Lyr Req: A Dollar Down and a Dollar a Week

Subject: Lyr Add: A DOLLAR DOWN AND A DOLLAR A WEEK
From: SueB
Date: 20 Nov 03 - 03:16 AM

Google found me a Woody Guthrie song by this name, with these lyrics:

A Dollar Down and a Dollar a Week
(Woody Guthrie and Cisco Houston)

Ade Olay E-E
Ade Olay E-E
E-E-E-E-E

A friend of mine bought an automobile
At a dollar down and a dollar a week.
Every time he turned the wheel,
It was a dollar down and a dollar a week.

He went riding down the road,
Pinched this girl upon her cheek.
Speed cop took him to the judge,
He got a dollar down and a dollar a week.

Sixty days he laid in jail,
At a dollar down and a dollar a week,
Another man was a lovin' his gal,
At a dollar down and a dollar a week.

When he got out he shot the man,
And laid him in the graveyard six feet deep.
And when he bought the graveyard spot,
it was a dollar down and a dollar a week.


These aren't the lyrics I remember, though - the ones I'm thinking of involved furniture and appliances, and no one was unfaithful or got shot. Might have had something about going to jail and paying bail, wish I could remember better. Help?


Thanks --Suzanne

Subject: Lyr Add: A DOLLAR DOWN AND A DOLLAR A WEEK
From: Joe Offer
Date: 20 Nov 03 - 04:03 AM

The Woody Guthrie version is on a CD called Struggle.
This is from the lyrics sheet from Lee Murdock's CD, Fertile Ground. Murdock calls the song traditional, but I find that hard to believe.
-Joe Offer-

A Dollar Down and a Dollar a Week
(traditional)

A friend of mine bought a radio for
A dollar down and a dollar a week
Said he it's the easiest trap I know
A dollar down and a dollar a week
So he bought a rug a fountain pen
A run about car out here and then
A collection of the lives of some famous men
For a dollar down and a dollars week

Dollar down and a dollar a week
Dollar down and a dollar a week
It's the easiest trap I know says he
A dollar down and a dollar a week

Now he bought a suit, hat and shoes
With a dollar down and a dollar a week
He joined the lodge, paid his dues
It was a dollar down and a dollar a week
Then he bought a ring that was fair to see
For the lovely hand of his bride to be
When he got married the minister's fee
Was a dollar down and a dollar a week

Dollar down...

When the baby came the doctor got
A dollar down and a dollar a week
My friend he clothed and fed that tot
With a dollar down and a dollar a week
At last said his wife I must be free
These weekly payments are ruining me
She got a divorce and the alimony
Was a dollar down and a dollar a week

Dollar down...

Murdock's Notes: This one I also learned from John Blame and was sung by Chris Bouchillion, the Arkansas wood chopper. Upon singing it, a number of people have told me they remember hearing it on the old WLS barn Dance Radio Program years ago.

---

The Limeliters also recorded a song called "A Dollar Down," but I don't have that one. There's a sound clip here (click)...

...he kept it full of gasoline
For a dollar down and a dollar a week.

Just a dollar down
And a dollar a week
You can get all the things you seek
For a dollar down and a dollar a week.

Well, he went speedin' on down the road
And kissin' his gal upon her cheek
They took him in jail, but he put up bail,
For a dollar down and a dollar a week.

The judge did fine him fifty bucks,
And asked if he like to speak
He said, "Judge...

Subject: Lyr Add: A DOLLAR DOWN AND A DOLLAR A WEEK
From: Joe Offer
Date: 20 Nov 03 - 04:40 AM

Here's a more coherent version, from the Old-Time String Band Songbook (Oak Publications). No songwriter listed, so maybe it is "traditional." Basically the same words as Murdock has.
-Joe Offer-

---

A Dollar Down and a Dollar a Week

A friend of mine bought a radio,
For a dollar down and a dollar a week;
Says he, It's the easiest trap I know,
A dollar down and a dollar a week.

