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Lyr Req: National Embalming School

08 Nov 96 - 09:00 PM (#321)
Subject: National Embalming School
From: Dick Wisan (wisanr@norwich.net)

I'm looking for an old camp song, ostensibly the Alma Mater of the "National Embalming School". The tune is a mishmash of tunes, and I can give the following snatches from it:

For thee we live, for thee we die, [tune: Tannenbaum National Embalming School aka "Maryland My Maryland"]

Take off his shoes and put him on the table [Toreador [Something-or-other] if you are able, song from Carmen] Oh, what an awful stench; [Can't remember which The body's out of season. opera it is this tune Drag out the glass jars [bis] came from] We've got to pickle him.

Anybody got the rest?

08 Nov 96 - 09:09 PM (#322)
Subject: RE: National Embalming School
From: Dick Wisan (Trying again)

Oh foo. This editor loses single newlines. I'll try again, punching twice after each line

I'm looking for an old camp long, ostensibly the Alma Mater of the "National Embalming School" The tune is a mishmash of tunes, some of them operatic. Here are some snatches:

To the tune of "O Tannenbaum" (AKA "Maryland my Maryland"):

For thee we live, for thee we die,

National Embalming School.

To the tune of the Toreador song from Carmen:

Take off his shoes and put him on the table;

[something-or-other] if you are able.

Can't remember which opera the tune for this bit came from (Anvil Chorus from ... maybe Forza del Destino?):

Oh, what an awful stink;

The body's out of season;

Drag out the glass jars [bis]

We've got to pih-ih-ickle him.

Can anybody supply it whole? (And, can't someone fix the editor?)

08 Nov 96 - 09:12 PM (#323)
Subject: RE: National Embalming School
From: Still Dick Wisan

Pardon, again. I tried to indent the verses to distinguish them from my comment lines about the tunes, but this thing loses indentations, too.

:-(

Still, it's a nice service to let us trade song words this way, and I appreciate it, even with a bad editor.

:-)

12 Nov 96 - 03:24 AM (#361)
Subject: RE: National Embalming School
From: ggolgar@cello.gina.calstate.edu

We live for you, we die for you
National embalming school
We do our best to give you rest
National embalming school
And when you die, we dig a hole
And bury you so deep in woe
We live for you, we die for you
National Embalming School
Rip, slash, cut and gash
For we must find the reason
Golly how the body stinks
It must be out of season
Post-mortem, post-mortem, post-mortem
Autopsy we must have
Post-mortem, post-mortem, post-mortem
Autopsy we must have
We live for you, we die for you
National Embalming School.

12 Nov 96 - 05:59 PM (#370)
Subject: RE: National Embalming School
From: dick greenhaus

to all above: thanx

The National Embalming School: You kill 'em, we chill 'em.

20 Jan 05 - 02:25 PM (#1383454)
Subject: Lyr Add: NATIONAL EMBALMING SCHOOL / FOR YOU WE...
From: John M.

Hello everyone,

Here is another version of "National Embalming School" (recording) from www.grandfolkies.com.  

Do you sing this song to the three tunes listed?    I can only trace this song back to ~1934.   Does anyone have an older date for the song?

Any help is appreciated.

Sincerely,

John Mehlberg
~
My, mostly traditional, bawdy songs, toasts and recitations website: www.immortalia.com
~

    FOR YOU WE LIVE, FOR YOU WE DIE
(To the tunes of Oh Tannenbaum, A-Hunting We Will Go, and The Anvil Chorus)


Chorus: (to the tune of Oh Tannenbaum)

For you we live, for you we die,
National Embalming School,
We do our best to give you rest,
National Embalming School.
 

(to the tune of fanfare from A-Hunting We Will Go):

Post-mortem, post-mortem, post-mortem
Autopsy we must have.
 

(to the tune of The Anvil Chorus):

Cut, slash, and slice the corpse
For we must have a reason,
Gad, how the body stinks,
It must be out of season.

Final Chorus (to the tune of Oh Tannenbaum):

For you we live, for you we die,
National Embalming School,
We do our best to give you rest,
National Embalming School.



Notes:  Alternate title is "National Embalming School".  The earliest recorded example of this song is from 1934 in a term paper titled "College Songs That Are Unprinted (for Obvious Reasons)" by Sheryl Goldstone which she turned in to Harold Thompson's English class.


Recordings:

 

20 Jan 05 - 02:38 PM (#1383462)
Subject: RE: National Embalming School
From: Anglo

It was printed in Sing Out! long, long ago (60s I think). I recall "To thee we sing, to thee we drool," etc.

