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Subject: Origins: Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah From: glauber Date: 16 Dec 03 - 05:34 PM Hello, if there's anyone who knows, she or he is probably in this forum, so i'll ask: why is the locomotive called Dinah? My guess is it has something to do with "dynamite", but maybe there's a better explanation? Another question: are there any additional meanings on "someone's in the kitchen with Dinah playing on that old banjo"? I have a feeling that there may be sexual overtones, as in another old song (Irish) where it says "i took my fiddle out and played my love a song". Thanks for indulging my curiosity. glauber |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah From: PoppaGator Date: 16 Dec 03 - 05:38 PM It never occured to me that Dinah, with whom someone is strummin' on the old banjo in the kitchen, might be a *locomotive*! So, Glauber, maybe you already know more about this than the rest of us! Fee fye fiddle-ee i-o |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah From: GUEST,Nigel Parsons Date: 16 Dec 03 - 05:50 PM Obvious Steam train connection is "Dinah won't you blow your horn" Nigel |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah From: Joybell Date: 16 Dec 03 - 05:52 PM No Dinah's the cook. There is the line earlier which goes "... Dinah blow your horn" ie. the dinner horn to call in the workers to eat. My husband and I sang "I've Been Working on the Railroad" just recently on a tourist train. He learned it as a child in America. I'm Australian so I had always thought that the horn was somehow on a train and that Dinah was a train. It always puzzled me too. My true-love set me straight. Joy |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah From: masato sakurai Date: 16 Dec 03 - 05:55 PM Some info is at the thread Lyr Req: Someone's in the Kitchen with Diana. |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah From: Joybell Date: 16 Dec 03 - 05:55 PM Just another note. My husband's grandfather worked on the railroad in Wyoming and songs like this one - "I've Been Working on the Rairoad" have a special place in his heart. Also it's great for barbershop harmonies. Joy |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah From: glauber Date: 17 Dec 03 - 05:20 PM Of course, Dinah is the cook! Thanks! g |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah From: PoppaGator Date: 17 Dec 03 - 05:53 PM NOw I know why they kept repeating: "Dinah wontcha blow, Dinah wontcha blow, Dinah Wontcha blow your ho-o-orn" They were hungry! |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah From: Joybell Date: 17 Dec 03 - 06:21 PM A pleasure. The song's a good one. Fun to sing. Joy |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah From: Joe_F Date: 17 Dec 03 - 06:37 PM If you sing "I've Been Working on the Railroad" at the same time as "Old Black Joe", not only does it harmonize, sort of, some of the time, but there is a salacious synchrony, which I leave it to you to discover. |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah From: Joybell Date: 17 Dec 03 - 06:42 PM Oh Joe! How very naughty you are! We just tried it together. This very moment. The song that is. How did you come up with that? The harmony sounds good too. Joybelle |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah From: Amos Date: 17 Dec 03 - 06:55 PM THe reason they're impatient is it is past dinnertime, but the horn hasn't been sounded yet, the reason being that someone is in the kitchen with Dinah doing something other than preparing dinner! A |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah From: Joybell Date: 18 Dec 03 - 02:44 AM So they were singing this song and "Old Black Joe" at the one time Amos? Dinah and her friend? No wonder the dinner was late! Joy |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah From: Joe_F Date: 18 Dec 03 - 06:35 PM Joybell: I forget who I heard that from. |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah From: glauber Date: 19 Dec 03 - 01:30 PM (Here's a slightly longer answer, now that i have time to sit at the computer.) Thank you all again. You have once more demonstrated your immense knowledgeableness