Lyr Req: Anti-smoking songs

Subject: Lyr Req: Anti-smoking songs
From: Snuffy UK
Date: 06 Jan 00 - 07:23 PM

Anybody know any good anti-smoking songs? Our gang tried to create some but we could only come up with two choruses and no verses - please feel free to add or amend. A collaborative song would be great.

1. Tune : South Australia

Puff away you superkings
Puff away, drag way
Emphysema's all it brings
Cancer and heart failure.

2. Tune :Fiddlers Green

Farewell to my Marlboros and Rothmans
No more with a cig I'll be seen
I'm giving up smoking
You may think I'm joking
But you'll never see me with Rizlas green

[Rizla is the major UK brand of papers for hand-rolled cigarettes. I don't know if they're available anywhere else]

[Some song titles in this thread have been converted to links by a Mudelf.]

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anti-smoking songs
From: Willie-O
Date: 06 Jan 00 - 08:04 PM

On top of Old Smoke-Free?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anti-smoking songs
From: johnp
Date: 07 Jan 00 - 03:54 AM

There was a song [My Last Cigarette] on the wireless circa 1961 I think sung by Miriam Karlin. I remember bits....

Tobacco, tobacco, I hate you I do.
Like Venus I'd look if it wasn't for you;
But I'll give up the habit; I will even yet
When I've had just one more cigarette.

I'll fling the packet away, away.
Fifty times in a week I say
Fling the packet away, away,
When I've had just one more cigarette.

Under my eyes are a couple of bags.
I blame it all on to a packet of fags,
But I'll give up...etc.

There was much choking and painful coughing.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anti-smoking songs
From: Kernow John
Date: 07 Jan 00 - 07:35 AM

Snuffy
The song JohnP mentions was called My Last Cigarette and was written by Sidney Carter it was Venus or Tarzan according to the singer.
I've got it around somewhere and will type it up later.
Regards Baz

Subject: Lyr Add: CANCER AND HEART FAILURE
From: Tony Burns
Date: 07 Jan 00 - 08:17 AM

Great idea Snuffy UK. Here's an offering.

Cancer and Heart Failure
Chorus - Snuffy UK
Verses - Tony Burns

Tune : South Australia

Puff away you superkings
Puff away, drag away
Emphysema's all it brings
Cancer and heart failure.

I started smoking to look cool
Now I'm just a wheezing fool

I'm a great guy you can tell
If you can get past the smell

Even though I cough and gag
I just light another fag

I wake each morn at 3:15
Go downstairs for some nicotine

Subject: Lyr Add: MY LAST CIGARETTE (Sheila Hancock)^^
From: Kernow John
Date: 07 Jan 00 - 08:38 AM

MY LAST CIGARETTE
Sydney Carter/Sheila Hancock

[A]Tobacco, Tobacco I [D]hate you I do
Like [E] Tarzan I'd look if it [A]wasn't for you
But I'll give up the habit I[D]will even yet
When I've [E]had just one more cigar[A]ette.[E7]
It[A]wasn't the whisky, it [E]wasn't the wine
That [D]made such a wreck of this [A]body of mine
But I'll give up the habit I [E]will even yet
When I've had just one more cigar[A]ette.

Under my eyes are a couple of bags
I blame it all on to a packet of fags
But I'll give up the habit I will even yet
When I've had just one more cigarette
My teeth are all yellow and so is my tongue
I breathe through a kipper I call it a lung
But I'll give up the habit I will even yet
When I've had just one more cigarette

Nail in my coffin so pale and so thin
I am a fool to keep driving you in
You say that you'll kill me how much do you bet
When I've had just one more cigarette
I'll fling the packet away, away
Fifty times in a week I say
Fling the packet away away
When I've had just one more cigarette.

