Folk songs appropriate for medical students

Subject: Folk songs appropriate for medical students
From: Marylytel#seanet.com
Date: 26 Apr 98 - 12:11 AM

Hi ALL:

A friend of mine is putting together a group of folk songs that could be sung by medical students while going through medical school. I thought this might be a great place to get some suggestions. I have already checked the database but it is hard to know what to search for because so many different songs could fall into this type of category. Any song titles, lyrics or URL's would be appreciated. My friend has just retired from being a doctor after many years and is now trying to put something together to teach to medical students. He said it was many a times that folk music got him through many years ago when he was studying to become a doctor and he wants to share this with students today.

Thanks, Mary

[Many song titles in this thread have been converted to links by a Mudelf.]

Subject: RE: Folk songs appropriate for medical students
From: Art Thieme
Date: 26 Apr 98 - 12:25 AM

"Free And Equal Blues" --Josh White

Any of the songs by that urologist who sings the blues---Urethra Franklin! ;-)

Subject: RE: Folk songs appropriate for medical students
From:
Date: 26 Apr 98 - 06:46 AM

Don't forget "Dr Freud". It is in the database. I was taught it while I was a mathematician for a biochemical research institute by somebody who was taught it..... It circulated through the medical and related schools and was recorded by (I think) the Kingston Trio.

Murray

Subject: RE: Folk songs appropriate for medical students
From: John Nolan
Date: 26 Apr 98 - 08:51 AM

And then comes the doctor, the worst of them all,
Saying, "What's been the matter with you all the fall?"
He'll tell you he'll cure you of all your disease,
When the money he's got, you can die if you please,
And it's hard, hard times. (Verse from Newfie song, Hard Times)

Subject: RE: Folk songs appropriate for medical students
From: Ralph Butts
Date: 26 Apr 98 - 09:05 AM

The Doctor's Lament (you'll find it in the database) is a good place to start. I have a wonderful version by Oscar Brand which he calls simply "The Portions of a Woman."....Tiger

Subject: Lyr Add: SHORTNIN' BREAD
From: Sheye
Date: 26 Apr 98 - 10:35 AM

SHORTNIN' BREAD

Mama's little babies love shortnin', shortnin'
Mama's little babies love shortnin' bread.
Mama's little babies love shortnin', shortnin'
Mama's little babies love shortnin' bread.

Three little babies, lyin' in bed
Two was sick and the other most dead
Sent for the doctor and the doctor said
"Give 'dem babies some shortnin' bread."

Mam's little babies...

Subject: RE: Folk songs appropriate for medical students
From: Barbara
Date: 26 Apr 98 - 11:51 AM

Try searching Mark Cohen (click). He's an ex medical student (that is to say Doctor) and has a bunch of stuff in the data base (click). If he's on the mailing list, I haven't checked yet, he also has a song that is simply (!) the names of prescription medicines set to the tune of Modern Major General from Pirates of Penzance.

Barbara

Subject: RE: Folk songs appropriate for medical students
From: Alice
Date: 26 Apr 98 - 12:14 PM

"St. James Infirmary"

"Locke Hospital"

"The Sailor Cut Down In His Prime"

"Streets of Laredo" "Bard of Armagh", "The Dying Cowboy"

"Unfortunate Lass"

"Barbara Allen"

"The Bad Girl"

"Put My Little Shoes Away"

"In the Baggage Coach Ahead"

"Coo Coo U"

"The Unfortunate Miss Bailey"

Alice, in Montana

Subject: RE: Folk songs appropriate for medical students
From: Bruce O.
Date: 26 Apr 98 - 12:48 PM

"The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out", Carl Sandburg

Subject: RE: Folk songs appropriate for medical students
From: Susan of DT
Date: 26 Apr 98 - 02:00 PM

Use the search box above. a search for @medicine got 17 hits and a search for doctor got over a hundred.

