Lyr Add: 'Jesus Saves'. When did you learn it?

Subject: Lyr Add: 'Jesus Saves'. When did you learn it?
From: John M.
Date: 06 Dec 04 - 02:52 PM

Jesus is the goalie for Torronto Mapleleafs
Jesus is the goalie for Torronto Mapleleafs
Jesus is the goalie for Torronto Mapleleafs
Jesus saves, Jesus saves, Jesus saves.

Jesus keeps his money in the bank of Montreal x 3
Jesus saves, Jesus saves, Jesus saves.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: 'Jesus Saves'. When did you learn it?
From: John M.
Date: 06 Dec 04 - 02:59 PM

That abbreviated message was an error on my part. The song above is sung to the tune of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic". The two verse version above is transcribed from an anonymous female informant who learned it while at camp in Canada in the summer of 1969.

Do any of you remember learning the song earlier than that?

Here is a rugby version with the "Free beer" chorus:

Jesus Can't Play Rugby
(Sung to the Battle Hymn of the Republic)


CHORUS: Free beer for all the ruggers, Free beer for all the ruggers
Free beer for all the ruggers, Jesus saves, Jesus saves, Jesus saves


SINGER: Jesus can't play rugby 'cause the Jew won't pay his dues
ALL: Jesus can't play rugby 'cause the Jew won't pay his dues
Jesus can't play rugby 'cause the Jew won't pay his dues
Jesus saves, Jesus saves, Jesus saves!


SINGER: Jesus can't play rugby 'cause he's only got 12 men

ALL: Jesus can't play rugby 'cause he's only got 12 men
Jesus can't play rugby 'cause he's only got 12 men
Jesus saves, Jesus saves, Jesus saves!


OTHER VERSES:

The goal posts give him flashbacks

His dad fixes the games

He wears illegal headgear

He's got holes in his hands

He can't support a hooker

Jesus can't play touch judge 'cuz his arms point both ways

He's nailed to a cross

He's got some open wounds

He wears illegal spikes


Be sure to finish this song with the following verse,
to make sure you don't go to hell (for singing this song, at any rate).

ALL: Jesus, we're only joking.
Jesus, we're only joking.
Jesus, we're only joking.
Jesus saves, Jesus saves, Jesus saves.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: 'Jesus Saves'. When did you learn it?
From: PoppaGator
Date: 06 Dec 04 - 03:13 PM

I heard the two verses (Bank of Montreal/Toronto Maple Leafs) during the winter of '66-'67 when visiting a friend of a friend who was an American student at the University of Toronto.

I've never encountered the rugby words before -- pretty funny. I can't figure out how all the words fit/scan, so I can't sing 'em all. I can read 'em though, which is enough for now.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: 'Jesus Saves'. When did you learn it
From: Ferrara
Date: 06 Dec 04 - 03:21 PM

Here are the words I learned, (not rugby oriented), have NO idea what period of my life except that I got my BA in 1964 and it was definitely some time prior to that, could have been anywhere from grade school to college:

Jesus puts his money in the First National Bank, (3)
Jesus saves, Jesus saves, Jesus saves

He walks upon the water, he's the lifeguard at our pool (3)
Jesus saves, Jesus saves, Jesus saves

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: 'Jesus Saves'. When did you learn it?
From: Bill D
Date: 06 Dec 04 - 04:08 PM

In my town (Wichita, Kansas) it was the "Union National Bank"( scans better, too), and I heard it in the mid 50s sometime.

This one would be hard to track down...it is such an obvious wordplay.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: 'Jesus Saves'. When did you learn it?
From: GUEST,Charmion at work
Date: 06 Dec 04 - 05:58 PM

Jesus shops at Steinberg's just like all the other Jews (x3)
Jesus saves, Jesus saves, Jesus saves!

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: 'Jesus Saves'. When did you learn it?
From: Bill D
Date: 06 Dec 04 - 08:06 PM

Jesus saves...Moses invests...

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: 'Jesus Saves'. When did you learn it?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 06 Dec 04 - 08:10 PM

Jesus Saves!
The Devil Invests!

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: 'Jesus Saves'. When did you learn it?
From: Bill D
Date: 06 Dec 04 - 08:29 PM

scroll down to 'Jesus saves' and realize how far this has fone..*grin*

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: 'Jesus Saves'. When did you learn it?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 06 Dec 04 - 08:32 PM

I think I learned it in college (a Catholic seminary) in Milwaukee, sometime between 1966-1970:

Jesus puts his money in the Marshall & Ilsley Bank
Marshall & Ilsley Bank
Marshall & Ilsley Bank
Jesus saves, Jesus saves, Jesus saves.

Hey, it was a liberal seminary....
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: 'Jesus Saves'. When did you learn it
From: Janice in NJ
Date: 06 Dec 04 - 09:39 PM

Montreal 1963:

Jesus keeps his money in the Bank of Montreal,
Jesus keeps his money in the Bank of Montreal,
Jesus keeps his money in the Bank of Montreal,
Jesus saves, Jesus saves, Jesus saves.
[Spoken: But Moses invests.]

