Meaning/Last verse, Do Re Mi

Subject: Rest of If You Ain't Got the Do Re Me
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 08 Jun 00 - 01:04 PM

The DT has part of If You Ain't Got the Do Re Me, by Woodie Guthrie, but there's another verse which I've heard a recording of Guthrie singing that's not there.

It has to do with a California Governor getting on the radio and saying "If you ain't got" etc.

Anybody? This really ought to be added to the DT, but my immediate request is for my own singing.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Rest of If You Ain't Got the Do Re M
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 08 Jun 00 - 07:28 PM

Got any more words,doesterr? To stimulate the memory cells. It sounds sort of familiar, but it isn't on any recording I've got.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Rest of If You Ain't Got the Do Re M
From: Fiddlin' Big Al
Date: 08 Jun 00 - 07:31 PM

Try loc.gov Library of Congress site. I know I heard that missing verse on Lomax's recordings of Woody Guthrie - the multi disk album put out by the Woody Githrie Children's Fund - goes somethin like

"The governor on the radio did say We took in another 100,000 today But if you ain't got the do re mi etc.

good luck. If I get time I'll cue up the album and get the rest for you.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Rest of If You Ain't Got the Do Re M
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 08 Jun 00 - 08:10 PM

That sounds like a useful verse to have.

It's a very topical song to sing right now in England and a lot of other places too, with all the vicious stuff about "bogus asylum seekers", and "economic refugees". (Here's a link to a thread relateing to that kind of thing)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Rest of If You Ain't Got the Do Re M
From: simon-pierre
Date: 08 Jun 00 - 08:46 PM

On the Library of Congress recordings, Rounder 1041-42-43, Woody sings, instead of those lines from the DT

Cause I look through the want ads every day
And the headlines in the papers always say

those words:

Cause the Governor (Marion?) on the radio one day
He jumped up to the microphone, he did say:

If someone has the record, it would be nice to check my transcription, especially for the name of the governor.

SP

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Rest of If You Ain't Got the Do Re M
From: Amergin
Date: 09 Jun 00 - 01:37 AM

I always thought it was Governor Miriam. But I could be wrong.

Amergin

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Rest of If You Ain't Got the Do Re M
From: Mrrzy
Date: 09 Jun 00 - 02:01 AM

Cool. The only diff between the DT and my Cisco Houston version (from his Woody Guthrie album) is that Cisco throws Oklahoma into the chorus line.
Now that sounds interesting if difficult.
Anyway, Simon-Pierre, quel joie de te revoir, ça fait longtemps!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Rest of If You Ain't Got the Do Re M
From: Mrrzy
Date: 09 Jun 00 - 02:09 AM

And I had a thought (quelle idée!) - Maybe the guy lost re-election and the song was rewritten. In a related story, when I first learned Charlie on the MTA as a wee lassie way back, uh, well anyway, the final verse went Fight the fare increase! Vote for George O'Brien, get poor Charlie off the MTA! Years later I actually went to MTA country, where it was the MBTA by then, and they were singing it just Fight the fare increase (bis), and there was an O'Brien highway which I assumed was named for George...

Out of favor, out of song, I guess... is it possible that Charlie/MTA was written originally as a political shaggy-dog story?

Subject: Last verse, Do Re Mi
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 29 Aug 00 - 08:10 PM

I'm fond of (If you ain't got the) Do Re Mi by Woodie Guthrie, but the DT only has the first two verses. There's another verse, which I've heard Woodie sing on some record, in which Governor Meriom (sp?) gets on the radio microphone and says-----"If you ain't got" et cetera. Does anyone have this verse?

Of course I'd like it, and it ought to be added to the version in the DT. Anybody?

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Last verse, Do Re Mi
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 29 Aug 00 - 09:40 PM

I think I've heard what you're referring to, but as I recall, it's not a whole different verse, but just a variant ending to the first verse. Instead of the lines,

"The police at the port of entry say, You're number fourteen thousand for today"

He has Governor Merriam saying something--darned if I can remember what it is, though. I'll check my CD's, books, whatever I can find and see what I can come up with.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Last verse, Do Re Mi
From: Joe Offer
Date: 30 Aug 00 - 01:56 AM

I found this in Hard-Hitting Songs for Hard-Hit People. It's just a little two-line tag that leads into the chorus again:

'Cause the governor on the radio today
Jumped up to the microphone and he did say:
CHORUS

The song was copyrighted in 1961 and 1963 by Ludlow Music. It was written a lot earlier than that, but I don't know when. Alan Lomax makde Woody's Library of Congress recording of the song was in 1940.
I couldn't find any background information on this song. One book said it "was one of Woody's finest Dust Bowl ballads." That's all they said.