I've sent the tune to Alan of Oz for Mudcat Midi click here
Regards Baz

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anti-smoking songs
From: Keith
Date: 07 Jan 00 - 08:52 AM

If you can find it, look for an album from 1975 by Freeman and Lange, called Freeman and Lange. It's a Flying Fish recording #011. I have it on vinyl, but my turntable doesn't work, so I can't get all the lyrics to the song, Non-smokers Liberation Front Anthem by Don Lange. It's a great song--very funny. I just remember one line that comes near the end of the song:

Before your next nico-fit
Take a stick of dried beef
You can chew it; you can suck it
And it won't stain your teeth

Freeman and Lange were an excellent duo and great songwriters and guitarists. They were an Iowa group based around Iowa City. I don't have any idea what happened to them. For some reason, I think Lange moved to Chicago.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anti-smoking songs
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 07 Jan 00 - 09:51 AM

The two country classics on the subject are Smoke, Smoke, Smoke that Cigarette (Merle Travis) and Cigarettes and Whiskey and Wild Wild Women. I don't have the lyrics of either ready to hand, but I'll check 'em out when I get a chance.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anti-smoking songs
From: Allan S.
Date: 07 Jan 00 - 09:59 AM

What about "Smoke, Smoke, Smoke That Cigarette" 1947 by Merle Travis Sung by Tex Williams, Phil Harris. I think the chorus goes something like "smoke smoke smoke that cigarette, and if you smoke yourself to death Tell Saint Peter at the golden gate he'll just have to wait I just got to have another cigarette" Also "Tobacco is but an Indian Weed" Very old about 1700's I have it on an old record sung by Ray Bougaslovski Who worked with Theo Bickel

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anti-smoking songs
From: AndyG
Date: 07 Jan 00 - 12:00 PM

You could look at Harry Rag by Ray Davies.

Point of information:
Rizla cigarette papers are actually French. The name is a french pun, it's printed on the packet as;
RIZLA +. (where "+" represents a large cross)
The papers were originally made in the town of Riz La Croix, (or something similar). Funny eh?

AndyG

Subject: Lyr Add: SMOKE! SMOKE! SMOKE THAT CIGARETTE!^^^
From: Alfie
Date: 07 Jan 00 - 01:07 PM

SMOKE! SMOKE! SMOKE THAT CIGARETTE!
(Merle Travis)

cho: Smoke! Smoke! Smoke that cigarette!
Puff, Puff, Puff and if you smoke yourself to death
Tell Saint Peter at the Golden Gate
That you hate to make him wait
But you've just got to have another cigarette.

Now I'm a feller with a heart of gold,
And the ways of a gentleman, I've been told,
The kind of a guy that wouldn't even harm a flea--
But if me and a certain character met,
The guy that invented the cigarette,
I'd murder that son of a gun in the first degree--
Not 'cause I don't smoke myself,
And I don't reckon they'll harm your health
I've smoked all my life and ain't dead yet
But nicotine slaves are all the same,
At a pettin' party or a poker game,
Everything must stop while they smoke that cigarette.

In a game of chance the other night
Old Dame Fortune was a-doin' me right,
The Kings and Queens just kept on comin' around--
I played 'em hard and bet 'em high,
But my bluff didn't work on a certain guy,
He kept on raisin' and layin' the money down
He'd raise me and I'd raise him,
I sweated blood gotta sink or swim,
He finally called and didn't raise the bet--
I said "Aces full, pal,--how 'bout you?"
He said "I'll tell you in a minute or two,
Right now I've just got to have a cigarette."

The other night I had a date
With the cutest little girl in the forty eight states
A high-bred, uptown, fancy little dame--
She said she loved me and it seemed to me
That things were 'bout like they oughta be,
So hand in hand we strolled down lover's lane--
She was oh, so far from a cake of ice,
Our smoochin' party was a-goin nice,
So help me Hannah, I think I'd a been there yet--
But I give her a kiss and a little squeeze
And she said "Tex excuse me please,
I've just got to have another cigarette.

Subject: Lyr Add: CIGAREETES WHUSKY AND WILD WILD WOMEN
From: Gene
Date: 07 Jan 00 - 01:39 PM

CIGAREETES, WHUSKY AND WILD, WILD WOMEN
Words and music by Tim Spencer
Recorded by The Sons Of The Pioneers, 1947.

CHORUS: [G] Cigareetes and whusky and [C] wild, wild [G] Women,
They'll drive you crazy; they'll [A] drive you in-[D] sane. [A] [D]
Ciga-[G] reetes and whusky and [C] wild, wild [G] women,
They'll drive you crazy; they'll [D] drive you in-[G] sane.

