Origins: Sister Jennie's Turn to Throw the Bomb

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sister Jennie's Turn to Throw the Bomb
From: GUEST,Bruce G. Rollin
Date: 07 Jan 13 - 09:09 PM

As a faculty brat trying to grow up on a college campus I learned these lyrics sometime in the 60s... Tom Lehrer rings a certain bell, perhaps, mebbe...? Only the two verses & chorus though,

"In an anarchist's garret so lowly and so mean
Oh smell the pungent odor of nitroglycereen,
They're busy making fuses,
And filling cans with nails
While the little Slavic children
Set up this mournful wail....

(Chorus)
It's sister Jenny's turn to throw the bomb
The last one was thrown by brother Tom
Poor Mama's aim is bad
And the kopskis all know Dad
So it's sister Jenny's turn to throw the bomb"

    For the life of me I cannot now remember the exact words of the second verse. For that I must blame my sophomore (& senior) year room-mate, Jan Tyler Andrus. Jan, who sadly left us far too early, was an extraordinarily versatile musician, an incredibly talented artist & a gentleman of the highest order. He heard me croaking this song one day, & forced me to teach it to him, an addition to his coffee shop repertoire.   I recall I next heard him strumming it, in a smoke filled basement of a freshman girl's dorm, and Jan had "corrupted" the song, amending that second verse to:

Sister Jenny took the bomb, she feared the worst,
said Mama "Don't get caught like Patty Hearst"
And as the party waited
While the dawn turned into day
The little Slavic children
Set up this mournful lay....

(Chorus)
It's brother Ivanovitch's turn to throw the bomb
Sister Jenny's gone the way of brother Tom
Poor Mama's aim is bad
And the kopskis all know Dad
So it's brother Ivanovitch's turn to throw the bomb

(Again)

Poor Mama's aim is bad
And the kopskis all know Dad (last 3 words spoken)
So it's brother Ivanovitch's t u r n t o t h r o w t h e bommmmmmb!

(The ending draws out & goes up in a Tom Lehrer fashion, which leads me to suspect that origin)

    Needless to say Jan's updating the song, making it "relevant" in language of our youth, is the ONLY version my brain can hold to this very day. It's possible we did this together spring '74, but more likely it was that fall. Either way Jan's genius brought brought new life, and meaning, to an old, favourite classic. I still croak it from time to time, & NOBODY has ever heard it before...

Thanks for the moment in time,

Rivo!!!

Bruce

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sister Jennie's Turn to Throw the Bomb
From: Stewie
Date: 07 Jan 13 - 09:37 PM

Here's a link to a rendition on Youtube:

Sister Jenny's.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sister Jennie's Turn to Throw the Bomb
From: GUEST
Date: 07 May 13 - 09:56 PM

Larry Saidman's correct about Paul Evans other hits like "Seven Little Girls." My sister and I had an album of his called "The Greatest Folk Songs Ever Sung" back in the early 60s during the Hootenanny TV show era. Most of the greatest songs were ones that my sis and I, both folkies, had never heard of. And I have no memory of what the other greatest songs were. But this one (and I don't even remember the title on the album) has alway stuck with both of us, fifty years later. And for some godforsaken reason I found myself humming it today and thought, what the heck, I wonder if it's on Mudcat...

The Paul Evans felt, perhaps, that it was more attuned to the Hungarian Revolution but maybe I'm reading too much into it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sister Jennie's Turn to Throw the Bomb
From: GUEST,The Sis in Question, Above
Date: 07 May 13 - 11:58 PM

Other songs on the Evans album, titles noted in my round, middle-school handwriting. Gawd, that was fifty years ago:

Buckeye Jim
The Bomb
Crucified My Lord
Golden Vanity
Mister Hangman
Passing Through
The Pig and the Inebriate
Poor Boy
Tzena, Tzena

Can't remember lyrics for most of these, except for that great Pig, mostly because I later learned better versions.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sister Jennie's Turn to Throw the Bomb
From: Charley Noble
Date: 08 May 13 - 08:55 PM

"The Anarchist's Song" as we knew it certainly goes back long before the era of Tom Lehrer, back to the 1930s. It's a whole lot funnier when people are not planting or throwing bombs. My college friends in the 1960s certainly thought it was a hysterically funny song.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: Lyr Add:IT'S SISTER GINNY'S TURN TO THROW THE BOMB
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 26 Dec 18 - 07:24 PM

You can hear this song, and see an image of the record label, at YouTube. There is more discographical information here. I have boldfaced the words that are different from Evan Jones’ post above.