The Library of Congress recording has this alternative second verse:

You want to buy a house or a farm, that can't do nobody harm
Or take your vacation by the mountains or sea
Don't swap your old cow for a car, you'd better stay right where you are
Better take this little tip from me:
'Cause Governor Merriam on the radio one day,
He jumped up to the microphone and he did say:
[chorus]

I found an interesting piece of information at a site that gives the history of the Governors of California (click). Frank Merriam was Governor of California 1934-1939, While in office, he "'resembled [Californian] President Herbert Hoover in his conservatism over what must be done to fight the Depression.' As acting governor in 1934, he sent the National Guard to San Francisco during the July waterfront crisis even though Mayor Rossi did not request them."

-Joe Offer-

Subject: Lyr Add: DO RE MI (Woody Guthrie)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 30 Aug 00 - 02:01 AM

I think I'll submit this to the Digital Tradition as a correction, since the lyrics in the database seem to be missing a few words (most notably, Oklahoma). Any other corrections or additions? Tune?
-Joe Offer-

---

DO RE MI
(Woody Guthrie)

Lots of folks back East they say, is leaving home every day
And beating the hot old dusty way to the California line
'Cross the desert sands they roll, getting out of the old dust bowl
They think they're going to a sugar bowl, but here's what they find
The police at the port of entry say,
"you're number fifteen thousand for today"

[CHORUS]
Oh, if you ain't got the do re mi, friend, you ain't got the do re mi
You better get back to beautiful Texas,
Oklahoma, Kansas, Georgia, Tennessee
California is a garden of Eden, a paradise to live in or see
But believe it or not, you won't find it so hot
If you ain't got the do re mi

You want to buy a house or a farm, that can't do nobody harm
Or take your vacation by the mountains or sea
Don't swap your old cow for a car, you better stay right where you are
You'd better take this little tip from me:
'Cause I look through the want ads every day
But the headlines in the paper always say:
[CHORUS]


(alternate ending for the second verse)
Cause Governor Merriam on the radio one day,
He jumped up to the microphone and he did say:
[CHORUS]

filename[ DOREMI

Subject: Lyr Add: DO RE MI (Woody Guthrie)
From: Joan from Wigan
Date: 30 Aug 00 - 02:53 AM

The version in the DT doesn't list the source. For what it's worth, my copy of Ludlow Music, Inc's "Woody Guthrie Folk Songs" has the following words:

DO RE MI
(Woody Guthrie)

Well, thousands of folks back east, they say, are leaving home most ev'ry day
And they're beating the hot old dusty way to the California line
Cross the desert sands they roll a-getting out of that old dust bowl
And they think they're going to a sugar bowl
Here's what they find
The police at the port of entrance say
"You're number fourteen thousand for today."

Chorus:
If you ain't got the Do Re Mi, boys
If you ain't got the Do Re Mi
Well, you better go back to beautiful Texas
Oklahoma, Georgia, Kansas, Tennessee
California is a garden of Eden
It's a paradise to live in or see
But believe it or not
You won't find it so hot if you ain't got the Do Re Mi

Well, if you want to buy you a home or farm
That can't do nobody harm
Or take your vacations by the mountains or the sea
Don't swap your old cow for a car
You'd better stay right where you are
Well you'd better take this little tip from me
'Cause I look through the want ads every day
And the headlines on the papers always say, oh . . .

Joan

Subject: Guthries Do Re Mi
From: Will Bakker
Date: 21 Apr 01 - 08:19 AM

I understand what the song is about, but what does the phrase "if you ain't got the Do Re Mi" mean? And apart from this what does the prefix "BS" mean? I'm Dutch you know!

Subject: RE: Guthries Do Re Mi
From: Mad Maudlin
Date: 21 Apr 01 - 08:48 AM

BS means "Bullshit", I suppose (for fun threads). And Do Re Mi is an allusion to the slang word "dough" (pronounced "do") for money (normally, dough is the stuff bake into cakes).

Hope this helps.

Mad Maudlin

Subject: RE: Guthries Do Re Mi
From: Mad Maudlin
Date: 21 Apr 01 - 08:56 AM

Oh boy, I nearly forgot: Welcome to Mudcat, Will!