and resourcefullness and helpfulness. :-) As i've come to expect. It makes sense, Dinah being the cook. I'm not sure why i ever thought she was the train (i thought the "kitchen" was the boiler room). But i think i've seen at least one American animated short in which they featured this song with Dinah as the train. This could have been caused by ignorance or embarassment at the racial overtones of the name. Or it could be a false memory. :-) But Dinah has become a favourite name for trains in child stories. So back to lurking. I have limited access to the Internet at the moment. Many thanks, glauber |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah From: GUEST Date: 19 Dec 03 - 02:21 PM Dinah is not the cook, dinah is dinner! its "some one is in the kitchen with dinner" the spelling it "dinah" was some person hearing the song and writting dinner phonetically. The "someone" is probably the cook who the worker on the railroad doesn't know personally. When they use dinah in "dinah won't you blow your horn" they are personifying dinner, invoking it, so to speak, to call them too it. In other words "I have been working hard all day since five o' clock in the morning and I am hungry. I wish the dinner horn would sound so I could eat... but all I hear from the kitchen is some idiot on a banjo not making me dinner." It really makes no sense any other way. |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah From: PoppaGator Date: 19 Dec 03 - 03:21 PM GUEST -- that's a good theory, but I'm buying Amos' summary of 6:55 yesterday evening. It is quite plausible that someone might have written "dinah" where they really should have written "dinnah" as a representation of how a southerner, or black person, or minstel performer, would have pronounced "dinner." Stranger things have happened. But I don't think you're correct in arguing that "It really makes no sense any other way" -- it makes perfect sense that Dinah the cook may have been distracted from her culinary duties by a suitor, strummin' on the old banjo. That way one need not stretch credibility by arguing that "dinner," personified, is being asked to call the gang to itself (to dinner). |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah From: Amos Date: 19 Dec 03 - 04:00 PM Guest, your turn is ingenious but unrealistic. Dinah was a well-established female given name by the time Stephen Foster was born -- you will recall, for example that it was the name of Alice in Wonderland's cat -- and it is unusual for phonemes to slide from lower to higher energy requirements (it is physically easier to say dinner than Dinah). The overtones of "someone in the kitchen with Dinah strumming on the old banjo" are off-color, in case this was not obvious. I leave it to you to interpret what strumming on the old banjo might consist of. A |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah From: GUEST Date: 19 Dec 03 - 05:54 PM Granted it could be a double entandre, but why should it be? What honestly makes everyone think that it must be woman? You are making things incredibly harder then they need to be by bringing in ideas that are not in the song unless you put them there! Folk songs when they want to be off color, are not subtle about it. Even if they meant it to be woman and it is a sublte off color song, why would anyone be singing about it? It goes nowhere! What would you think about a song that went. "someones in the kitchen with mary, someones in the kitchen I know, someones in the kitchen with mary, strumming on the old banjo" Mary won't you blow Mary won't you blow Mary won't you blow your horn? Mary won't you blow Mary won't you blow Mary won't you blow your horn?" While it could seem off color it is not that impressive or memorable. Unless I was in the kitchen with Mary, or Mary is my Wife or daughter, I dont care what she is doing enough to sing about it. Dinner after a hard days work on the other hand, that is somthing to sing about! |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah From: Amos Date: 19 Dec 03 - 06:03 PM Sigh..... |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah From: GUEST,.gargoyle Date: 19 Dec 03 - 10:22 PM Or....from the Rugby Song thread....
