Lyr Req: My Name Is Yon Yonson - that's all???

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Name Is Yon Yonson - that's all???
From: Bill D
Date: 01 Dec 03 - 10:30 AM

I have 'seen' all these versions, but the one I remember as a kid 50 years ago ended differently

"My name is Yon Yon-son, I come from Vis-con-sin
I vork in the lum-ber mills dere
Ven I valk down de street
All de peo-ple I meet,
Say, "Vat de Sam Hill you do dere?"
And I tell 'em!... (repeat)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Name Is Yon Yonson - that's all???
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 Dec 03 - 10:21 AM

So sad about your friend, Coyote Breath. It's all the sadder to lose a friend who has that vital spark of healthy good humor.

The last post from Joe contains the version I grew up with. Perhaps unrelated to my knowledge of the words (learned in the schoolyard, most likely), but I think I, too, have that book. Like Joe, I cleaned off my desk this weekend. Many of the contents went onto the wall behind it, where now resides an attractive set of bracket and board shelves, but that book would be in a different part of the office only reached by leaning across an armchair that usually has a cat sleeping in it. So I didn't bother to look. :)

SRS

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Name Is Yon Yonson - that's all???
From: Rapparee
Date: 01 Dec 03 - 09:04 AM

My, NO! John Jacob is German, or, if you prefer, Dutch (Deutsch). The very idea, indeed. Hmmph!

We used to sing Yon Yonson in grade school, as a round. This was in west central Illinois, on the Mississippi, and no offense was intended. The words were the same as Joe Offer's last post...sung over and over and over and over and over....

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Name Is Yon Yonson - that's all???
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 01 Dec 03 - 06:17 AM

Is Yon Yonson perhaps related to John Jacob Jinkelheimer Schmidt ?

Nigel

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Name Is Yon Yonson - that's all???
From: Coyote Breath
Date: 30 Nov 03 - 11:32 PM

Being from Visconsin I used to get annoyed when outsiders would quote this song to me! (well, I was young and foolish now I am old).

A friend of mine who was born and raised in International Falls used to sing it. He had the Swedish accent down pat (well he WAS a Swede). He was the only one could do that and make me laugh.

His favorite joke was:

"Vats the closest ting to a fish's asshole?

A Finn!"

He died trying to save a laptop computer. It was a late night, a few glasses of wine. He was driving a Taurus. The road was winding, he was going fast. The laptop started to fall off the front seat so he loosened his seat belt to reach over to grab it. He hit some black ice. He hit a tree. True story.

CB

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Name Is Yon Yonson - that's all???
From: Joe Offer
Date: 30 Nov 03 - 10:45 PM

So, for the sake of this, I cleaned my office and found Songs for Swinging Housemothers. Not much different from the others, but I'll post it so it'll match the MIDI

My name is Yon Yon-son, I come from Vis-con-sin
I vork in the lum-ber mills dere
Ven I valk down de street
All de peo-ple I meet,
Say, "Hel-lo, vot's your name?"
And I say... (repeat)

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Click to play

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Name Is Yon Yonson - that's all???
From: Barbara
Date: 30 Nov 03 - 10:20 PM

Well, SRS, I didn't hear them till I went away to college.
And I don't remember all the verses in the data base; but looking
at the footnotes I see that one source is the rugby players.
When I was a senior in HS and a freshman in college, I dated
a Canadian rugby player, and the team parties were the source
of many questionable songs I learned, this one included, I suspect.
Blessings,
Barbara

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Name Is Yon Yonson - that's all???
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 30 Nov 03 - 10:08 PM

I sure didn't hear any of those verses when I was growing up! Whew!

Subject: Lyr Add: I USED TO WORK IN CHICAGO
From: Barbara
Date: 30 Nov 03 - 09:36 PM

Here: it's a variant on "I used to work in Chicago" which is here in the DT. Here are the verses from that song.
Blessings,
Barbara

My name is Yon Yonson, I come from Visconsin
I yoost to work in a bakery. I did, but I don't anymore.
A lady come in for a cake one day
"Layer," she said, so layer I did
I don't work there anymore.


A lady came in for a bird one day
"A goose," she said, so I gave her a goose
I don't work there anymore.

(similarly)
"Felt" she said, felt I did

A lady came in for a sleeper
"Upper" she said; Up 'er I did

A lady came in for a waterbottle
"Rubber " she said; rub 'er I did

A lady came in for a sweater
"Jumper, she said"; jump 'er I did

A lady came in for a ticket
"Bangor," she said; bang 'er I did

Also:
Hardware...nails....nail her I did
Hardware...screw....screw her I did
Fruit......plums....plumb her I did
Cinnamon...sticks...stick her I did
Peas.......split....split her I did
Milk.......cream....cream her I did
Covers.....spread...spread her I did
Rope.......jump.....jump her I did
Booze......liquor...lick 'er I did

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Name Is Yon Yonson - that's all???
From: Barbara
Date: 30 Nov 03 - 09:26 PM

I remember! I remember! Put it in the old processor, and five hours later the answer floats to the surface, or part of it anyway. It was this song:
My name is Yon Yonson, I come from Visconsin
I yoost to work in a bakery
A lady come in for a cake one day
"Layer", she said, lay her I did
Now I don't work there anymore.