[G] Once I was happy and [C] had a good [G] wife.
I had enough money to [A] last me for [D] life. [A] [D]
I [G] met with a gal and we [C] went on a [G] spree.
She started me smokin' and [D] drinkin' whus-[G] ky. CHORUS

Now I am feeble and broken with age.
The lines on my face make a well-written page.
I'm leavin' this message, how sad but how true
On women and whusky and what they can do. CHORUS

Write on the cross at the head of my grave:
"For women and whusky here lies a poor slave.
Take warning, dear stranger; take warning, dear friend."
Then write in big letters these words at the end: CHORUS

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anti-smoking songs
From: Snuffy
Date: 07 Jan 00 - 02:58 PM

Thank you, one and all, for your contributions so far. That should give me something to be going on with.
I remember hearing both 'My Last Cigarette' and 'Cigareetes and Whusky and Wild, Wild Women' many years ago, but I had forgotten most of the words. Thanks again.

Snuffy

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anti-smoking songs
From: Snuffy
Date: 07 Jan 00 - 03:02 PM

Tony - I didn't forget you. I like it! Have you got any more
What about changing the refrain to something like this:

I started smoking to look cool
Puff away, drag away
Now I'm just a wheezing fool
Smokin's gonna nail ya.

Wassail, Snuffy

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anti-smoking songs
From: Arkie
Date: 07 Jan 00 - 03:59 PM

When Travis wrote Smoke, Smoke, Smoke (That Cigarette), he did not think of it as an anti-smoking song. He did write another version [Smoke, Smoke, Smoke (But Not Around Me)] at the request of his friend, Grandpa Jones, which was for non-smokers. Don't know if I can find a copy, but will give it a shot. Will not consider it an insult if someone beats me to it. Travis did have a way with words, with music, and with the guitar. and could draw a pretty good picture too. Supposedly a female member of his band claims to be the inspiration for the song. Claimed Trav made a move on her and she stalled by lighting up a cigarette.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anti-smoking songs
From: Gene
Date: 07 Jan 00 - 04:27 PM

Jerry Reed recorded a KILLER of a SMOKING SONG... [Another Puff]

haven't played it in ages...will look for it!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anti-smoking songs
From: ursa
Date: 07 Jan 00 - 05:35 PM

Great rock song- "Cigarette" by a band called the Clark's. Sorry, don't have the lyrics.

Subject: Lyr Add: SMOKING SPIRITUALIZED^^^
From: lamarca
Date: 07 Jan 00 - 05:43 PM

There's an old English song (from the 1600's?) called "Smoking Spiritualized" - Larry Hanks recorded it on "Tying Knots in the Devil's Tail"

Smoking Spiritualized

Tobacco's but an Indian weed,
Grows green at morn, cut down at eve.
It shows our decay;
We are but clay;
Think of this, when you smoke tobacco.

The pipe that is so lily-white,
Wherein so many take delight,
Gone with a touch;
Man's life is such;
Think on this, when you smoke tobacco.

The pipe that is so foul within,
Shews how the soul is stained with sin;
It doth require
The purging fire.
Think on this, when you smoke tobacco.

The ashes that are left behind,
Do serve to put us all in mind,
That unto dust,
Return we must.
Think on this, when you smoke tobacco.

The smoke that doth so high ascend,
Shews that our life must have an end;
The vapour's gone;
Man's life is done.
Think on this, when you smoke tobacco.

Subject: Lyr Add: SMOKER'S SONG^^
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 07 Jan 00 - 06:23 PM

Maybe this'll cure a few people. If you ever heard Hamish Imlach sing it with his dreadful cough, you know why you've given up smoking!
BTW, I have an old '78 recording of 'Cigarettes and Whisky' where the author's name is given as Red Ingle. - Susanne

SMOKERS SONG
(Peter Ross / Hamish Imlach)

Now I'm a social outcast
A modern-day refugee
Joy turns to gloom when I walk into a room
They all turn their back upon me
I'm not a thug or a mugger
I've not murdered anyone yet
But you would think I was Charles bloody Manson
When I light up a cigarette

Some folk get their kicks from alcohol
Some stuff their nose with cocaine
Some folk like knocking old women about
Some like tae batter their weans
There's masochists, sadists or rapists
Folk that like dressing in drag
I'm no' like them, that's no' my game
Gimme peace just to light one more fag

You can snuff it doing too much exercise
You can snuff it not doing enough
You can snuff it by eating too little
You know, you can snuff it eating too much
You can snuff it staying out late at night
You can snuff it lying in your bed
So my way of snuffing is to keep right on puffing
It's on my own bloody head