So he bought a rug and a fountain pen,
A run-about car out here and then
A set of the lives of the famous men
For a dollar down and a dollar a week.

Then he bought a suit and a hat and shoes
For a dollar down and a dollar a week,
Joined the lodge and paid his dues,
Was a dollar down and a dollar a week.

And he bought a ring that was fair to see
For the lily-white hand of his bride-to-be;
When he got married, the minister's fee
Was a dollar down and a dollar a week,

When the baby came, the doctor got
A dollar down and a dollar a week,
My friend he clothed and fed that tot
With a dollar down and a dollar a week.

At last said his wife, "I must be free,
These weekly payments are ruining me
She got a divorce and the alimony
Was a dollar down and a dollar a week.

---

Click to play

---

Not much in the Traditional Ballad Index, other than what's in the Old-Time Stringband book:

Dollar Down and a Dollar a Week

DESCRIPTION: Singer describes all the things his friend has bought on credit, including clothes, car, marriage, and a child; finally the man's wife, saying "these weekly payments are killing me," divorces him, and the alimony is a dollar down, a dollar a week.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (recording, Arkansas Woodchopper)
KEYWORDS: marriage money humorous commerce
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, p. 79, "Dollar Down and a Dollar a Week" (1 text, 1 tune)
RECORDINGS:
Arkansas Woodchopper [pseud. for Luther Ossenbrink], "A Dollar Down and a Dollar a Week" (Conqueror 7887, 1931)
Woody Guthrie & Cisco Houston, "A Dollar Down and a Dollar a Week" (on Struggle2)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cotton Mill Colic" (theme)
Notes: And this was before Visa cards even existed.... - RBW
File: CSW079

---

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Bibiography
Go to the Discography

The Ballad Index Copyright 2008 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.

---

Roud (click) refers only to the Woody Guthrie recording.

Subject: Limeliters Lyr Req : A dollar down....
From: GUEST,Christine H
Date: 16 Aug 04 - 05:47 AM

The limeliters version is the one I'd like the lyrics for. I remember:
He bought.......a refridgerator, washing machine
and the food stayed cold and the clothes stayed clean, at a dollar down........"

And then at the end "He said with tears, will take a thousand years, at a dollar down........" Thanks

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A dollar down and a dollar a week
From: GUEST,Hootenanny
Date: 16 Aug 04 - 06:02 AM

Also recorded by John Cohen on a New Lost City Ramblers album. Almost certain to be the version which Joe gives above.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A dollar down and a dollar a week
From: GUEST,Cap
Date: 01 Oct 05 - 02:53 AM

I remember the Limeliters version. Just talked to Glenn Yarborough but forgot to ask him about it. Think it was their first hit but don't think they played it since

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A dollar down and a dollar a week
From: Mark Ross
Date: 01 Oct 05 - 02:04 PM

I think it was written by Bob Miller in the '30's.

Mark Ross

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A dollar down and a dollar a week
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 01 Oct 05 - 02:21 PM

Origin?
Compare with the old "Eleven More Months and Ten More Days, I'll Be Out of the Calaboose."

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A dollar down and a dollar a week
From: GUEST,Hootenanny
Date: 01 Oct 05 - 05:50 PM

According to the New Lost City Ramblers Song Book John Cohen got it from a recording by Arkie the Arkansas Woodchopper.

Hoot

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Dollar Down and a Dollar a Week
From: GUEST
Date: 12 Mar 06 - 09:21 AM

hallelujah!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Dollar Down and a Dollar a Week
From: Stewie
Date: 12 Mar 06 - 10:11 AM

Meade et alia (p453) gives 'L.F. McEntee, wds, Dan Banta Jr, m, 1909'. Besides the Arkansas Woodchopper (1931), Meade cites recordings by Shelton Brothers (1937), Pine State Playboys (1938) and Hackberry Ramblers (1938).

