Origins: Born 10,000 Years Ago

Subject: RE: Origins: Born 10,000 Years Ago
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 28 Dec 04 - 12:59 AM

Yes, it was Brooks & Reiner, as you say.

Slightly off topic, you should catch up with the music and songs for Mel's new Broadway Musical 'The Producers' built up from his original Movie.

Subject: RE: Origins: Born 10,000 Years Ago
From: PoppaGator
Date: 28 Dec 04 - 05:15 PM

Ah, yes, The Producers! At the risk of further thread drift, I understand that Mel's next project is to make a new movie based on this musical stage play, which of course was based upon a movie to begin with.

Subject: RE: Origins: Born 10,000 Years Ago
From:
Date: 28 Dec 04 - 06:31 PM

As I recall (make way for a really obscure note in folk history) the banjo guy with Odetta was Larry Mohr. They began as a duo in San Francisco I think, made one LP together. Then Odetta took off and Mohr dropped from sight, never(?) to be heard of again. They did stuff like "Old Cotton Fields at Home" together, and Mohr had evidently heard Uncle Dave Macon, as he did a fairly decent if manic "I'll Tickle Nancy." More deponent knoweth not.
Happy New Year. —Bob Coltman

Subject: RE: Origins: Born 10,000 Years Ago
From: Max
Date: 30 Mar 11 - 08:56 PM

I'm having trouble finding a recording of the (And That's No Lie) version. Any hints?

Subject: RE: Origins: Born 10,000 Years Ago
From: GUEST,Mark Mandel
Date: 30 Mar 11 - 09:15 PM

OK, now this is just too good a piece of synchronicity.

I came across an old cassette tape my uncle must have made from a 2-LP set, "Songs of the South African Veldt -- José Marais". I learned many Marais and Miranda songs from my mother's LPs, and as soon as I saw #4 in the handwritten list of titles, "Johnny With the Wooden Leg", I remembered "Johnny with the Bandy Legs" from M&M. It's the same tune but somewhat different words, as the title reflects, and the tape has only the refrain sung twice with no verse. (Also, this was a men's chorus with no Miranda.)

For the words of "Johnny", I could remember only the chorus and snatches of lines from the verses. But I realized that the verse tune as I remembered it seemed VERY familiar, but from a different song... but I couldn't place it. I hummed the verse tune to my wife, who ID'ed it immediately as "I was born about a thousand years ago"!

So I checked this site for "Johnny with the Bandy Legs", found it, and listened to the MP3. Not quite the same tune as The Liar Song (as I know it, and which I was pretty much humming), especially in the last two lines of the verse, but IMHO pretty close.

Here's the synchronicity, unless there was a search hit I didn't notice: When I paged back, I hit this thread, "Origins: Born 10,000 Years Ago". But I hadn't typed in anything about that, and I don't see any other mention here of the song I was looking for, by either of its titles!

Subject: RE: Origins: Born 10,000 Years Ago
From: Max
Date: 30 Mar 11 - 09:28 PM

I just installed the synchronicity generator this evening. I guess it's working. :)

Subject: RE: Origins: Born 10,000 Years Ago
From: banjoman
Date: 31 Mar 11 - 05:25 AM

Just saw this thread and it reminded me that somewhere I have a 45 of Roy Guest singing this song. On the flip side is Streets of Laredo.
Roy Guest was something of an enigma in UK as he sang a bit but was also a booking agent. Problem was that when we booked guests for the club they often didn't turn up. I remember seeing a full house waiting to see Louis Killen (circa 1968 ish) and having to refund entrance fees when he did not show up.

Subject: RE: Origins: Born 10,000 Years Ago
From: Bo
Date: 31 Mar 11 - 06:12 AM

I too have just seen this thread, strangely I see that I have already posted here. There are some great entries including some from me !   As far as I can remember, I hadn't even discovered Mudcat in 1997.
Is there another "Bo" out there or was there one in '97. And I don't recognise any of the info I appear to have posted ??