Spare a thought for all the smokers
Doing their bit for the Crown
Remember when a smoker lights up
He's keeping your income tax down

Yes he is
He's keeping your income tax down

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anti-smoking songs
From: Allan S,
Date: 07 Jan 00 - 07:48 PM

Red Ingle had a band called Red Ingle and his natural Seven Did stuff like Spike jones with bells whistles and other sounds too fierce to mention

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anti-smoking songs
From: Alan of Australia
Date: 07 Jan 00 - 10:50 PM

G'day,
The tune to "My Last Cigarette" posted by Baz (see above) is now at the Mudcat MIDI site
.

Cheers,
Alan

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anti-smoking songs
From: Tony Burns
Date: 07 Jan 00 - 11:46 PM

Hi Snuffy UK,

I like the Cancer and heart failute line and so will suggest a refrain of:

I started smoking to look cool
Puff away, drag away
Now I'm just a wheezing fool
Cancer and Heart Failure

Hmmm... "Smokin's gonna nail ya" is good too. (Maybe and improvement.) Have to get that "Cancer and heart failure" into a verse somewhere. Maybe two separate verses. (I have to stop thinking out loud. I'll stop now.)

More verses? The first few were easy. You could almost make this a zipper song and let folks jump in.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anti-smoking songs
From: Snuffy
Date: 08 Jan 00 - 06:27 AM

Tony Burns - I think a zipper is a great idea. Cancer and heart failure is in the chorus anyway - after every verse

AndyG - Thanks for the Harry Rag song and the info on Rizla+ - you set me off surfing and I found the Rizla website. Apparently, Pierre Lacroix started selling paper in 1532 and they introduced rice ("riz" in French) paper in 1865.

I also found a page on Cockney rhyming slang and according to them Harry Wragg was a jockey famous enough to become the rhyming slang for "fag" [US readers - in UK English fag merely means cigarette]

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anti-smoking songs
From: longhair
Date: 08 Jan 00 - 06:42 AM

Sheesh!! Can't even come here w/o anti-smoking stuff! :^)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anti-smoking songs
From: Chris/Darwin
Date: 08 Jan 00 - 07:09 AM

Gene

There was one more verse in the original "Cigareettes and Whusky", as follows:

Cigareettes is a blot on the whole human race
A man is a monkey with one in his face
Here's my definition, believe me, dear brother
A fool on one end, and a fire on t'other

CHORUS

I also sing a couple of extra verses about women and whisky that go over just as well, but that is another thread...

Regards
Chris

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anti-smoking songs
From: Tony Burns
Date: 08 Jan 00 - 11:49 AM

Of course you are right Snuffy. The terms chorus and refrain still get twisted in my head. Still, a consistancy between the chorus and refrain will make it easier for others to pick up.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anti-smoking songs
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 08 Jan 00 - 11:51 AM

Hi- The words to Smoke, Smoke, Smoke That Cigarette; Cigarettes and Whiskey; and Tobacco's But an Indian Weed are all in DigiTrad. A little searching can save a lot of typing.

Incidentally, the original verse ending to Tobacco's But an Indian Weed was "Think on this when you drink tobacco"--a reference to what non-smokers perceived was being done with the smoke of the burning weed.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anti-smoking songs
From: Frank Hamilton
Date: 08 Jan 00 - 02:59 PM

Actually, there are not too many anti-smoking songs. Tobacco's But An Indian Weed is not quite about the perils of smoking and Smoke, Smoke, Smoke That Cigarette is more about a complaint of someone stalling in a card game. I personally would love to see more anti-smoking songs. Particularly about those who pollute other's air space.

Frank

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anti-smoking songs
From: longhair
Date: 08 Jan 00 - 04:53 PM

Well, if we're worring about polluting other's air space, we also need songs like "Damn that Perfume You're Wearing could make a Corpse Cry", or "That Colonge Smells like it could take the Hair off an Elephant". What pollutes others air, all depends on which side of the isle your standing. No flame intended, but it's funny to me that some of the same people bitching about smoke in their air space, wear some of the loudest smelling stuff on the face of the earth.. Sorry, had to say it. Now y'all continue what is a fine thread...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anti-smoking songs
From: clare s
Date: 08 Jan 00 - 04:58 PM

How about some pro (or at least not anti) smoking songs to stop us poor addicts feeling worse than we already are made to?

