Lyr Add: Family Overhead, The

Subject: Lyr Add: FAMILY OVERHEAD, THE
From: Charley Noble
Date: 27 Jan 03 - 04:03 PM

As sung in 1982 by Jimmie Gavin of Brooklyn, New York, this old song captures the spirit of the tenant/tenant hassle. Jimmie had a long history as an organizer, for many years working with the National Maritime Union and after retirement working to organize tenants. Jimmie had this to say about this song:

"This song was written by a pal of mine, Bill Rogers, back in 1935 while he was serving time in Sing Sing. Bill was a strong arm man for the Union. Many the time we'd be having a drink on the West Side and he'd sing this song."

FAMILY OVERHEAD, THE
(By Bill Rogers, circa 1935 as sung by Jimmie Gavin; tune traditional Irish "The Son of a Gambolier")

Upstairs there lives a family,
Gilhooley is their name,
And I haven't had a wink of sleep
Since in the house they came.

Chorus:

With their howling and their bowling,
They'd wake the f***ing dead;
They're a bunch of filthy bastards,
Are the family overhead!

The old man he comes raving home,
He pounds the bastard walls;
The old lady plays "Mavornian"   
Till she'd burst your f***ing balls.(CHO)

Oh, there's Norey and there's Corey
And the cursed Christ on Kate;
There's Ninnie and there's Denny
And they're never home till late. (CHO)

The other night I lay asleep,
I had a pleasant dream;
I dreamt that I was floating
In a lake so cool and clean;
You can swim right all around me now,
Dive from me f***ing bed,
For they've broke the bleeding waterpipe,
Them bastards overhead! (CHO)

Bet this one hasn't seen the light of day in a long time. It's from my working draft of the Housing Song Book.

Warm regards,
Landlady's Daughter, not to be confused with Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Family Overhead, The
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 28 Jan 03 - 06:58 AM

good one - I have suffered from upstairs - she was on adrenaline or drugs (or something) & would come home 3am after a heavy night stripping (I do live on the edge of Sydney's entertainment area!) & walk back & forward in her high heels on the wooden floor, TV & phone going ...

I'll probably have nightmares again tonight, now you've reminded me

sandra

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Family Overhead, The
From: Charley Noble
Date: 28 Jan 03 - 08:11 AM

Well, we've been thinking more about this song since we invited the family of four to move in upstairs, rejecting a single fellow who only would have shared the apartment with his 40-gallon aquarium. However, after a year of late payments, a fire, and angry shouting we're now wishing that aquarium tenant were up there. Of course, his fish might have been noisy as well...and he never said, come to think of it, what he kept in the aquarium.

Charley Noble and Landlady's Daughter

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Family Overhead, The
From: Neighmond
Date: 28 Jan 03 - 07:31 PM

"Landlord, landlord, I love you
but pay the rent, sir, I can't do
cause we got alot a' low-down hanging around!

Tennant, tennant, I won't buy that
There's ten folks livin' in a two man flat
And you got alot a'low down hanging around!

Neighbor call up to bitch and complain
The music's loud and the Dog's a pain
They got alot a'low down hanging round!

"Now looky here tennant, I won't lie
These kind of doin's just won't fly
And I won't allow no low down hanging around.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Family Overhead, The
From: Charley Noble
Date: 28 Jan 03 - 07:38 PM

Neighmond-

Where did you run across that poem/song? It's been a long time since anyone has racked up a tenant/landlord song that I haven't run into before, and I've collected over 400 to date. Sounds like it's from the 1930's.

Warm regards,
Landlady's Daughter

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Family Overhead, The
From: Neighmond
Date: 28 Jan 03 - 07:50 PM

I Wrote it. It's based on an old song from the thirties

"Moma tied a baloon on daddie's back-last time I seen 'em he was balling the jack...etc..."

The version youall have in your fine lyric library goes:

Johnny and Jainie had a falling out, Johnny ran Jane clean out of the house, Johnny don't allow no low down hangin' round.

and so forth



I really wanted my version to sound old-I wrote it as a present for a friend of mine who is a professional Landlord, for whom I worked briefly. I have 30 some verses to it, and it's a helluva hit at the drinking partied because it's easy to improvise verses as needed,

I. E.:

Tel ya boys, it's mean, just mean
The dish ain't made that'll keep itself clean....

Tell you one thing that money can't buy
Babes that'll keep themselves dry.....