Subject: RE: Folk songs appropriate for medical students
From: dwditty
Date: 26 Apr 98 - 03:02 PM

Don't forget "(Put de Lime in de) Coconut" - Nilsson

Doctor Robert - The Beatles

Rock and Roll Doctor - Little Feat

The Dentist's Wife - Fred Koller

Subject: RE: Folk songs appropriate for medical students
From: Barry Finn
Date: 26 Apr 98 - 06:18 PM

The Black Cook, Barry

Subject: RE: Folk songs appropriate for medical students
From:
Date: 27 Apr 98 - 08:25 AM

Well if you want to get desperate there is the Carter Family's "Chewing Gum"

I wouldn't marry a doctor
I'll tell you the reason why
He rides around the countryside
makin' people die

Murray

Subject: RE: Folk songs appropriate for medical students
From: Bert
Date: 27 Apr 98 - 09:03 AM

Found a Peanut

Subject: RE: Folk songs appropriate for medical students
From: rosebrook
Date: 27 Apr 98 - 10:56 AM

Miss Lucy had a baby, she named him Tiny Tim.
She put him in the bathtub, to see if he could swim.

He drank up all the water, he ate up all the soap.
He tried to eat the bathtub, but it wouldn't go down his throat.

Miss Lucy called the doctor, Miss Lucy called the nurse.
Miss Lucy called the lady with the alligator purse.

"Mumps!", said the doctor, "measles!" said the nurse.
___________ said the lady with the alligator purse.

Maybe not the best to operate by, but awfully good for jumping rope! ; )

Rosebrook

Subject: RE: Folk songs appropriate for medical students
From: Bill D
Date: 27 Apr 98 - 01:04 PM

from "When Dalliance was in Flower and Maidens Lost Their Head" [The Tunbridge Doctors, or, Four Able Physicians]

"From fair London town, there have lately come down,
"Four able physicians who never saw gown"
"Their physic is useful, their dosage is large
"And you may be cured without trouble or charge"

more to follow, gotta go double-check to be sure I remember all the verses...

Subject: RE: Folk songs appropriate for medical students
From:
Date: 27 Apr 98 - 07:03 PM

Didn't Oscar Brand have a few bawdy medical student songs on some of his bawdy LP's?

Subject: RE: Folk songs appropriate for medical students
From:
Date: 27 Apr 98 - 08:38 PM

I wish I could remember more verses to this song:

Doctor and Doctor Jones
want to operate on Barney Google's bones
With the medics standing around his bed
Barney lifted up his head and said

(Cho)
Oh, how I wish I was in Peoria, Peoria, Peoria
You can pick a morning glory-a
right off the sidewalks of Peoria
Oh, how I wish I was in Peoria
Peoria today
(Alternate to last line) Peoria USA

Murray

Subject: RE: Folk songs appropriate for medical students
From: northfolk
Date: 28 Apr 98 - 01:13 PM

Joel Mabus, one of the finest musicians and songwriters in Michigan, is currently doing a song [The Druggist] in his act. I am not sure that it is recorded. He rhymes acetaminophen with..?

the song is a challenge to keep up with...audiences love it. it certainly fits this category...wish I could give more details.

Subject: RE: Folk songs appropriate for medical students
From: Bruce O.
Date: 28 Apr 98 - 01:46 PM

Surgery was originally done by barber surgeons and there are some barber ones noted in my broadside index. Do gelders count, too?
'The Tunbridge Doctors' (Four Able Physicians) is in 'The New Academy of Compliments', 1669 (unique copy in Folger Shakespeare Library), and 'Wit and Drollery', 1682, and with music (Packington's Pound) in 'Pills to Purge Melancholy'. ABC's for 3 versions of "Packington's Pound" are B362-4 on my website.

Subject: RE: Folk songs appropriate for medical students
From: judy
Date: 28 Apr 98 - 02:47 PM

I think it was either Tom Lehrer (and possibly the Animaniacs) who I heard sing the periodic table elements to the tune of the Pirates of Penzance. I may have it somewhere.

enjoy! judy

Subject: Lyr Add: THE ELEMENTS (Tom Lehrer)^^
From: judy
Date: 28 Apr 98 - 03:07 PM

And here it is:

To the tune of "I am a modern Major General"

THE ELEMENTS

There's antimony, arsenic, aluminum, selenium,
And hydrogen and oxygen and nitrogen and rhenium,
And nickel, neodymium, neptunium, germanium,
And iron, americium, ruthenium, uranium,
Europium, zirconium, lutetium, vanadium,
And lanthanum and osmium and astatine and radium,
And gold, protactinium and indium and gallium,
And iodine and thorium and thulium and thallium.

