Origins: Burlesque Lining Out Songs

Subject: Origins: Burlesque Lining Out Songs
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 01 Jan 25 - 03:27 PM

Interested in which folksongs have been sung using the 'lining out' religious practice with burlesque and nonsense songs.

For those who don't know 'lining out' is a hymn-singing practice dating back to the 17th century in which the Precentor spoke each line of a hymn or psalm and then exhorted the congregation to sing that line.

The practice was burlesqued in a mock-precentor style using secular material.

I have examples from America 1860s using the burlesque version of Two Old Crows
and in 1880s Britain using the nonsense song Bohunkus aka Adolphus John (There was a man who had two sons and both of them were brothers).

I am interested in obtaining further examples of other songs being used in this way. (dating and place are helpful)

Also related closely, but not songs, are burlesque Bible stories delivered in the same dead-pan style using Biblical phraseology such as 'And it came to pass..... Are any of these in print anywhere?

Both of these things were a staple of the Sods' Operas in WWII and probably earlier wars. The material was often sexist, racist and/or bawdy.

Subject: RE: Origins: Burlesque Lining Out Songs
From: Richard Mellish
Date: 02 Jan 25 - 08:56 AM

> Also related closely, but not songs, are burlesque Bible stories delivered in the same dead-pan style using Biblical phraseology such as 'And it came to pass..... Are any of these in print anywhere?

In another thread Jim Bainbridge of this parish said
> I'm pretty certain that Louis got the Exodus story from Jim Irvine, MC of the Marsden Inn folk club in South Shields in the mid sixties.

> I had got it from my pal John Greenwell (who much preferred Ray Charles to folk music) in the Grey Hen pub in Harton about 1963 and I gave it to Jim in written form<

(my emphasis).

Mayhap Jim B can still put his hand to it.

I bought a copy of the Geordie Bible booklet but was disappointed to find that its stories are in a very different style.

Subject: RE: Origins: Burlesque Lining Out Songs
From: cnd
Date: 02 Jan 25 - 09:17 AM

I ran into the lining out joke which follows when searching for the Fret Buzz Blues thread a while back.

From Sing Out!, Vol. 26 No. 5 (1978), "No Fiddle in My Home" by Hedy West, p. 3.

My Eyes Are Dim

[This article views the coexistence, at times easy and at times uneasy, of Southern Mountain religious and secular music. It is based on interviews I made in 1976 in Union County, Georgia with my paternal grandmother, Lillie Etta Mulkey West, fourth recorded generation North Georgian. She was born in 1888 in the Cartecay District of Gilmer County, Georgia.]

My dad used to tell the story of this old preacher. He got up in church wiping his eyes. He had a hymn book in his hand, and he said, "My eyes are dim. I cannot. see." This old woman started singing:

My eyes are dim, I cannot see
I did not bring my specs with me (2x)

And he finished it up, "I did not bring my specs with me." She sang that, and, well th' whole congregation sung it then.

And the preacher said, "I didn't give that out to sing. I only meant my eyes were dim!" An' they sung that.

He said, "I didn't mean to sing that at all. I think the devil's in you all." And they sang that!

(Other versions of this "lining-out" jest one from 1849, another from 1854, are printed in Pennsylvania Spirituals by Don Yoder, Pa. Folklife Society, 1961).

That tickled us. Not often, but when he'd take a notion dad would tell little things like that.

My eyes are dim, I cannot see
I did not bring my specs with me

I didn't give that out to sing.
I only meant my eyes were dim!

I didn't mean to sing that at all.
I think the devil's in you all.

Subject: RE: Origins: Burlesque Lining Out Songs
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 02 Jan 25 - 02:33 PM

Those are great examples! Please keep 'em coming.

I can recall those first 2 lines 'My eyes are dim....specs with me.' but can't think what else went with it, this side of the pond. Love the story that goes with it. My grandsons would relish that.

I have it down that the regular tune is the same for this and The Two Crows the hymn 'There is a power in the blood'. Does this have a more recognisable name?

Are there any other parodies that use this tune?

Richard, hopefully Jim will pop in here.

Subject: RE: Origins: Burlesque Lining Out Songs
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 02 Jan 25 - 02:39 PM

Isn't the Interweb wonderful for us old codgers (cept when we get scammed). Of course it's the Scouts' chorus to 'Quartermaster's Store'.
Now, where did that originate?

Subject: RE: Origins: Burlesque Lining Out Songs
From: cnd
Date: 02 Jan 25 - 04:15 PM

Yep, Quartermasters' Corps is where I also recognize the "my eyes are dim" line from. Oscar Brand and Erik Darling have a particularly rousing version.

The tune accompanying this song in Sing Out is not, to my ears, at least, recognizably Power In The Blood / Quartermaster's Corps/Store, I can send you an image of the dots or a MIDI file if you're interested -- just PM me.

Subject: RE: Origins: Burlesque Lining Out Songs
From: cnd
Date: 02 Jan 25 - 04:18 PM

(though I should note that it's not entirely dissimilar, either, just not obviously derivative)

Subject: RE: Origins: Burlesque Lining Out Songs
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 03 Jan 25 - 02:18 PM

Kilgarriff says Cox & Box published a version in 1940. I might even have a copy somewhere.

Subject: RE: Origins: Burlesque Lining Out Songs
From: GUEST,Mike Yates
Date: 04 Jan 25 - 07:03 AM

Not quite sure if this qualifies. It was sung by the Virginian singer Horton Barker.

I feel like Hell
I feel like Hell
I feel like helping some poor soul

To find a man
To find a man
To find a Mansion in the sky.

Subject: RE: Origins: Burlesque Lining Out Songs
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 04 Jan 25 - 02:51 PM

Hi Mike,
I think you might have intended this post to go to the teasing song thread 'I want a man' but if you have any examples of 'lining out' I'd be happy to know.

Subject: RE: Origins: Burlesque Lining Out Songs
From: and e
Date: 04 Jan 25 - 06:57 PM

HE WANTED TO BE SAFE.

Although it wasn't leap year, the old-maid soloist in the village
choir began her morning melody by screeching out very earnestly :

"I want a man ! I want a man !"

This was repeated, in whole or in part, after the modern style of
solos and anthems, until a traveling-man who happened to be in the
audience, thinking she was looking straight at him, decided it was
time to leave, so, with hat in hand, started for the door just as she
finished:

"I want a mansion in the sky !"

1916.   Wit and Humor for Public Speakers by WILL H. BROWN


See here: https://ia903206.us.archive.org/5/items/withumorforpubli00brow/withumorforpubli00brow.pdf


So used as a "lining out" song, yes?

Subject: RE: Origins: Burlesque Lining Out Songs
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 05 Jan 25 - 03:48 PM

I see why you might think that, and there are similarities, but this is more of the teasing songs genre. The purpose is different. Have a look at the ancient practice of 'lining out' on Wikipedia. The whole point of the burlesque fun is the imitative delivery and the irreverence.

Subject: RE: Origins: Burlesque Lining Out Songs
From: GeoffLawes
Date: 06 Jan 25 - 09:17 AM

Lined-out Hymnody: Kentucky Old Regular Baptists Sing "I Am A Poor Pilgrim Of Sorrow." 1993    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQmfHLpCQcU
Many other examples of Lined-out singing on YouTube    https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=lined-out+singing

Subject: RE: Origins: Burlesque Lining Out Songs
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 06 Jan 25 - 02:55 PM

Thanks, Geoff.
Any examples of the comic version on there?

Subject: RE: Origins: Burlesque Lining Out Songs
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 17 Jan 25 - 01:45 PM

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