Happy new year anti-smoking fascist people...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anti-smoking songs
From: Snuffy
Date: 08 Jan 00 - 06:07 PM

Clare S and longhair - send 'em in if you've got 'em

I can sympathise with you - I'm a tobacco addict myself - but I shove it up my nose, that's why I'm snuffy

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anti-smoking songs
From: clare s
Date: 08 Jan 00 - 06:27 PM

We don't bother with songs, we just enjoy smoking and pity the overtly self rightious positions of the rest of you - and we don't care if we might die a few years earlier. Our years won't have been quite as boring as yours

Clare

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anti-smoking songs
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 08 Jan 00 - 07:34 PM

Clare - I'm not anti-smoking as such, I just can't understand how people can do that to themselves and I sometimes ask my mother not to smoke in my house because the smoke gives me a headache. Apart from that, I'm utterly tolerant, being a lifelong non-smoker. Anyway, the SMOKERS SONG I posted above should be your song! Enjoy your next cigarette! :-) - Susanne

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anti-smoking songs
From: Jo Taylor
Date: 08 Jan 00 - 08:53 PM

Andy G -
Riz = papers originally made of rice paper
La Croix = the name of the family whose business made them.
Can't buy Rizla licquorice papers in France though...
Jo

Subject: Lyr Add: DADDY SMOKED HIS LIFE AWAY^^
From: Art Thieme
Date: 08 Jan 00 - 11:50 PM

My old and good friend, a fine musician who now makes his living selling teeth, BRIAN GILL, wrote this remarkable song in 1986. Back then it was being used by The American Cancer Society.

Personally: After 50 years of smoking several packs a day, I had just watched my aunt die a terrible and demeaning, broken death because of her addiction to cigarettes. Emphysema had deprived her brain of oxygen to the extent that she exhibited the many symptoms of advanced Alzheimer's disease---all the while gasping for breath. On her deathbed, she constantly asked me to give her another cigarette.
Art Thieme

words and music
Brian Gill @ 1986

DADDY SMOKED HIS LIFE AWAY

What more can I do,
What more can I say
For 30 years now it's been
Going on the same old way,
Up in the morningYou're looking for a morning light
'Cause you're a life time smoking man.

CHORUS:One by one
They're dragging you down,
One by one,
They're putting you in the ground,
One by one,
They're gonna bring about the day,
When momma tells her children
Daddy smoked his life away.

It's all a corporate scam,
It's the drug of the times
They're killing people right and left
While the profit margin's doing fine,
It's a personal gift
From the angel of death,
They're laughing all the way to the bank
While they're stealing your precious breath.

BRIDGE:Nicotine stains on your fingers and nails
Coughing like you're gonna die,
When you gonna wake up?
When you gonna open your eyes?

There's a reason for living,
There's a reason for love,
Your wife and your family
The good lord above,
Poppa, we love you
More than you'll ever know.
Sometimes it's hard to say,
Sometimes it's even harder to show.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anti-smoking songs
From: Art Thieme
Date: 10 Jan 00 - 10:30 PM

I just realized that I wasn't very clear in the previous post. I've never smoked at all---except for about 5 years of smoking a pipe. It was my aunt who smokes packs a day for 50 years----not me.

Art

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anti-smoking songs
From: Bert
Date: 11 Jan 00 - 10:11 AM

There's David Perry's "Mr Nicotine Man" to the tune of Mr. Tambourine Man. I've got it somewhere, I'll see if I can find it.

Bert.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anti-smoking songs
From: Tony Burns
Date: 11 Jan 00 - 12:44 PM

Clare, Is the description of Art's aunt what you mean by having a somewhat shorter non-boring life?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anti-smoking songs
From: Blackcat2
Date: 11 Jan 00 - 02:55 PM

I was wondering as I was wandering down this thread if someone would finally object to it's content. I didn't think it be as heated a objection as it received. I remember as a boy i used to take interesting show & tell items to school from my mom's office - she workd for the American Lung assoc. and that was jsut after they moved from a focus on Tuberculosis to lung cancer/smoking.

There's nothing like sharing a glass encased biopsy of a healthy lung nest of a 2 park a day for 30 years lung.