You get the picture

Thanks for the comliment.

ChAZ

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Family Overhead, The
From: Neighmond
Date: 28 Jan 03 - 08:34 PM

Compliment, that is...

Now if I could just learn how to spell

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Family Overhead, The
From: Hrothgar
Date: 29 Jan 03 - 03:21 AM

We're on the susso now,
We're on the susso now,
We live in a tent,
We pay no rent,
We're on the susso now.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Family Overhead, The
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 29 Jan 03 - 07:38 AM

susso = sustenance, a Govt handout in the Depression

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Family Overhead, The
From: Charley Noble
Date: 29 Jan 03 - 08:47 AM

ChAZ- thanks for the additional info and I've sent you a PM which I hope you notice (red at the top of the screen).

Sandra- thanks for decoding "susso"; I've certainly run into some unique jargon in housing songs. I may post a classic example of this from New York City in the late 1970's if I get adequately bored, in a new thread.

Here's a verse from the only one of my songs I ever found posted by someone else in the DT, "The Landlord's Lullaby":

Though the roof is rather leaky,
And plaster's peeling off the wall,
Come the morn you'll be evicted,
Be thankful there's a wall at all!

Warm regards,
Landlady's Daughter

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Family Overhead, The
From: Charley Noble
Date: 29 Jan 03 - 10:04 AM

Drat!

I can't even remember my own lyrics without rechecking the DT:

Though the roof is rather leaky
And paper's peeling off the wall,
And there's plaster on your bedspread,
Be thankful there's a wall at all!

LD

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Family Overhead, The
From: Charley Noble
Date: 11 Jan 08 - 08:33 PM

refresh in memory of Jimmie Gavin of Brooklyn, New York.

One of Jimmie's favorite stories was how he and some pals rowed out one night into New York harbor to a German commericial ship in the late 1930's, somehow managed to climb aboard and haul down their Swastika flag without being discovered. I believe they threw the flag in the water to float or sink as it were.

Charley Noble

Subject: Lyr Add: THE FAMILY OVERHEAD (Harrigan & Braham)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 12 Jan 08 - 11:32 PM

Transcribed from the sheet music in Collected Songs [of] Edward Harrigan and David Braham, edited by Jon W. Finson, 1997.

THE FAMILY OVERHEAD
Words, Edward Harrigan. Music, David Braham.
New York: Wm. A. Pond & Co., 1883.
"As sung in Ed. Harrigan's new play The Muddy Day"

1. I live in Casey's barracks, in the Rue de Mulberry.
I'm entertained each evening with a tuneful melody:
Cornelius Dowd MacGovren with eight children, it is said;
They constitute the people in that fam'ly overhead.

CHORUS: There['s] Rosy and Josy, with Mary Ann and Kate,
Young Nora and Cora, they're never home till late.
Such howling and yowling, enough to wake the dead,
And thumping on pianos, that fam'ly overhead.

2. I have to rise up early, about four o'clock or five.
The way my sleep is broken it's a wonder I'm alive.
When I lay down, I'm tired, och! I'm like a lump of lead.
I'm woke up by the yelling of that fam'ly overhead.

3. 'Twas just the other evening, oh, I dreamt a pleasant dream.
I thought I was a-swimming in a reservoir of cream.
Sure, like a bird I trembled; when I woke, I saw in bed
The plaster that was kicked down by that fam'ly overhead.

4. Sure, when I christened Nelly--she's my youngest little child--
I brought in ev'ry neighbor, but with rage I did go wild.
I found the room was flooded; ev'ry dancer he had fled
From the bursting of the Croton by that fam'ly overhead.

5. Oh, Nora plays the banjo, and young Cora plays the flute,
While Rosy plays the concertine; it's one perpetual toot.
Cornelius plays the clarinet until his nose is red,
When the empty cradle warbled by that fam'ly overhead.

6. Oh, Nora has a parrot and sweet Josy has a cat,
And Katy has canary birds; Cornelius has a bat.
When passing through the hallway, oh, I always have a dread,
Of being hydrophobied by that fam'ly overhead.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Family Overhead, The
From: Charley Noble
Date: 13 Jan 08 - 12:53 PM

Jim-

Excellent!

You've certainly nailed the origin of this ditty. I couldn't find a trace of it when I was searching. Now it all makes sense, in a sense!

Charley Noble