Lyr Req: We Turned Our Darling's Picture to the...

Subject: Lyr Add: I TURNED YOUR PICTURE TO THE WALL
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 14 Feb 19 - 01:14 PM

You can hear this lovely song at YouTube:


I TURNED YOUR PICTURE TO THE WALL
Words and music by George Wyle
As recorded by Norah Jones on “Feels Like Home” (2004)

I turned your picture to the wall.
I don’t want to see you anymore.
You once were nice to me,
Sugar and spice to me.
Now you’re as salty as you can be.

We had some good times I recall.
We don’t never have them anymore.
Now you just lie to me,
Then say goodbye to me.
I can’t believe this is happ’ning to me.

When I call you on the phone,
You are never there,
And I sit home all alone.
You don’t even care.

So I’ll just turn your picture to the wall.
I ain’t gonna see you anymore.
It’s all a memory.
Now it can never be.
I’ll never see you at all,
’Cause I will just turn your picture to the wall.

Subject: Lyr Add: DON'T TURN MY PICTURE TO THE WALL (Boyd/
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 14 Feb 19 - 12:30 PM

This song seems unrelated to the ones above. A western swing tune with a polka beat. You can hear it at the Internet Archive.


DON’T TURN MY PICTURE TO THE WALL
Words and music by Bill Boyd and Dick Reynolds.
As recorded by Bill Boyd and his Cowboy Ramblers, 1947.

1. You tell me, darlin’, now it’s all over;
You’ve found another so dark and tall.
Think of me sometimes as you once did, dear.
Don’t turn my picture to the wall.

CHORUS: So hard I’m tryin’ to keep from cryin’,
But somehow, darlin’, the teardrops fall.
Oh, please remember: I’ll always love you.
Don’t turn my picture to the wall.

2. Take all my letters; put them away, dear.
The things I gave you, just keep them all;
And in your heart, dear, please keep a mem’ry.
Don’t turn my picture to the wall.

3. No other lips, dear, will ever thrill me.
No other love, dear, will be my own.
No other one, dear, will walk beside me.
Oh, how I hate to walk alone.

4. Out on the meadow, the stars are fallin’,
Like wilted petals from off the rose;
And in my blue heart, there is a sadness—
A sadness only I can know.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: We Turned Our Darling's Picture to the...
From: meself
Date: 14 Feb 19 - 12:24 PM

"So don’t read my letters to your other girl,"

Jeesh - what kind of a jerk is this guy?

As for the whole business of turning the picture to the wall - wouldn't you just take the picture down, and put up, say, a calendar?

(Btw: gri·setteDictionary result for grisette
/gr?'zet/Submit
noun
1.
a common edible woodland mushroom with a brown or gray cap, a slender stem, and white gills.
2.
ARCHAIC
a young working-class Frenchwoman.)

Subject: Lyr Add: DON'T TURN MY PICTURE TO THE WALL (Smith/
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 14 Feb 19 - 12:06 PM

You can hear this song sung by Helen Price Clark and Walter J. Van Brunt from 1912 at the Internet Archive.

The words below are from the sheet music at Baylor University.


DON’T TURN MY PICTURE TO THE WALL
From “The Girl from Montmartre”
Words by Robert B. Smith, music by Jerome D. Kern, ©1912.

1. [CORIGNON:] You were a princess and I was a prince,
Though our palace was up rather high;
Yet no days so happy I’ve ever known since,
When we laughed, lived and loved, you and I.
We were poor to be sure, but we cared not for gold.
Life was fair, debonair, in those dear days of old.
Ah, those were the good times; I dream of them yet
When I was a student and you a grisette.

CHORUS: [PRALINE:] I don’t expect that you’ve been true to me.
[CORIGNON:] Thank you; you’re very kind.
[PRALINE:] I don’t expect that men can faithful be.
[CORIGNON:] Thank you, if you don’t mind.
[PRALINE:] But I do expect, no matter whom you love,
Those old times with me you will recall;
So don’t read my letters to your other girl,
And don’t turn my picture to the wall.

2. [PRALINE:] An heiress was I and you were a king,
Though between us we hadn’t a crown;
But youth was our kingdom and all it could bring.
Love was better than wealth or renown.
You and I could defy all the whole world might say,
When we dined, sometimes wined, in that little cafe.
Ah, well I remember; forget if you can
When we lived the life of the Quartier Latin.

