Lyr Req: I've Got a Pain in My Sawdust (H A Wade)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I've Got a Pain in My Sawdust (H A Wade)
From: Helen
Date: 21 Apr 18 - 03:21 PM

My mother used to sing just a line or two of the chorus, probably when my sister or I complained of feeling sick. I never heard her sing more than that, but she and I never could remember many lines of song lyrics.

I just read the Wiki article and she probably heard the 1935 recording by Mae Questel, which was on the b side of The Good Ship Lollypop.
She also used to sing:

"Miss Polly had a dolly who was sick, sick, sick,
So she called for the doctor to come quick, quick, quick."

Except that I think my mother used to sing: "I had a little dolly", and not "Miss Polly had a dolly" but that was over 50 years ago so my memory might be wrong.

Also, just in case you are wondering what a bisque doll is and what sawdust has to do with it, while some bisque dolls are completely made of bisque or porcelain, most have a bisque or porcelain head, and sometimes hands and feet, but the body is made of cloth and stuffed with sawdust or other material.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I've Got a Pain in My Sawdust (H A Wade)
From: GUEST,Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 21 Apr 18 - 07:14 AM

There's a whole wikipedia page devoted to the song with lyrics: I've Got A Pain In My Sawdust. There's also a link to the sheet music at Indiana - I've got a pain in my sawdust (or: Plaint of the little bisque doll)

Mick

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I've Got a Pain in My Sawdust (H A Wade)
From: GUEST,Joseph Scott
Date: 21 Apr 18 - 03:52 AM

Herman Avery Wade was his real name and he was born in 1876 in New York. His occupation as of 1900 was music teacher and his occupation as of 1918 was musician employed by Wurlitzer.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Need title and some lyrics
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 27 Mar 02 - 11:08 PM

Copied from Mechanical Music Digest™ Archives:

I am a collector of player piano rolls. For several years it has been a consuming passion with me to find out anything I can regarding a piano roll arranger by the name of Herman Avery Wade who worked for the Aeolian Corporation from 1904 through 1923 approximately.

Mr. Wade, if that was, in fact, his real name, also wrote some music of his own and had it copyrighted with the now defunct Joseph W. Stern & Co. of New York City. The titles were "I Want To Be Loved Like a Leading Lady" (1908), "Hindoo Honey" (1907) and "I've Got a Pain in my Sawdust" (1908). I've been told that the copyrights were renewed in the early 1950s.

Another arranger working at Aeolian during the same period was Edwin E. Wilson, possibly the same man as Wade; in any case the arrangements sound identical.

This is all that is presently known about Herman Avery Wade at this time, and there is a sizable group in the United States that desperately wants to learn more about this very talented individual. Don Rand and Ed Sprankle and several other piano roll collectors have also been working on this.

We need to locate descendants in order to possibly view pictures and find other personal data regarding this person's career with Aeolian. All of the company records of those early years have long since disappeared. I have taken advantage of the local library research staff, and I recently wrote to the New York Public Library, but their reply was very discouraging. I examined volumes of records belonging to the Mormon Church, to no avail.

Any help the Mechanical Music Digest readers can provide in this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely yours,

Denis McMenamy
2675 SW Reindeer Ave.
Redmond, Oregon 97756
[phone]

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Need title and some lyrics
From: Jeri
Date: 27 Jun 01 - 12:34 PM

I searched The Library of Congress American Memory (Performing Arts) for "bisque" and came up with two hits, neither of which was the song.

I followed a link to an entertainer Esther Schenkel, where it said "Little Miss Shenkel's Costumed Acts from the writings of James Whitcomb Riley and Edmund Vance Cooke are Immitable." This was next to a picture of her dressed and captioned as "The Little Bisque Doll."

It sounds like the title is "The Little Bisque Doll."
It's possible that the song is a poem by James Whitcomb Riley or Edmund Vance Cooke, and set to music by Wade. I'm an ignoramous when it comes to poetry, so I don't know how likely this would be.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Need title and some lyrics
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 27 Jun 01 - 01:25 AM

Or polystyrene balls.

LTS

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Need title and some lyrics
From: GUEST,Bardford
Date: 27 Jun 01 - 01:20 AM

I did a Google search on Herman Avery Wade. The song is " I've Got A Pain in My Sawdust". Could find no complete lyrics on google, though. Tiny Tim covered the song. Good luck.
Poor thing, I guess they didn't have duct tape back then...
Bardford

Subject: Lyr Add: I'VE GOT A PAIN IN MY SAWDUST (H A Wade)
From: GUEST,Cookie
Date: 27 Jun 01 - 12:33 AM

Does anyone know the title to this song and the few lyrics missing??

Thanks, Cookie

Written by Herman Avery Wade
c Joseph W. Stern & Co., New York, 1908

A little bisque doll and a little rag doll
And a dolly imported from France,
Were seated one day on the shef of a store
With a dolly who could wind up and dance.

When all of a sudden the shopkeeper heard
A scream that rang out through the store
And this is the plaint of the little bisque doll
That caused such an awful uproar:

CHORUS
Oh, I've got a pain in my sawdust,
That's what's the matter with me.
Something is wrong with my little insides
I'm just as sick as can be.
Quick, get me a fan.
Someone else run for the medicine man.
Everyone hurry as fast as you can.
I've got a pain in my sawdust!

They took her away in a hospital van
And the whole town was filled with the blues.
Everyone thought it was quite an odd thing
And the papers all printed the news.

CHORUS

The surgeons looked wise and they all shook their heads
And asked her just where she was sick.
Oh, I think it must be appendisawdust.
Won't you please do something quick?

CHORUS

xxxxxxxxxxxxx line missing
xxxxxxxxxxxxx line missing
They tried to restuff her but didn't know how
And this was her plaint as she died:

CHORUS

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Line breaks added. --JoeClone