Lyr Req: om si the gom

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: om si the gom
From: GUEST,Edward
Date: 20 Jul 22 - 06:01 AM

I heard this song in my youth. I'm 72 now.

I had a wee nigger and he grew no bigger
So I put him in the window for a show
He fell out the window
And broke his little finger
Now he can't play his old banjo.

He has no hair upon his head
he has no eyes to see
He has no teeth to grind his bread
So he gives it all to me.

Talala talala tala la la la

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: om si the gom
From: GUEST,Dorothy
Date: 23 May 22 - 08:51 PM

When I was little in the 50s this always made me cry.

There was a little nigger and he grew no bigger
So they put him in a wild beast show
He cried for his Mammy and he cried for his Daddy
And he cried for his old banjo.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: om si the gom
From: GUEST,jim c.
Date: 17 Jun 21 - 12:15 PM

Same as "guest, just passing through", above, only in early 1950's Bronx, N.Y.C. We were bounced on grandpa's knee to this ditty,

"I had a little nigger he wouldn't grow no bigger
so I put him in the window for a show.
He fell out the winder and broke his little finger
and he couldn't play the old banjo.

fi fye fiddly eye oh, etc.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: om si the gom
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Feb 21 - 11:34 AM

My dad would sing this song to me in Ireland in the late 1980’s. I always wondered what the song meant. His father was a sailor on boats so maybe he had heard it from the other men.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: om si the gom
From: GUEST,just passing through
Date: 07 Feb 21 - 03:27 PM

I'm 75 years old. My grandmother used to bounce us on her knee and sing to us. "I had a little nigger and he wouldn't grow no bigger...... so we put him in the window for a show ".   The rest of that verse was the same.   She was in her 60's then and had grown up in the Green Point section of Brooklyn, NY.   

She had a wonderful old time Brooklyn accent. eg. "Pull the chain on the terlt", " Green Pernt"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: om si the gom
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 14 Nov 20 - 09:41 AM

There are about a dozen different songs being discussed here mostly relating back to the minstrel days. Even the Wild West Show originated with the Minstrels. I'm guessing some of them got strung together as medleys which is why some of them are such mixed up hybrids. As a stand-alone verse the 'Ten foot willie' verse is very common in UK.

I have the original sheet music from the 1860s for 'Not for Joseph' by Arthur Lloyd who had quite a few pieces in his repertoire that entered oral tradition such as Kafoozle-um, Married to a Mermaid.

Here you've got Polly-wolly-doodle, Foster's 'Uncle Ned'.

Ogo Pogo is 20s Music hall.

Some great material for study here. Such a pity that most contributors don't tell us where and when.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: om si the gom
From: GUEST,David McEwen.
Date: 13 Nov 20 - 05:34 PM

Next verse.
Hang up the fiddle and the bow
Lay down the shovel and the hoe
For there’s no more work for poor old Ned
He’s gone where the good niggers go.

He had fingers as long as the chains of a brake
And he had no eyes to see

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: om si the gom
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Apr 19 - 05:36 PM

next verse

If you don't have pity on this little nigger
you will never go to heaven when you die
for my name is Sam and I don't give a damn
I'd rather be a nigger than an old white man.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: om si the gom
From: GUEST,Carol M
Date: 28 Dec 18 - 11:12 PM

Back in coal country in Pennsylvania, grandfather sang the song to my brother. His version was,". . . he went to the baby show." However after reading other comments, I believe it ought be, "Wild West Show" as the song was probably written around that era. Does anyone know when the song was actually first penned?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: om si the gom
From: GUEST
Date: 06 Jul 18 - 07:02 PM

My grandma sang,
There was a little figure and he couldn't get no bigger
So they put him in the window for a show
He broke a pane of glass and cut his little...(Dramatic Pause) finger
And he couldn't play the old banjo.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: om si the gom
From: GUEST,Seventyseven78
Date: 17 Jun 18 - 08:01 AM

My grandad used to sing these lyrics;

There was a little nigger and he grew no bigger
so they put him in a wild best show
Gave him a lump of chuck and he danced like a duck
And played on his old banjo

No idea what a lump of chuck is. Different times....

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: om si the gom
From: GUEST
Date: 12 Apr 18 - 02:28 PM

My grandad used to sing the words

There was a little nigger
And he never grew no bigger
So they took him to a wild beast show
He pepped through a nick
And he saw his uncle Dick
Then he shouted hello, hello.

He was born in 1901

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: om si the gom
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 04 May 16 - 08:34 AM

http://www.aaregistry.org/historic_events/view/nigger-word-brief-history

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: om si the gom
From: GUEST
Date: 03 May 16 - 09:36 AM

The other part of this link was a rhyme we used to say when I was a child. It was naughty and we thought it was hilarious, better than Shakespeare.

