Lyr Req/Add: Mike! (Johnson Girls)

Subject: Lyr Req: Mike! on J-Girls.
From: GUEST,Mark Wolfire
Date: 14 Mar 07 - 02:09 PM

OK all you J-girls fans. I can't quite figure out the last verse in the J-Girls version of Mike! Sounds like "Be dad if you can run, like a head -wa can." It is driving me crazy. What is it really.
Mark

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mike!
From: Peace
Date: 14 Mar 07 - 02:21 PM

shithead

It fits the scansion.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mike!
From: GUEST,Mark Wolfire
Date: 14 Mar 07 - 02:32 PM

What?
Mark

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mike!
From: Jeri
Date: 14 Mar 07 - 04:10 PM

It's Bruce's way of saying "I don't know."

I'm not much more help. To me, it sounds like, "Be dad if you can run, let a head wah can."

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mike!
From: Peace
Date: 14 Mar 07 - 08:53 PM

OK. FYI, I thought you were a troll. When I googled J-girls all I got was freakin' porn and "Suzie is lonely do you want to talk" sites. Now I see you meant The Johnson Girls. I will go look further.

"Mike - Deirdre

(tune and additional lyrics, Dan Milner, © 2000)

Railroads captured the imagination of American songwriters for more than a century.
Passengers and hobos wrote most of the songs but "Mike" comes from the
section gangs who, including women, maintained an assigned length of track, replacing
rotten cross-ties, aligning rails and performing other tasks amidst such dangers
as the one encountered here. Probably originating in Missouri, it was published
without a melody in John and Alan Lomax's American Ballads & Folk Songs."

That's a start. Sorry about the 'shithead' remark.

Subject: ADD: Mike
From: Joe Offer
Date: 15 Mar 07 - 02:45 AM

There are some lyrics on the Johnson Girls Website, but not for this song. There's a clip from the song at Folk-Legacy Records.

Here are the lyrics from American Ballads and Folk Songs (Lomax & Lomax, 1934)

MIKE

Section men a-workin' there all side by side;
Section men a-shirkin', as the hot sun fried.

Chorus:
Damn be the President,
My name's Mike,
I got a hand in it,
I drive the spike.

Mike he come from Tipperary, his name's O'Burke.
Fought like he was stewed, but didn't fight to work.

A-levelin' up the road bed ain't no fun,
Nor a-drivin' down the spikes in the boilin' sun.

Heat boils down, and shakes along the blazing rails,
Hangs around your head until your mind nearly fails.

Shovel in the ground when he hoists the tie;
Supper time a-comin' in the sweet by 'n' by.

Mike was pilin' ties near the ditch by the road
Out among the jimpson where the boys ain't mowed.

He picked up a crosstie without much vim,
Blacksnake wiggles up between his pants and him.

Mike lit out for Oklahoma, ain't come back,
Showed no hesitation as he tore down the track.

Caught up with a special, an' he hollered like a man,
"Bedad, if you can't run, let me ahead wot can."


From the Belden Collection Harvard University. Sent by J. Brown.

---

There's not much on this song in the Traditional Ballad Index:

Mike

DESCRIPTION: "Section men a-workin' there all side by side." One of them, Mike, boasts of his work on the railroad. He works and fights hard. One day he works in the jimson, picks up a crosstie, is attacked by a snake, and flees
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: work railroading animal
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 1869 - Transcontinental railroad complete
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax-ABFS, p. 23, "Mike" (1 text)
Roud #15523
Notes: The chorus of this piece runs, "Damned be the President, My name's Mike, I got a hand in it, I drive the spike." I assume this refers to the famous "driving of the golden spike" (May 10, 1869 in Promontory, Utah), completing the first transcontinental railroad. This is only a guess, though. - RBW
File: LxA023

---

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Instructions

The Ballad Index Copyright 2006 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.

Subject: ADD Version: Mike! (Johnson Girls)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 15 Mar 07 - 03:00 AM

Well, here's what I hear. I have trouble with the beginning of the second-last verse.
-Joe-

MIKE
(as sung by the Johnson Girls)

Section gang workin' in the broilin' sun;
Section men shirkin', though there's work to be done.

Chorus:
Damn be the President,
My name is Mike,
I got my hand into it,
I drive the spike.

Mike's from Tipperary, and his name is O'Burke.
Fights like the devil, and hates to work.

Levelin' up the road bed, it ain't no fun,
Nor drivin' down the spikes in the broilin' sun.

Heat bakes down, and shakes the blazing rails,
Hangs around your head 'til your mind nearly fails.

Shovel in the ground as he hoists the tie;
Supper time comin' in the sweet by 'n' by.

Mike was pilin' ties near the ditch by the road
Out among the jimpson where the boys ain't mowed.

Picked up a crosstie without much vim,
Blacksnake wriggles 'tween his pants and him.

Got (?) for Oklahoma, and he ain't comin' back,
Showed no hesitation as he tore down the track.

