Lyr Req: While the organ peeled potatoes...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: While the organ peeled potatoes...
From: GUEST,Arne Langsetmo
Date: 17 Jul 02 - 04:39 PM

John McCutcheon has a version very similar to the last one there (but including the "lard" and "preacher" verses) on his album entitled ... "Barefoot Boy With Boots On". . . .

Cheers,

-- Arne Langsetmo

Subject: Lyr Add: THE BAREFOOT BOY WITH SHOES ON
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 17 Jul 02 - 03:57 PM

Copied from http://www.locksley.com/sass/songs/037.htm

THE BAREFOOT BOY WITH SHOES ON
(Asa Martin)

Oh, the night was dark and cloudy. The moon was shining bright.
The stars were casting burning rays on the storm that raged that night.
Lightning struck the cowshed and the cows all chewed their cud.
Moonlight set the prairie on fire in the middle of the woods.

Oh, the barefoot boy with shoes on come a-shuffling down the street.
His pants were full of pockets and his boots were full of feet.
He was born when he was a baby, his grandma's pride and joy.
His only sister was a girl and his brother was a boy.

He never was a triplet but he always was a twin.
His legs were fastened to his knees just below his chin,
And his feet were fastened to his ankles several inches from his shoulder,
And when he grew up, he became a man and every day got older.

He married him a woman who quickly became his wife,
For you see he could not marry her and maintain a single life.
Her head was full of notions and her mouth was full of tongue.
They raised a dozen children, all born when they was young.

Six boys, five girls and then another child--
They never tried to raise them right, just let them grow up wild,
And late in the evening they'd send them off to bed,
Not sure if they was living and they wished they all was dead.

The youngest was a baby but the oldest was one first.
The good one was the bad one, but the bad one was the worst.
They never knew their ages; no, they never seemed to care,
'Cause they knew they had a birthday and it came 'round once a year.

They never knew their father's age, but they always had a hunch
That he was born before their time, was the oldest of the bunch,
And when they died, they could not speak; their names they could not tell.
The girls all went to heaven and the boys all went out west.

Variants:
[Here I have copied only the verses that are different from the ones already posted or in DigiTrad. -JD]

"My husband's dead," the lady said. Her eyes were dry with tears.
She put her head between her feet and stood that way for years.

As the wind was blowing bubbles, lightning shot from left to right.
Everything that you could see had been hidden out of sight.

As I gazed through the oaken door, a whale went drifting by,
Its six legs hanging in the air, so I kissed her goodbye.

This story has a moral, as you can plainly see:
Don't mix your gin with whiskey on the deep and dark blue sea.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: While the organ peeled potatoes...
From: GUEST,Fred
Date: 19 Jan 01 - 10:39 PM

I don't remember whether it was my mother or father who recited the One bright morning, etc. I had forgotten all about it till now. Mother also used to say, "I see, said the blind man as he waved his wooden leg in a deep bass voice." She left us all 3 1/2 years ago and my Dad is still kicking at 85 last weekend. Both of them, and his mother also, loved these old nonsense verses. Maybe we should start a thread on the Little Willie jokes.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: While the organ peeled potatoes...
From: Snuffy
Date: 19 Jan 01 - 10:13 PM

(Silver Threads tune)

"Tell me, Mr tram conductor,"
Said a lady old and frail,
"Will I be electrocuted
If I step upon the rail?"
"Oh no, madam, I assure you,"
The cheeky tram conductor said,
"Unless of course you put the other
On that cable overhead."

Wassail! V

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: While the organ peeled potatoes...
From: Dr. Sunshine
Date: 19 Jan 01 - 09:54 PM

Same tune as Boarding House

The train was standing in the station when a young man full of care,
Rushing up to get aboard it, tripped, fell headlong down the stair.
An old lady rushed up to him saying, "Did you miss a step, my son?"
He turned to her and said, "No, lady, I hit every bloody one."

Now, girls can never change their nature. That is quite beyond their reach.
If a girl is born a lemon, she can never be a peach.
But the law of compensation is the one I always preach:
You can always squeeze a lemon. Did ya ever try to squeeze a peach?