There's yttrium, ytterbium, actinium, rubidium,
And boron, gadolinium, niobium, iridium,
There's strontium and silicon and silver and samarium,
And bismuth, bromine, lithium, beryllium, and barium.

There's holmium and helium and hafnium and erbium,
And phosphorus and francium and fluorine and terbium,
And manganese and mercury, molybdenum, magnesium,
Dysprosium and scandium and cerium and caesium.
And lead, praseodymium and platinum, plutonium,
Palladium, promethium, potassium, polonium,
And tantalum, technetium, titanium, tellurium,
And cadmium and calcium and chromium and curium.

There's sulphur, californium and fermium, berkelium,
And also mendelevium, einsteinium, nobelium,
And argon, krypton, neon, radon, xenon, zinc and rhodium,
And chlorine, carbon, cobalt, copper, tungsten, tin and sodium.

These are the only ones of which the news has come to Harvard,
And there may be many others but they haven't been discovered.

Thank goodnes I didn't have to type all that in! There's a Tom Lehrer website out there. Sorry don't have the URL

enjoy!
judy

Subject: RE: Folk songs appropriate for medical students
From: Bruce O.
Date: 28 Apr 98 - 04:29 PM

There's one missing, not counting 3 that the last I knew didn't have names yet (104, 105, and 106). Lr above is #102.

Subject: RE: Folk songs appropriate for medical students
From: Bruce. O.
Date: 28 Apr 98 - 04:31 PM

Sorry, Lr is #103.

Subject: RE: Folk songs appropriate for medical students
From: Paul Stamler
Date: 28 Apr 98 - 04:39 PM

Logan English recorded a song (by Oscar Brand?) called "The McBurney Square" [or "Appendectomy Country Style"], which is an anatomically correct description of an appendectomy. The only release of which I'm aware is on a 2-LP set from Columbia Special Products in the '60s called "Medicine, Mind and Music". It's a real stitch.

Peace. Paul

Subject: RE: Folk songs appropriate for medical students
From: Mary
Date: 28 Apr 98 - 05:16 PM

Thanks for all the replies so far...they are just perfect for what my friend, the newly retired doctor and soon to be folk song teacher, is looking for. As soon as I teach him how to post his own message, he jump in this discussion to! Thanks again and please keep posting the ideas.

Subject: RE: Folk songs appropriate for medical students
From: RS
Date: 28 Apr 98 - 10:11 PM

Then there's the old favourite anatomy review:

Head and shoulders, knees and toes
Knees and toes, knees and toes
Head and shoulders, knees and toes
Eyes, ears, mouth and nose!

Subject: RE: Folk songs appropriate for medical students
From: Pauline Lerner
Date: 28 Apr 98 - 11:16 PM

I was never a medical student, but I was a research biochemist for years. While spending hours dissecting rats, my colleagues and I amused ourselves by singing such songs as "Here I stand, heart in hand..." (Beatles), "I've got a lot of liver to do," "Dem bones gonna rise again," and "So lung, it's been good to know you." My apologies for grossing out all you non biomedical types.

Pauline

Subject: RE: Folk songs appropriate for medical students
From: Catfeet
Date: 29 Apr 98 - 12:06 AM

How about the Monty Python Medical Love Song? That ought to count for some good STD's.

Catfeet

Subject: RE: Folk songs appropriate for medical students
From:
Date: 29 Apr 98 - 03:06 AM

I listened to the Carter Family song again. Between each of the verses I gave there is a chorus:

Chewin' chawin' gum
chawin' chewin' gum

This makes it a more self-contained song without the other verses.

Speaking of grossing out: There is an old parody on the popular song Jealousy called "Leprosy". I (happily) don't remember much of it--just one verse.

Leprosy, I suffer from leprosy
There goes my eyeball into my highball

but the rest isn't any better.

Murray

Subject: RE: Folk songs appropriate for medical students
From: Bruce O.
Date: 29 Apr 98 - 10:05 AM

Pauline, above, is also a fiddler.