Someone's in my sister's vagina,
Sincerely, |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah From: Amos Date: 19 Dec 03 - 10:24 PM Thanks, Garg -- that makes it much better.... ... Sigh.... |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah From: glauber Date: 24 Dec 03 - 05:03 PM Hmmm, now Amos confirms my suspicions about a second meaning to that old banjo. I think it's the first time in this thread someone agreed with me on that, but it definitely sounds like it has a sexual meaning to me. Can't say why, it just sounds that way. "I'm working since 5 in the morning, the horn is not sounding, someone must be in the kitchen doing something non-culinary with the cook." :-) |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah From: GUEST,earl Date: 27 Dec 03 - 02:40 PM The banjo was of course a frying pan..... strumming the movement made to make the contents move about and fry evenly. This person in the kitchen with dinah "dinner" would have been the chef. |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah From: GUEST,Ewan McVicar Date: 28 Dec 03 - 10:35 AM Yes, of course the old banjo is the frying pan - or at least can resasonably be thought of as such, as well as the words being taken literally. Isn't there a model of banjo referred to as a frying pan? This song gets deeper and deeper. |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah From: GUEST,zerta_fiabel Date: 15 Sep 04 - 10:37 PM Wow. The universe works in mysterious ways. I sat down to pen something profound - a story with the lead-in being the song, "I've been workin' on the railroad." The lyrics were easy to find, but I sensed there was more to the song than met the ear. Bussongs.com suggests that: [The song] Appears to have been first printed in 1894 in CARMINA PRINCETONIA. May be a derivative of an old Irish song: "I've been working on the Levee" Who is Carmina Princetonia was what I needed to know and I was led here, to the Mudcat Cafe. There is a God and God has a sense of humour. Of this I am sure. Thank you all for this delightful meandering. Nearly one year later and the energy is still here to make someone like me laugh. Now what I want to know is this: Why would someone work all the live long day (on a railroad, to boot) just to pass the time of day? A linear thinker, given to riveting, transcontinental thoughts? Further,what about misplaced commas? Like the book that's in bookstores at this writing (September 2004) Eats, Shoots and Leaves? Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah, someone's in the kitchen, I know? Or could it be someone I know is in the kitchen with Dinah? Fee-fie fiddle e i o would seem to seem to point the possibility of a giant who may have leapt in from Jack's little time with the beans and the cow, you know? (Comma intended.) Sigh indeed. Now I need to go look up Old Black Joe and see if I can figure out how to sing them together, alone, and then see what's up at the Levee. Maybe drive my Chevy there. It'd be faster and I could blow my horn, too .... Now, if I could only remember what I sat down to write about. =) |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah From: masato sakurai Date: 15 Sep 04 - 11:04 PM zerta fiabel, CARMINA PRINCETONIA is a songbook. Go to another thread linked to above (Date: 16 Dec 03 - 05:55 PM), where I posted the LEVEE SONG lyrics. ~Masato |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah From: GUEST,.gargoyle Date: 16 Sep 04 - 02:35 AM Long Steel Rail, Cohen, 1981 p540.
"I've Been Working on the Railroad" is often followed directly by some other ditty - generally, "Some's in the Kitchen with Dinah," doubless suggested by the last line of the chorus. "Dinah, won't you blow your horn. "Fuld has discussed the sources of this song noting that the words with a different melody from the usual one were published under the title "Old Jow, or Somebody in the House with Dinah." about 1834-1845. The usual melody is probably a variation on "Goodnight Ladies." (8) The latter piece itself derives from an 1847 publication. "Farewell Ladies, " but the more usual form was first printed in 1867. (9) 8. Fuld, World-Famous Music, pp. 513-14. 9. Ibid p. 255.