Dave

HTML line breaks added. --JoeClone, 17-Jul-02.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: While the organ peeled potatoes...
From: Bill D
Date: 19 Jan 01 - 08:37 PM

'spaw...my uncle was a fireman, and my dad was a Western Union lineman who rode those funny little motorized units which had to get OUT of the WAY of trains...my dad was a foreman on the gang which ran the telegraph line on the D&RG-W to the Moffat tunnel ("Dotsero cutoff") in Colorado...

One of his favorite tales was of the dustbowl, when there was a grasshopper plague so bad the motor-cars couldn't get traction to run!...

(He also related the scare of losing track of the train schedule and being alone when a train was coming...and wasn't near a siding! It usually took at least 2 men to shift the car (extendable handles)..and they preferred 4...but this time he heaved it into a ditch by himself! Took a winch to get it back on, and later he couldn't move it to explain what he did...adreneline is wonderful stuff!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: While the organ peeled potatoes...
From: catspaw49
Date: 19 Jan 01 - 06:41 PM

Yep....that'd be my Dad too. He'd lock in on a lot of things and never let go to the point you wanted to kill him. (Yeah, I know....) Also a big practical joke type, but they'd often be long term jokes. I mentioned it before, but he was a railroad engineman (proper term for engineer) and he and his fireman passed out pocket calendars one year to all the crews they ran into for about a week, both in Pittsburgh and Columbus. A pocket calendar was essential for doing your timetables and pay sheets......Of course these calendars were several years old and an awful lot of guys screwed their pay up and wanted to kill Dad and John. Of course they lied and said they had not been paid either..................

Spaw

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: While the organ peeled potatoes...
From: Bill D
Date: 19 Jan 01 - 06:22 PM

yep...mine would have been 93 last year....lost him in '76. He had that obtuse sense of humor, and never SANG anything that I remember...just sayings & recitations.

He told us once about himself and friends disassembling a farmer's buggy one Halloween, and re-assembling it on top of the man's shed roof....then coming by next day to watch the old fellow stare...and getting hired to get it DOWN again!...said he always suspected the farmer knew who did it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: While the organ peeled potatoes...
From: catspaw49
Date: 19 Jan 01 - 05:42 PM

So you had one of those too huh Bill? Some of those are pretty familiar and went along with:

Do you think the rain will hurt the rhubarb? Not if its in cans.

Its colder in the country than it is in the winter.

Now I use all that stuff myself of course and my kids stare at me like I stared at him. He'd have been 82 today.....gone almost 30 years now. Wish he was around to see what his son finally learned.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: While the organ peeled potatoes...
From: Bill D
Date: 19 Jan 01 - 05:31 PM

But, I'm cute...she says so....

(my Dad had a lot of 'lines' that would pop out on occasion...the Organ-potoato poem being one...he also said "sick a-bed on two chairs",

"where you bean, Lima",

"Can I hold your palm, Olive".."Not on your life, boy"

and "Is May here?".."May who".."Mayonaisse".." No, Mayonaisse is dressing"

also, "Ya'll come back when ya' can't stay so long"...and "Here's your hat...what's your hurry"

and more......(I am rationed as to how many "my daddy used to say" I can use per year...and how often for each one)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: While the organ peeled potatoes...
From: catspaw49
Date: 19 Jan 01 - 02:07 PM

Actually Rita, it seems that you collect a lot of nonsense too.......I mean after all, you collected Bill.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: While the organ peeled potatoes...
From: GUEST,Ferrara
Date: 19 Jan 01 - 01:57 PM

These are great. My father used to collect that sort of nonsense. For that matter, so did Bill's father.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: While the organ peeled potatoes...
From: GUEST,Roger the skiffler
Date: 19 Jan 01 - 09:43 AM

Steve,The other Leslie wasn't Leslie Henson (?father of Nicky, husband of Gladys, uncle of Basil- I may have got the relationships mixed up but all the same thespian clan) was it?
My grandfather used to do the "A for th'oss" alphabet as well!
Robb Wilton (LOVE his work) used to do a lot of those "I said who" monologues with piano background.
RtS (dim-bulb still flickers in to life at times)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: While the organ peeled potatoes...
From: GUEST,Allan S.
Date: 19 Jan 01 - 09:14 AM