Subject: RE: Guthries Do Re Mi
From: Will Bakker
Date: 21 Apr 01 - 09:09 AM

Thank you MM, again a bit wiser!

Subject: RE: Guthries Do Re Mi
From: GUEST,Dita (at work)
Date: 21 Apr 01 - 11:24 AM

Welcome Will, PM is Personal Messages, a sort of Mudcat members e-mail. You'll find details in the link on Susan's post. By the way, you can only access them if a member, ie I am a member, but I am not on my own computer so I appear as Guest which is why I add (at work). Hope this helps.
love john.

Subject: RE: Guthries Do Re Mi
From: Chicken Charlie
Date: 21 Apr 01 - 02:57 PM

Will Bakker-- How are things in the Netherlands??

As a Californian, I might add a small bit of further background on the Guthrie song. During the Great Depression, so many people wanted to get into California that that police set up roadblocks. They would only let non-residents in if they had letters promising them jobs and/or a minimum amount of cash. Failing that, they were turned back under threat of being arrested as vagrants. Maybe Woodie was also hinting as the possibility of bribery.

Anyway, welcome. I'm glad you're asking all these questions so the rest of us don't have to admit we don't know the answers either. :)

Chicken Charlie

Subject: ADD: El Do Re Mi ^^
From: Suffet
Date: 21 Apr 01 - 03:12 PM

You might also enjoy this updated version of the song.


EL DO RE MI

Original words & music: Woody Guthrie © Ludlow Music 1961
New words: Stephen L. Suffet © 2000, 2001
Dedicated to Carol of Cupertino (She knows who she is.)

Just like back in Woody's day,
Folks are leaving home today,
Heading straight al Norte,
To the California line.
Across the desert sands they roll,
Across the plains of Mexico,
They think they're going to a sugar bowl,
But here is what they find:
La Migra at the border always say,
You're number fourteen thousand for today.
Si no tiene el do re mi, boys,
Si no tiene el do re mi,
You better go back to beautiful Chiapas,
Or somewhere down in Paraguayee.
California is a Garden of Eden,
It's a Paradise to live in or to see,
But believe it or not,
You won't find it so hot,
Si no tiene el do re mi.

Now if you own a house and land,
Come take your kids to Disneyland,
Welcome to California,
Come see a Dodger game.
But if you're running low on luck,
And you come to earn a buck,
You're gonna find your welcome,
It isn't quite the same.
'Cause I look through the want ads every day,
And the headlines on the papers always say,
Si no tiene el do re mi, boys,
Si no tiene el do re mi,
You better go back to beautiful Chiapas,
Or somewhere down in Paraguayee.
California is a Garden of Eden,
A Paradise to live in or to see,
But believe it or not,
You you won't find it so hot,
Si no tiene el do re mi.
^^

Subject: RE: Guthries Do Re Mi
From: Giac
Date: 21 Apr 01 - 04:56 PM

Wonderful, Suffet! Thanks for posting it.

Subject: RE: Guthries Do Re Mi
From: Joe Offer
Date: 21 Apr 01 - 05:37 PM

Thanks for the great song, Steve. I'll submit it to the Digital Tradition, if you don't mind. If you click on the name of Will Bakker, you'll see he's been here longer than some of the people who are welcoming him...
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Guthries Do Re Mi
From: GUEST,Dita (at work)
Date: 21 Apr 01 - 06:22 PM

Well - there you go, Joe. First time I try to welcome someone, and I screw it up.
:o( love, a chastised john.

Subject: RE: Guthries Do Re Mi
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 21 Apr 01 - 08:39 PM

I just did what Joe suggested - Will Bakker's first post was 24th January 1999. Way back in the last century. Ancient times for a Mudcattter.

But the question Will asked set me thinking - which came first as a word for money, "dough" or "bread"? And when? (And if the answer is "dough", does that come from anything else, like the "d" which was the abbreviation for the old penny in England, which I believe stood for denarius?)

Subject: RE: Guthries Do Re Mi
From: Mrrzy
Date: 21 Apr 01 - 09:43 PM

(Thread creep alert) growing up bilingual in English and French, I always thought the lyric ran "it's a paradise to live in aussi" [also]...!

Subject: RE: Guthries Do Re Mi
From: bflat
Date: 21 Apr 01 - 09:58 PM

Wow Steve! That is a great rework of an anthem. Makes me pause to think of the plight of ordinary people from the US southern boarder; without boarders our humanity is our common denominator. Wonderful song.

