Lyr Req: Please Pass the Biscuits (Gene Sullivan)

Subject: Lyr Req: Please pass the biscuits
From: GUEST,lardingo
Date: 20 Nov 02 - 08:24 PM

I need the words to "PLease Pass the Biscuits." It is a light-hearted recitation about a little boy that is eating Sunday dinner, and cannot get a biscuit. I know Jimmy Dean did it, but others did it before him. Thank you in advance.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Please pass the biscuits
From: khandu
Date: 20 Nov 02 - 09:32 PM

I have searched the 'net and found no hard copy of the lyrics. However, you may listen to it (Click Here) at The Record Lady's Site, and write them down. Click on page 9 at her site. Disable your pop-up killer if you have one operating.

The song was written by Gene Sullivan in 1962.

Thanks for visiting the Cafe. Come back to see us!

khandu

Subject: Lyr Add: PLEASE PASS THE BISCUITS (Gene Sullivan)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 22 Nov 02 - 10:07 PM

Here's my transcription of the sound file from the Record Lady's site. I have attempted to represent the singer's dialect. I hope it's intelligible. (I considered omitting the dialect, but sometimes the rhyme depends on it!)

PLEASE PASS THE BISCUITS
(Performed by Wiley Walker and Gene Sullivan, 1962)

[SUNG:] Just picture a lad between mom and dad.
It's Sunday; the table is set.
There's uncles, there's aunts, and cousins galore,
But plenty of food to be et.
The blessing is said. They reach for the bread.
It's a feast a king would afford.
There's clatter, there's chatter, but something's the matter.
There's someone who's being ignored.

[SHOUTED:] Hey, would you please pass the biscuits?
Would you pass the biscuits, please?

[SPOKEN:] It's the same thing ever' Sunday since I cain't remember when:
Kinfolks all around the table, with biscuits up 'tother en'.
I got a plate o' chicken an' 'taters an' a lot o' stuff like 'at.
All I need now is a biscuit, but foot! Look where they're at!
Could reach across the table, but that's ill mannered, ma allus said.
Shore wish I had a biscuit, 'cause I cain't eat without bread.

[SHOUTED:] Hey, would you please pass the biscuits?
Would you pass the biscuits, please?

[SPOKEN:] All I want's a biscuit, but nobody seems to keer.
'F they wouldn't talk so doggone loud, they might be able to hear.
They talk (?) as they're half-finished eatin' and I ain't even begun.
Look at them biscuits disappear! Be lucky if I get a one.
It's the same thing ever' Sunday: allus got comp'ny to be fed.
They talk like they 'as wound up. Shore wish I had a piece o' bread.

[SHOUTED:] Hey, would you please pass the biscuits?
Would you pass the biscuits, please?

[SPOKEN:] It looks like somebody 'd notice that I ain't started eatin' yet.
I shore will be glad when they get their fill an' go to the parlor an' set.
Then I won't have to watch m' manners. I'll dus' reach me a biscuit myse'f.
Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle! They hain't a biscuit lef'!
The only day o' the week that we all get Sunday (?) fed,
They've et up all the biscuits, and I dus' cain't eat without bread.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Please pass the biscuits
From: GUEST,Gene
Date: 09 Dec 02 - 10:31 PM

about the best version I ever heard was by

Jmmy Dean...now on Rose The Record Lady's Website

on the Latest Request page...#4 - think....

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Please pass the biscuits
From: GUEST,Glenda
Date: 22 May 10 - 08:13 PM

Gene Sullivan was the writer of this song and his version is SO much better than Jimmy Dean's. I hope you can find it. Gene also wrote "Wash your feet before going to bed" and "When my blue moon turns to gold again." (among many others) He was my "adopted" Uncle and I love him and miss him very much. What a talented genius he was.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Please pass the biscuits
From: GUEST,Goose Gander
Date: 22 May 10 - 09:49 PM

Andre Williams does a great version.

Subject: Lyr Add: PLEASE PASS THE BISCUITS (f/A Williams)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 25 May 10 - 12:00 PM

Gene Sullivan sings PLEASE PASS THE BISCUITS on YouTube.

Andre Williams sings PLEASE PASS THE BISCUITS on YouTube. His style is completely different. There is no singing, only spoken words. He has almost entirely eliminated rhythm and rhyme. The words and dialect are his own. The "lines" and "verses" are of irregular length. The accompanying music is jazzy blues. There are ambient sounds of dinner-table conversation and the clicking of silverware.


PLEASE PASS THE BISCUITS
As performed by Andre Williams

'Scuse me. 'Scuse me, please. Scuse me,
But will you please pass the biscuits down, please?
Will you pass the biscuits down, please?

