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Origins: Red Light Saloon (Bawdy) |
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Subject: Origins: Red Light Saloon (Bawdy) From: and e Date: 15 Jan 25 - 11:04 AM Red Light Saloon Feb 5, 1958. Transcribed from a reel to reel tape in the Kenneth Goldstein collection. Listen online: https://egrove.olemiss.edu/kgreels_unk/54/ |
Subject: RE: Origins: Red Light Saloon (Bawdy) From: cnd Date: 15 Jan 25 - 11:41 AM I have two recordings of this song, both by Oscar Brand; one on Back-Room Ballads (CMS Records CMS-101) from 1949, and the other from American Drinking Songs (Riverside Records, RLP 12-630) from 1956. I have my scholarly qualms with Brand, but as a musician and finder of material, he's hard to rival. Both recordings are materially identical, except the last two verses. Unfortunately, Back-Room Ballads album has no liner notes whatsoever; American Drinking Songs reports the following: In Minneapolis, many years ago, a bar-side acquaintance sang me pieces of this favorite lumberjack song. I filled in the gaps later on and thought I was very daring. But, in England, Alan Lomax told me that I was singing a bowdlerized version of what he considered America’s rowdiest song. I would have gotten the real verses, but we ran out of Guinness and the party broke up early. Below is my transcription of the 1949 recording. RED LIGHT SALOON (Oscar Brand) It was early one morning I walked into town And in sweet recreation, I wandered around When I spied a hotel in the late afternoon That was sporting a sign, said The Red Light Saloon So I boldly walked in and stepped up to the bar And a pretty young maiden said "Have a cigar" Well I took that cigar with a "Thanks for the boon" But she said "That's our way in the Red Light Saloon" Then she mussed up my hair and sat down on my knee Saying "You are a lumberjack, that I can see" Saying "You are a logging man, that we all know For your muscles are hard from your head to your toe" She proceeded to try if my muscles was right And I smoked that cigar without striking a light And my head starting rising just like a balloon From the treatment I got at the Red Light Saloon It was early one morning, I bid her goodbye She waved from the window with a tear in her eye So I did not discover til next afternoon That my wallet was still in the Red Light Saloon Well I cursed that young maiden til the forest turned blue And with women and whiskey I swore I was through But I knew as I swore I'd give my fortune Just to be back again in the Red Light Saloon / / / / / / And finally, the two slightly different verses from the 1956 recording, sang in place of the 5th and 6th verses above. It was early one morning, I bid her goodbye She waved from the window with a tear in her eye So I did not discover til the middle of June I was carrying a keepsake of the Red Light Saloon Well I cursed that young lady til the Heaven turned blue And with whiskey and women I swore I was through But with all of my swearing, I'd give my fortune Just to be back in bed at the Red Light Saloon |
Subject: RE: Origins: Red Light Saloon (Bawdy) From: Lighter Date: 15 Jan 25 - 12:28 PM Roud 9424. Good find of a rarely reported song. To judge from other versions, everything after Brand's stanza 3 is probably his owncomposition - or his informant's! Newspaper ads and accounts mention a great many “Red Light Saloons” from Boston to San Bernardino between 1853 and 1900 (where I stopped looking). Brand recorded the song at least four times: on "Backroom Ballads" (Chesterfield CMS-101, 10”, 1949) ; on "American Drinking Songs" (Riverside RLP 12-630, 1956) ; on "Oscar Brand Sings for Adults" (ABC-Paramount: ABC 388, 1961), and “'Live' on Campus" (Apex Al-7, 1970), Yet it does not appear in his recorded BS&BB series, despite its inclusion as 6 stzs. w/melody & piano acc. in the songbook that accompanies the recordings; Brand's head note: “The lumberjacks who depleted our great forests worked twenty-five or more hours daily. One day a year they would visit the nearest settlement which usually consisted of one general store and one saloon, with rooms upstairs. I learned the song from an ex-logger in Minneapolis who claimed he had written it. (Another tall tale from the woods.)” Newspaper ads and accounts mention a great many “Red Light Saloons” from Boston to San Bernardino between 1853 and 1900 (where I stopped searching). FWIW: Detroit Free Press (Dec. 13, 1867), p. 1: “Jennie Jenks, proprietress of the ‘Red Light’ saloon on Jefferson avenue, Louisa Jones, Frank Brundage, and several others who were recently indicted by the Grand Jury for keeping houses of ill fame, were arraigned at the Recorder’s Court yesterday.” |