Subject: RE: Folk songs appropriate for medical students
From: Carl
Date: 29 Apr 98 - 11:22 AM

"Cod Liver Oil", not really medical, but sort of that. "Self-curing", at least for me. It cured me from listening pop stuff only, for it has been on my first Dubliners record which made me become a folk freak (from the view of my friends...).

Subject: RE: Folk songs appropriate for medical students
From: Bert
Date: 30 Apr 98 - 05:00 PM

Auntie Maggie's Remedy

Subject: RE: Folk songs appropriate for medical students
From: Clarke
Date: 02 May 98 - 01:40 AM

To Bill D,

Thank you for the portion of the song you sent regarding songs appropriate for medical students. This is what I am looking for. Could you send me more verses and possibly a source that I could track down? Please send any other songs or ideas you may have.

Thanks,

Clarke

Subject: RE: Folk songs appropriate for medical students
From: Clarke
Date: 02 May 98 - 01:50 AM

Art Thieme,

Thank you Art for your contribution to songs appropriate for medical students. Do you know where I can find any songs by Urethra Franklin?

Clarke

Subject: RE: Folk songs appropriate for medical students
From: alison
Date: 02 May 98 - 09:35 PM

Hi,

My hubby reading over my shoulder just suggested

"The first cut is the deepest." "Fever" "Mack the Knife",

"The foot bone's connected to the ankle bone.......etc." [Dem Bones/Dry Bones]

or what about the Peter Sellers & Sophia Loren one...... "My heart goes boom-biddy-boom-biddy,boom-biddy-boom-biddy,boom-biddy-boom-biddy,boom boom boom!!" Possibly called, "(Well) Goodness Gracious Me."

Slainte

Alison

Subject: Lyr Add: LIKE A SURGEON (Weird Al Yankovic/Madonna
From: alison
Date: 02 May 98 - 09:40 PM

Hi, Here's another classic from Weird Al Yankovic. (Obviously sung to the tune of "Like a virgin."

LIKE A SURGEON
("Like a Virgin"/Madonna/1984)

I finally made it through med school.
Somehow I made it through.
I'm just an intern, I still make a mistake or two.

I was last in the class,
Barely passed at the institute.
Now I'm tryin' to avoid
Yeah, I'm tryin' to avoid
A malpractice suit.

Hey, like a surgeon,
Cuttin' for the very first time.
Like a surgeon,
Organ transplants are my line.

Better give me all your gauze, nurse,
This patient's fading fast.
Complications have set in,
Don't know how long he'll last.

Let me see that IV
Here we go, time to operate.
I'll pull his insides out.
Pull his insides out,
And see what he ate.

Like a surgeon, hey!
Cuttin' for the very first time.
Like a surgeon,
Here's a waiver for you to sign.
Wo-ho. Wo-ho. Wo-ho

It's a fact. I'm a quack.
The disgrace of the AMA
'Cause my patients die.
Yeah, my patients die
Before they can pay.

Like a surgeon, hey!
Cuttin' for the very first time.
Like a surgeon.
Got your kidneys on my mind.

Like a surgeon, ooh hoo, like a surgeon,
When I reach inside
With my scalpel,
And my forceps,
And retractors.
Oh ho. Oh ho. Ooh, baby,
Yeah, I can hear your heart beat
For the very last time.

Enjoy Slainte Alison

Subject: RE: Folk songs sung by medical students and doctor
From: Clarke
Date: 07 May 98 - 06:06 PM

From: [e-mail] (Clarke Daniels)
Subject: Medical Folk Music

Hi,
I am a cardiologist who has recently retired. I am very interested in collecting "medical folk songs" similar to those which I learned as a medical student in the 1950s. These were songs that were sung at parties or in the local bar on weekends. Examples that appear in the Digital Tradition are "Ballad of Lydia Pinkham," "Dr. Freud", and "Coming Down with Old VD." I am particularly interested in songs known to medical students and doctors, which they remember from their student days. Information about when and where it was heard would be very helpful also. Even if you don't have direct information but could refer me to another source, I would greatly appreciate it.

