Lyr ADD: Some Little Bug Is Going To Find You

Subject: Does anybody have all the words
From:
Date: 21 Oct 01 - 07:19 PM

Does anybody have all the words to a song that I fragmentarily remember as being called "BUGS"? The first verse went:

In these days of indigestion, It is often times a question As to what to eat and what to leave alone. For each microbe and baccillus Has a different way to kill us, And in time they always claim us for their own. There are germs of every kind In every food that you can find In the market or upon the bill of fair. Drinking water's just as risky As the so-called deadly whiskey, And it's often a mistake to breathe the air.

Chorus: Some little bug is going to find you someday. Some little bug will get behind you someday. Then he'll call on his bug friends And all your earthly troubles end. Some little bug is going to find you someday!

Subject: Lyr Add: SOME LITTLE BUG IS GOING TO FIND YOU
From: catspaw49
Date: 21 Oct 01 - 07:30 PM

SOME LITTLE BUG IS GOING TO FIND YOU

In these days of indigestion, it is oftentimes a question
As to what to eat and what to leave alone;
For each microbe and bacillus has a different way to kill us,
And in time they always claim us for their own.
There are germs of every kind in every food that you can find,
In the market or upon the bill of fare.
Drinking water¹s just as risky as the so-called deadly whiskey,
And it¹s often a mistake to breathe the air.
Some little bug is going to find you someday.
Some little bug will creep behind you someday.
Then he¹ll send for his bug friends and all your earthly trouble ends.
Some little bug is going to find you someday.

The inviting green cucumber gets most everybody¹s number
While the green corn has a system of its own.
Its behavior is quite vicious
And a doctor will be coming to your home.
Eating lobster cooked or plain is only flirting with ptomaine,
While an oyster sometimes has a lot to say;
But the clams we eat in chowder make the angels chant the louder,
For they know that we¹ll be with them right away.
Some little bug is going to find you someday.
Some little bug will creep behind you someday.
Then he¹ll get into your gizzard; if you lose him, you¹re a wizard.
Some little bug is going to find you someday.

Take a slice of nice fried onion, and you¹re fit for Dr. Munyon.
Apple dumplings kill you quicker than a train.
Chew a cheesy midnight rabbit, and a grave you¹ll soon inhabit.
Ah, to eat at all is such a foolish game.
Eating huckleberry pie is a pleasing way to die,
While sauerkraut brings on softening of the brain.
When you eat banana fritters, every undertaker titters
And the casket makers nearly go insane.
Some little bug is going to find you someday.
Some little bug will creep behind you someday.
With a nervous little quiver, he¹ll give cirrhosis of the liver.
Some little bug is going to find you someday.

When cold-storage vaults I visit, I can only say: what is it
Makes poor mortals fill their systems with such stuff?
Now for breakfast prunes are dandy if a stomach pump is handy,
And your doctor can be found quite soon enough.
Eat a plate of fine pig's knuckles and the headstone cutter chuckles,
And the gravedigger writes a note upon his cuff.
Eat that lovely red bologna, and you¹ll wear a wooden kimono
And your relatives start scrapping about your stuff.
Some little bug is going to find you someday.
Some little bug will creep behind you someday.
Eating juicy sliced pineapple makes the sexton dust the chapel.
Some little bug is going to find you someday.

All those crazy foods they mix will float us 'cross the River Styx
Or they¹ll start us climbing up the Milky Way,
And the meals we eat in courses means a hearse and two black horses,
So before a meal, some people always pray.
Luscious grapes breed appendicitis, and the juice leads to gastritis,
So there's only death to greet us, either way,
And fried liver¹s nice, but mind you: friends will soon ride slow behind you,
And the papers then will have nice things to say.
Some little bug is going to find you someday.
Some little bug will creep behind you someday.
Eat your sauce; they call it chili; on your breast they¹ll place a lily.
Some little bug is going to find you someday.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Does anybody have all the words
From: ddw
Date: 21 Oct 01 - 08:26 PM

Gawd, Spaw —— you're awesome!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Does anybody have all the words
From: Sorcha
Date: 21 Oct 01 - 08:40 PM

(Nobody has ALL the words, not even Mr. Oxford--they keep inventing new ones all the time........grin)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Does anybody have all the words
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 21 Oct 01 - 08:47 PM

There is also this version in the DT: SOME LITTLE BUG .