Any ideas? Or am I in the home for the bewildered?
Bo, "the 'real' one"

Subject: RE: Origins: Born 10,000 Years Ago
From: fat B****rd
Date: 31 Mar 11 - 06:28 AM

I seem to recall having a scratched 78 of this by The Vipers.

Subject: RE: Origins: Born 10,000 Years Ago
From: GUEST,kendall
Date: 31 Mar 11 - 07:28 AM

Tommy claimed he wrote the last verse to the Liar.

Subject: RE: Origins: Born 10,000 Years Ago: Found!!!
From: GUEST,Bob Coltman
Date: 02 May 13 - 06:39 PM

I have located the original of the songs "I Was Born 10,000 Years Ago," "The Highly Educated Man," and "Man Who Rode the Mule Around the World."

My reference is the late Gus Meade, who in his excellent book Country Music Sources credits the song as follows:

"I Am a Highly Educated Man"
Words: H. C. Verner, music: Harry M. Clyde, published 1894.

Other comments:

"Can" in those days was emphatically not the bathroom (it was more often called "the jakes" in those days.

I prevalent use of "can" at the end of the 19th century meant the metal mug you got your beer in at the local dispenser of alcohol. It seems some bars in those days did not furnish mugs for beer, but expected you to bring your own, which ws "charged" from the keg. To "rush the can" (as Abraham and Isaac do in that version) meant to go for beer; it may have been a rowdy process.

A cross-reference is the song "No More Booze," which has the line "Got to get your can filled Monday" (because beer is not sold on Sunday).

Subject: RE: Origins: Born 10,000 Years Ago
From: GUEST,Bob Coltman
Date: 02 May 13 - 06:47 PM

Note also the common melody to "I Was Born 10,000 Years Ago."

It is not quite the same as, but clearly related to, the first two lines of "Drunk Last Night" aka "The Souse Family" or "The Goddamned Dutch":

Drunk last night, drunk the night before,
Gonna get drunk tonight like I never been drunk no more"

—and the last two lines of the chorus:

"Glory be to God that there are no more of us,
For one of us could drink it all along, damn quick!

"Drunk Last Night" has no known references previous to its appearance in the 1927 book of drinking songs, Gentlemen About Town, Immortalia. (per Wikipedia, and I believe them to be correct in this case; I know of no earlier occurrence.)

However, it its melody has the "pom-pon" sound of a German band march, and the "Damn quick!" flourish at the end sounds like a band flourish. My bet is that this melody dates back into the 19th century, perhaps even predates the Verner-Clyde "I Am a Highly Educated Man."

Anyone conversant with old European band music who van take this farther back?

Bob

Subject: RE: Origins: Born 10,000 Years Ago
From: Joe Offer
Date: 03 May 13 - 02:37 AM

Country Music Sources, eh? Gee, Bob, that's another book I have to put on my "buy" list. Amazon wants $127 for it, as does the publisher University of North Carolina Press.

Aaaaargh! But hey, I can't see how I can live without it....

...and in the process of all this, I found a recording of this song by Elvis Presley on Spotify. Life is good.

Nice to see you 'round these parts again, Bob.


-Joe-

Subject: RE: Origins: Born 10,000 Years Ago
From: GUEST,Bob Coltman
Date: 03 May 13 - 11:25 PM

My thanks, Joe, and good to hear from you, too.

Nice to be here. I lurk always, but rarely find an opportunity to jump in and help—mudcatters are quick, and they know nearly everything! Kudos to all.

My chagrin, of course, over the several typos in what I wrote. Testifies to 1) hamhandedness, 2) haste, 3) aging brain, 4) chronic failure to proofread.

I have proofread this message xxtwicexx make that _thrice_. And even so, some typo probably leaked through.

Alas! But wotthehell wotthehell, as Don Marquis's Archy said to Mehitabel. (And there really should be a song about those two!)

Best wishes, Bob C.

