Lyr Req/ADD: I Don't Want to Play in Your Yard

Subject: I don't want to play in your yard...
From:
Date: 23 Jan 97 - 05:04 PM

I'm looking for the rest of the lyrics to "I don't want to play in your yard, I don't like you anymore. You'll be sorry when you see me, sliding down my cellar door..." There are several more verses which escape me completely.

Subject: Lyr Add: I DON'T WANT TO PLAY IN YOUR YARD
From: Ralph Butts
Date: 23 Jan 97 - 08:04 PM

This song is from a delightful album titled "After the Ball: A Treasury of Turn-of-the-Century Popular Songs" With Joan Morris (mezzo-soprano) and William Bolcom (piano), Nonesuch Records, 1974. I believe both are in the School of Music at the University of Michigan. Joan has a Web page.

Of this song, the liner notes (remember them?) say :

"'I Don't Want to Play in Your Yard' is a rare, charming example of the child-song genre; the words are neither cute nor condescending—they reflect the direct way children talk. H.W. Petrie, its composer, also wrote that staple of the basso-profundo repertory 'Asleep in the Deep' (to Arthur J. Lamb's lyrics). Both Petrie and his illustrious contemporary George M. Cohan were published by Frederick Allen (Kerry) Mills, a one-time concert violinist and university professor who wrote the ragtime hit 'At a Georgia Camp Meeting' in 1897."

Enjoy……Tiger

--------------------------------------------------------

I DON'T WANT TO PLAY IN YOUR YARD
Words by Philip Wingate; music by H.W. Petrie

Once there lived side by side, two little maids,
Used to dress just alike, hair down in braids;
Blue ging'am pinafores, stockings of red,
Little sun bonnets tied on each pretty head.
When school was over, secrets they'd tell,
Whispering arm in arm, down by the well.
One day a quarrel came, hot tears were shed:
"You can't play in our yard,"
But the other said:

CHORUS
"I don't want to play in your yard
I don't like you any more,
You'll be sorry when you see me,
Sliding down our cellar door;
You can't holler down our rain barrel,
You can't climb our apple tree,
I don't want to play in your yard
If you won't be good to me."

Next day two little maids each other miss;
Quarrels are soon made up, sealed with a kiss.
Then hand in hand again, happy they go,
Friends all thro' life to be, they love each other so.
Soon school days pass away, sorrows and bliss,
But love remembers yet, quarrels and kiss;
In sweet dreams of childhood, we hear the cry:
"You can't play in our yard,"
And the old reply:

REPEAT CHORUS

---

the Great song thesaurus says "I Don't want to Play in Your Yard was published in 1894, words by Philip Wingate and music by H.W. Petrie.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: I don't want to play in your yard...
From:
Date: 27 Jan 97 - 07:21 PM

Thank you so much, Ralph Butts. My mother used to sing this song to me and I have tried for some time to remember the second verse so I could sing it to my grandbabies. I'm going to try to find the album that you reference. After the Ball is another song my mother sang, and I don't remember the words to that one either. It started,

A little girl, climbed an old man's knee,
Tell me a story, please uncle please,
Why are you single, why live alone,
Have you no sweetheart, have you no home?

I had a sweetheart, long long ago,
Where she is now pet,
You will soon know...

Then it goes on,

After the ball is over, after the break of day,
Many a heart is broken...

End of memory! Do you happen to know this one as well?

Subject: RE: I don't want to play in your yard...
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 27 Jan 97 - 10:18 PM

Hi- After The Ball IS in the Digital Tradition. Search for [After the ball] and you'll find it.

Subject: RE: I don't want to play in your yard...
From:
Date: 28 Jan 97 - 01:29 PM

Obviously I'm a novice at this...but a quick study! I found After the Ball in Digital Traditions and will check that first before asking for other lyrics. Thank you Dick and Ralph.

But this is too much fun. How about Sail Baby Sail? It goes in part:

Sail Baby Sail, out across the sea,
Only don't forget to sail
Back again to me.