Subject: Lyr Add: HER FATHER HAS TURNED THE DEAR PICTURE...
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 14 Feb 19 - 11:25 AM

The sequel—from the sheet music at the University of Wisconsin:

HER FATHER HAS TURNED THE DEAR PICTURE AGAIN!
Words and music by Charles Graham, ©1891.

1. A lassie came home who for years ha been gone.
Her pride had been conquered, a mother’s love won.
In youth she had married the choice of her heart,
And lived from her home of her kindred apart.
Her picture was turned to the wall with the past,
But mem’ry will live, and love conquers at last.
Forgotten the hatred, the pride and disdain,
Her father has turn’d the dear picture again.

CHORUS: Her name is still blameless, her heart true and tender.
Her soul is still pure after long years of pain.
Her dear mother murmurs: “I pray’d Heaven to send her,
And Father has turned her dear picture again.”

2 The love of her youth has been long laid away.
He died in her arms like an infant one day.
Once more to the shelter and peace of the “fold,”
She came back the same blue-eyed lassie of old.
The tokens of youth that she loved long ago
Are all hers again, for her goodness they know.
The sunshine comes after the darkness and rain.
Her father has turn’d the dear picture again.

Subject: Lyr Add: ...PICTURE THAT IS TURNED TOWARD THE WALL
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 14 Feb 19 - 11:01 AM

Here are the lyrics from the sheet music at Baylor University. The chorus is a bit different from the version in the DT.


THE PICTURE THAT IS TURNED TOWARD THE WALL
Words and music by Charles Graham, ©1891.

1. Far away beyond the glamor of the city and its strife,
There’s a quiet little homestead by the sea
Where a tender loving lassie used to live a happy life,
Contented in her home as she could be.
Not a shadow ever seemed to cloud the sunshine of her youth,
And they tho’t no sorrow could her life befall;
But she left them all one evening and their sad hearts knew the truth
When her father turned her picture to the wall.

CHORUS: There’s a name that’s never spoken and a mother’s heart half broken.
There is just another missing from the old home; that is all.
There is still a mem’ry living; there’s a father unforgiving
And a picture that is turned toward the wall.

2. They have laid away each token of the one who ne’er returns,
Ev’ry trinket, ev’ry ribbon that she wore.
Tho’ it seems so long ago now, yet the lamp of hope still burns
And her mother prays to see her child once more.
Tho’ no tidings ever reach them what her life or lot may be,
Tho’ they sometimes think she’s gone beyond recall,
There’s a tender recollection of a face they never see
In the picture that is turned toward the wall.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: We Turned Our Darling's Picture to the...
From: GUEST,999
Date: 17 Sep 12 - 11:31 AM

I am finding some sites that title the song, "We Turned Our Darling's Picture TOWARD the Wall."

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: We Turned Our Darling's Picture to the...
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 17 Nov 10 - 04:45 PM

WorldCat.org shows that the British Library has sheet music for a song called WE TURNED OUR DARLING'S PICTURE TO THE WALL by Dave McEnery, 1943.

Dave McEnery was also known as Red River Dave.

The song is mentioned in the book The Songs that Fought the War: Popular Music and the Home Front, 1939-1945 by John Bush Jones (Lebanon, NH: University Press of New England, 2006), pages 51-52, 99. From page 99:

"...But the most emotionally charged of the country songs is the earlier mentioned 'We Turned Our Darling's Picture to the Wall.' A World War I veteran's son turns draft dodger, and his family feels such shame that 'one loving face today we forever turned away / When we turned our darling's picture to the wall.'"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: We Turned Our Darling's Picture to the...
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 14 Nov 10 - 08:44 PM

The Picture that Is Turned Toward the Wall, Charles Graham, 1891, linked to sheet music by Jim Dixon (and in the DT), was printed on a song sheet by H. J. Weiman and copies distributed in England. A copy is in the Bodleian Collection, Harding B 18(399).

Vernon Dalhart recorded it. Did he keep Graham's lyrics?

