Chord Req: My Long Skinny Lanky Sarah Jane

Subject: Lyr Add: MY LONG SKINNY LANKY SARAH JANE (Stanley)
From: Drayman
Date: 08 Feb 05 - 10:04 PM

This is a Ralph Stanley tune, a lighthearted, tongue-in-cheek one about a girl. Here are the lyrics (just because you might get a bang out of them even if you don't know the chords):

Not too many miles from here
In a town that I love dear
There's a lady that's got me on a string
She's the worst you ever saw
She nearly broke my jaw
She made me carry my left arm in a sling.

She's my darlin, my daisy
She's knock-kneed, she's lazy
Humpbacked, box-ankled and she's lame
Oh, her nose is like a cork,
She's the terror of New York
My long, skinny, lanky Sarah Jane.

Oh Jane, my good old Jane,
Won't you come back to yer bonehead once again
Oh, they say she's mighty nice
but her armpits smell like spice
She's my long, skinny, lanky Sarah Jane.


I'm trying to pick it out in G on my banjo, because I'm strictly a novice player and heck, G's easy. Plus, I figure Ralph Stanley picked the banjo too, so mebbe he went the easy route.

G treats me OK in this tune till the chord change at "my darlin, my daisy" and then I get flustered.

Anybody know this funny tune?

Thanks

Subject: RE: Chord Req: Long Skinny Lanky Sarah Jane
From: GUEST,Steve Latimer
Date: 09 Feb 05 - 08:33 PM

I'm a huge Ralph Stanley fan. I hadn't heard this song until the other day. I received "An Evening Long Ago" on Monday, ordered it in December. I will try to figure out the chords, but I suspect that it is in A. Capo at the second fret. I'll try it tonight and see how it sounds.

Subject: RE: Chord Req: Long Skinny Lanky Sarah Jane
From: Drayman
Date: 09 Feb 05 - 08:40 PM

thanks Steve! good luck with the "detective work"

Subject: RE: Chord Req: Long Skinny Lanky Sarah Jane
From: Drayman
Date: 14 Feb 05 - 11:07 PM

*BUMP*

Steve, any luck on this tune? So far, all I can figure out about the key of A is that it reminds me of "America the beautiful" ...

I can't get this dang tune out of my mind and I can't pick it on the dad-gum banjo!

Help me, Obi-wan Kenobi, you're my only hope!

Nathan the drayman

Subject: RE: Chord Req: Long Skinny Lanky Sarah Jane
From: Joe Offer
Date: 15 Feb 05 - 10:25 PM

wefwesh

Subject: Lyr/Chords Add: MY LONG SKINNY LANKY SARAH JANE
From: GUEST,sounds this way to me
Date: 16 Feb 05 - 10:59 AM

MY LONG, SKINNY, LANKY SARAH JANE

CHORDS: if played in G: are G/A/C/D

[1] Not too many miles from here
In a [4] town that I love [1] dear
There's a lady that's got me on a [5] string
She's the [1] worst you ever saw
She [4] nearly broke my [1] jaw
She made me carry my [5] left arm in a [1] sling.

1st Bridge:
She's my [4] darlin, my daisy
She's [1] knock-kneed, she's lazy
Humpbacked, box-ankled and she's [5] lame
Oh, her [1] nose is like a cork,
She's the [5] terror of New [1] York
My long, skinny, [5] lanky Sarah [1] Jane.

2nd Bridge:
Oh [4] Jane, my good old [1] Jane,
Won't you [2] come back to yer bonehead once a-[5]-gain
Oh, they [1] say she's mighty nice
But her [4] armpits smell like [1] spice
She's my long, skinny, [4] lanky Sarah [1] Jane.

Gene

Subject: RE: Chord Req: Long Skinny Lanky Sarah Jane
From: Drayman
Date: 19 Feb 05 - 05:41 PM

thanks Gene!

Subject: RE: Chord Req: Long Skinny Lanky Sarah Jane
From: GUEST,Chris
Date: 28 Nov 07 - 01:51 PM

In the version I have, the first verse starts out...

"Oh many miles from here
Where I get my Milwaukee beer..."

Subject: RE: Chord Req: My Long Skinny Lanky Sarah Jane
From: GUEST,fred goldrup, Lewiston, ME 04240-8162
Date: 28 Apr 08 - 12:14 AM

I have this good old song on an old 78 rpm disc (remember them?) under the title "My Sarah Jane" by Sam Bunch / 'tother side is "Poor Ellen Smith" by Harvey Farr

Subject: Lyr/Chords Add: MY LONG SKINNY LANKY SARAH JANE
From: GUEST,Mr Nairn
Date: 16 Sep 08 - 01:58 PM

G
Not too many miles from here
            C            G
Where i get my milwaukee beer
                                  D
There's a lady that's got me on a string
          G
She's the worst you ever saw
      C             G
She nearly broke my jaw
                      D            G
She made me carry my left arm in a sling.