Sincerely, |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah From: GUEST,Kay Date: 12 Nov 04 - 06:30 PM The song "Somebody's in de House wid Dinah" was evidently a minstrel show tune/skit. It appears in a banjo instructional book called "Phil Rice's Banjo Instructor", which was published in 1858. Phil Rice was a minstrel banjoist who worked the riverboat circuit and died in 1857, before the book was published. The book has the song tune, the banjo accompaniment to go along with it, and dialogue to be spoken between verses of the song. The tune is not the same as the one I know, but it does have the same rhythm and a similar tune. The singer/speaker is suspicious that another man is in the house "making lub wid my Dinah." Since this is is an 1850's minstrel show skit, it has exaggerated dialect. Here are the three verses in the book (with some word substitution): Oh, somebody's in de house wid Dinah, Somebody in de house, I know, Somebody's in de house wid Dinah, A playin on de old Banjo. I know dere's a fella in de house wid Dinah, Dere's a fella in de house, I know, If I cotch a fella in de house wid Dinah, I'll knock him on de head wid dis Banjo. Dere's a big ol' fella in de house wid Dinah, Show me dat fella in de house, by Jo, Bring me dat fella in de house wid Dinah, I'll show him the size of my big toe. |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah From: masato sakurai Date: 12 Nov 04 - 07:32 PM "Old Joe" (with verse 2: "There's/Dere's some one in the/de house with Dinah") is at Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads. old joe [title] |
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Subject: Lyr Add: OLD JOE (from Bodleian) From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 12 Nov 04 - 08:24 PM A lot of speculation but little factual in the remarks about Dinah. She appears in early minstrel songs, and had crossed to England probably about 1840. She appears there in several broadsides in the song "Old Joe," sung with some differences in the lyrics. I think that this is the one to whicn Masato referred. Note lines suggestive of "Old Dan Tucker," which seems to be older. Lyr. Add: OLD JOE (1) Old Joe sat at de garden gate, He couldn't get in kase he'd com'd too late; He up wid a stone and knock at de door: "I wants to come in," says dis black Joe. "Who's dere?" "Old Joe." "What de Joe?" "Yes, de Joe"-- Old Joe kicking up behind and before, De yaller gal kicking up behind old Joe. "Dere's some one in de house wid Dinah, Dere's some one in de house, I know; Dere's some one in de house wid Dinah, Playing on de old banjo." Out come Dinah,--"What for you dere?" "I want a gun to shoot dat *hare;" "Come, old nigger, dat game won't do, You'd better go home and mend your shoe"-- Old Joe, &c. He came to town in shocking fright, For he heard a noise, and he saw a fight; Some boys were running up and down, Shouting, "Old Joe is just come to town!"-- Old Joe, &c. In come a nigger with a blue tail'd coat; "Can you give me a change of a five pound note?" "About your notes I do not know, But I'll give you a note on the old banjo."-- Old Joe, &c. * hare becomes bear or bare in other printings. Bodleian Collection, Harding B11(4341). Printed between 1797 and 1834 by Walker, Durham. [My guess is about 1835-1840]. Printed on the same sheet with "Buffalo Gals" and "Ye Mariners of England." Obviously revised from American original to suit an English audience. Broadsides crossed the water as fast as sailing vessels could carry them. |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 12 Nov 04 - 08:43 PM A somewhat different "Old Joe," sheet music dated 1847, at Levy Sheet Music Collection. Chorus: Ole Joe, Ole Joe, a kicking up a hind and a foe, And a yellow Gal a kicking up a hind ole Joe, Ole Joe a kicking up a hind and a foe; And a yellow Gal a kicking up a hind ole Joe. No mention of Dinah in this version printed by Firth and Hall, as sung by the Ethiopian Serenaders. Also another printing, 1848, in a group called The Dark Sett, "The Celebrated Negro Quadrilles...." |
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Subject: Lyr Add: OLD JOE (from Bodleian) From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 12 Nov 04 - 09:03 PM Lyr. Add: OLD JOE (2) Old Joe sat at the garden gate, He couldn't get in for he was too late; He up wid his foot and kicked wid his toe I want to come in 'Cried ole black Joe.' Ole Joe, Ole Joe, Ole Joe. Chorus: Ole Joe kicking out a hind and a fore, And a yellow girl kicking out a hind Ole Joe. Out came Dianah what you doing dere, I want your gun to shoot dat bear; Stand back nigger, dat game won't do, Joe got so wild dat he burst his shoe. Ole Joe, Ole Joe, Ole Joe etc. Very early the next morn, Joe went in the fields to hoe some corn; He worked so hard that he got it done, He finished all by the smash of the sun. Ole Joe, Ole Joe, etc. The whiskey got in Joe's head, He staggered and fell down under a shed; He was taken home and put to bed, In three months after poor Joe was dead. Ole Joe, Ole Joe, etc. Sung by Mr. T. Dunn. Printed by J. Sharp, London, c. 1845. Johnson Ballads 1149, Bodleian Collection. |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah From: GUEST,Kay Date: 12 Nov 04 - 09:10 PM The spoken dialogue that begins the Phil Rice version of "Somebody's in the House wid Dinah" also mentions Old Joe: DIALOGUE. 