THese are wonderfull Haven't heard them in years. Does anyone know the rest of the following

"Curses on you little man, with your saddle shoes of tan
With your upturned pantaloons and your boogie woogie tunes"

I remember hearing it in the late 40's. The words saddle shoes and boogie woogie would put it the late 30's early 40's.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: While the organ peeled potatoes...
From: GUEST,Fibula Mattock
Date: 19 Jan 01 - 08:51 AM

"I see",said the blind man, "I see the wall"
"No you don't," said the dummy, "you can't see at all".

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: While the organ peeled potatoes...
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Jan 01 - 08:41 AM

And yet another bit of poetry (St. Louis, Mo, 1970's was when I heard it first.)

One bright day, in the middle of the night
Two dead boys got up to fight
Back to back they faced each other,
Drew their swords and shot each other.
A deaf policeman heard the noise,
And came and shot the two dead boys.
If you don't believe this tale is true,
Ask the blind man: he saw it too.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: While the organ peeled potatoes...
From: GUEST,D_hand
Date: 19 Jan 01 - 06:26 AM

Steve - the version I heard was:

A man said to me "can you swim?" I said "swim?" He said "yes" I said "who?" He said "you!" I said "me?" He said "yes!" I said "no"; he said "oh" and he pushed me in !

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: While the organ peeled potatoes...
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 19 Jan 01 - 03:46 AM

My Mom used to (and still does) recite:

It was springtime in the Rockies,
and the snow was raining fast,
When a barefoot man with clogs on
Came slowly whizzing past.
He turned a straight crooked corner,
And saw a dead donkey die;
He pulled out his pistol to stab it,
And the donkey spat in his eye!

It may have come from the two Leslies (Lesie Sarony and ?? --Help, Roger!) in the thirties, who also did a nonsense alphabet: "A is for 'orses, b for mutton, c for yourself, ..." (say it out loud!)

She'd usually follow it up with something I think must have come from Robb Wilton:

A man said to me "can you dance?"
I said "dance?"
He said "yes"
I said "who?"
He said "you!"
I said "me?"
He said "yes!"
I said "no";
he said "oh".

Say it rapidly for the best effect. I'd love to know the rest of it, if anyone knows it.

Steve

P.S. Yes, "the day war broke out" -- that Robb Wilton!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: While the organ peeled potatoes...
From: Lin in Kansas
Date: 19 Jan 01 - 02:09 AM

(Another bootleg from John in Kansas - on LiK's connection). The lyric from Stewart is very close to what someone wrote in my mother's high school autograph book - Haven KS class of 1934, so it has apparently been around for a while. The similarity to other inscriptions there suggest that it may have been commonly recited or sung. Some of the other similar ones appeared on old Edison (cylinder) recordings that my grandpa still had when I was a gradeschool kid. The recordings appeared to come mostly from about the T Roosevelt era.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: While the organ peeled potatoes...
From: GUEST,Fred
Date: 18 Jan 01 - 11:44 PM

The persistence of that verse makes me wonder about it's history. It seems also to have fewer variations than one might expect. I wounder if it was published somewhere early on.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: While the organ peeled potatoes...
From: Barbara
Date: 18 Jan 01 - 01:56 AM

My mother always sang the line this way:
"Lost his head, and then his hair
Now his head resembles.... etc."
this is still one of her favorites, along with the parody of "After the Ball"
Blessings,
Barbara

Subject: Lyr Add: BAREFOOT BOY WITH BOOTS ON
From: Hotspur
Date: 17 Jan 01 - 10:33 PM

I learned this as the BAREFOOT BOY WITH BOOTS ON--one of my grandfather's favorite songs.

The night was dark and cloudy. The moon was shining bright.
The sun was snowing madly as it rained all day that night.
Lightning struck the cowshed and the cows all chewed their cud.
The moonlight set the prairie on fire in the middle of the woods.