Smokers have a right to smoke. They have a right to like it, to feel proud, superior, etc. (I'm not saying all smokers do - most of my friends that smoke aren't happy they do) BUT the arrogance of statements such as "and we don't care if we might die a few years earlier. Our years won't have been quite as boring as yours." is laughable!

Gee just look at all those people out their living boring lives because they don't smoke! Boy i'll tell you, a statement like that makes Madison Avenue perk right up!

pax yall

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anti-smoking songs
From: clare s
Date: 11 Jan 00 - 04:53 PM

Blackcat2,

You'll have to excuse me the comment that you quoted - I had a dreadful weekend, spent most of it hating the world and managed to offend several people here...

Now that I've calmed down, I have to say that us smokers don't feel superior, we are just sick and tired of being judged for a lifestyle choice that we've made. As lifestyle choices go, it may not be the most sensible in the world, but it's our choice.

I can understand the passive smoking arguement and try my best to be considerate in that way - given the way things are going it will soon become impossible for me to inadvertently cause you to inhale my smoke. That is fine by me; I'm starting to enjoy having to go outside for a smoke in social situations - it's an excellent excuse to avoid people you don't like.

What I find difficult to understand is the extent to which us smokers are despised and vilified.

We aren't lepers, we simply enjoy a habit for which you don't understand our rationale. Of course smoking may kill me, but so might lots of other activities. I enjoy it, am well aware of the risks, and have made my choice. Please respect that and don't give me songs, stories or personal recollections as to why my choice is wrong.

I wonder what response I'd get if I started a thread on being overweight, eating too much and not taking any exercise. I imagine the responses would be somewhat different.

Clare

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anti-smoking songs
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 11 Jan 00 - 05:07 PM

Clare, I can see you are an optimist, always seeing a bright side. One more bright thought: At least smokers don't lose control of their cars, their ships or themselves and 'inadvertently' kill other people more directly than any passive smoking can. (I don't hate alcoholics, but I DO hate alcohol in unhealthy quantities.) - Susanne

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anti-smoking songs
From: Blackcat2
Date: 11 Jan 00 - 06:20 PM

Hi Claire

I understand you very much. As you may have noticed my posting mentioned something about friends who are smokers. If I actually hate yall and though yall were stuck-up or something I wouldn't have anything to do with yall. I was reacting to your quote (hence me quoting it) but like I said, I found it funny. You are welcome to your choices in the world as am I. I just find it interesting how people chose to express themselves and it sure sounded like a cig. advert.

take care and may you never suffer from your choice to smoke.

pax yall

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anti-smoking songs
From: clare s
Date: 11 Jan 00 - 06:34 PM

Peace to you too, Blackcat - btw, my name has no i

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anti-smoking songs
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 11 Jan 00 - 07:49 PM

C'mon Clare,(oops, Clare S) are you trying to tell me that you actually got on the wrong side of someone recently? Impossible!

Rick (laughing maniacally)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anti-smoking songs
From: Tony Burns
Date: 11 Jan 00 - 08:03 PM

Those who are offended or feel picked on should note that the topic of this thread is anti-smoking not anti-smoker. As a reformed smoker I know both sides of this argument only too well. I will continue to sing anti-smoking songs in the hope that it will discourage some from taking up this habit.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anti-smoking songs
From: Art Thieme
Date: 11 Jan 00 - 10:17 PM

People, bear with me while I mix a few metaphors and ideas here. Maybe I can get 'em straight in my own head as I write 'em out for you....

That same aunt, my mother's twin sister, all the while she was asking me for a cigarette whenever we'd see her in the nursing home as she lay dying, would also call quite often at 3:oo AM or 4:00 AM----awaken me out of deep sleep---and demand for the next half hour that I bring her a cyanide pill. It was hell to see someone you love hurting, addicted and completely out of control of her own life.

But I'd like to try to tie even this sadness to something musical---an idea I used in the schools around Chicago trying to make traditional songs relevant to students who were striving to make sense of modern dilemmas. Songs about other hard times of other people often could be made to shed light on recent happenings.

Being sure that this once gracious woman was well cared for opened my eyes to the real meaning between the lines of the western song "Bury Me Not On The Lone Prairie". The dying cowboy asks his pals to please not bury him out on the prairie. They tell him whatever they need to tell him to calm him a bit----and then, when he dies, out of necessity, they do bury him out there. They even probably take his boots and rope and horse and saddle. But the real theme of the song is how hard it is in certain situations, especially at the end of one's life, to retain any semblance of control of that which is being wrested so painfully away.