1st.--(Three or four loud raps at the door.) Who's dare? 2d. --Why, do'nt you know who I is, I's old Jo. 1st.--Why, is dat you Jo? 2d. --Why, yes, hurry up and let us in. 1st.--Now, go away. If you do'nt I'll throw a whole cellar full of hot taters right down your froat. |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah From: Genie Date: 12 Nov 04 - 09:27 PM hmm... All these theories are very interesting -- and in some cases pretty funny, to boot! But I'm still wondering if there's any credibility to what I had been told about "Dinah" -- namely, that "she" was the train and being "in the kitchen" with her meant being in the engine room putting coal into the firebox. I'VE BEEN WORKING ON THE RAILROAD I've been working on the railroad ... Just to pass the time away Can't you hear the whistle blowing, Rise up so early in the morn? Can't you hear the captain shouting "Dinah, blow your horn!"? [Sounds like a train to me.] Dinah, won't you blow... Dinah, won't you blow your horn Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah ... Strumming on the old banjo, and singing Fie, fi, fiddly i o ,,, Strumming on the old banjo. I know it's hard to tend to the "kitchen" [firebox] this while playing the banjo -- which might account for all those banjo jokes §;-D -- but it really does make sense. So have we definitively ruled out this theory of Dinah's identity? BTW, as to "Dinah" being racist, wasn't it a pretty common "Biblical" name for girl children of born-again Christians, whether white or black? (Dinah was the sister of Joseph and the other 11 brothers who became the 12 tribes of Israel. Her story is one of great tragedy, intrigue, and treachery.) |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah From: GUEST Date: 12 Nov 04 - 11:02 PM The information in this thread and the related ones makes it clear that the current version of "I've Been Working on the Railroad" is made up of parts of at least two different songs. "Someone's in the Kitchen with Dinah" predates the railroad part of the song and originally had nothing to do with trains. So I don't think there is any basis for thinking being in the kitchen with Dinah means putting coal in the firebox of a train. |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 13 Nov 04 - 12:36 AM The song "I've Been Working on the Railroad" is best followed through threads 511, 32615 and 50253. It is much more recent than "Dinah," as previously noted. 50253: Posted here is the original song that was the basis for "I've Been Working on the Railroad," called the "Levee Song," from "Carmina Princetonia," 1894, (The Princeton Songbook), copyright Martin R. Dennis & Co. There is no evidence of the song before 1894 (Norm Cohen, Long Steel Rail, p. 538-539) although Theodore Raph claimed that it occurred before that date. Levee, in about 1900, was often applied to almost any construction requiring laborers. The full text is quoted by Masato. Dinah Levee Song The 'horn' is the wake-up or go to work call for the workers. Why it is called Dinah is not known, although an unwelcome shrill blast might well be given a female name. Thread 32615: Working on the Railroad: Working on the Railroad Thread 511: Working ....: Working |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah From: The Fooles Troupe Date: 13 Nov 04 - 07:14 AM Could word 'levee' be an old corrupted spelling of 'levy' taking into account the 'levy-ing' of labourers? |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 13 Nov 04 - 01:58 PM The two principal dictonaries (OED and Webster's) provide two basic meanings; an assemblage of people (17th c.) and the building up of an embankment or the embankment itself (18th c.). The latter was extended to other constructions (in informal usage). The latter sometimes was spelt levy or levie. There are slang usages I have run across that stretch these meanings. In the south I have heard an assemblage of workers, e. g. gathering for possible work on the docks, called a 'levee.' Sometimes, out of their day's pay, the selected laborers had to pay a percentage- a 'levy'- to the gang boss who made the selections. I don't think that levee is a correption of levy, but would illiterate laborers know the difference? In other words, Foolestroupe may be right