Caught up with a 'xpress train, an' hollered like a man,
"Bedad, if you can't run, let ahead wot can."


transcribed by ear from On the Rocks, a 2004 CD by the Johnson Girls

Tune and additional lyrics by Dan Milner, ©2000

Subject: RE: Req/ADD: Mike! (Johnson Girls)
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Mar 07 - 07:38 AM

Thanks!
Thats it. My wife translates the last line as follows. She thinks it sounds like dialect, but more African American than Irish.

"Bedad (Be dead), if you can't run, let ahead wot (what) can."
meaning                                  let ahead who can

Mark

Subject: RE: Req/ADD: Mike! (Johnson Girls)
From: Jeri
Date: 15 Mar 07 - 08:06 AM

Isn't checking the website cheating? ;-)

The chorus they sing is:

Damn be the President,
My name's Mike,
I got a hand into it,
I drive the spike.

Subject: RE: Req/ADD: Mike! (Johnson Girls)
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Mar 07 - 02:58 PM

"Bedad" or "bedads" is an old-time Southern-ism, so yes, it's dialect. But not from black people, to my knowledge. I've only seen it in transcriptions of mountain people's speech, but always white people. I've never heard anyone actually SAY it.

It means the equivalent of, "by gosh," or "for Pete's sake." I'll assume it's a gentle non-swearing form of "By God."

Therefore, (translation):
By gosh, if you can't go any faster than that, you ridiculous slow-moving express train, get out of my way and let me pass you by."

It's a bragging verse, similar to the John Henry/Paul Bunyon type of bragging.

Subject: RE: Req/ADD: Mike! (Johnson Girls)
From: stallion
Date: 15 Mar 07 - 03:02 PM

Ask Joy Bennet she is in Mudcar somewhere

Subject: Lyr Add: MIKE (Johnson Girls)
From: Liam's Brother
Date: 15 Mar 07 - 08:43 PM

Just ask Liam's Brother.

MIKE

Section gang working in the broiling sun
Section men shirking though there's work to be done

Chorus:
Damn be the President, my name is Mike.
I got my hand into it, I drive the spike.

Mike's from Tipperary and his name's O'Burke
Fights like the devil and he hates to work.

Leveling up the roadbed ain't no fun
Nor driving down the spikes in the broiling sun

Heat bakes down and shakes the blazing rails
Hangs 'round your head till your mind nearly fails

Shovel in the ground when he hoists the tie
Supper time coming in the sweet by and by

Mike was piling ties near the ditch by the road
Out among the jimpson where the boys ain't mowed

He picked up a crosstie without much vim
Blacksnake wriggles 'tween his pants and him

Lit out for Oklahoma and he ain't coming back
Showed no hesitation as he tore down the track

Caught up with the 'spress train and hollered like a man
"Bedad, If you can't run, let ahead what can!"

All the best,
Dan Milner

Subject: RE: Req/ADD: Mike! (Johnson Girls)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 15 Mar 07 - 11:34 PM

Hey, I thought of asking Liam's Brother, but I hadn't heard from him in many moons. Thanks a lot, Dan!

Are there other recordings of this song, or just the one from the Johnson Girls? There is no tune in the Lomax book. Lomax says it's from the Belden Collection, but I couldn't find it in Belden's Ballads and Songs Collected by the Missouri Folk-Lore Society (1940)

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Req/ADD: Mike! (Johnson Girls)
From: stallion
Date: 16 Mar 07 - 09:36 AM

oops Dan I forgot you wuz on here too, how you doing, we will be in Boston and Maine 19th of Oct til 26th, Joy tells me it is a weekend away for pinewoods, we plan to be at the Shanty sing in Potsmouth on the 20th and at Sinsuls the day after i8s a maybe.
cheers
Peter

Subject: RE: Req/ADD: Mike! (Johnson Girls)
From: Liam's Brother
Date: 16 Mar 07 - 08:00 PM

Hi Joe!

I cruise Mudcat once a week or so but I've been too busy to do much else. I have a seaquel to Irish Ballads & Songs of the Sea in the works. The Lomaxes wrote in a book published in 1934 that "Mike" is from the Belden Collection, Harvard University. The Belden book was published in 1940. My guess is that "Mike" is in Belden manuscripts at Harvard and, for some unknown reason, was left out of the 1940 book. If that is not correct, it is at least plausible.

No tune, therefore I had to make one. I know of no recordings other than the one by Deirdre and the other Girls. Henry Belden was a professor of English and concerned with texts rather than melodies.

Hope all is well with you and yours,
Dan

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Peter,

I'm starting an MA program in September and I'd like to finish it in a year if humanly possible. I don't expect to be out and about much. But it would be nice to get together of course.

All the best,
Dan

Subject: RE: Req/ADD: Mike! (Johnson Girls)
From: GUEST,Mark Wolfire
Date: 16 Mar 07 - 10:33 PM

Dan
Thanks much for contributing to this thread. I greatly appreciate it. You have done a wonderful job with the tune and lyrics.
Mark

Subject: RE: Req/ADD: Mike! (Johnson Girls)
From: katlaughing
Date: 17 Mar 07 - 12:03 AM

Great to know you are still around here, Dan!