Ellen USA

Subject: RE: Guthries Do Re Mi
From: catspaw49
Date: 21 Apr 01 - 10:15 PM

Like Chicken Charlie, I've always felt that the line had a multiple significance. You needed "dough" as in money but you also just needed to be all the things that the Okies were not. I think it kind of implied that unless you were "somebody" you were not welcome or acceptable. Even an Okie with "dough" wasn't too welcome for long.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Guthries Do Re Mi
From: Suffet
Date: 21 Apr 01 - 10:47 PM

Joe: Go ahead and add El Do Re Mi to the DT. I have no objection.

Giac & Ellen USA: Thanks for the feedback. I thrive on positive reinforcement.

--- Steve

Subject: RE: Guthries Do Re Mi
From: Mad Maudlin
Date: 22 Apr 01 - 01:29 AM

Dita: So we're two -- I also screwed it up...now where did I put those ashes...;-)

Suffet, your Do Re Mi is really great!!!

Subject: RE: Guthries Do Re Mi
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 22 Apr 01 - 11:15 AM

As to precedence of "bread" or "dough" I can only tell you that I don't believe I ever heard "bread" used for money before the 50s, whereas "dough" I remember in the 30s.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Guthries Do Re Mi
From: Will Bakker
Date: 23 Apr 01 - 10:28 AM

Thank you for all the kind words to a veteran. Now I remember Lonnie Donegan singing "I'd give a lot of dough, if only I should know the answer to my question is it yes or is it no" (Does your chewing gum lose its flavour on the bedpost overnight).Dough seems to come from the old English word dogh.

Subject: RE: Guthries Do Re Mi
From: Suffet
Date: 23 Apr 01 - 08:41 PM

Mad Maudlin,

Thanks for the kind words.

--- Steve

Subject: RE: Guthries Do Re Mi
From: Suffet
Date: 23 Apr 01 - 08:43 PM

Mad Maudlin,

Thanks for the kind words.

--- Steve

Subject: RE: Guthries Do Re Mi
From: GUEST,Seth in China
Date: 24 Apr 01 - 10:32 AM

Here is a true "Do Re Mi" story. Many years ago, my family decided to move from California to Washington. Not being exactly sure of what and where we would would live when we got to Port Townsend, we decided to buy a truck in Oakland, drive it and our stuff to the rainy north and sell the truck when we had a place-that way we would have free storage until we found a place to rent or buy. So far, no problem. We got as far north as Cordelia, California, where the clutch blew out on the truck. While we were sitting beside the freeway, wonderin' what we were going to do next, we look up and -son of a gun- we are looking at this huge INternational Truck garage. Figuring that we had nothing to lose, we jumped the freeway fence, went over to the garage to see if we could get someone to fix the clutch so we could keep going. It's Friday, about 4:00 p.m. Everyone wants to finish up and go home, nobody wants to deal with us, so Fred and I go back to the truck get our banjo and mandolin, come back to the place where the guys are working. Fred says to the boss " Do you think these guys would mind if we play them some music while they work?" The boss kind of looks at us funny" Sure why not?" So we start playing all the Okie songs we know,"Peach Pickin' Time in Georgia", "California Blues", "Do Re Mi" and these guys start rollin' out on their creepers and LOOKING at us and after a while smilin' a little bit. The upshot of the story is that we got the boss himself to come in on Friday night and work on the truck, we got a place to stay for three nights at his house while they waited for a part to come, no, he didn't fix the truck for free, but it wasn't too bad, he showed us all around his little pear ranch\orchard fed us, and wished us well. When we got to the other end of the line, we sold the truck for more than we paid for it, making the move not only free, but I got a good story to tell to boot. So, you never know what might happen if you sing "Do Re Mi" in California!

Subject: RE: Guthries Do Re Mi
From: CRANKY YANKEE
Date: 24 Apr 01 - 08:40 PM

Once upon a time, there were two people engaged in conversation about money, it went something like this:

1st person, I NEED MONEY

2nd person, (making a pun) YOU DON'T NEED MONEY, YOU KNEAD DOUGH.

later on , during the "hippie" era, the same conversation resulted in , "YOU DON'T NEED MONEY YOU KNEAD BREAD".