I can't understand it. I go out an' work an' slave an' all my kinfolks do is play.
Look at Uncle John down thar.
He's had fo' biscuits already. No wonder he got fo' chins.
An' there's Aint Lucy down at the other en'.
I thought she was on a diet.
If she ain't had eight biscuits, she ain't had none. [pronounced "nan"]

'Scuse me, Uncle Bill, but will you please pass the biscuits, please?
Will you pass the biscuits, please?

Them biscuits sho' is disappearin' fast.
I wish they would jus' look down this way.
Maybe I can get Mary's attention.

Say, Mary! Say, Mary! Huh, will you please pass the biscuits, please?

Th'only time they come down here is for weddin's, funerals, an' receptions.
You take ol' Cousin Jeff. I ain't seen him in two years,
An' he don't even know I'm here. All he see is them biscuits.
I don't want to reach over Betty 'cause Gran'ma says that's ill-mannered, she said,
But this meat ain't no good without no bread.

Say, will you pass the biscuits, please?
Will you please pass the biscuits, please?

I got enough 'taters an' some yella gravy.
I sho' wish they would just pass one o' them biscuits.
Look at 'em:
Almost finished an' I ain't even started eatin' yet.

Say, will you pass the biscuits, please?
Say, will you please pass the biscuits, please?

I don't know. Why did Emma put them biscuits down at the other en' o' the table?

Hey, will you pass the biscuits, please?
Will you please pass the biscuits, please?

Now there's one mo' biscuit left.
Maybe if I get up an' walk down the other end o' the table, I might just have a—
Pardon me. 'Scuse me. 'Scuse me, please. 'Scuse me, please.
Say, no! Wait! Wait, Uncle Jeff! Wait! Wait! Please! Wait!
No! Well, I be doggone!
He done ate up the last biscuit.
I wanted the biscuits.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Please pass the biscuits
From: bubblyrat
Date: 26 May 10 - 06:08 AM

Hearing this as a boy, I remember being VERY confused, as in England a "biscuit" was, and still is, a "cookie", and what you Americans call a "biscuit" is a "bread roll"! The mental image of someone eating Garibaldis, Nice, Rich Tea or Ginger Nuts with Sunday lunch was, therefore, somewhat bizarre!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Please Pass the Biscuits (Gene Sullivan)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 27 May 10 - 12:53 PM

What, no McVitie's?

Actually, I've never seen anything quite like an American biscuit in Britain. The closest equivalent would probably be a scone or Irish soda bread. The important distinction is that it's made without yeast.

Biscuits are primarily served at breakfast. (That is, if biscuits are part of the local culture. Biscuits are uncommon in Minnesota where I live now; they are much more common in the South.)

It seems to be a universal custom that breakfast consists of food that can be prepared quickly. Compared to bread, biscuits were quicker because you didn't have to wait for the yeast to rise. Waffles and pancakes were another quick way to prepare a bread-like food. Toast is customary at breakfast because it is really yesterday's bread reheated.

When I was a kid, visiting aunts and uncles on their farms in Kentucky and Arkansas, breakfast was served with biscuits fresh from the oven. (I doubt that they had biscuits every day; I suspect they were working extra-hard to be hospitable.) In those days, in those places, bread was something you bought at the store; biscuits were something you made at home.

Garrison Keillor, on his Prairie Home Companion radio show, used to have fake commercials for a fictional product called "Powdermilk Biscuits." He'd say, "Buy 'em ready-made in the brown bag with the dark stains that indicate freshness." In real life, I've never heard of anyone selling biscuits this way. It sounds like an unpromising business plan. Ideally, biscuits should be eaten immediately as they come out of the oven, as soon as they are cool enough to touch, while they are still warm enough to melt the butter you put on them. They quickly lose their appeal. You might be able to induce a kid to eat a cold biscuit if you put enough jelly (or jam) on it. Day-old biscuits are awful.

Here's a "from scratch" recipe for biscuits.

There are various ways of buying some of the ingredients already mixed, to save you a bit of trouble, e.g. Bisquick.

You can also buy the dough ready to cook, in a refrigerated can.

You can even buy biscuits already cooked and frozen, but it sounds like an abomination to me.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Please Pass the Biscuits (Gene Sullivan)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 27 May 10 - 01:33 PM

Correction! Andre Williams' song is called PASS THE BISCUITS PLEASE (as opposed to PLEASE PASS THE BISCUITS). That's the way it's listed at BMI, and on Andre Williams' records, according to Allmusic.com.

Repertoire.BMI.com lists the songwriters as Devora Brown and Andre Williams.

It makes sense for Andre Williams to change the title (however slightly) and claim a copyright since he changed just about everything about the song except its basic story line.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Please Pass the Biscuits (Gene Sullivan)
From: GUEST,Rev. Goose 'Goof' Gander (retired)
Date: 28 May 10 - 01:02 PM

"Would you PLEASE pass the biscuits?!"