same thing, BC2.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Banks of the Ohio' in Yiddish
From: Charlie Baum
Date: 01 Dec 99 - 01:29 PM

Blackhat2--

I consider this thread a challenge, rather than a joke.

Traditional Yiddish song offers us a version of "I Gave My Love a CHerry" ("Tumbalalaika"), and a version of the impossible tasks between lovers "Scarborough Fair" ballad ("Nimt mikh a bor fun di vald/Bring me a bear from the woods"). Anything mentioning "Ohio" in Yiddish is likely to be a parody, but there are probably serious kill-your-girlfriend-by-the-river songs; just that the river is more likely to be the Dniepr or the Dunau. And given that Cincinatti, Ohio was one of the main settlement places for Jews in the 19th and early 20th centuries, it's not inconceivable that the Ohio River DOES turn up in the Yiddish song corpus, if you search intensively enough.

--Charlie Baum

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Banks of the Ohio' in Yiddish
From: Roger the skiffler
Date: 02 Dec 99 - 03:59 AM

Even if the original request was a wind-up, I'd be interested if you find anything, Charlie. I have a friend who has tolerated my "singing" in the past ( a rare breed) whose family is Middle European way back and who is learning the piano as a mature person (ie my age!) and Banks of the Ohio was one of the first tunes he was taught and it would be nice if I see him over New Year to surprise him with a Yiddish version!
RtS

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Banks of the Ohio' in Yiddish
From: Bruce O.
Date: 02 Dec 99 - 02:57 PM

It appears that the song was originally "The Banks of the Old Pee Dee". But there's more than one river know as the Old Pee Dee. The McPeake's had it as 'the O.B.D.'

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Banks of the Ohio' in Yiddish
From: Chet W.
Date: 02 Dec 99 - 04:11 PM

There are two rivers in South Carolina called Pee Dee, the Big one and the Little one. They converge and enter the ocean at Winyah Bay by Georgetown, SC. Incidentally, Stephen Foster's "Way Down Upon the Swannee River" was also originally about the Pee Dee. Most of our rivers have their names that they had when Europeans came, and they generally end in "...ee"; Congaree, Yemassee, Wateree, Jocassee, etc.

Chet

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Banks of the Ohio' in Yiddish
From: Bruce O.
Date: 02 Dec 99 - 04:28 PM

At the Stephen Foster Museum in southern Georgia, one can see a facsimile of Foster's MS with 'Pee Dee' crossed out and "Suwanee" written over it. I think this is noted in a very old thread here.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Banks of the Ohio' in Yiddish
From: Susan of DT
Date: 02 Dec 99 - 10:15 PM

I'll try to steal that Teddi Schwartz record back from my mother and see what is on it. I hope it has liner notes, since I don't write Yiddish very well.
I don't care if the original request was serious, obviously some people want to see the answer.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Banks of the Ohio' in Yiddish
From: Blackcat2
Date: 03 Dec 99 - 09:09 AM

Having a real thread grow out of a BS one is terrific.

I'd be interested in "Wild Colonial Boy" in Tahitian, actually.

I have a Tahitian dictionary and grammar but it's rather limited.

Anyone?

pax yall

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Banks of the Ohio' in Yiddish
From: catspaw49
Date: 03 Dec 99 - 09:22 AM

I think you need to get on it right away Blackcat!!! Translate it up and post her up. I'd also like to thank both you and Paul for starting this thread.....the funniest thread I've read in months!!!

Spaw

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Banks of the Ohio' in Yiddish
From: kendall
Date: 03 Dec 99 - 12:50 PM

anyone know LADLE RAT ROTTEN HUT?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Banks of the Ohio' in Yiddish
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 03 Dec 99 - 01:00 PM

While we're somewhat on the subject of Yiddish, maybe someone out there knows an answer to this:

I've been trying, in vain, to find a song about the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire that was contemporaneous to the event. No luck so far in English. Has anyone encountered one in Yiddish?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Banks of the Ohio' in Yiddish
From: Áine
Date: 03 Dec 99 - 01:16 PM

FYI Dick, Bessie Cohen, the last survivor of the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist fire in New York died at 107 in Los Angeles on February 21st of this year.