"Pay no heed to the enticing words,
Of the men who own large droves and herds,
For if you do you will rue the day,
You left your home for the lone prairie."

"Oh bury me not...", but his voice failed there,
And we payed no heed to his dying prayer,
In a shallow grave just 6 X 3,
We burried him there on the lone prairie.

And the cowboys all--as they ride the range,
They mark the spot where his bones remain,
They toss rose petals all o'er his grave,
And pray to the lord that his soul be saved.

I hear that kind of striving for control from so very many smokers I know who find all kinds of interesting reasons to keep on keeping on. They even invoke the constitution and their own "pursuit of happiness".

So think about doing this and other traditional songs from the depths of history to put forth all kinds of modern attitudes and positions. Those guys who "owned the large droves and herds", might today be the tobacco billionairs who have been losing (finally) in the courts while luring people to addiction and death.

Anyhow, please don't be offended. I ain't against people who smoke. I'm against the assholes who continue to make a fortune by recruiting more people every day. And now that they're getting hurt a little here in the U.S., all of the packages of smokes are getting a warning label but it's in YOUR language.

A word to the wise...

Art Thieme

Subject: Lyr Add: TOBACCO UNION^^
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 11 Jan 00 - 10:22 PM

Hattie Presnell sings a song titled "Tobacco Union" on my Traditional Music of Beech Mountain, NC., Volume II. It's clearly "anti." Me? I'm neutral. I happily smoked a pack a day for fifty-three years. When I had my coronary by-pass in 1995, I decided maybe I ought to take advantage of sixteen days in a non-smoking environment (the hospital) and use that as a head start on quitting, since I figured I ought to do that before I became addicted. I miss it. I stand next to smokers in the alley snowdrifts, blissfully inhaling their exhalations. Best use of "second-hand smoke" I can think of. Anyway, here's the song Hattie gave me. She learned it from an old reprobate named "Lie-hue" who would wander into the Beech Mountain area every seven years, they told me. SING OUT! (Volume 14, No. 2) published another version of the song as it was sung by Emma Dusenberry of Mena, Arkansas (my father's home town). Randolph (Ozark Folksongs, Vol. III, p. 274)) printed a version from Mrs. Maggie Morgan of Springfield, Arkansas, observing that she had learned it in the late 1880s. Jere's Hattie's text:

Come young and old and hear me tell
How strong tobacco smokers smell,
Who loves to smoke the pipe so well,
For tobacco they will sell,
To burn and smoke in union.

They'll take the money from the poor
And carry it to their neighbor's door
And hasten it away to some man's store
To sell and buy tobacco more
To burn and smoke in union.

And then, sometimes, some church you'll view,
And there the men will sit and chew.
They will spit on the carpet floor
And it will spread a foot or more,
A-talking of the social union.

The twist so large within their mouth,
The juice runs down and stains their chin.
At this I always have to grin
And think there is but little sin
In this tobacco union.

Then there's the verse I learned from Joe Camp, a farmer I harvested for in the wheat fields near Larned, Kansas, in 1944, sung as part of "The Taters They Grow Small in Kansas:"

Oh, they chew tobacco thin in Kansas.
They chew tobacco thin in Kansas.
Oh, they chew tobacco thin
And it dribbles down their chin.
Then they lick it up agin
In Kansas.

I reckon that's "anti-poverty," too.

Sandy

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anti-smoking songs
From: Arkie
Date: 12 Jan 00 - 12:19 AM

I don't think there was any intent in this thread to offend smokers or to express animosity toward smokers. As Tony pointed out, if there is any object of scorn, it is the habit, not the person. Merle Travis, who wrote Smoke, Smoke, Smoke That Cigarette was a smoker and poked a little fun at himself. His son who had a fairly popular recording of the song and performs it in concerts is also a dedicated smoker. I am certainly glad that I never embraced the habit. Have a friend, a darn good musician, whose sister had her jaw rebuilt this past fall, a victim of years of smoking, and cancer had eaten away part of her face. I get sick when I think about it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Anti-smoking songs
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 12 Jan 00 - 02:26 AM

I have a friend who lost a part of his tongue, had a good-sized chunk taken out of his neck, and a small spot on his larynx treated with radiation, all cancerous. He stopped smoking for a few months after the second surgery, but is now back at it, full-time and full-bore. (Do you think it might be a bit addictive?) It was his choice to make, and he's made it. That's a given. We don't discuss it at all.