Subject: RE: Origins: Red Light Saloon (Bawdy) From: and e Date: 15 Jan 25 - 01:16 PM Red Light Saloon August 1941. Transcribed from the singing of Bill Neupert, Schofield, Wisconsin. Listen online: https://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/IHADDZ2CK76A68A |
Subject: RE: Origins: Red Light Saloon (Bawdy) From: Lighter Date: 15 Jan 25 - 01:48 PM Doerflinger, "Shantymen and Shantyboys" (1951), expurgated from the singing of Willis Norrad, Norrad's Bridge, near Boiestown, New Brunswick: "A trip down to Bangor, the Fourth of July, To make my connection with a train I did try. The train it being late, as you all will know soon, I was forced to take a trip to the Red Light Saloon. I boldly walked in and stepped up to the bar, When a saucy young damsel said. ‘Have a cigar!’ A cigar I did take, in a chair I sat down, When a saucy young damsel came tripping around. She boldly came over, sat down on my knee, Saying, ‘Jack, you’re a woodsman, that I plainly see.’ Saying, ‘Jack, you’re a woodsman, and that we all now, Your muscle is hard from your head to your toe!’. . ." |
Subject: RE: Origins: Red Light Saloon (Bawdy) From: and e Date: 15 Jan 25 - 07:40 PM The Red Light Saloon 1994. The Castration of the Strawberry Roan: Cowboy Songs for Impolite Company cassette by XXX Wrangerls. Text & tune derived from Guy Logsdon's 1989 book The Whorehouse Bells Were Ringing. |
Subject: RE: Origins: Red Light Saloon (Bawdy) From: and e Date: 15 Jan 25 - 08:55 PM Red-Light Saloon August 27, 1940. Transcribed from the singing of John Christian, Coloma, Wisconsin. Download here: https://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/NZRGIJ6I7CTHB8B |
Subject: RE: Origins: Red Light Saloon (Bawdy) From: and e Date: 15 Jan 25 - 10:19 PM Red Light Saloon July 22, 1941. Transcribed from the singing of Henry Humphries [Humphrey], Hancock Town of Colburn, Wisconsin, by Robert F. Draves. The fourth verse is missing. Download here: https://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/QLLKXUOFWWOVX8Q |
Subject: RE: Origins: Red Light Saloon (Bawdy) From: and e Date: 17 Jan 25 - 07:13 AM Red Light Saloon August 29, 2018. The Sweaty Already String Band. Track 7 of the live performance at "Spirit". City & state not listed. Download here: https://archive.org/details/SweatyAlreadyStringBand2018-08-29.BirdcloudSpiritPgh |
Subject: RE: Origins: Red Light Saloon (Bawdy) From: cnd Date: 17 Jan 25 - 08:02 AM This website (click) credits the song to "Trad/O[scar] Brand" and notes that Spirit was in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Spirit appears to be an event space/bar/restaurant) |
Subject: RE: Origins: Red Light Saloon (Bawdy) From: Lighter Date: 17 Jan 25 - 08:21 AM "Rallens" is doubtless Rawlins, Wyoming (as in Logsdon). Saturday Evening Post (Dec. 2, 1911) [ref. to Rocky Mountain West cowboys in 1888]: “ ‘It ain’t decent, that’s why.” ‘O-ho! It ain’t decent! Well now – I’ve heard you sing The Red Light Saloon a thousand ----’ ‘Never mind what I done.’” |
Subject: RE: Origins: Red Light Saloon (Bawdy) From: and e Date: 17 Jan 25 - 09:12 AM The song places the "Rallens" in Kansas... But perhaps this was done as a re-write to rhyme with pants-es. As far as I know, Brand never had a text like this. Perhaps more "folk" remixing and having to credit someone -- to cover one's butt. Better to pay royalty than be sued. |
Subject: RE: Origins: Red Light Saloon (Bawdy) From: Lighter Date: 17 Jan 25 - 10:26 AM Agreed. It would be interesting to know where they got this - and how much they may have "altered" it. |
Subject: RE: Origins: Red Light Saloon (Bawdy) From: GUEST,Jon Bartlett Date: 18 Jan 25 - 08:15 PM |