Old man Decker, had a forty foot pecker,
He showed it to the girl next door.
She though it was a snake, so she hit it with a rake
And now it's on four foot four.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: om si the gom
From: GUEST,Phil
Date: 03 May 16 - 09:28 AM

My father used to sing this song all the time, with these words.

I had a little nigger, no bigger than my finger,
I took him to the Lord Mayor's Show,
He fell out the window and broke his little finger
So he couldn't play the old banjo.

My father died three months ago
And left me all his riches,
A big Tomcat, a bucketful of fat, and a pair of Calico britches.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: om si the gom
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Apr 16 - 04:31 PM

as a little girl in Detroit in the thirties we sang I had a little nigger no bigger than my finger, we put him in a ten cent show. He fell through the winner and broke his little finner now he can't plan his ole ban-jo.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: om si the gom
From: GUEST
Date: 08 Jan 16 - 04:19 PM

I'm curious my wife's grandfather sang this song all the time and he claimed his friend snuffy sang it do you know Stan Gryken?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: om si the gom
From: doc.tom
Date: 09 Apr 14 - 11:29 AM

Oh I'm off to Louisiana just to see my Susianna
Singing Polly wolly doodle all the day

Now that's a diffewrent song!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: om si the gom
From: GUEST,Steb
Date: 08 Apr 14 - 12:11 PM

This is how my grandad used to sing it too me
Awful but there was not any awareness to the words

Oh I had a little nigger
And he wouldn't grow any bigger
So I put him in the window for a show
He fell through the window
And he broke his little finger
So he couldn't play his old banjo

He had no hair on the the top of his head
He had no eyes to see( to see)
He had no teeth to chew a bit of meat
So he left it all for me

Ah golly wog
Golly wog
Golly wog ah the doodle all the day

Oh I'm off to Louisiana just to see my sister Anna
Singing golly wog the doodle all the day

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: om si the gom
From: Tug the Cox
Date: 27 Dec 13 - 12:29 PM

Another verse for the 'my friend willy'variant began
'My Friend Hank
Had a ten foot tank
and he showed it to the lady next door'

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: om si the gom
From: pavane
Date: 27 Dec 13 - 04:30 AM

Blue clickey went wrong. Try again
The Ogo Pogo

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: om si the gom
From: pavane
Date: 27 Dec 13 - 04:29 AM

I haver tracked down a song which could be the origin

One fine day in Hindustan,
I met a funny little man
With googly eyes and lantern jaws;
With a new silk hat and some old plus-fours
When I said to that quaint old chap;
Why do you carry that big steel trap
That butterfly net and that old gun?
He replied, Listen here my son.
"I'm looking for the Ogopogo.
The funny little Ogopogo.
His mother was an earwig,
His father was a snail
I'm going to put a little bit of salt on his tail
I want to find the Ogopogo,
While he's playing on his old banjo
The Lord Mayor of London,
The Lord Mayor of London
The Lord Mayor of London wants
To put him in the Lord Mayor's show."


http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=sol334hPuRoC&pg=PA418&lpg=PA418&dq=ogo+popo&source=bl&ots=FASJVEUvzS&sig=fKdjZILZHMXCuMhvQ-EIJtdjn3M&hl=en&sa=X&ei=H0a9UuufN5CBhAf84oCAAg&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=ogo%20popo&f=false

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: om si the gom
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 26 Dec 13 - 03:25 PM

Appears not to have been noted above that in the 1970s John & Sue Kirkpatrick changed the name of their dance band Whistling Rufus to Umps And Dumps, which I have always taken to be a reference to this chorus ["Umpsy-Dumpsy" as alternative pronunciation to "om si the gom si", or whatever??].

~M~

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: om si the gom
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Dec 13 - 02:59 PM

In the 1950s when I was a child we had a wind-up gramaphone and a collection of 78 r.p.m. records, in the upstairs junk room.

One of those records had a song which went:

There was a little nigger and he wouldn't grow no bigger
So they took him to the Lord Mayor's show
He fell-a through the winder
And he broke his little finger
So he couldn't play the old banjo.

There was no verse about Uncle Willy and his trouser difficulty. Had there been, it would have been even more clearly remembered and repeated by me and my bunch of friends.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: om si the gom
From: GUEST,Henry Piper of Ottery
Date: 29 May 13 - 04:21 AM

This may or may not be relevant, There was a Music hall song called "Not For Joseph" Which Paul Cinquevalli, "The Human Billiard Table" used to accompany part of his Act which seems to have consisted of increasingly frenzied "Pogo" style dancing, with Higher and higher leaping.!!
Now that really was entertainment !!!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: om si the gom
From: GUEST,norm
Date: 28 May 13 - 10:33 PM

In England .. 60 years ago, I remember it as...
We had a little nigger
And he grew no bigger,
So we put him in a wild west show.
He sang for his mamma and sang for his papa
And sang for his old banjo.