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: 'Jesus Saves'. When did you learn it?
From: LadyJean
Date: 06 Dec 04 - 10:52 PM

I learned the ditty from a Canadia friend of my sisters, Marcia Turner. They went all over Toronto looking for an SOBHD book for me, and getting some very strange looks. (No, they didn't find one.)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: 'Jesus Saves'. When did you learn it?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 07 Dec 04 - 02:45 AM

I was absolutely sure this song originated in Milwaukee.
No, huh?
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: 'Jesus Saves'. When did you learn it?
From: John M.
Date: 07 Dec 04 - 12:21 PM

Hello everyone,

Bill D, (PM),  you are definitely the earliest person I have run across that knows "Jesus Saves".

Would you be willing to sing do a telephone interview about this song for a folklore purposes?  

Sincerely,

John Mehlberg
[e-mail]
~
Here are my current recordings of "Jesus Saves" in chronological order.  As you can see I only trace the song back to 1969.

• Field Recording - Mehlberg Collection
  • Digital Recording - Mrs.T. - 2004.09.10
    • Jesus Saves [Learned Summer Of 1969] Time: 1:02
  • Digital Recording - Dennis "Mu-Sick" Gill - 2004.03.30
    • Jesus Saves [Learned Late 1970s] Time: 0:43
  • Digital Recording - Shut Yer Manhole (aka Little Head) - 2004.10.09
    • Jesus Saves [song - With Story About The Song; Learned 1990s] Time: 3:17
  • Digital Recording - Sudsuckin' Bigfoot and Enter the Gerbil, Gypsies in the Palace H3 - 2004.05.15
    • Jesus Saves [With Performance Notes; Learned 1990s] Time: 3:17
  • Digital Recording - John Mehlberg - 2004.03.15
    • Jesus Saves [Learned March 12, 2004] Time: 3:28

 

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: 'Jesus Saves'. When did you learn it
From: GUEST,Nancy King at work
Date: 07 Dec 04 - 07:45 PM

Like Bill D., I learned it in the 1950s -- it would have been the early 50s, since it was while I was in grade school in Washington DC. I learned it as "First National Bank." I must admit I haven't given it a whole lot of thought since then!

Nancy

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: 'Jesus Saves'. When did you learn it?
From: Bill D
Date: 08 Dec 04 - 10:25 AM

...and I have NO idea who sang it or the exact date. It is just one of those songs which 'appeared' as kids traded silliness. The only reason I can date it at all is that I was just old enough to know where the Union National Bank was!....which would put me in high school.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: 'Jesus Saves'. When did you learn it?
From: GUEST,Graham bober
Date: 16 Oct 19 - 01:29 PM

There were slightly different words when I sung this with the young socialists here in england but really, Jesus saves Jesus saves! solidarity forever! My wife will grumble at me now. Oh all about 1965

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: 'Jesus Saves'. When did you learn it?
From: Stringsinger
Date: 16 Oct 19 - 02:07 PM

I saw it flashing in neon over a bank building in downtown Los Angeles on Hope Street.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: 'Jesus Saves'. When did you learn it?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 16 Oct 19 - 07:49 PM

Possibly apocryphal, but I heard that someone in the sixties scrawled on to the wayside pulpit message "Jesus saves" the words "Green Shield stamps."

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: 'Jesus Saves'. When did you learn it?
From: Severn
Date: 17 Oct 19 - 07:40 PM

Steve, I always wanted to do something similar to the signs in front of local synagogues some years ago that said:

Save Soviet Jews
(Redeemable for cash prizes)

Or

Free Soviet Jews
(With fill up of ten gallons of more?)
I could have gone up and seen if they had any in my size, but I wisely didn'.

But my favorite denomination name to see on the signs outside their church was


Assembly Of God
(Batteries Not Included)
My favorite one of those churches was fairly close to Manassas Virginia and was the Bull Run Assembly of God. The sermons, I would imagine, would be quite interesting and colorful.

I will leave the writing of graffiti to others. I will just imagine some very now and then.

And, oh yes, I learned it as "puts his money in the First National Bank" on the playground and started hearing "Moses Invests" tacked on to the end in the late 1960s.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: 'Jesus Saves'. When did you learn it?
From: GUEST,Bob Coltman
Date: 20 Oct 19 - 02:54 PM

Jesus puts his money in Gillette razor blades (3)
Jesus shavs, Jesus shaves, Jesus shaves

That, plus the First National Bank, were the only verses I ever heard to it, in grade school, before 1949.

Bob

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: 'Jesus Saves'. When did you learn it?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 22 Oct 19 - 09:30 AM

God: some assembly required.

Jesus saves. The Mongol hoards.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: 'Jesus Saves'. When did you learn it?
From: GUEST,Mark
Date: 22 Oct 19 - 10:34 AM

But St. Peter scores off the rebound.

"'Ere! Preacher! Preacher! Is it true that you save fallen women?"
"Aye, 'tis true brother."
"Save a blonde one for me, then"...