Baby's fishing for a dream, fishing near and far,
His line is just a silvery beam, his bait a silvery star.

Sail baby sail...etc.

Again there are more verses, which Mummy used to sing to me some fifty years ago.

Subject: RE: I don't want to play in your yard...
From: Susan of DT
Date: 30 Jan 97 - 09:19 AM

This is like something I sang as a kid:

Playmate, come out and play with me
Come bring your dollies three
Climb up my apple tree
Climb up my rain barrel
Slide down my cellar door
And we'll be happy friends
For ever more

Playmate, I cannot play with you
My dollie has the flu
Boo hoo hoo hoo
Can't climb your rain barrel
Can't slide your cellar door
But we'll be happy friends
Forever more

Subject: RE: 'I don't wanna play in your yard!'
From: hotspur
Date: 17 Mar 99 - 01:36 PM

The chorus of this song is very similar (maybe the original?) to a clapping game we used to play. The words were: Say say oh playmate, come out and play with me And bring your dollies three, climb up my apple tree Play round my rainbarrel, slide down my cellar door And we'll be jolly friends forevermore one two three four.

We also played a bastardized version (say say oh enemy, come out and fight with me...)children are sick, aren't they? :)

Subject: Lyr Add: MISTER KHRUSHCHEV
From: rabbitrunning
Date: 09 Sep 00 - 10:05 PM

I learned another version in Colorado in the mid to early sixties.

MISTER KHRUSHCHEV

Oh, Mr. Khrushchev, come out and fight with me
And bring your missiles three
Cut down my apple tree
Break up my rain barrel
Fall through my silo door
And we'll be enemies
Forever more more more more more.

He couldn't come out and fight
It was a rainy night
With tears in his eyes he fussed and cried
And this is what he said

Oh, Mr. Kennedy, I cannot fight with you
My sailors have the flu
Boo hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo
Aint got no missiles
Ain't got no silo door
But we'll be enemies
Forever more more more more more.

CD

Subject: RE: I don't want to play in your yard...
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Sep 00 - 11:32 PM

Susan,

I just recently taught my nieces the hand-clapping version, with a bridge:

It was a sunny day She couldn't come out to play With tearful eye She breathed a sigh And I could hear her say

I'm sorry, playmate, I cannot play . . .

(But I knew it as "Call down my rain barrel")

Subject: RE: I don't want to play in your yard...
From: GUEST,Hutzul
Date: 09 Sep 00 - 11:34 PM

Oh, yeah, and does anyone remember Diane Keaton singing this in the movie "Reds". You know, just before you fell asleep.

Does anyone remember when Movie Soundtrack recordings had ALL the music from a film?

Subject: RE: I don't want to play in your yard...
From: Tiger
Date: 10 Sep 00 - 06:14 AM

GUEST - they both have rain barrels, but they are different songs.

Subject: RE: I don't want to play in your yard...
From: rabbitrunning
Date: 10 Sep 00 - 09:27 AM

Yes, we sang the bridge and "call down my rain barrel" too. Thanks for reminding me!

Subject: RE: I don't want to play in your yard...
From: Peter K (Fionn)
Date: 10 Sep 00 - 05:05 PM

Hutsel, you bet. That song covered an enchanting few minutes in a great film (and I can't stand Warren Beatty!). I think the film cut to Diane Keaton after the song had been sung by one of those old timers who kept chipping in with their memories. Remember Jack Nicolson slouching down the steps and away, towards the end? I thought those oldies were brilliant actors, but then I discovered one of them had been Adele St John Rogers, so they must have been real.

Didn't someone (Peggy Lee?) have a hit with this in the fifties?

Subject: Lyr Add: BABY'S BOAT
From: Tinker
Date: 10 Sep 00 - 09:55 PM

I learnt the lullabye as "Baby's Boat" at Girl Scout Camp Bonnie Brea in East Otis, Massachusetts back in 1968, but the camp was already fifty years old at that point and all songs were strictly oral tradition. I hope this is close to what you remember. My kids have all loved it. It's a great tune.. hope you enjoy it with the grandkids.