Will Baker:

Do you know the difference between , "Need" and "Knead"? They are pronounced the same, but have entirely different meanings. Look them up in a dictionary and you'll see where "Dough", for money came from. It was taken even further when Do-Re-Mi was substituted for "Dough" Also look up "Pun" because that is what this whole thing is about., So, to answer your question, "Do-Re-Mi" means money.

Jody Gibson

Subject: RE: Guthries Do Re Mi
From: GUEST,Pete Peterson
Date: 25 Apr 01 - 10:59 AM

this whole thread has gone by and nobody has ever mentioned the tune Woody stole for the song--it's Hang out the front door key (Just leave a light in the hall tonight and hang out the front door key)
loved the update!

Subject: RE: Do Re Mi (Woody Guthrie)
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 23 Dec 06 - 05:30 PM

"And the spammers we have always with us!"

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Do Re Mi (Woody Guthrie)
From: JeremyC
Date: 10 Jan 07 - 08:23 AM

Thanks to the spammer bumping up this thread, I got to read an awesome story from Seth in China (and I have driven by Cordelia countless times on my way from Sacramento to Napa or San Francisco, back when I lived in California), plus find out the source of the tune Woody used for one of my favorites of his. Way to go, you spamming scumbag!

Subject: RE: Do Re Mi (Woody Guthrie)
From: DriveForever
Date: 10 Jan 07 - 08:00 PM

Nanci Griffith has a nice duet rendidtion of 'Do-re-mi' with Guy Clark on her 'Other Voices Other Rooms' CD.

Subject: RE: Do Re Mi (Woody Guthrie)
From: Suffet
Date: 11 Jan 07 - 12:18 AM

Greetings:

Just a little note. The updated version which I posted here in 2001 subsequently appeared in The Folk Process section of Sing Out!

--- Steve

Subject: RE: Do Re Mi (Woody Guthrie)
From: GUEST,Pete Peterson
Date: 11 Jan 07 - 04:09 PM

and it sings even better than when I first saw it! THANKS

Subject: RE: Do Re Mi (Woody Guthrie)
From: Mr Happy
Date: 12 Feb 07 - 07:09 AM

.........strangely, even though its called 'doh, ray, me' ; the chorus line actually has the notes 'me ray doh'!!

Subject: RE: Do Re Mi (Woody Guthrie)
From: GUEST,Frank Hamilton
Date: 12 Feb 07 - 01:10 PM

Steve, great! We want to sing it and of course we will credit you with the contribution you make to the "folk process". Very thoughtful adaptation and now....how 'bout updating
"Deportees"?

Frank Hamilton

Subject: RE: Do Re Mi (Woody Guthrie)
From: Joe_F
Date: 12 Feb 07 - 08:32 PM

The *first* occurrence of "do re mi" in the song is actually set to those notes in solfa. Thereafter, however, it is set to sol mi re & do re do.

Subject: RE: Do Re Mi (Woody Guthrie)
From: Ron Davies
Date: 13 Feb 07 - 06:51 PM

I believe I've heard that the line "you'd better go back to beautiful Texas" refers to the song "Beautiful, Beautiful Texas", which had come out a few years earlier. ( "Texas" written by Pappy O'Daniel, a Texas politician -- (actually a carpetbagger from Kansas) --who had the distinction, among other things, of trying to bankrupt Bob Wills, in about 1935, by suing him for far more than he was worth.)

Has anybody else heard the connection of "Texas" with "Do Re Mi"?

Seems to make sense.

Subject: RE: Meaning/Last verse, Do Re Mi
From: GUEST
Date: 08 Jan 12 - 12:27 PM

If you check out Woody's Library of Congress recordings you can hear him do the Governor Merriam line.

Of course, any Woody fan knows he got the melody from somewhere, but never knew it was "Hang out the front door key." Thanks for that info. Now, I just need to hear that tune sometime.

Subject: RE: Meaning/Last verse, Do Re Mi
From: GUEST,999
Date: 08 Jan 12 - 01:43 PM

Check Youtube. It's there.

Subject: RE: Meaning/Last verse, Do Re Mi
From: Stringsinger
Date: 08 Jan 12 - 01:54 PM

"Do re me" (that's the way Woody spelled it was slang for moolah during the Thirties.

Having grown up in L.A. I appreciate Steve's rewrite on "Do Re Me" though it could be applied to many who weren't Latino as well. In East L.A., where I grew up, there were entrenched Chicano who did fairly well as recognized citizens but still the LAPD and the mayors like Sam Yorty did everything they could to make it difficult if you weren't an "anglo".