The sheet music of the song by Skelly, above, also is dated 1891.
Coincidence?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: We Turned Our Darling's Picture
From: Joybell
Date: 08 Jan 07 - 04:41 PM

According to Sigmund Spaeth, "Read 'em and Weep" - Who is not to be trusted too much - but tells a good story - Charles Graham started the whole picture to the wall thing. Graham saw it done in an unremembered melodrama. He was so taken with it that he went and wrote "The Picture that is Turned Toward the Wall" (mentioned upbove).
I love this song. I'd dearly love to have people refer to it as "Joy's Picture...." except I dislike songs being attributed wrongly. One of my pet peeves.
Cheers, Joy

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: We Turned Our Darling's Picture
From: Flash Company
Date: 08 Jan 07 - 10:32 AM

Adrianel... The one you are thinking of was a Gracie Field's piece. I dont know all yhe words but it should be fairly easy to trace:-

Turn Herberts face to the wall, Mother,
Never more mention his name,
He's brought sad disgrace to the family,
And....................(Senior moment!)

FC

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: We Turned Our Darling's Picture
From: Peace
Date: 07 Jan 07 - 08:39 PM

PS Have messaged Adrianel with details.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: We Turned Our Darling's Picture
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 07 Jan 07 - 08:37 PM

See also this one in the DT: THE PICTURE THAT IS TURNED TOWARD THE WALL

It can also be found at Duke University's 'Historic American Sheet Music' collection.

Subject: Lyr Add: PICTURE WITH ITS FACE TURNED TO THE WALL
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 07 Jan 07 - 08:12 PM

Could it be related to this one?

Lyrics copied from The Lester S. Levy Collection of Sheet Music:

THE PICTURE WITH ITS FACE TURNED TO THE WALL
^^ J.P. Skelly
New York: Frank Tousey's Publishing House [date illegible]

1. 'Tis the picture of a fair girl
Now turned away from view,
Once a mother's joy, a father's fond delight;
But the tempting lover came,
And forgetful of good name,
She listened to the voice that was her blight.
From her happy home she fled,
And though tears for her were shed,
No pleading could the wayward one recall.
Now her name they never speak.
To forget her they all seek.
Her picture hangs with face turned to the wall.

CHORUS: It tells the old, old story of sadness and of tears.
'Tis dead forever, now beyond recall.
It is of a daughter fair,
Now an outcast ev'rywhere,
The picture with its face turned to the wall.

2. She had home and ev'ry blessing
That fortune could bestow,
And her glad young life had never known a care,
Till the tinsel and the gold
Led her from her kindred's fold,
And she left her fond old father in despair.
In his anger stern and deep,
In his pride that would not sleep,
He cast her from his heart beyond recall;
And with frown upon his brow,
And no pity for her now,
He turns the picture face unto the wall.

3. Now she roams the world in sorrow,
And in her olden home,
With dust is clad the picture and the frame;
But the parents night and day,
While their hair is turning gray,
In silence still are dreaming of her name.
In their dreams they see her blest,
And their broken hearts attest
The love that lives whatever may befall;
Yet to worldly pride they cling,
And to them it brings a sting:
The picture with its face turned to the wall.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: We Turned Our Darling's Picture
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 06 Jan 07 - 12:07 PM

Thanx, Peace--I'll follow up on your lead.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: We Turned Our Darling's Picture
From: Adrianel
Date: 05 Jan 07 - 09:19 PM

I know it's (probably) a change of subject, bu what song (or perhaps monologue) has the refrain "turn father's face to the wall, mother"? I only remember odd snatches (a relative recited it at a family get-together in the 1950s, when I was less than 10), but I'd be grateful if anyone can help with more words, and a tune if there is one.
Thanks in advance.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: We Turned Our Darling's Picture
From: Peace
Date: 05 Jan 07 - 08:17 PM

I came up with zip. However,

"Red River Dave's Saddle Leather Songs. Bob Miller, Inc. Music Publisher. New York, N.Y. 1940s. 34 p. of music."


Maybe an e-mail to

"Manuscripts Department, University Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill" will get 'em for you.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: We Turned Our Darling's Picture
From: Peace
Date: 05 Jan 07 - 08:09 PM

Dick, the title is "We Turned Our Darlin's Picture To The Wall". That will make a difference with Google.

Subject: Lyr Req: We Turned Our Darling's Picture
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 05 Jan 07 - 08:01 PM

Anyone know where I can find the lyrics to a 1932 Red River Dave song called "We Turned Our Darling's Picture To The Wall"?   NOT "Aunt Clara"