IT’S SISTER GINNY’S TURN TO THROW THE BOMB
Words and music by Peg Horther*
As recorded by The Glencoves on Select Records 45K-724, 1963.

In an old chemist's attic, so dreary and so mean,
Oh, smell the fearful odors of nitroglycerin.**
They're busy building bombs and filling cans with nails,
And little starving kiddies set up this mournful wail:

CHORUS: Oh, it's Sister Ginny's turn to throw the bomb.
The last one it was thrown by Brother John. (Brother John!)
Mama's aim is bad and the coppers all know Dad,
So it's Sister Ginny's turn to throw the bomb!

In her dark and dreary attic all filled with nitro fumes,
They spend each waking hour planning others’ dooms.
They build bombs every morning, so not a day goes by
That*** from some smoking building goes up this mournful cry: CHORUS

They're taught bomb building from the day they're born
And peace is something they all learn to scorn.
They can hardly wait to see the blast and hear the noise
And watch the heads go flying off little girls and boys. CHORUS

She was maiming little children one fine day
When her older brother swore she'd have to pay.
Grit his teeth and pull the pin; the whole darn house caved in,
And I bet she's building bombs below this day. CHORUS

It's sister Ginny's turn to throw the bomb!

- - -
* Songwriting credit from the Catalog of Copyright Entries.
** They pronounce “nitroglycerin” so the last syllable rhymes with “mean.”
*** Grammatically, this word should be “but.”

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sister Jennie's Turn to Throw the Bomb
From: Charley Noble
Date: 27 Dec 18 - 10:00 AM

Amazing how this song keeps turning up.

Charlie Ipcar

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sister Jennie's Turn to Throw the Bomb
From: Mrrzy
Date: 27 Dec 18 - 11:34 AM

We had this on a record. Oscar Brand maybe?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sister Jennie's Turn to Throw the Bomb
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 27 Dec 18 - 12:02 PM

Amazon UK has a 45 of the song for sale: It's Sister Ginny's Turn To Throw The Bomb, recorded by The Glencoves, 1963, "Recorded live in the Student Lounge at Fink University"!, says the label. (According to a post on the page by George O'Leary, it was the b-side of Hootenany, which charted at 38 in May/June 1963!).

Mick

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sister Jennie's Turn to Throw the Bomb
From: Mrrzy
Date: 27 Dec 18 - 12:08 PM

Not Oscar Brand. Hmmm. It was a full-size record with lots of songs...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sister Jennie's Turn to Throw the Bomb
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 27 Dec 18 - 01:12 PM

Mrrzy - Oscar Brand didn't turn up on my Amazon search, nor on any other searches I've done. You can find the Glencove's version on youtube, and also Leslie Fish and the Dehorn Crew, and a punk-ish version by a band called The Dead Rabbits.

A google group had a reference to it being on a compilation album called "The Crazy Album, with the artist listed as Baltimore Local".

Mick

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sister Jennie's Turn to Throw the Bomb
From: leeneia
Date: 28 Dec 18 - 07:01 PM

There's nothing funny about bombs. Bombers are vicious, cowardly people.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sister Jennie's Turn to Throw the Bomb
From: Ged Fox
Date: 29 Dec 18 - 07:01 AM

Bombers are all sorts, but mostly desperate.

Subject: RE: Origins: Sister Jennie's Turn to Throw the Bomb
From: GUEST,smackthecreepr2
Date: 26 Jul 23 - 10:28 PM

Hello from 2023, 24 years later!

Subject: RE: Origins: Sister Jennie's Turn to Throw the Bomb
From: GeoffLawes
Date: 27 Jul 23 - 04:03 AM

The Glencoves - It's Sister Ginny's Turn To Throw The Bomb on YouTube     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cx4bNOcxHtg

Subject: RE: Origins: Sister Jennie's Turn to Throw the Bomb
From: Charley Noble
Date: 27 Jul 23 - 11:05 AM

Thanks, Geoff, for the link.

The verse melody is certainly similar to what we used to sing but we didn't speed up the chorus; that's a more contemporary twist. Our chorus was more of a dirge.