Lyr Req: Sales Tax on the Women

Subject: Lyr Req: Sales Tax On The Women
From: GUEST,Sleepless Dad
Date: 11 Apr 04 - 06:43 PM

I'm looking for the words from a song called "{Don't Put A } Sales Tax On the Women". I first heard it on "The Early Years of the New Lost City Ramblers - 1959 - 1962". Their source was the Dixson Brothers on Bluebird records. Thanks in advance.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sales Tax On The Women
From: harpgirl
Date: 11 Apr 04 - 06:48 PM

I have it on The New Lost City Ramblers CD you mention. I'll put it up unless anyone beats me to it. It's a great tune. Makes me smile.

Subject: Lyr Add: SALES TAX ON THE WOMEN
From: harpgirl
Date: 11 Apr 04 - 06:57 PM

SALES TAX ON THE WOMEN

1. You may sales tax the flower, the lard and the meat,
Take the pennies 'way from me and my pals.
You may sales tax everything that we have to eat,
But don't put a tax upon the gals.

CHORUS: One cent, two cents, three cents in cash,
That's the way my money goes a-spinning;
But take off my hat and hit me with a bat
If you put the sales tax on the women.

2. Don't put the taxes on the good-looking girls,
Although I know the pennies have to go.
Well, I wouldn't have it done for a hundred bucks more,
'Cause the boys wouldn't stand a bit of show.

3. I love the little girls with their lovely little curls.
If that is wrong, I hope I will repent.
I would sure be sore and I couldn't love no more,
If I had to pay the taxes as I went.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sales Tax On The Women
From: GUEST,Sleepless Dad
Date: 11 Apr 04 - 07:10 PM

Dang Harpgirl - that was quick. Thanks for the refresh on the other song too. I haven't heard that one yet.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sales Tax On The Women
From: harpgirl
Date: 11 Apr 04 - 07:14 PM

I found it using Google, honey. Just type in some of the lyrics or the title with parentheses and you can find lots. I put the CD on my computer to record onto minidisc and to get the words, but this is quicker.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sales Tax On The Women
From: Art Thieme
Date: 11 Apr 04 - 08:26 PM

That indeed is a wonderful CD. It's the way I first heard the NLCR in 1959.
Tracy Schwarz, who joined the group when Tom Paley left, is wonderful. That said, Tom's banjo and guitar was so powerful on those early albums that it's always been hard for me not to miss his presence. His doing of Sam McGee's "Railroad Blues" was never done better anywhere on the revival scenes.

Every track is a highlight! I never realized how much I missed hearing the original Folkways records these guys made.

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sales Tax on the Women
From: Bob the Postman
Date: 15 Nov 09 - 08:29 AM

Some additions and corrections to this Dixon Brothers song as recreated by the NLCR:


SALES TAX ON THE WOMEN

You may sales tax the flour, the lard, and the meat
Take the pennies 'way from me and my pals
You may sales tax everything that we have to eat
But don't you put a tax upon the gals

CHORUS: One cent, two cents, three cents in cash
That's the way my money goes a-spendin
But take off my hat and hit me with a bat
If you put the sales tax on the women

Now don't you put the taxes on the good-looking girls
Although I know the pennies have to go
Well I wouldn't have it done for a hundred or more
The boys wouldn't stand a bit of show

I love the little girls with their lovely little curls
If that is wrong, I hope I will repent
I would sure be sore and I couldn't love no more
If I had to pay the taxes as I went

That's the way it goes, Uncle Sam knows
He's just a-tortur'n me and my pals
We would die with the blues without any shoes
If you put the sales tax upon the gals

Well I don't mean any harm when I step out at night
Happy times with the ladies I've spent
Sales taxes on the kisses just wouldn't be right
In my pockets I would never have a cent

transcribed from the New Lost City Ramblers' album "Songs Of The Depression"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sales Tax on the Women
From: Cool Beans
Date: 15 Nov 09 - 10:38 AM

What's the story behind the song? I'm intrigued.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sales Tax on the Women
From: Bob the Postman
Date: 15 Nov 09 - 11:44 AM

I plan to look into that but I assume it was a response to a round of sales tax impositions during the Thirties. Possibly the first instance of an across-the-board sales tax in the USA?