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A dollar down and a dollar a week
From: GUEST,Ronald Scott
Date: 02 May 07 - 10:35 AM

Its called "you can have everything you seek for a dollar down and a dollar a week" it was last remade in the 1960's as a folk song. All the others are a silmilier folk song that came out only years after.
It is on one site if anyone wants me to say.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A dollar down and a dollar a week
From: Mo the caller
Date: 03 May 07 - 04:56 AM

Joes link doesn't sound like 11 more months to me.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A dollar down and a dollar a week
From: GUEST,Greycap
Date: 03 May 07 - 06:10 AM

Recorded by the New lost City Ramblers on their LP 'Modern Times' as I recall.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A dollar down and a dollar a week
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 04 May 07 - 07:50 AM

I searched at The Online 78 rpm Discographical Project for "dollar down" and found these:

Barbeque Bob (R. Hicks), DOLLAR DOWN BLUES, Columbia 14412D, 11/2/28.

Arkansas Woodchopper, DOLLAR DOWN AND A DOLLAR A WEEK WITH CHICKEN PIE, Conqueror 7887, 11/13/31.

Shelton Brothers, DOLLAR DOWN DOLLAR A WEEK, Decca 5339, 2/18/37.

Andy Parker and the Plainsmen, A DOLLAR DOWN (AND A DOLLAR A DAY), Capitol 40117, date unknown (late 40's?).

Louis Jordan, A DOLLAR DOWN, Aladdin 3243, date unknown (late 40s – early 50s?).

[They might not all be the same song.]

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A dollar down and a dollar a week
From: clueless don
Date: 04 May 07 - 08:21 AM

GUEST,Ronald Scott wrote

Its called "you can have everything you seek for a dollar down and a dollar a week"

I know I heard a recording of this song once upon a time - can't tell you who did it. But I definitely recall it having a chorus. The verses were probably very much like the lyrics posted earlier in the thread. I recall the chorus being

For a dollar down
and a dollar a week
you can get anything you want for a dollar down
and a dollar a week

There was a short pause (with instruments playing) between each of those lines

I suppose the third line might have been "you can get everything you seek...", as given by GUEST,Ronald Scott.

Don

Subject: Lyr Add: A DOLLAR DOWN (from The Limeliters)
From: GUEST,Winnifred
Date: 04 Mar 08 - 08:12 PM

The version of the song I know is by the Limeliters, and I wrote out the lyrics a while back. The * at the end of a sentence means that it is followed by the phrase "Dollar down and a dollar a week"


This song is about a friend of mine who bought an automobile *
And every time he turned the wheel *
He got a credit card for the new machine *
And he kept it full of gasoline *

CHORUS:
Just a dollar down
And a dollar a week
You can get all the things you seek
For a dollar down and a dollar a week

Well he went speeding on down the road
And kissing his gal upon her cheek
They took him to jail
but he put up bail *
The judge did fine him fifty bucks
And asked if he would like to speak
He said "Judge if I may,
I'd like to pay" *

CHORUS

When he got out, he married that gal *
He bought a wedding ring that was pretty cheap *
Refrigerator, and washing machine *
And the food stayed cold and the clothes stayed clean *

CHORUS

They got themselves a little home *
With a second mortgage and a pretty good loan *
He said to his wife, "It's a pretty good life" *
And she said, "Honey, we don't need much money." *

CHORUS

But six little kids did soon arrive *
He had so many worries that he could not sleep *
As their debts began to mount
They added them up upon a sheet
They said with tears "Will take a thousand years at a
Dollar down and a dollar a week"

CHORUS

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A dollar down and a dollar a week
From: GUEST,iancarterb
Date: 05 Mar 08 - 12:27 AM

I remember a recording by Cisco, which might have been a Newport sampler. I don't have the album any more, in any case, so I'm a less than useful informant.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Dollar Down and a Dollar a Week
From: GUEST,pj
Date: 20 Aug 08 - 04:43 PM

winnifred you have got it right