Clarke Daniels MD

Subject: Lyr Add: THE FOUR ABLE PHYSICIANS^^
From: Bill D
Date: 07 May 98 - 11:08 PM

The complete verses to the song above...sorry I lost track of finishing it...from a set of records of Elizabethan bawdy songs put out by Oscar Brand in the 60s...There was also a songbook published with most of the songs in it...I have the book and the condensed set of records...

THE FOUR ABLE PHYSICIANS

You maidens and wives and young widows rejoice
Declare your thanksgiving with heart and with voice
Since waters were waters, I dare boldly say
There ne'er was such cause for a thanksgiving day

"From fair London town, there have lately come down,
"Four able physicians who never saw gown"
"Their physic is pleasant, their dosage is large
"And you may be cured without danger or charge"

"They have a new drug that is called the close hug
Which will mend your complexion, and make you look smug
A sovereign balsam which, once well applied
Though grieved at the heart, the patient ne'er died

In the morning you need not be robbed of your rest,
For in your warm beds this physic works best
And though, in the taking, some stirring's required,
The motion's so pleasant, you cannot be tired.

"On your back you must lie, with your belly raised high
And one of these doctors must always be nigh
Who still will be ready to cover you warm
For if you take cold, all physic doth harm.

On silver or gold they never lay hold
For what comes so freely should never be sold;
Then join with the doctors and heartily pray
Their power of healing will never decay.

Subject: Lyr Add: YOU'RE GONNA NEED THAT PURE RELIGION^^
From: Nora
Date: 08 May 98 - 12:36 AM

I checked, and "You're gonna need that pure religion" has a verse about a doctor.

ch:
Yr gonna need that pure religion
hallelu
Yr gonna need that pure religion
hallelu
Yr gonna need that pure religion
pure religion take you home to heaven
Yr gonna need that pure religion
hallelu

Mother & father by the bed a cryin
hallelu
Mother & father by the bed a cryin
hallelu
Mother & father by the bed a cryin
Said, Lord have mercy our child is dyin
Yr gonna need that pure religion
hallelu

Doctor standing lookin sad
hallelu
Doctor standin lookin sad
hallelu
Doctor standin lookin sad
Let the lord have mercy our child is dead
Yr gonna need that pure religion
hallelu

chorus

See that train comin round the curve
hallelu
See that train comin round the curve
hallelu
See that train comin round the curve
Now she is strainin every nerve
Yr gonna need that pure religion
hallelu

From Lucinda Williams
"Ramblin"
Smithsonian Folkways 1991 reissue

Nora

Subject: Lyr Add: My God How the Money Rolls In^^
From: John in Brisbane
Date: 08 May 98 - 01:40 AM

I may have missed it, but I haven't seen any mention of 'My God How The Money Rolls In' with:

My brother's a medical student,
With instrument's long, sharp and thin,
He only knows one operation,
My God how the money rolls in.

Regards
John

Subject: RE: Folk songs appropriate for medical students
From: Pauline Lerner
Date: 08 May 98 - 02:28 AM

Another verse to "Oh Lord How the Money Rolls In"

My grandpa makes cheap prophylactics
He punches their heads with a pin,
My grandma does quickie abortions
Oh Lord how the money rolls in.

Subject: RE: Folk songs appropriate for medical students
From: Pauline Lerner
Date: 08 May 98 - 02:36 AM

This one probably doesn't fit the definition of a folk song (whatever that is), but it has been chanted by generations of med students to remember the names of the cranial nerves. Unfortunately, I only know the clean version. Maybe someone can help with the other, more popular version.

On old Olympus's topmost top, a Finn and German valtz and hop.

The first letter of each word is also the first letter of the name of a cranial nerve.

Pauline

Subject: RE: Folk songs appropriate for medical students
From: Celtic-End Singer
Date: 08 May 98 - 09:12 AM

I was very interested to learn of your compiling of a medical folksong collection. As a medical student myself it would be really great if you could send me a copy when it's all done. I'm quite willing to pay for any (reasonable) expenses etc. Cheers!

Subject: RE: Folk songs appropriate for medical students
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 08 May 98 - 10:06 PM

Medical Mnemonics- (CRanial nerves) On old Olympus' towering top A fast-assed German Viewed a hop.

My favorite is the one for the bones in the foot:

Never lower Tillie's pants; mother may come home.