BABY'S BOAT
(song writer unknown)

Baby's boat's a silver moon
Sailing o'er the sky
Sailing o'er a sea of sleep
As the clouds go bye

Chorus

Sail baby, sail
Out across the sea
Only don't forget to sail
Back again to me

Baby's fishing for a dream
Fishing near and far
His line a silver moon beam is
His bait a silver star

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I don't want to play in your yard
From: masato sakurai
Date: 13 Sep 02 - 09:15 PM

The sheet music is in the Levy Collection (Click here):

Title: I Don't Want To Play In Your Yard.
Composer, Lyricist, Arranger: Music by H.W. Petrie. Words by Philip Wingate.
Philip Wingate Publication: Chicago: Petrie Music Company, 4627 Champlain Ave., 1894.

~Masato

Subject: I don't want to play in your yard
From:
Date: 14 Sep 02 - 01:30 AM

Do you know the lyrics to "I don't want to play in your yard?"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I don't want to play in your yard
From: katlaughing
Date: 14 Sep 02 - 01:39 AM

You can find them in the second posting in this thread: please click here

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I don't want to play in your yard
From: masato sakurai
Date: 14 Sep 02 - 06:16 AM

George J. Gaskin's recording (New York: E. Berliner's Gramophone, 1895 October 29) of this song is at Emile Berliner and the Birth of the Recording Industry (Library of Congress).

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I don't want to play in your yard
From: SINSULL
Date: 14 Sep 02 - 09:16 PM

Joan Morris did a wonderful recording of this gem on her "after The Ball" LP/CD. Check her website.
Mary

Subject: RE: I don't want to play in your yard...
From: GUEST,Faux
Date: 24 Aug 03 - 07:54 PM

Something similar I've heard, my mom does the clapping game...


"Oh jolly playmate,
Won't you come out and play with me
Come bring your dollies three
Climb up my apple tree
Climb up my rain barrel
Slide down my cellar door
And we'll be jolly playmates
forever more more more more"

But she tagged the bastardized version along as another verse.

"Oh jolly enemy,
Won't you come out and fight with me
Come bring your guns three
Climb up my poison tree
Break up my rain barrel
Slide down my dungeon door
And we'll be jolly enemies
Forever more more more more"

In any case, I like it. It would be nice to know if there was more too it.

Subject: RE: I don't want to play in your yard...
From: GUEST,Jinx Christie Duke
Date: 01 Dec 03 - 08:38 AM

Found this request posted from 1997. You probably already have this "stuff" by now.

1. Once there lived side-by-side two little maids,
They both dressed just alike, hair down in braids.
Blue gingham pinafores,stockings of red
Little sunbonnets tied on each pretty head.

After school hours, secrets they'd tell,
As they strolled arm-in-arm, down by the well.
One day a quarrel came, hot tears were shed.
"You can't play in our yard!" and the other one said:

(Chorus)
I don't wanta play in your yard.
I don't like you anymore
You'll be sorry when you see me
Sliding down our cellar door.

You can't hollar down our rain barrel,
You can't climb our apple tree,
I don't wanta play in your yard,
If you won't be good to me.

2. Next day, the little maids each other miss.
Quarrels are soon made up, sealed with a kiss;
Then hand in hand again, happy they go,
Friends all thru life to be, they love each other so.

Soon school days pass away sorrows and bliss,
But love remembers yet, quarrels and kiss,
In sweet dreams of childhood, we hear the cry,
"You can;t play in our yard," and the old reply:

(Chorus)

Subject: RE: I don't want to play in your yard...
From: GUEST,Jinx
Date: 01 Dec 03 - 08:47 AM

Yep, figured you'd have lots of info on this. Found responses after I had sent my message. Enjoyed reading all the "chatting." I was taught: "Shout down our rain barrel." Do any of you know the words to another song my mother taught me? "On a little dutch hill, by an little dutch mill."?