          C
She's my darlin, my daisy
          G
She's knock-kneed, she's lazy
                                 D
Humpbacked, box-ankled and she's lame
         G
Oh, her nose is like a cork,
            C            G
She's the terror of New York
                   D          G
My long, skinny, lanky Sarah Jane.


    C                G
Oh Jane, my good old Jane,
          A                               D
Won't you come back to yer bonehead once again
          G
Oh, they say she's mighty nice
          C                G
but her armpit smells like spice
                         D          G
She's my long, skinny, lanky Sarah Jane.


          G   
Oh she promised to meet me
          C             G
When the clock struck seventeen
                              A                D
Down at the stockyard, just three miles out of town.
          G
there are pigs feet and pig ears
      C          G
and tuffle texas Deer
                        D          G
and serloin steaks are 14 cents a pound


          C
She's my darling my daisy
       G   
She's not mean, She's lazy
                                  D
Humpbacked, bo- legged and she's lame
         G
Oh they say her teeth are false
             C             G
well, they rattle when she walks
                      D          G
She's my long skinny lanky sarah jane


    C                G
Oh Jane, my good old Jane,
            A                              D
Won't you come back to yer bonehead once again
             G
they say her breath is sweet
          C                G      
but i'd rather smell her feet
          G          D          G
She's my long skinny lanky sarah jane






thats the full version that i have, just watch out for the "A" in the "three miles out of town" line from the second verse

Subject: RE: Chord Req: My Long Skinny Lanky Sarah Jane
From: GUEST,Mr nairn
Date: 16 Sep 08 - 02:00 PM

hmmm, the chords have been moved about a bit by this site, but they still run in the same order.

Subject: RE: Chord Req: My Long Skinny Lanky Sarah Jane
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Jun 11 - 10:19 AM

My dad sang this to me in the 1950's. His version went like this:
She's my darlin', my daisy
She's humbacked and she's crazy
She's cross-eyed, she's bowlegged and she's blind
Her teeth are false from drinkin' pepper salts
She's My freckled face consumptive Sarah Jane

Subject: RE: Chord Req: My Long Skinny Lanky Sarah Jane
From: GUEST
Date: 03 Mar 12 - 09:23 AM

My gramps used to sing this with slightly different words:

She' my darlin', she's my daisy;
She's hog-fat, she's lazy;
She's hump-backed, she freckle-faced, she's lame;
They say her teeth are false, from eating epsom salts;
She's my freckle-faced, fat, consumptive Sara Jane.

Subject: RE: Chord Req: My Long Skinny Lanky Sarah Jane
From: GUEST,Missy poo milam
Date: 21 Mar 13 - 09:53 PM

My grandfather sang a similar version to me
Shes my darling my daisy
She's cockeyed & crazy
She's pigeon toad & blind
& sweet nippin sauce
Her teeth were all false
She's my humpback lil
Mary Jane ole lady whoo

Always thought he made that up...lol

Subject: RE: Chord Req: My Long Skinny Lanky Sarah Jane
From: GUEST,Guest, Craig
Date: 07 Apr 13 - 10:10 PM

There is a verse about "The first time that I saw her she was mixing peanut butter, and the snot was running freely from her nose."

It ties in with 'Sarah Jane' by Jazz Gillum.
Dad used to sing this on long trips in a pickup with no radio back in the 50's and 60's.

And her teeth were false from gargling epsom salts.

Subject: RE: Chord Req: My Long Skinny Lanky Sarah Jane
From: GUEST,Guest
Date: 03 Nov 14 - 04:34 AM

This, roughly, is Blind Blake and his Royal Victoria Calypsos doing My Freckle Faced Consumptive Sara Jane - cf. Hungry Hash House it the DT               
             D       D7         G7            Gm                  
Well, she promised to meet me when the clock struck seventeen
D            B7             E7          A7
Down by the stock-yards so many miles away
            D             D7         G                  Gm   
Where string beans and onion sell for nineteen cents a pound
D7                   E7    A7      D /D7
My freckle faced consumptive Sara Jane

            G       Gm          D                      B7
She is my lady, my baby, she's cross-eyed and she's crazy
            E7                              A7 (stop)            
She got a banjo belly, a parrot toe, I'm glad I made her sleep outdoors
                D         D7                      G            Gm   
And though they say her breath is sweet, I would rather smell her feet
         D7             E7         A7      D A7
She's my freckle-faced consumptive Sara Jane.


She is my honey, she's got the money, she's a good gal but she's funny

She got iron hands, crooked feet - she don't like fish but she's crazy 'bout meat

Some say her teeth was false from drinking Epsom salts

She's my freckle-faced consumptive Sara Jane.

