Lyr Add: Uncle Willie's in the sheets

Subject: Lyr Add: UNCLE WILLIE'S IN THE SHEETS
From: Wolfgang
Date: 07 Nov 01 - 01:16 PM

Another song from Jerry Rasmussen, a fine variant on the drunken man comes home theme. This is my transcription and I am to be blamed for errors except for the start of the before last verse where Jerry has helped me when I was stuck.

Wolfgang

UNCLE WILLIE'S IN THE SHEETS

Late last night and uncle Willie came home
He made a rattle at the door like a shaking of bones
She jumped to the window and she peeped out the blind
Uncle Willie's in the sheets again.

Uncle Willie's in the sheets and I don't mean in bed
With his eyes all glazed and a bump on his head
Says he's been working but no matter what he says
Uncle Willie's in the sheets again.

The dog was in the kitchen he was sleeping on the floor
And the cat got up and slowly started making for the door
He'd seen this kind of thing about a hundred times and more
Uncle Willie's in the sheets again.

Uncle Willie's in the sheets and I don't know why
With a wife as sweet as apple pie
Got a silly grin and a twinkle in his eye
Uncle Willie's in the sheets again.

He'll wake up in the morning as ornery as Hell
With his tongue like a clapper and his head like a bell
But where he was tonight she knows he's never going to tell
Uncle Willie's in the sheets again.

When the piper plays and you got to dance
But Willie's asking for one more chance
But you can tell in just one glance
Uncle Willie's in the sheets again.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Uncle Willie's in the sheets
From: MMario
Date: 07 Nov 01 - 01:28 PM

Looks like it would be a fun one to sing.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Uncle Willie's in the sheets
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 07 Nov 01 - 07:01 PM

Hi, Wolfgang: Good transcription. a minor word change here and there, but you know this whole folk process stuff. If it's all right to modify lyrics to songs written by folks who are dead, I suppose we all can take an occasional liberty with someone who is 66. Just a note or two about the song. I've always loved Doc Watson doing the song about Willie coming home late, and as I was pulling up to a traffic light, I just sang the first line, the rest of the first verse tumbled right out. The lines about jumping to the window and sticking out her head probably came from similar lines in The Fox... "Old Mother Flipper Flopper jumped out of bed, she threw open the window and stuck out her head." The Phrase Uncle Willie's in the sheets again is kind of abberation of being "three sheets to the wind." I tried to get Gordon Bok to explain that nautical phrase, but don't remember what it had to do with being drunk. By the time that the light changed, I had the first verse and chorus, and five minutes later when I pulled into my driveway, the song was done, other than a little minor tinkering with a word here and there. With all the cursory comments about "whining" songwriters, some songwriters are just building on the tradition, as folk singers have done since the first cave man trhummed on a bow string. If this song seems to be plagiarism, that's all right, too, because it wasn't conscious. All songwriters have a vocabulary which comes from all the music that they've funneled in to their heads all of their life. I happen to have a wealth of traditional American (and British Isles) words and tunes rattling around in mine.

Jerry

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Uncle Willie's in the sheets
From: Wolfgang
Date: 08 Nov 01 - 04:11 AM

Jerry,

any change I make is not done on purpose but because either I don't know better or from carelessness. Thanks a lot for the notes to the song. (Have you spotted 'Blue waltz'?)

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Uncle Willie's in the sheets
From: cetmst
Date: 11 Nov 01 - 03:36 PM

I always thought three sheets in the wind was carrying too much sail for the conditions resulting in erratic and difficult handling -e.g., a drunken vessel. Any other ideas ?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Uncle Willie's in the sheets
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 11 Nov 01 - 03:42 PM

Hey, thanks for the explanation. I didn't do a lot of sailing, growing up in Southern Wisconsin..

Jerry