Subject: RE: I don't want to play in your yard...
From: Blowzabella
Date: 01 Dec 03 - 01:06 PM

My mam used to sing the chorus to me too - what memories it brought back (mum died many years ago). I never knew any verses to it though.

Subject: RE: I don't want to play in your yard...
From: JinxChristie
Date: 01 Dec 03 - 04:17 PM

Here are the words as I remember them:

Where the little Dutch moon shone bright.
There a little Dutch boy and a little Dutch girl,
Fell in love by the mill one night.
Up above the Dutch moon,
Made the night complete,
They both had so much moon,
That it was a real Dutch Treat.
So the little Dutch boy and the little Dutch girl,
Bought the little Dutch mill on the little Dutch hill,
And they added the touch of a little Dutch family.>

Fortunately, I remember the tune. Hope you do. If you have a different version, would love to hear it.

Subject: RE: I don't want to play in your yard...
From: Cruiser
Date: 27 Mar 05 - 08:10 PM

I heard this neat little song recently on the preview of the 1981 movie "Reds" (mentioned above)

Here are some sound clips that give parts of the verses and chorus:

Joan Morris clip No. 9:

I Don't Want To Play in Your Yard 1

Lee's clip No. 12:

Peggy Lee Version

Mary Coughlan's Version Clip No. 6

Cruiser

Subject: RE: I don't want to play in your yard...
From: masato sakurai
Date: 27 Mar 05 - 08:52 PM

"I Don't Want to Play in Your Yard" sung by George Gaskin (New York: E. Berliner's Gramophone , 1895 October 29) is at Emile Berliner and the Birth of the Recording Industry (American Memory).

Subject: RE: I don't want to play in your yard...
From: Cruiser
Date: 27 Mar 05 - 09:29 PM

Thanks masato!

It is something to listen to a song that was recorded almost 110 years ago on a gramophone (albeit scratchy). This is the most complete version from the web I have heard yet.

I "Saved As Target" the wav file. Here is the page where the RealAudio, mp3, and wav (18.6 megs) sound files are:


I don't want to play in your yard

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I don't want to play in your yard...
From: GUEST,Sten Neiker, voice teacher, Sweden
Date: 07 Feb 08 - 01:32 PM

Who is the author Philip Wingate? Tell me about his life.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I don't want to play in your yard...
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 08 Feb 08 - 02:24 AM

"Didn't someone (Peggy Lee?) have a hit with this in the fifties?"
She sang it in the film, 'Pete Kelly's Blues' - wonderful.
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I don't want to play in your yard...
From: LeTenebreux
Date: 08 Feb 08 - 07:28 AM

I love this song. I only just learned it after seeing the movie "The Savages".

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I don't want to play in your yard...
From: Mo the caller
Date: 08 Feb 08 - 06:43 PM

I think we must have had the sheet music in Grandma's piano stool. I remember it being sung, maybe at Christmas parties. My mother and her sisters tell stories about the copy of "over the garden wall" being torn up in disgust by Grandma - that would have been in the thirties I suppose.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I don't want to play in your yard...
From: Mo the caller
Date: 08 Feb 08 - 06:50 PM

Not the song from this thread but another describing "Lots of washing hanging on the line, over the garden wall"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I don't want to play in your yard...
From: SINSULL
Date: 09 Feb 08 - 07:36 PM

Jimmy Cagney sang this one in The Oklahoma Kid". Very strange gunfighter...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I don't want to play in your yard...
From: Artful Codger
Date: 09 Feb 08 - 08:45 PM

I remember a Dover edition of turn-of-the-century songs which included the sheet music to "I Don't Want to Play..."

"Over the garden wall" reminds me of the 19th century parlor song of that name (scan available at the Levy collection, I believe) which the Carter Family recorded - simplified and abbreviated, of course, so that it turned out fairly drab and didn't make much sense as a story. In its original form, though, it's a cute song, with clever internal rhymes.

