Origins: The Good Boy

Subject: RE: Origins: The Good Boy
From: GerryM
Date: 14 Aug 23 - 09:36 PM

On the 4CD set, Starlight On The Rails – A Songbook, Utah Phillips does a three-minute introduction to Stupid's Song, but only the last ten seconds or so say anything about the song itself. He says "He always wanted me to make a song for him about the things he conscientiously resisted in his own life ... this is Stupid's song."

Subject: RE: Origins: The Good Boy
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 14 Aug 23 - 06:53 PM

Many different formats of original 78 recording of Carl Sandburg singing "Good Boy"

https://archive.org/details/78_the-good-boy_carl-sandburg_gbia0183352a

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Sandburg got his first guitar at age 32

Subject: RE: Origins: The Good Boy
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Aug 23 - 06:32 PM

Listed in the LOC Catalog

1 disc. 33 1/3 rpm. mono. 12 in.
Publisher/Distributor no.
LL 66 Lyrichord
LC classification
Lyrichord LL 66
Performer
Carl Sandburg accompany himself on the guitar.

https://www.loc.gov/audio/?all=true&q=Good+Boy+Carl+Sandburg

Subject: RE: Origins: The Good Boy
From:
Date: 26 Oct 05 - 12:49 PM

I remember hearing a phonograph record with this song being sung by Carl Sandburg, probably on either a 45-rpm or 78-rpm record. (Most likely the latter.) I was entranced by the lyrics, especially as the singer was a famous poet and raconteur. He wrote, as I recall, the poem "Fog" (The fog comes... on little cat feet... it sits looking, over harbor and city... and then moves on) -- about San Francisco. I heard this record circa 1953, in my early teens.

Thank you, Joe Offer, for reminding me of the lyrics as sung by Carl Sandburg.

Subject: RE: Origins: The Good Boy
From: Stewie
Date: 20 Dec 04 - 06:38 PM

Joe, in the booklet accompanying the reissue of 'The Telling Takes Me Home' [Philo CD PH 1210], the note for 'I Have Led a Good Life (Stupid's Song)' is "(adapted from an old song by Utah Phillips)"'. It seems 'The Good Boy' was the 'old song' which he adapted.

--Stewie.

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Thread #58068   Message #916816
Posted By: Stewie
24-Mar-03 - 01:37 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Add: Utah Phillips songs
Subject: Lyr Add: I Have Led A Good Life (Stupid's Song)

I HAVE LED A GOOD LIFE (STUPID'S SONG)^^^
(Utah Phillips)

I have led a good life full of peace and quiet
Now I shall have an old age full of rum and riot
Yes, I have been a good lad, careful and artistic
Now I shall have an old age coarse and anarchistic

Once I paid my taxes and followed every rule
Banker, boss and bureaucrat thought me a willing tool
I voted Democratic and paid the church its due
Now all those swine will have to find some other chump to screw

Of interest, banks and credit, insurance, tax and rent
Of lawyers, agents, generals and clerics I repent
With this [mono digital expletive] for corporations and scorn for those elected
I shall be an old bum, loved but unrespected

Subject: ADD Version: The Good Boy
From: Joe Offer
Date: 20 Dec 04 - 04:06 PM

Here is the verson from Carl Sandburg's The American Songbag (1927). It's almost identical to the first version (click) in the Digital Tradition, but I think the differences are worth noting.

THE GOOD BOY

I have led a good life, full of peace and quiet
I shall have an old age full of rum and riot;
I have been a good boy, wed to peace and study,
I shall have an old age, ribald, coarse and bloody.

I have never cut throats, even when I yearned to,
Never sang dirty songs that my fancy turned to;
I have been a nice boy and done what was expected,
I shall be an old bum loved but unrespected.

Pay attention to Sandburg's notes, which differ from the attribution given in the Digital Tradition:

Lem Parton, a New York journalist who farms at Sneeden's Landing up the Hudson, gives the following version of a highbrow folk song which has several variants.

Note the tune, which is something like "Gambolier."

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Click to play

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I think I like the Spaeth version of the lyrics best.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: Add Version: The Good Boy
From: Joe Offer
Date: 20 Dec 04 - 03:33 PM

We have two versions of this song in the Digital Tradition, but here's another, from Sigmund Spaeth's Read 'Em and Weep: The Songs You Forgot to Remember (1927). Spaeth does not give a title, so I'll use the one from the other DT versions.

THE GOOD BOY

I have led a good life, full of peace and quiet,
But I shall have an old age steeped in rum and riot;
I have been a nice lad, careful of my morals—
I shall be a grandad full of vice and quarrels.

I have never cut throats—even when I've yearned to;
Never sung the queer songs that my fancy turned to.
I have been a good boy, cowed by smug conditions;
I have tied my real self tight in inhibitions.

I have been a sweet boy, wed to peace and study;
But I shall have an old age ribald, coarse and bloody—
With white hair and red face—full of hell and likker—
When I get a bad thought I shall let her flicker.

I shall quit the good life, full of peace and quiet,
And I shall be a Falstaff steeped in rum and riot—
I shall leave the straight path, which I've walked dejected;
I shall be an old bum—loved and unrespected.


Spaeth's notes:

Malcolm (" Mike") Ross, who works for the Hotel Pennsylvania, New York, has brought the old Gambolier tune up to date, with a set of words that beautifully state the case for the rebel against morality. He divides credit, however, with Ralph ("Gee Gee") Albertson, who daims only a partial responsibility....
There are many other sets of words to this universal tune, some of them of an unprintable vulgarity, but widely circulated, nevertheless, in the true folk-song style.

Spaeth suggests The Son of a Gambolier ("I'm a Rambling Wreck from Georgia Tech") for a tune. It also works with the Boy Scout tune for Dunderbeck. "Dunderbeck"is what led me to this song, since Spaeth groups Dunderbeck, "Good Boy," and The Young Oysterman together as songs that use the "Gambolier" tune.

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

Good Boy, The

DESCRIPTION: "I have led a good life, full of peace and quiet. I shall have an old age, full of rum and riot. I have been a good boy, wed to work and study. I shall be an old man, ribald, coarse, and bloody." The once-good boy describes what he will now do
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: rebellion age virtue
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 203, "The Good Boy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, pp. 80-81, [no title] (1 text, tune referenced)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, p. 113, "(no title)" (1 text)
DT, GOODBOY
Roud #13612
NOTES [85 words]: Various authors have claimed this piece (the Digital Tradition lists Lemuel F. Parton, though Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag merely describes him as a source; Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions also lists Lemuel F. Parton, and calls him a New York newwpaperman. Spaeth offers Malcolm Ross and Ralph Albertson). Since versions differ dramatically in character, with only the first line or two being constant, one suspects that all these alleged "authors" are in fact customizing a generic piece. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: San203

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Fragments of this song have been posted in other threads. Click here for information about the version Walt Robertson sang, and here (click) for a fragment of John Dwyer's version.

In this message Stewie posted a version he attributed to Utah Phillips, titled "I Have Led a Good Life (Stupid's Song). The lyrics are identical to The Good Boy (2) in the Digital Tradition, unattributed but taken from the singing of Faith Petric. Can anybody verify if Phillips is the songwriter? It's not in his Starlight on the Rails songbook, but it sure sounds like a Utah Phillips composition.
Oh, here it is on his 1997 Rounder CD, The Telling Takes Me Home - titled "Stupid's Song (I Have Led a Good Life)," words by Bruce "Utah" Phillips, music traditional.
-Joe Offer-