about a possible (slang) usage. |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah From: GUEST,Miller Date: 09 Oct 07 - 09:54 PM It sounds sexual to me! |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah From: GUEST,leeneia Date: 10 Oct 07 - 10:07 AM The reason it's hard to figure Dinah out is that the song is a medley, a combination of two different songs. In the first song, Dinah has something to do with the horn. In the second, she's in the kitchen, listening to a banjo. Could be the same person, or not. When I was in grade school, our songbooks had similar medleys. They consisted of short, old songs artfully strung together. We enjoyed singing them, and I still remember them. 'I've been working on the railroad' first appeared in 'Carmina Princetonia." This means 'Songs of Princeton.' I picture some Princeton students putting on a revue and stringing these two songs together in order to make a more satisfying act. The song linked above, about the Levee, is obviously a medley of that nature. I also picture them cleaning it up. I bet the original was something like I been workin on the railroad, all the goldern day! I mean, has the word 'livelong' ever occurred anywhere else? No. They made it up, probably to replace 'goddamn.' |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah From: Barry Finn Date: 10 Oct 07 - 11:28 AM My stepfather's name was Levertt Bent but to all who knew him well, he was Levy. He came from Nova Scotian stock from the town of Bentville, home of the dwaft & the gaint. Barry |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 10 Oct 07 - 01:22 PM leeneia is correct in that "I've Been Working..." is a put together song, or medley. Like Topsy, it jes' grew. This has been discussed by several writers. "Someone's in de kitchen, ....strummin' on de ole banjo" was not in the "Levee Song" as published in "Carmina princetonia," but was cobbled in later (I have forgotten when or by whom, if known, perhaps mentioned in one of the threads). We used to sing that verse with its own little chorus- Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah (or Rachel, in a common variant) Someone's in the kitchen I know -o-o-ow Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah Strummin' on the ole banjo. Cho. An' singin', Fee, fi, fiddli-i-o Fee, fi, fiddli-i-o-o-o Fee, fi, fiddli-i-o Strummin' on the old banjo. More likely 'Gab-rel' blew the horn, not Dinah. This appears in versions including the "Eyes of Texas (1903)." (Speculation- "The Eyes..." revision appeared in a University of Texas Cowboy minstrel show done in blackface. 'Dinah' and other obvious minstrel references may have been changed to Gabriel in later, printed editions) leeneia makes a serious error regarding 'live-long'. This is still sung in "The Eyes of Texas;" it is common to and not foreign to the tongues of educated university students, although it might be to folk singers. (Harrumpff!) It is fun (although not productive) to speculate about the minutiae of a song, more than likely the original composer(s) didn't think about them. |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah From: Joe_F Date: 10 Oct 07 - 08:15 PM Leeneia: "Livelong" goes back to the 15th century, and the OED's first citation of it is "Alle the lefe longe daye". |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah From: GUEST,leeneia Date: 10 Oct 07 - 08:53 PM Well, that's twice in 450 years. I doubt if it was in the vocabulary of anybody who worked upon the railroad. But it's not a biggie, that's for sure. |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 11 Oct 07 - 12:53 AM THE EYES OF TEXAS "The eyes of Texas are upon you, All the live-long day. The eyes of Texas are upon you, You cannot get away. Do not think you can escape them At night or early in the morn- The eyes of Texas are upon you 'Till Gabriel blows his horn. Sung by some 50,000 starry-eyed (all right, who's the bum who said spaced-out?) Texas fans each weekend during football season, and sung at other times when hoisting cool ones. One heck of a lot of live-longs! Robert Burns- 1786, in his poem "Twa Dogs" - Or lee-lang nights, wi crabbit leuks, Pore owre the devil's pictur'd beuks. and in Mother's Lament- So I, for my lost darling's sake, Lament the live-long day. Emerson in his poem - Where arches green, the live-long day, Echo the blackbird's roundelay. In gardening books- Livelong, a common name for Sedum, and plants of the Antennaria complex. Silbers' "Folksingers Wordbook," p. 103 (G)I've been workin' on the railroad, (C)all the live-long day; I've been workin' on the railroad, just