Subject: RE: Sail, Baby, Sail
From: GUEST,Thad Mock
Date: 10 Nov 08 - 02:45 PM

My Grandmother sang these lyrics to me when i was a baby and as a child...

Sail, Baby Sail
Out across the sea
Only don't forget to sail
Back again to me.

Baby's boat is like a dream
Sailing on the sea
Only don't forget to sail
Back again to me

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Don't Want to Play in Your Yard
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 10 Nov 08 - 04:06 PM

My Grandmother used to sing it to me when I was little, circa 1950. She was born round about 1880.

When 'reds' came out - and Diane Keaton sang it (with an autoharp, wasn't it?) - I wept buckets. I hadn't heard the song in the intervening years, and it brought the dear old lady right back to me.

She was already quite ill, when I knew her - she had suffered a stroke and she used to take care of me when my Mum was out working. I don't suppose she could chase after a little toddler who would have been into everything - so I sat on her knee and we'd sing for hours together. The favourites were musichall songs - oh oh antonio, jolson, Jesus bids Us shine, hokey pokey penny a lump, Moonlight and Roses.....

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Don't Want to Play in Your Yard
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Feb 12 - 01:50 PM

I know this is a very old post and I do not know if you ever got the lyrics but this is a song sang to me by my great grandmother and grandmother. I have sang this song to my own children and grand children so here are the lyrics:

OH LITTLE PLAYMATE

Oh little playmate come out and play with me
And bring your dollies three, climb up my apple tree,
Slide down my rain barrel; look down my cellar door,
And we will be jolly friends for ever more.

Oh little playmate, I can't come out and play,
My dollies have the flu, oh dear what shall I do?
Ain't got no rain barrel, ain't got no cellar door,
But we can be jolly friends forever more!

Oh little playmate I came to play with you,
I broke your dollies three, chopped down your apple tree,
Kicked over your rain barrel, knocked down your cellar door
And I was sent home forever more!

Oh little playmate can I please come over and play?
I'll fix your dollies three, plant a new apple tree,
I'll pick up your rain barrel and nail up your cellar door,
Then we can be jolly friends forever more!

Oh little playmate come over and play with me,
We'll fix the dollies three, and plant the new apple tree,
We'll pick up the rain barrel and nail up my cellar door,
Then we will be jolly friends forever more!!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req/ADD: I Don't Want to Play in Your Yard
From: GUEST,GUEST
Date: 10 Oct 15 - 09:00 PM

Years ago we put our old 78s onto CD, but failed to label them properly so I can't say who recorded it

I Don't Want To Play In Your Yard

Once there lived side by side, two pretty maids,
Used to dress just alike, hair down in braids,
New gingham pinafores, stockings of red,
Little sun bonnets tied on each pretty head.

Said one little playmate, come out and play with me,
And bring your dollies three, climb up my apple tree,
Look down my rain barrel, slide down my cellar door,
And we'll be jolly friends for evermore

But she couldn't come out and play,
and it was a bright and sunny day
With a tearful eye she breathed a sigh
and I could hear her say

I don't want to play in your yard,
I don't like you any more

Oh please don't be mad at me
And let me slide down your cellar door

You can't holler down my rain-barrel,
you can't climb my apple tree,
And you can't play no more in my yard
If you won't be good to me

I'll be good to you, as good as can be
And I'd like to come out and bring my dollies three
But there's something I forgot to tell yer

You did
Yeah

I'm sorry Playmate, I cannot play with oo
My dollie has the flu
Boo hoo hoo hoo hoo
Aint got no rain barrel, aint got no apple tree
You can use mine
Then we'll be jolly friends
Forever more

INSTRUMENTAL

Playmates
I cannot play with you,
My dolly's got the flu, boohoohoo-oo-oo
Ain't you got no rain barrel
Ain't you got no cellar door
But we'll be jolly friends, for ever
Let's be jolly playmates for ever more