Jon

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Does anybody have all the words
From: catspaw49
Date: 21 Oct 01 - 08:55 PM

I saw it Jon, but anymore I check elsewhere too to see if there are additional verses or other changes. We have a very complete lyric base, but after all this time, I now tend to go exploring before I post.

A great example of variations just came up in the Floyd Collins thread and one set of lyrics that Gene added several years ago that are the actual sheet music should have hit the DT by now but it hasn't. I'm not bitching about it, Dick, Susan, et al do one helluva' job, but I figure that adding more on the threads is pretty valuable anymore. I tend too link more past threads than I do DT.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Does anybody have all the words
From: Stewie
Date: 21 Oct 01 - 09:08 PM

With some minor differences, the version in the DT is the same as that recorded by Bradley Kincaid in the 1930s. This is now available on CD: Bradley Kincaid 'Mountain Songs & Old-Time Songs' Old Homestead OHCD 4107.

The Levy site gives sheet music published in New York in 1915 - words by Benj. Hapgood Burt and Roy Atwell and music by Silvio Hein. The cover sheet indicates it was a hit from the operetta 'Alone At Last'. A note to the DT entry indicates an 1890s origin - is that when operetta was performed?

Levy

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Does anybody have all the words
From: Stewie
Date: 21 Oct 01 - 09:12 PM

For some reason, the link I gave to Levy does not bring up the entry. Use the Levy search box and put in 'Some little bug' - without quotes.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Does anybody have all the words
From: catspaw49
Date: 21 Oct 01 - 09:23 PM

Thanks Stewie.....The site where I found them made no mention of the 1890's.

AND.....Got a very nice message back e-mail from the requestor of the song so I'll pass on his thanks to one and all.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Does anybody have all the words
From: catspaw49
Date: 21 Oct 01 - 09:33 PM

Running Google Search....The only hits were for the song in 1915 although the Operetta seems to also date at 1915 period too. Nothing on the 1890's yet that I can see.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Does anybody have all the words
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 22 Oct 01 - 12:51 PM

In the text given above the third line is incomplete. It should read:

Now, that radish seems nutritious, but its behavior's quite vicious.

The next-to-last line of the third verse lacks the last word, viz.

And eat that lovely red bologna and you'll wear a wood kimona.

These emendations from the DT.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Does anybody have all the words
From: MMario
Date: 22 Oct 01 - 09:16 PM

Stewie - to link to the Levy site - go to the actual first page of sheet music and use that URL. The search page is cgi driven script and if you link to it it doesn't have information to display what you are requesting.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Does anybody have all the words
From: Stewie
Date: 22 Oct 01 - 09:23 PM

MMario, thanks for the tip.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Does anybody have all the words
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 22 Jun 03 - 02:32 PM

I transcribed the lyrics from the The Lester S. Levy Collection of Sheet Music (They are a bit different from Spaw's version and from the DT version.) and posted them in the thread called Songs about a hospital (for school program) -- possibly a bad choice -- along with lots of other info about the song, links to sound clips, etc.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Some Little Bug Is Going To Find You
From: Artful Codger
Date: 26 Jun 06 - 09:48 PM

From the liner notes to Joan Morris and William Bolcom's Moonlight Bay: Songs As Is and Songs As Was:

'"Some Little Bug Is Going to Find You" was written in response to the germ scare of 1915. (Three years later, the great influenza epidemic would kill more people in the United States than the number of U.S. forces killed in the entire First World War.) The actor, Roy Atwell, who co-wrote the lyrics with Benjamin Hapgood Burt, interpolated the song into Franz Lehar's musical, Alone at Last, where it became the biggest hit of the show.'

Silvio Hein wrote the music. Joan speaks rather than sings the lyrics in her rendition.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Some Little Bug Is Going To Find You
From: GUEST
Date: 28 Mar 10 - 03:19 PM

OMG, you can find anything if you just google it! My Dad use to recite this and it drove my Mom up the wall. I always wanted to find out more about it.
Thanks guys!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Some Little Bug Is Going To Find You
From: GUEST,MJW
Date: 18 Nov 10 - 05:29 AM

Boardwalk Empire S1 E7, quoted at dinner table.

Subject: RE: Lyr ADD: Some Little Bug Is Going To Find You
From: Joe Offer
Date: 15 Nov 21 - 05:06 PM

Joe - consolidate