Lyr Req: Daddy's on the Roof / Papa's on the ...

10 Mar 09 - 12:25 PM (#2585674)
Subject: Lyr Req: Daddy's on the Roof (partying, I guess)
From: Mrrzy

Hi, don't know if this is the title but it's one of the lines... This is a song I heard this morning on an unknown radio station driving around central Virginia, USA. Something about Mom made him be quiet as a mouse so he went up on the roof and whooped, or hooted, and hollered, sounded like a lot of fun but then I reached my destination without time for a "driveway moment" as NPR calls them, when you can't get out of your car until the end of whatever you are listening to.

Searched the Trad and Forum, didn't find anything? Looked under "papa" too as I'm not sure of the precise word used, despite knowing what it meant.

Thanks!

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10 Mar 09 - 02:01 PM (#2585781)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Daddy's on the Roof (partying, I guess)
From: Dave Illingworth

In our trio GOLLOP/VAN-DELLER/ILLINGWORTH, Steve Van-Deller sings the old Leroy Carr song "Poppa's on the housetop".

If this is the one you want, I will hunt out the words.

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10 Mar 09 - 02:17 PM (#2585796)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Daddy's on the Roof (partying, I guess)
From: peregrina

Papa's on the housetop: on Tim and Mollie O'Brien's CD Take Me Back (Sugar Hill 1988). The notes just say 'trad.'

It's fairly likely to be them if you heard it on a Virginia station.

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10 Mar 09 - 05:15 PM (#2585896)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Daddy's on the Roof (partying, I guess)
From: Cool Beans

The Jim Kweskin Jug Band recorded "Papa's on the Housetop" in the 60s. The chorus goes:
Baby's in the cradle
Brother's gone to town
Sister's in the parlor
Trying on a gown
Mama's in the kitchen
Messin' all around
Papa's on the housetop
Won't come down.
--
Is that your song?

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10 Mar 09 - 07:35 PM (#2586002)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Daddy's on the Roof (partying, I guess)
From: Mrrzy

No, it isn't. It's more like Mommy made him be as quiet as a mouse (at which point housetop might be the right word) then he's up there hollerin and yammerin and maybe in the end he won't come down but that isn't the part that I heard. The other kinfolk being busy sounds right, but not with the words you cited...?

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10 Mar 09 - 07:56 PM (#2586024)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Daddy's on the Roof (partying, I guess)
From: peregrina

Tim and Mollie O'Brien (Take me Back) begin by singing:

'Well Mama told Papa be quiet as mouse/ Papa climbed up to the top of the house/ He made a lot of whoopee made a lot of noise/ Stood up and cheered with the rest of the boys'

then:
'the blues they come the blues they go...'

'Baby's in the cradle, brother's on the town, sister's in the parlor flying up and down, Mama's in the kitchen messin' all around and Papa's on the housetop he won't come down...'

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10 Mar 09 - 08:20 PM (#2586044)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Daddy's on the Roof (partying, I gues
From: Bainbo

Leroy Carr & Scrapper Blackwell from 1930?

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10 Mar 09 - 08:30 PM (#2586049)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Daddy's on the Roof (partying, I guess)
From: Peace

Tim O'Brien wrote a song entitled "Daddy's On the Roof Again".

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10 Mar 09 - 08:30 PM (#2586050)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Daddy's on the Roof (partying, I guess)
From: peregrina

The O'Briens sing the same words as Leroy Carr and Scrapper Blackwell--great youtube by the way-thanks!-- and the Jim Kweskin extract comes from that too.

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10 Mar 09 - 08:32 PM (#2586055)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Daddy's on the Roof (partying, I guess)
From: Peace

Then it wasn't O'Brien's creation?

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10 Mar 09 - 08:35 PM (#2586056)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Daddy's on the Roof (partying, I guess)
From: peregrina

Yes and no--the song Daddy's on the roof (O'Brien plus Darrell Scott) uses a few lines from the Papa's on the housetop song; you can find the words here
the words here

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10 Mar 09 - 08:36 PM (#2586059)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Daddy's on the Roof (partying, I guess)
From: Peace

Thank you, peregrina.

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10 Mar 09 - 08:42 PM (#2586061)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Daddy's on the Roof (partying, I guess)
From: peregrina

And then for a variation on the image cluster of roofs, wild times and the blues--(and fowl, because Papa's on the Housetop has a chicken in a pot) there's 'Henhouse Blues' on Mollie O'Brien's CD 'Tell it True'--but that's about wanting to raise the roof of the chicken coop. Probably also an oldie, and a topic for another thread.

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11 Mar 09 - 12:02 PM (#2586416)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Daddy's on the Roof (partying, I guess)
From: Mrrzy

Thank you all! I knew I could count on y'all...

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25 Apr 23 - 03:12 AM (#4170778)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Daddy's on the Roof / Papa's on the ...
From: GUEST,Dave Hanson

Cats on the rooftop cats on the tiles,
Cats with syphelis and cat with piles,
Cats with their arsoles wreathed in smiles,
As we revel in the joys of fornication.

Dave H

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