Subject: Lyr Add: DON'T PUT A TAX ON THE BEAUTIFUL GIRLS
From: GUEST,danatheketch
Date: 15 Nov 09 - 09:34 PM

Similar, though not a folk song, from around 1919 by
Jack Yellen and Milton Ager:
(from a modern barbershop arrangement.)

DON'T PUT A TAX ON THE BEAUTIFUL GIRLS

Verse:

Taxes here and there, taxes ev'ry-where,
taxes ev'ry place that they can be;
Tho' I'm getting by, still I can't deny,
there's a tax I know would ruin me.
I wrote my congressman a note,
I said, "If you want my vote:

[CHORUS I]

Don't put a tax on the beautiful girls,
how can I live without love?
You can tax my bus'ness and all that I own,
but have a little pity, leave my pleasure alone.
What'll I do on a beautiful night if I should happen to fall?
Suppose that I'm about to kiss a beautiful maid;
What if she discovers that my tax isn't paid?
Don't put a tax on the beautiful girls,
Or I won't get any lovin' at all.

[CHORUS II]

Don't put a tax on the beautiful girls,
how can I live without love?
You can tax my income, my house and my car,
but I am sure that taxing girls is going too far.
Oh, what'll I do on a beautiful night if I should happen to fall?
But if you have to put a tax on beautiful vamps.
Let me be the guy who goes around with the stamps.
Don't put a tax on the beautiful girls, or I won't get any lovin' at all.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sales Tax on the Women
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 16 Nov 09 - 12:57 AM

"Taxes here and there, taxes ev'ry-where,
taxes ev'ry place that they can be..."


I used to work in a retail store. Every once in a while I'd get a customer who'd complain about the sales tax. Instead of saying what I wanted to say, which was, "Why are you wasting my time whinging about the inevitable when I have other people to wait on?" I would simply smile and say,

"Oh well, it paid for the road that brought you here."

That always put a cork in them.

But I agree that a tax on beautiful girls would be going too far.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sales Tax on the Women
From: Bob the Postman
Date: 16 Nov 09 - 08:14 AM

Wikipedia says that by the end of the Twenties only two states, both Southern, had sales taxes; but in 1933, eleven more states joined the club. By the end of the Thirties, almost all states were picking consumers' pockets.

The Dixon Brothers were textile mill workers from the Carolinas and their Tax On The Gals song was recorded in 1936, so presumably it was written soon after the sales tax craze of '33, influenced by the Yellen and Ager ditty. Note that the latter does not refer to SALES taxes as these had not been invented in 1919, but the two songs share several phrases as well as a central concept.

Subject: Lyr Add: IF THEY EVER PUT A TAX ON LOVE
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 17 Nov 09 - 07:46 PM

Can you stand another song on this theme?

You can see the sheet music at the Indiana University web site:


IF THEY EVER PUT A TAX ON LOVE
Words, Sam Erlich. Music, Nat Osborne.
New York: Harry Von Tilzer Music Pub. Co., 1918.

1. Mister William Brown hadn't been to town
And his sweetheart wondered why,
For she longed to see a play
Or to dance 'round at a cabaret.
She called him on the telephone
And said, "I hate to be alone",
So Mister Brown came in to town,
And gave her this reply:

CHORUS 1: There's a tax on sugar
And there's a little tax on honey.
Why, they even tax your money!
It seems so funny when they tax your honey and your money too.
There's a tax on letters. Soon there'll be a tax on stars above.
Broadway farmers will be out of place,
'Cause there'll be no chickens there to chase.
Goodbye forever
If they ever put a tax on love.

2. Mister William Brown has to stay in town
'Cause he married her one night.
He said the safest plan
Is to be a happy married man,
So after things had run their course,
She sued him for a quick divorce.
Now Mister Brown stays out of town,
And writes her when he can.

CHORUS 2: There's a tax on sugar,
And there's a little tax on honey.
Why, they even tax your money!
It seems so funny when they tax your honey and your money too.
There's a tax on letters. Soon there'll be a tax on stars above.
All old maids who never had a chance
Would grab onto anything in pants.
Goodbye forever
If they ever put a tax on love.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sales Tax on the Women
From: GUEST,flutenfolk
Date: 13 Mar 10 - 02:27 PM

Thanks everyone! I just spent about an hour trying to find the New Lost City Ramblers lyrics for Sales Tax on the Women and yall finally ended my search. Geeze, it's easier to find Mississippi John Hurt lyrics....