Inst.   D B7 E7 A7

Some say her teeth was false from drinking Epsom salts

She's my freckle-faced consumptive Sara Jane.

And though they say her breath is sweet, I would rather smell her feet

She's my freckle-faced consumptive Sara Jane.

Subject: RE: Chord Req: My Long Skinny Lanky Sarah Jane
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Nov 14 - 11:28 AM

Thank you for uploading the Alphonso Higgs version! I have been trying to piece together the first part of the song for awhile,

Subject: RE: Chord Req: My Long Skinny Lanky Sarah Jane
From: GUEST,Bob Coltman
Date: 30 Nov 14 - 06:01 PM

From the Traditional Ballad Index.

[Note that the 1929 J. D. Foster recording "My Sarah Jane" is actually the fine performance by Leonard Rutherford with Foster, Rutherford elsewhere being of the well-known Burnett and Rutherford duo.]

Sara Jane

DESCRIPTION: Singer describes his girlfriend/wife in unflattering ways; she hits him, she's the "terror of New York"; in short, ""My poor, silly Jane...She's my darling, she's my daisy, She's humpbacked and she's crazy... She's my freckled-faced consumptive Sara Jane"
AUTHOR: Lyrics: unknown; tune: Will S. Hays
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (recording, Cramer Bros.)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Singer describes his girlfriend/wife in increasingly uncomplimentary ways; she hits him, she's the "terror of New York"; she eats cake, eats a fly, and vomits; she's crosseyed and lame, her breath smells like onions, etc. In short, ""My poor, silly Jane...She's my darling, she's my daisy, She's humpbacked and she's crazy... She's my freckled-faced consumptive Sara Jane"
KEYWORDS: madness shrewishness abuse humorous parody
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Pankake-PHCFSB, pp. 178-179 , "My Freckle-Faced Consumptive Mary Ann" (1 text, 1 tune -- the final verse and chorus of this song, which could circulate independently)
cf. Emerson, pp. 146-147, "Sweet Mary Ann" (1 text, by Harrigan and Braham, which has the "She's a darling, she's a daisy" chorus and may have contributed to this song somehow)
RECORDINGS:
Cramer Brothers, "Sara Jane" (Broadway 7578 c. 1927; Broadway 8059, c. 1932; rec. 1927)
J. D. Foster, "My Sarah Jane" (Gennett 6791/Supertone 9372 [as Sam Bunch], 1929)
Lester McFarland & Robert Gardner, "Sara Jane" (Vocalion 5122, 1927; rec. 1926)
Smoky Mountain Twins, "Sarah Jane" (Conqueror 7065, 1928) [note: this record number was also used for "I Was Born 4000 Years Ago), but that may have been the same recording, as the songs can share a floating verse]
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hungry Hash House" (floating verse, tune)
cf. "I Was Born About Ten Thousand Years Ago (Bragging Song)" (Charlie Poole version - floating verse)
cf. "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (tune)
NOTES: Not to be confused with Uncle Dave Macon's "Rock About My Saro Jane." Since it shares the "freckle-faced consumptive etc." verse with Charlie Poole's 1925 recording "I'm the Man Who Rode the Mule Around the World" and several recordings of "Hungry Hash House," one suspects it was composed as an extension of those appearances. Or does the whole song appear elsewhere, earlier?- PJS
I've no good answer to that question; we are, for the moment, filing loose verses about the freckle-faced girl here, but it's by no means clear where they actually originated. See, however, "Dennis McGonagle's Daughter Mary Ann."
Not to be confused with "Sarah Jane," also a humorous song between lovers, but based on "Pop Goes the Weasel" and ending with him ead and her courting another. - RBW

Subject: RE: Chord Req: My Long Skinny Lanky Sarah Jane
From: GUEST,Bob Coltman
Date: 30 Nov 14 - 06:13 PM

Little more freckle-faced consumptive research:

The song was written before 1882, titled "Sarah Jane," as a parody of J. H. Peabody's 1869 "Scotch Lassie Jean," per Gus Meade's indispensable "Country Music Sources, Univ. of North Carolina, 2002.

The first recording was actually by Ernest V. Stoneman:

"Freckled Faced Mary Jane," OKeh 40312, NYC, April 1925.

And a lot of the old time musicians recorded it including Bob Cranford and A.P. Thompson, and it was recorded as "The Man Who Rode the Mule Around the World" by Uncle Dave Macon and Sid Harkreader, whose version is quite a bit nearer the original than Charlie Poole's.

Bob

Subject: RE: Lyrics to My C
From: GUEST,Sharon
Date: 04 Jul 16 - 02:23 PM

Here's how I learned it:

In a town not far from here
wherehere where they sell the schnops and beer
ther's a lady whose arm is in a sling.
Oh she's the worst you ever saw
for she nearly broke my jaw
she's my cockeyed consumptive Mary Jane.