Subject: Lyr Add: I Was Born About a Thousand Years Ago
From: Haruo
Date: 05 May 13 - 11:46 AM

I was raised on the hybrid version (which I don't see mentioned above) combining a version of this with "The Great Historical Bum". To wit:

I was born about a thousand years ago,
An' there ain't nothing in this world that I don't know.
I seen Peter, Paul and Moses playin' Ring Around the Roses,
And I'll whup the guy what says it isn't so.

Well, I'm just a lonesome traveler, the great historical bum;
Highly educated, through history I've come.
I built the Rock of Ages, it was in the year of One,
And that's about the biggest thing a man has ever done.

I saw Adam aand Eve look the garden o'er,
I'm the guy that picked the fig leaves that they wore,
And from behind the bushes peepin' saw the apple they was eatin'
And I swear that I'm the one what et the core.

Well, I'm just a lonesome traveler, the great historical bum;
Highly educated, through history I've come.
I built the Tower of Babel, it was in the year of Two,
And that's about the biggest thing a man could ever do.

I taught Solomon his little ABCs,
I'm the first one who made Limburger cheese,
And while floating down the bay with Methuselah one day,
I saw his whiskers floatin' in the breeze.

Well, I'm just a lonesome traveler, the great historical bum;
Highly educated, through history I've come.
I built King Cheops' pyramid, 'twas in the year of Three,
The grandest public works job in all human history.

The last four lines I think I came up with myself at some point in my life, but everything before that is as it was handed down to me by the saints of yore. And it was always definitely about 1,000 years ago, never 4,000 or 10,000 or 100,000.

Subject: Lyr Add: I AM A HIGHLY EDUCATED MAN (Clyde/Verner)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 14 May 13 - 09:03 AM

Lyrics copied from http://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/songster/44-i-am-a-highly-educated-man.htm#.UZIq_aLCaSo:

[There were a few obvious errors that I corrected; the source shows signs of having been scanned and digitized. I was unable to find actual images of the sheet music.]


I AM A HIGHLY EDUCATED MAN.
Words by Harry C. Clyde. Music by H. C. Verner.
S. Brainard's Sons Co., ©1894.

1. I was born about four thousand years ago,
And there's nothing ever happened I don't know.
    I saw old King Pharaoh's daughter
    Finding Moses in the water,
And I'll whip the man that says it isn't so.
I saw Noah when he built the famous ark.
I sneaked into it one night when it was dark.
    I saw Jonah eat the whale,
    And I pulled the lion's tail,
And I crossed the land of Canaan on a lark.

CHORUS: I am a highly educated man.
To keep my brains within my hat I plan.
    I have been on earth so long
    That I used to sing this song
While Abraham and Isaac rushed the can.

2. I saw Satan when he searched the garden o'er.
I saw Eve and Adam driven from the door.
    While the apple they were eating,
    'Round the bushes I was beating.
I can prove that I'm the man that ate the core.
I was there when Cain slew Abel in the glade,
And I know the game was poker that they played;
    So right there is the rub:
    Did he kill him with a club?
I am sure it was a diamond or a spade.

3. Queen Elizabeth was dead in love with me.
We were married in Milwaukee secretly;
    But I schemed around and shook her,
    And I went with General Hooker
To fight mosquitoes down in Tennessee.
I've sat with kings and queens on either hand,
And jacks and aces too, you understand.
    I've seen an auction "sale"
    On the water in the gale,
And I've seen a schooner drunk upon dry land.

4. I remember when this country had a king.
I've seen Cleopatra pawn her wedding ring.
    I saw Ireland's colors flying
    When George Washington stopped lying
On the day when Putti first began to sing.
I taught Solomon his little A, B, C's.
I helped Brigham Young invent Limburger cheese.
    I was sailing on the bay
    With Methuselah one day,
And I saved his flowing whiskers from the breeze.

Subject: RE: Origins: Born 10,000 Years Ago
From: Moe Hirsch
Date: 19 Apr 20 - 06:46 PM

The Traditional Ballad Index gives the earliest date for "I was born about 10,000 years ago" as 1913, without explanation. It appears in Sandburg's "American Songbag". Does anyone know of an earlier publication?