Subject: RE: Origins: Red Light Saloon (Bawdy) From: GUEST Date: 18 Jan 25 - 08:36 PM I was bound for Wautegan on the fourth of July To make connection fore the train I did try To be left to Wautegan was to be my sad doom So I took a wee walk to the Red Light Salon. I boldly stepped in, walked up to the bar A pretty young maiden said, "Have a cigar." The cigar I did take and I pulled up my chair That pretty young maiden came flirtin' round there. She pulled at my whiskers, she pulled at my hair: Reuben got made and he stood in the air. The chair I pushed back, my cigar I threw down, "Pretty o\young maiden, let's go out around." She led me the way up a long line of stair To a room that was pictured in curtains so rare. With the window wide open and the curtains pulled down, All naked in bed the maiden I found. We wriggled and friggled and wriggled some more, Wriggled and friggled till my strength it gave o'er She looked at my face with an innocent smile "Get off, you big bastard, you'll have me with child." She quickly arose to slip on her gown To wash up old Reuben she flew around With a basin of warm water to sponge out that cunt She went trippin' downstairs more stiff pricks to hunt. So come all you young fellows who ramble and roam To be left in Wautegan will be your sad doom But there's a fair maiden with cheeks in full bloom She fucks for ten bucks in the Red Light Saloon. from the singing of Luigi del Puppo, Nelson, BC, 18 August 1970, collected by Phil Thomas. Item 070, PJT Coll., Sound Archives, Royal BC Museum, Victoria, BC Jon Bartlett |
Subject: RE: Origins: Red Light Saloon (Bawdy) From: and e Date: 19 Jan 25 - 10:10 AM From the kitchen come clattering September 1926. "Fire in the Bush: When the Loggers' Donkey-Engine Screeches Through the Night" by Stewart H Holbroook. in The Century Magazine. Vol. 112, No. 5. p 575 See here: https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Century/wFUiAQAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22RED%20LIGHT%20SALOON%22%20song%20OR%20poem&pg=PA575&printsec=frontcover Earliest reference to the song that I can find. |
Subject: RE: Origins: Red Light Saloon (Bawdy) From: Lighter Date: 19 Jan 25 - 11:29 AM Thanks for posting that, Jon. It's the first version from Canada. Nor does the song appear in any military songbook I know of. An earlier reference: York [Pa.] Daily (Dec. 6, 1907): “It must be admitted that the difficulty lies in finding those [‘cow puncher songs’] ‘fit for publication.’ Many of them, like ‘The Red Light Saloon,’ are exceedingly frank in expressing the opinions and elemental desires of the animal man. The songs that won most applause of nights on the ‘round up’ wouldn’t look well in print. But…a few…are proper enough.” |
Subject: RE: Origins: Red Light Saloon (Bawdy) From: and e Date: 19 Jan 25 - 11:31 AM Ballew threw back his head and began to yowl a song. December 11, 1911. The Saturday Evening Post. p.6 See here: https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Saturday_Evening_Post/-1joP1rm4i8C?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=song+OR+sing+%22red+light+saloon%22&pg=RA8-PA6&printsec=frontcover |
Subject: RE: Origins: Red Light Saloon (Bawdy) From: Lighter Date: 19 Jan 25 - 12:14 PM The "message" of the field-collected versions is almost the exact opposite of Brand's. |
Subject: RE: Origins: Red Light Saloon (Bawdy) From: and e Date: 19 Jan 25 - 12:24 PM The Red Light Saloon 1975. Jerry Silverman's Folk Song Encyclopedia, Vol. 2. Of course, derived from Oscar Brand. See here: https://archive.org/details/folksongencyclop0002jerr_p7w5/page/173/mode/1up?q=saloon |
Subject: RE: Origins: Red Light Saloon (Bawdy) From: and e Date: 19 Jan 25 - 03:13 PM The Red Light Saloon August-November, 1938. Alan Lomax Collection, Manuscripts, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Illinois. I improved the transcription that the Library of Congress provided. Still uncertain in places. So corrections are welcome. See here: https://www.loc.gov/resource/afc2004004.ms070205/?sp=9&st=text Other bawdy items locating in the notebook. See here: https://www.loc.gov/resource/afc2004004.ms070205/?st=gallery |
Subject: RE: Origins: Red Light Saloon (Bawdy) From: Lighter Date: 19 Jan 25 - 04:12 PM Harry Peters, Folk Songs Out of Wisconsin (1977), prints a text "sung for Helene Stratman-Thomas by Henry Humphries, age seventy-six, Hancock, Wisconsin; by John Christian, Coloma, Wisconsin, and by Bill Neupert, age fifty-three, Schofield, Wisconsin, in 1940-41," Yet only the first five, almost innocuous, stanzas are collated from these performances. The final two are taken straight from Oscar Brand. James F. Leisy's Folk Song Abecedary (1996) prints a six-stanza version "pieced together with the help of Jim McDaniel, an outdoorsman from Minnesota." It's much like Brand's, and the two concluding stanzas are identical to it. |
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