Mary Jane, oh Mary Jane,
oh she's the worst you ever saw
for she nearly broke my jaw
she's my cockeyed consumptive Mary Jane

Oh she's a dandy she's a daisy
she knock kneed and crazy
bowlegged pigeon towed and lame
oh she's the worst you ever saw
for she nearly broke my jaw
she's my cockeyed consumptive Mary Jane.

Subject: RE: Chord Req: My Long Skinny Lanky Sarah Jane
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Feb 20 - 05:49 AM

Here's the version from my son's grandfather, Hobart Budlong:

Well she told me to meet her when the clock struck seventeen, at the stockyards just three miles out of town;
where the mules ears and frogs eyes and good old texas steers sell for 13 and 14 cents a pound.
Well she's my honey, my baby, she's lockjawed and she's crazy;
latterborn, consumptive and she's lame;
and they say her teeth are phony from eating swiss baloney, she's my latterborn, consumptive Mary Jane.


I guess the song took off like any good old folk song and developed a life of it's own as far as words go.

Subject: RE: Chord Req: My Long Skinny Lanky Sarah Jane
From: GUEST,Starship
Date: 17 Feb 20 - 10:33 AM

Here's another that I don't think has been mentioned:

https://byrdandtheboys.com/mary-jane

Subject: RE: Chord Req: My Long Skinny Lanky Sarah Jane
From: and e
Date: 01 Jun 20 - 06:21 PM

MARY JANE
(learned by James Kenneth Larson, St. John, Idaho (1910s))

She told me she'd meet me when the clock struck seventeen,
At the slaughterhouse just eight miles out of town,
Where the pig's eyes and the pig's ears and the tough old Texas steers
Sell for beefsteak at fifteen cents a pound.
She's crossed-eyed, pigeon-toed, and blind.
And they saw her teeth are foamy
From eating Swiss bologna.
She's my freckle-faced, consumptive Mary Jane!

This is from Songs and Ballads: Folk Material and Old Favorites(Manuscript, ca 1933) by James Kenneth Larson, McCammon, Idaho

Subject: RE: Chord Req: My Long Skinny Lanky Sarah Jane
From: GUEST,Starship
Date: 01 Jun 20 - 09:36 PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FseQowSr6rA

Blind Blake Higgs, 'Consumptive Sara Jane'

Subject: RE: Chord Req: My Long Skinny Lanky Sarah Jane
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Sep 21 - 09:49 PM

My mother taught it me this way
Well she's my honey, my baby,
She's cross-eyed, she's crazy
She's knocked-kneed, pigeon-toed and blind
Well her mouth is all foamy from eating Swiss baloney
She's that freckle-face baby of mine.

Subject: RE: Chord Req: My Long Skinny Lanky Sarah Jane
From: and e
Date: 06 Jun 23 - 10:47 PM

She promised to meet me
When the clock strikes seventeen
In the stockyards, a mile and a half from town;
Where the pigs' feet, and hogs' knees, and tough old Texas steer
Sells for sirloin streak at ninety cents a pound.

O-o-o-oh!

She's my floozey, my daisy,
She's knock-kneed and she's crazy
She hasn't got a bit of brain;
They say her teeth are false,
From eating Epsom salts,
She is
My S.O.L., consumptive Sarah Jane.
So----me Jane!


(Refrain used in the Army only)

And she don't use no prophylactic. at all - at all!

Pg 235, The Canfield Collection. [c1927]

See online here:

https://archive.org/details/1926canfieldcollection/page/n235/mode/2up?view=theater

Subject: RE: Chord Req: My Long Skinny Lanky Sarah Jane
From: cnd
Date: 02 Aug 23 - 06:51 PM

See also: https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=172077

Subject: RE: Chord Req: My Long Skinny Lanky Sarah Jane
From: GUEST,Jaci
Date: 19 Oct 23 - 02:02 AM

My dad taught me this in the early 1950s. Our version is a little different.

She's my darlin', my daisy
She's humpback, She's crazy,
That little Ole cross-eyed gal of mine.

They say her breath us sweet,
but I'd rather smell her feet
That little Ole cross-eyed gal of mine.

They say her teeth are false
From drinking Epsom salt
That lille Ole cross-eye gal of mine.

I know there were a few more verses but can't remember them.

Subject: RE: Chord Req: My Long Skinny Lanky Sarah Jane
From: GUEST,Jaci
Date: 19 Oct 23 - 02:02 AM

My dad taught me this in the early 1950s. Our version is a little different.

She's my darlin', my daisy
She's humpback, She's crazy,
That little Ole cross-eyed gal of mine.

They say her breath us sweet,
but I'd rather smell her feet
That little Ole cross-eyed gal of mine.

They say her teeth are false
From drinking Epsom salt
That lille Ole cross-eye gal of mine.

I know there were a few more verses but can't remember them.