Sandy

Subject: Lyr Add: SMOKE GOES EVERYWHERE^^
From: BobLusk
Date: 12 Jan 00 - 06:45 PM

I was very happy to see this thread. I am a former smoker- for 30 years. Spent the last 12 of them trying to quit. Now I run stop smoking groups. My father had lung cancer... I could go on for a long time. Anywho, we had a local hearing on a law about smoking in restaurants and someone suggested I write a song. It was the hardest audiance I ever played to, but it seemed to get people going - One female restaurant owner started to swing at me as I was getting "offstage".

It's a takeoff on the old country song "I've been evererywhere, but is a little slower, so you can understand the words. All the facts are accurate, near as I can tell.

Bob

SMOKE GOES EVERYWHERE
Words and music by
Bob Lusk c. 1999
Chorus:
Smoke goes everywhere, smoke goes everywhere
On your clothes and in your hair
Smoke goes everywhere
Smoke fills up the air, smoke goes everywhere

Sung:
And smoke will give you:
Mouth cancer, gum cancer, throat cancer, larynx cancer,/ esophagus cancer, breast cancer, colon cancer, kidney cancer, / pancreatic cancer, cervical cancer, bladder cancer, and lun---g cancer

Chorus:
Smoke goes everywhere, smoke goes everywhere
On your clothes and in your hair
Smoke goes everywhere
Smoke fills up the air, smoke goes everywhere

Don't smoke, don't toke, no joke.

And it will give you:

Sung:
Heart disease, hypertension, high cholesterol, emphysema, stroke, allergies, ulcers, headaches, / coughs, colds, wheezing, asthma, / bronchitis, pneumonia and - Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.

Spoken:
It'll also give you wrinkles and bad hair. / It kills your cilia and it will kill you. / Also burn down your house. 50% of all fires are caused by cigarettes.

Chorus:
Smoke goes everywhere, smoke goes everywhere
On your clothes and in your hair
Smoke goes everywhere
Smoke fills up the air, smoke goes everywhere

Spoken:
There are over 4,000 chemicals in cigarette smoke. / We know 43 cause cancer and that 401 are toxic. / We're not sure about the other 3,556 but we don't think they are good for you. Not exactly vitamins!

Sung:
And smoke has nicotine, tar, carbon monoxide, vinyl chloride, / hydrogen cyanide, methanol, ammonia, arsenic, / toluene, tolu-i-dine, naphthalene, naphthy-l-amine, /nickel, phenol, butane, pyrene,/ benzo-pyrene, urethane, acetone, cadmium, polonium, / DDT. DDDDD TTTTT DDT, DDT

Chorus:
Smoke goes everywhere, smoke goes everywhere
On your clothes and in your hair
Smoke goes everywhere
Smoke fills up the air, smoke goes everywhere
Smoke doesn't care, smoke goes everywhere.

Spoken:
And now the kids: (we haven't even talked about the kids yet)

Sung:
- spontaneous abortion - that means they won't even be born-,/fetal deaths, crib deaths, pre-term births, low birth weight, /bronchitis, pneumonia, ear infections.

Spoken
It'll even make them smell bad. If the mother smokes, smoke goes in the bloodstream from the mother to the baby - kids born a smoker, doesn't stand a chance.

Chorus:
Smoke kills everyone, smoke kills everyone
Your daughter and your son,
Smoke kills everyone, smoke kills everyone
Smoke kills everyone.

Spoken ala Arlo Guthrie:
And it kills more people than alcohol, car accidents, suicides, murders and AIDS combined. / It kills more people than other drugs like heroin, crack ,marihuana, or cocaine. I mean it kills more people than all those things put together.

Chorus:
Smoke kills everyone, smoke kills everyone
The old and the young,
Smoke kills everyone.
Smoke kills everyone, smoke kills everyone

Don't smoke, Please don't smoke!
Don't smoke, Please don't smoke!
Don't smoke, Please don't smoke!
Please, please, ple-a-s-e - don't smoke!


Don't smoke around my kid in restaurants, please!