We had no racial thoughts on this... it was just and old song from somewhere unknown...............

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: om si the gom
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 29 May 12 - 01:53 PM

"Lord Mayor's Show" and "Waxworks Show" are interesting variants. "Wild West Show" would seem to link that particular version to Buffalo Bill's Show's visits to West Brompton, London, in 1887, the year of Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee.

~Michael~

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: om si the gom
From: Phil Edwards
Date: 29 May 12 - 03:34 AM

We recited the second verse as primary-school kids in the 60s (though it was "My friend Billy"). Never knew the rest of it though.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: om si the gom
From: GUEST,Judy
Date: 14 Apr 11 - 06:49 PM

My uncle sang the first verse to us tiny tots back in the 1940s. Twenty years later he no longer sang it as the 'n' word was recognised as offensive.

If he ever knew the second verse he might have sung it in the army but not in front of the children.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: om si the gom
From: GUEST,ShaBam
Date: 12 Feb 10 - 06:38 PM

"So they put him in a wax work show"

Singing hi fi fiddley hi ho, hi fi fiddley hi ho hi hay, hi fi, fiddley hi ho, strumming on the ol' bango"

as I fondly recall my father singing this song, many years ago!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: om si the gom
From: GUEST,Esra the Ranter
Date: 13 Jan 10 - 06:17 PM

When I was a schoolboy about 7 or 8 years age in the mid-1960's in Muswell Hill North london, far away from the Welsh Border counties and its folk traditions. I can remember a little rude ditty being sang......

My Uncle Billy had a ten foot willy
and he showed it to the lady next door.
She thought it was a snake and hit it with a rake
Now it's only five foot four.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: om si the gom
From: pavane
Date: 27 Jun 01 - 04:06 AM

Refresh. I know Joe has posted Not For Joe(!), but I am still looking for the other song.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: om si the gom
From: pavane
Date: 26 Jun 01 - 10:42 AM

Coincidence - just searching the Web a few minutes ago for Dwy Droed Chwith, a clog team for whom I used to play, I came across a picture of a Border Morris side Naffer Joe at Miskin! (Naffer Joeys was a corruption of Not for Joe, applied at one time to Morris dancers in border areas, due to their constant use of the tune, I believe)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: om si the gom
From: pavane
Date: 26 Jun 01 - 10:11 AM

Oh, by the way, I forgot to say Thanks!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: om si the gom
From: pavane
Date: 26 Jun 01 - 10:10 AM

I understood that 'Not for Joe' was a (different) music hall song. I do know that the dance is often called that (I have done it). I don't suppose I could use the Uncle Billy verse, but it is interesting to see it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: om si the gom
From: Snuffy
Date: 26 Jun 01 - 09:42 AM

Oops - I got some extra looras in that chorus . The second half should be

Um silly gumsi
Toora lie-do
Um silly gumsi
Toora lay
Um silly gumsi
Toora lie-do
Playing on the old banjo

Um silly gumsi is what it sounds like to me, but that makes no more sense than om si the gom.

Subject: Lyr Add: Not For Jo
From: Snuffy
Date: 26 Jun 01 - 09:37 AM

The tune is generally known in Morris circles as Not For Jo(e), and variants of it were used for many Border dances. Silurian Morris use it for the Dilwyn (sp?) dance

There was a little nigger
And he got no bigger
So we put him in the Wild West Show
He fell through the winder
And he broke his little finger
And he couldn't play the old Banjo

CHORUS
Toora loora lie-do
Toora loora lie-i-do
Toora loora lie-do
Playing on the old banjo
Um silly gumsi
Toora loora lie-do
Um silly gumsi
Toora loora lay
Um silly gumsi
Toora loora lie-do
Playing on the old banjo

My uncle Billy
Had a ten-foot willy
And he showed it to the girl next door
She thought it was a snake
So she hit it with a rake
And now its only five-foot-four.

CHORUS

Wassail! V

Subject: om si the gom
From: pavane
Date: 26 Jun 01 - 08:36 AM

In a recording of John Kirkpatrick playing the Border Morris tune "Om si the gom" (whatever THAT may mean) there is one verse of a song.

There was a little nigger and he got no bigger
So they put him in the Wild West Show
He fell through the winder (window) and broke his little finger
And he couldn't play the old Banjo

When my mother heard us perform this some years ago, she remarked that she knew it as the Lord Mayor's show, not Wild West. It must be part of an old song, does anyone know any more of it?