Subject: RE: Folk songs appropriate for medical students
From: Clarke
Date: 09 May 98 - 10:50 PM

To Bill D, Nora, John in Brisbane, Pauline Lerner, Celtic-EndSinger, and Dick Greenhaus:

Thank you all for your contributions to "Songs Appropriate for Medical Students." Medical mnemonics was an excellent idea that had not occurred to me. I became nostalgic as I recalled the names of the cranial nerves and the tarsal bones that I had so slavishly memorized long ago.

Celtic-Endsinger, If you will send me your email address, I will let you know when a compilation of these songs is available. Please put me in touch with any of your classmates that you think may have knowledge of further songs.

Subject: RE: Folk songs appropriate for medical students
From: 'Berta'
Date: 10 May 98 - 08:42 PM

To be awfully graphic: a student of Radiology needed to know the principles of electricity as they were applied to ionizating radiation; that is, OHM'S LAW: The angle of the dangle is directly proportional to the heat of the meat! Appologies to all.... 'Berta

Subject: RE: Folk songs appropriate for medical students
From: Kyra
Date: 10 May 98 - 09:13 PM

Try "My Favorite Diseases" by Mike Agranoff, sung to the tune of "My Favorite Things". If you'd like the lyrics, send me an email at [e-mail] and I'll send them to you. I warn you, though, my Email might be down. If it gets rejected, just send it again a day or so later and it should get through to me.

Sla/n, Kyra

Subject: Lyr Add: THE FORMULARY SONG^^
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 23 Jan 00 - 09:31 PM

I just discovered this thread when I put my name in the search box while looking for something else, and I'm happy to refresh it, as it's right up my artery--er, alley. Here is my piece called "The Formulary Song", which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1977, when I was a senior medical student. I sent a copy to Tom Lehrer, and he replied, "As a lifelong apostle of plagiarism, I certainly have no objection."
^^^
THE FORMULARY SONG
by Mark Cohen
(to the tune of "I Am The Very Model of a Modern Major-General" by Gilbert and Sullivan, with acknowledgment--but no apology--to Tom Lehrer)

There's Aldomet and Atromid and Antivert and Atarax
And Dexamyl and Donnagel and Demerol and Dulcolax
There's Tylenol and Tegretol and Riopan and Regitine
And Pertofrane and Pavabid and also Pyribenzamine

Now if you're down there's Dexedrine and Benzedrine and Elavil
And if you're up there's Librium and Valium and Vistaril
There's Thorazine and Stelazine for calming schizophrenics with
There's Seconal for sleeping and for mania there's Eskalith

There's Benadryl and Gelusil and Placidyl and Peritrate
And Decadron and Parafon and Sinequan and Sorbitrate
And Miltown, Motrin, Medrol, Maalox, Myleran, and Miradon
And Mycostatin, Micronor, Mandelamine, and Mylicon

There's Omnipen and Principen and Tegopen and Torecan
And Betapen and Versapen and Pyopen and Percodan
There's Robitussin, Garamycin, also Butazolidin
And Furadantin, Coricidin, even Triaminicin

There's Dimetane and Dimetapp and Dymelor and Dimecol
And Diuril and Dialose and Diamox and Disophrol
There's Darvocet for headaches when you'd really rather stay at home
But if the other end is sore, the one you need is Proctofoam

I know you're getting weary and my song is getting pretty grim
With all these pharmaceuticals from Actifed to Zyloprim
But just imagine what would happen if I tried to fan the flames
By starting over once again and using all generic names
(Like hydrochlorothiazide and phenylpropanolamine
And propylthiouracil . . . I think you see just what I mean!)

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: Folk songs appropriate for medical students
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 23 Jan 00 - 09:37 PM

Oops! (I know doctors aren't supposed to say that, but what the hell...) I must have goofed and left out one line. Here's the corrected verse; maybe Joe can fix the original. Please?

There's Benadryl and Gelusil and Placidyl and Peritrate
And Decadron and Parafon and Sinequan and Sorbitrate
And Miltown, Motrin, Medrol, Maalox, Myleran and Miradon
And Mycostatin, Micronor, Mandelamine and Mylicon