The barefoot boy with boots on came shuffling down the street.
His pants were full of pockets and his shoes were full of feet.
He was born when he was a baby, his grandma's pride and joy.
His only brother was a girl and his sister was a boy.

I know there's more but that's all I can remember right now.

HTML line breaks added. --JoeClone, 17-Jul-02.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: While the organ peeled potatoes...
From: catspaw49
Date: 17 Jan 01 - 09:16 AM

Its interesting that the one particular verse pops up in all of the ones mentioned so far. The other parts are very different, but that verse really seems to stick!

Spaw

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: While the organ peeled potatoes...
From: Snuffy
Date: 17 Jan 01 - 08:52 AM

The Digital Tradition Database has two songs containing the line "Lard was rendered by the choir":

AT THE BOARDING HOUSE

AIN'T WE CRAZY

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: While the organ peeled potatoes...
From: Les from Hull
Date: 17 Jan 01 - 07:21 AM

At the boarding house I stayed in
Everything was growing old
Silver threads among the butter
And the cheese was green with mould
When the dog died we had sausages
When the cat died catnip tea
When the landlord died I left there
Rissoles were too much for me

I used to know another verse, I'll try to dig it out.

Les

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: While the organ peeled potatoes...
From: catspaw49
Date: 16 Jan 01 - 11:50 PM

My Dad was not too musical and he had little interest in poetry, but this thing was so dumb, he just loved it. Anytime the word poetry came up, he'd recite this one as though it were some great classic. He knew two poems, this one, and for reasons known only to him, "The Face on the Barroom Floor."

As a kid, this type of thing was one helluva an embarassment when you're an A student and your friends are staring at your Dad. Now, I embarass my own kids with the same silliness and wish the Ol' Man was here to enjoy what his son finally learned.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: While the organ peeled potatoes...
From: Sorcha
Date: 16 Jan 01 - 11:31 PM

Good Heavens, that's funny!! We always get asked for Silver Threads at the Nursing Home......I'm gonna print these and give them to the vocalist, LMAO!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: While the organ peeled potatoes...
From: GUEST,Fred
Date: 16 Jan 01 - 11:31 PM

Thanks, Spaw. I think we only sang the 2nd half. Much appreciated!! Learned it in junior high from the choir director.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: While the organ peeled potatoes...
From: Stewart
Date: 16 Jan 01 - 11:30 PM

It was midnight on the ocean, not a streetcar was in sight;
While the sun was shining brightly, for it had rained all the night.
'Twas a summer's day in Winter and the rain was snowing fast,
As the barefoot girl with shoes on stood there sitting in the grass.

It was evening and the sunrise was just setting in the west;
And the fishes in the treetops were all cuddled in their nests.
As the wind was blowing bubbles, lightning shot from left to right;
Everything that you could see had been hidden out of sight.

Cheers, S. in Seattle

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: While the organ peeled potatoes...
From: catspaw49
Date: 16 Jan 01 - 11:25 PM

Twas midnight on the ocean
Not a streetcar was in sight
The captain climbed the telephone pole
And it rained all day that night.
Twas a summer's day that winter
And the snow was raining fast
And the barefoot boy with his shoes on
Stood there....Sitting in the grass.
While the organ peeled potatoes
Lard was rendered by the choir
And when the sexton wrang the dihrag
Someone set the church on fire.
Holy Smoke," the preacher shouted
In his haste he lost his hair
His bald head resembled heaven
For there was no parting there.

My Dad's favorite........

Spaw

Subject: While the organ peeled potatoes...
From: GUEST,Fred
Date: 16 Jan 01 - 11:10 PM

Are there any old choristers around that might have learned, and even better remembered, more of the lyrics to a take-off sung to the tune of "Silver Threads Among the Gold"? The only parts I remember go like this:

While the organ peeled potatoes,
Lard was rendered by the choir.

etc.

etc.

ending with:

"...the preacher's head resembles heaven,
There will be no parting there.

If anyone has any other parts to this, please post them.
Much Thanks.