-- Áine

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Banks of the Ohio' in Yiddish
From: Metchosin
Date: 03 Dec 99 - 01:20 PM

I have a 78 RPM of "Yiddish Mule Train" by Mickey Katz, would you like me to transcribe the words for it as a substitute? The flip side is "The Baby, The Bubbe and You" to the tune of Bibbidy Bobbidy Boo", but that's not folk music now is it?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Banks of the Ohio' in Yiddish
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 03 Dec 99 - 02:51 PM

Reading this thread has made me quite... verklempt. Talk amongst yourselves...I'll give you a topic..The Banks of the Ohio has nothing to do with either financial institutions, nor the so-called "Buckeye" State. Discuss.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Banks of the Ohio' in Yiddish
From: Áine
Date: 03 Dec 99 - 02:54 PM

Metchosin,

I would love to see the lyrics for "The Baby, The Bubbe and You"! Is the tune "Bibbidy Bobbidy Boo" the same one from the film 'Cinderella'?

-- Áine

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Banks of the Ohio' in Yiddish
From: catspaw49
Date: 03 Dec 99 - 03:01 PM

Aw geez Leej, I'm on the floor here now.............too much................

Spaw

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Banks of the Ohio' in Yiddish
From:
Date: 03 Dec 99 - 03:06 PM

Well, we've made it back to a BS thread.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Banks of the Ohio' in Yiddish
From: Sarah-HS
Date: 03 Dec 99 - 03:54 PM

Was it Mickey Katz who did "Getzel at the Football Game"?

Subject: Lyr Add: YIDDISH MULE TRAIN
From: Metchosin
Date: 03 Dec 99 - 04:12 PM

Yes Aine the very same one, unfortunately my limited understanding of Yiddish makes the The Baby, the Bubbe etc. cut, incomprehensible to me. However, I think I understand a lot of Yiddish Mule Train, a delightfully incongruous mixture of Klesmer and Bluegrass, but my spelling is way off.

YIDDISH MULE TRAIN

Mule train, Yo!
Mule train, Mazel Tov!
Klippity Klop
Kloppin Klop go ahead
I wish I took a taxi instead
Get along little donkey.

A package of salami
For a yenta in Miami
There's a load of lox and bagels
For a cowboy in Las Vegals
There's a dress of skinny satin
For a liebfrauk? in Manhatten

Get along
Mule Train, Yo!
Mule train
Klippity Klop
Hurry up
Its time for supper

and there's way more..... If you're really serious I could send you a tape....

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Banks of the Ohio' in Yiddish
From: Sarah-HS
Date: 03 Dec 99 - 04:19 PM

Metchosin... you make me laugh so hard, I could plotz my kishkes! Thank you for sharing that version of mule train. I wonder if they're starting to bring back some of this chazerai on CD's. I wish they would.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Banks of the Ohio' in Yiddish
From: Áine
Date: 03 Dec 99 - 05:01 PM

Metchosin,

I would love to have a tape of the Mickey Katz '78!!! I'll trade you a tape of an interview I recorded off the radio with Mandy Patimkin (sp?) talking about recording songs in Yiddish, how he came to be interested in learning Yiddish songs, and how it effected his life. It's a wonderful interview.

-- Áine

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Banks of the Ohio' in Yiddish
From: Metchosin
Date: 03 Dec 99 - 05:42 PM

Aine, do you want to put your postal address on my personal page and I'll send it to you.

Sarah-HS. Waiting for CD's of old stuff is the very reason I will never give up my old 78's and LP'S. (I also love vinyl recordings for certain sound reproduction qualities as well) I'm glad I was able to pass on a good laugh.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Banks of the Ohio' in Yiddish
From: Áine
Date: 03 Dec 99 - 05:58 PM

Dear Metchosin,

Sent you the message. If you don't get it for some reason, my email address is on the Mudcat Resource page, and you can send me an email from there.

You didn't say whether you wanted the Mandy Patimkin interview or not. Let me know if you do.

-- Áine

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Banks of the Ohio' in Yiddish
From: Metchosin
Date: 03 Dec 99 - 06:12 PM

Aine,
I would love to have the tape, I'll send my address to you.

Cheers
Susan

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Banks of the Ohio' in Yiddish
From: Charlie Baum
Date: 16 Jun 15 - 06:10 PM

Still haven't found the Yiddish, but I just came upon the "Banks of the Ohio" in Czech:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0zLo9fWpXw

--Charlie Baum

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'Banks of the Ohio' in Yiddish
From: Jack Campin
Date: 16 Jun 15 - 06:59 PM

I've heard it done in Slovak at a festival in Kosice.

This Slovenian version is better (less literal, I think):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0k2VgvcDcg

I'm surprised Kinky Friedman hasn't done a Yiddish one yet.