to (A7)pass the time (D7)away. Don't you hear the whistle (G)blowin, (C)rise up so early in the (B7)morn, (C)Don't you hear the captain (G)shoutin': (D7)Dinah, blow your (G)horn. Now as to the song being sung by railroad workers- "The opening couplet was collected from black railroad workers at Auburn, Alabama,..." (1915-1916), "the earliest evidence for the song's currency in oral tradition." See Norm Cohen, 1981, "Long Steel Rail," Univ. Illinois Press, p. 539. The song was collected as folk in North Carolina; Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore. Vol. 5, The Music of the Folk Songs, pp. 146-148, with musical score. First two lines: "I've been workin' on de railroad, All de live-long day, .... Anon. singer, no date or place. (Dinah spelled as Dina) Cowboys yowled it to the moon, to the disgust of nearby coyotes. Collected by Ellwood Adams and sent to John A. Lomax in the 1920s or earlier. Collected in Utah, sung by an old time plainsman, who said it was "just a few words of an old trail song that they used to sing in the Big Bend country of Texas in the 'cow days.'" (Lomax Papers; E. Adams, St. Louis, MO; quoted by Norm Cohen in "Long Steel Rail, p. 539-540). I've been out upon the round-up All the LIVE-LONG day; I've been out a-punchin' cattle Just to pass the time away; Don't you hear the cattle lowing, We get up so early in the morn; Don't you hear the foreman calling, "Cook-ee do blow your horn." Fuld traces the kitchen verse to "Old Joe, or Somebody in the House with Dinah," published in the period 1835-48; The melody, a variant of "Goodnight Ladies," was first published 1847 as "Farewell Ladies," reaching final form in 1867. Quoted from Norm Cohen's discussion, p. 540. I haven't checked Fuld's references. An important recording was by the Blankenship Family of North Carolina, sung as a vocal trio with accompaniment, 1931, Victor 23583. |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah From: GUEST,.gargoyle Date: 11 Oct 07 - 02:03 AM J.E. Lighter (RHDOAmericanSlang) notes:
Dinah - short for dynamite.
Kitchen - RR the engineer's cab of a steam locamotive
Banjo - short handled shovel
Sincerely, |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego Date: 11 Oct 07 - 12:34 PM This was one of the "evergreen" campfire and schoolroom songs of all time in the U.S., at least through the early 1960's. I doubt many of us contemplated its origins as we sang it. What I do learn from this thread, though, is to be careful of simply asking the time from this crowd; you may well learn how to build a watch. |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah From: GUEST,leeneia Date: 13 Oct 07 - 11:30 AM It really doesn't matter how many copy-cat versions with "livelong" in them ya'll quote. "Livelong" sounds bowdlerized and I believe it was bowdlerized. You can sing "livelong" all you want, but I'm going with "goldern." |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah From: Kent Davis Date: 13 Oct 07 - 01:14 PM If someone has an older version with something other than "livelong day", I would like to see it. Regarding the idea that "livelong" couldn't be the original word in the song ("I mean, has the word 'livelong' ever occurred anywhere else? No." and "Well, that's twice in 450 years" and "It really doesn't matter how many copy-cat versions with "livelong" in them ya'll quote."), consider the following: From "Bold Robin Hood and the Three Squires" @displaysong.cfm?SongID=792 Go home, go home," said bold Robin Hood. And weep no more to-day And I will stand hangman this LIVELONG DAY To hang the Squires all three." From "Julius Ceasar" 1.1.38-40 (Shakespeare) Marullus. Knew you not Pompey? Many a time and oft Have you climb'd up to walls and battlements, To towers and windows, yea, to chimney-tops, Your infants in your arms, and there have sat The LIVELONG DAY, with patient expectation, To see great Pompey pass the streets of Rome. From "I'm nobody. Who are you?" by Emily Dickenson How dreary to be somebody! How public, like a frog To tell your name the LIVELONG DAY To an admiring bog! From "The Child-Christ on the Cross" By Henry Nutcombe Oxenham (1819–1888) The LIVELONG night, the LIVELONG DAY, My child, I travail for thy good, From "The Leaves Are Turning Red" (1 Oct 1853) Canzonet Written by Henry C. Watson Composed by William Vincent Wallace, 1812-1865. No more the summer's fervent heat, O'ertakes us on our way; We roam at will with tireless feet, Thro'out the LIVELONG DAY! We roam at will with tireless feet, Thro'out the LIVELONG DAY! Kent |
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