There are more, let me look...
Blessings,
Barbara

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Name Is Yon Yonson - that's all???
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 30 Nov 03 - 07:09 PM

I haven't seen it written down. Growing up in a Norwegian community, I always assumed the title was written as Jan (or John) Johnson, and just pronounced properly (with the "Y" sound) for the Norsk character that he is. Silly me!

The second version is much closer to the one we sang as kids, except in that you show as

Ven I valk down de street, all de people I meet,
Dey say, "Hello, vat's your name?"

we sang (with the accent) as
When I walk down the street,
All the people I meet,
Say "Hello, What's your name?"
And I say. . .


It scans better without the extra "Dey."
SRS

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Name Is Yon Yonson - that's all???
From: Barbara
Date: 30 Nov 03 - 05:54 PM

I think there are versions of this where Yon Yonson worked in a mattress factory, and it's a version of "My husband is a plumber"..
I very vaguely recall hearing a bawdy version of it in my college years in Michigan. I think there he sometimes came from Cheboygan.
Has anyone tried googling it?
Blessings,
Barbara

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Name Is Yon Yonson - that's all???
From: Joe Offer
Date: 30 Nov 03 - 05:46 PM

Well, Open Mike, that's what we lesser mortals might think, but Art Theime knows things about Wisconsin that nobody else knows. And the things he doesn't know about Wisconsin, he makes up.
What's more - people believe him!

OK, so I found it has been printed in Song Fest and in Songs For Swinging Housemothers, which isn't on the shelf where it's supposed to be. Here's the version from Song Fest, which isn't a whole lot different:

My name is Yon Yonson
I come from Visconsin
I work in the lumber mills dere;
Ven I valk down de street, all de people I meet,
Dey say, "Hello, vat's your name?"
And I say.... (start over)

---

Click to play

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Now, I suppose this song was somewhat irrelevant to my upbringing because it was about Swedish and Norwegian immigrants, and all we had in Southeastern Wisconsin were Poles and Germans and some very Americanized Danes.
Dem Scandahoovians lived away up dere, almost to Minnysnapolis.
-Joe Offer, You Betcha-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Name Is Yon Yonson - that's all???
From: open mike
Date: 30 Nov 03 - 05:26 PM

of course it is about Visconsin
which ise how you pronouce it
when you sing it

Subject: Lyr Add: MY NAME IS YON YONSON
From: Joe Offer
Date: 30 Nov 03 - 05:21 PM

I lived in Wisconsin from the age of 9 to 21, but somehow I never learned this song. People would talk about it, but they would get no farther than "My Name Is Yon Yonson, I comes from Visconsin." And everybody would laugh, and that would be then end of it. It was assumed that everybody knew the song, so nobody sang it. They sang "In Heaven There Is No Beer" until I learned it very well, and I learned lots of polkas, but not "My Name Is Yon Yonson." I found the following short piece - it this the whole song?

My name is Yon Yonson
I live in Wisconsin
I work in a lumber mill there.
All the people I meet
when I walk down the street
say "Hello, what's your name?" and I say:
My name is Yon Yonson
I live in Wisconsin...
(repeat)

In this thread, Art Thieme, for whom I usually have the greatest respect, says "Yon Yonson" is about South Dakota. Can this be so?
Please help me. This is something that has bugged me for years, since I feel my education in my Wisconsin heritage is incomplete. I do know, however, that the song was quoted by Vonnegut in Slaughterhouse Five, and that Carl Sandburg recorded it.
It would be nice to have a tune to this one, you betcha.
-Joe Offer-

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Here's the version from Vonnegut:

My name is Yon Yonson
I work in Wisconsin
I work in a lumbermill there.
The people I meet when I walk down the street,
They say, "What's your name?"
And I say:
"My name is Yon Yonson
I work in Wisconsin..."

This ditty is cited at least four times in the book, most completely on pp. 3-4.

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Here's the Traditional Ballad Index entry on this song:

My Name is Yon Yonson

DESCRIPTION: "My name is Yon Yonson, I come from Visconsin, I work in the lumber mills there, Ven I valk down the street, all the people I meet, say, 'Hello, vot's your name?' and I say...." and repeat until someone rebels
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Sinclair Lewis, _Dodsworth_)
KEYWORDS: humorous cumulative
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
ADDITIONAL: Walker D. Wyman, _Wisconsin Folklore_, University of Wisconsin Extension (?), 1979, pp. 71, ("My Name is Yon Yonson") (1 text)
Sinclair Lewis, _Dodsworth_, 1929
NOTES: The form quoted in the description does not appear to be original. Wyman's version is not in dialect (I've quoted Leisy's text, even though I've never heard a Norwegian who could pronounce "th" but could not pronounce "w"; it's either or neither). Also. Wyman's last line is simply "All the people I meet Ask how I came to be there." I suspect the latter form would not have been remembered had not someone "circularized" the poem. But since no author is known, there are variant texts, and Leisy has a tune, this *might* be a folk song. So here it is.
Credit to Jim Dixon for pointing out to me the 1929 version in Sinclair Lewis's Dodsworth. This is a version in true Scandihoovian dialect, and properly circular: "Ven I go down de street, All de people I meet, Dey saaaaaaay, 'Vot's your name?' And I sa-aaaaay: My name is Yon Yonson...." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: xMNIYY

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