20 Jan 05 - 08:02 PM (#1383776)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: National Embalming School
From: Barbara

Gargoyle's version is the same one I learned in the 50's at camp, or maybe it was in elementary school. Strictly word of mouth. I never saw it written anywhere before.
Blessings,
Barbara

20 Jan 05 - 09:30 PM (#1383827)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: National Embalming School
From: Tannywheeler

The only version I know is to O, Tannenbaum.

"To thee we sing, to thee we drool, National Embalming School.
We stuff the corpse; we stuff the ghoul, Nat. Emb. Sch.
    *If you feel hollow deep inside
    We fill you with formaldehyde.
Our boys get hot ere you get cool, Nat. Emb. Sch."

There's another verse I don't remember, except the * section:
..."And when you die, we dig a hole
      And put you in to turn to mould"...

Get that education. George Bush insists.    Tw

02 May 23 - 09:20 PM (#4171373)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: National Embalming School
From: and e

To thee we sing, to thee we drool,
National Embalming School.
We stuff the corpse we stuff the ghoul,
National Embalming School.
If you feel hollow deep inside
We fill you with formaldehyde.
Our boys get hot ere you get cool,
National Embalming School.

National Embalming School, Death Valley

Printed by Sing Out!, Volume 7, No. 1 (Spring, 1957), p. 21.


Can anyone confirm this reference.... it was found in a memeographed college song collection.

02 May 23 - 09:29 PM (#4171375)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: National Embalming School
From: and e

I have looked in Sherle Goldstone's "College Songs That Are Unsung (For Obvious Reason)". I only see the Hearse Song but no National Embalming School.

02 May 23 - 09:48 PM (#4171376)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: National Embalming School
From: and e

NATIONAL EMBALMING SCHOOL;
w Joe Seiferth, & m Gene Marschall,
Pat Regan & Dennis Crawford,
(Copyright) Joe Seiferth; 4 Oct 61;

pg 1403, Catalog of Copyright Entries, 1961.

03 May 23 - 01:17 PM (#4171418)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: National Embalming School
From: and e

Test

04 May 23 - 07:38 AM (#4171466)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: National Embalming School
From: GUEST,, and e (no cookie)

National Embalming School

See the hearse go rolling by,
National Embalming School

Chorus:
For you we live,
For us you die,
National Embalming School

We dig a hole into the crust,
We throw you in, you turn to dust.

Chorus:

Post mortem, post mortem, post mortem,
Autopsy we will go.
Slash -- cut, slash -- cut,
Without any reason,
My God, how the body smells,
It must be out of season.
Snap, crackle, pop,
The bones are breaking.

Chorus:

04 May 23 - 07:39 AM (#4171467)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: National Embalming School
From: GUEST,, and e (no cookie)

Variant from the James T Callow folklore collection online here: https://libraries.udmercy.edu/archives/special-collections/cfa/index.php?fl_id=45529 retrieved 5/3/2023.

Not dated but other items in the collection are dated from the late 1960s to the early 1970s.

18 May 23 - 08:03 PM (#4172532)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: National Embalming School
From: and e

This is supposedly in A Prairie home companion folk song book, 1988.

Can anyone verify this and provide a us with the text and source (if referenced).

18 May 23 - 09:34 PM (#4172535)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: National Embalming School
From: cnd

I had found it previously, but since it has nothing more than what is already provided I decided not to link it.

A Prairie home companion folk song book (1999), p. 125 (you have to "Check out" the book on Archive.org to read this particular page)

18 May 23 - 09:36 PM (#4172536)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: National Embalming School
From: cnd

Oops, fat fingers. Obviously, the date should be (1988) not 99

22 May 23 - 03:14 PM (#4172836)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: National Embalming School
From: Lighter

I heard this much in 1977 or '78:

We live for you,
We die for you,    [sic]
National Embalming School.

We do our best
To give you rest,
National Embalming School.

25 May 23 - 10:00 AM (#4173093)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: National Embalming School
From: and e

After the usual monotony of running around in the Yakima Desert
they finally met on a lonely sand dune and took up
the old fight song of National Embalming School:

We live of you
We die for you --
National Embalming School.

From "Sense and Nonsense" by Pat Raney. Seattle University Spectator, college newspaper dated November 3, 1955, Volume XXIII, No. 6.

25 May 23 - 10:06 AM (#4173096)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: National Embalming School
From: and e

That was retrieved from here:

https://scholarworks.seattleu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1536&context=spectator

on May 25, 2023.

25 May 23 - 10:48 AM (#4173100)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: National Embalming School
From: and e

Pike Serenade

Pi Kappa Alpha men serenaded
all the sorority houses after their
meeting last week. Topping their
hit parade was their Alma Mater,
"National Embalming School".

From The New Mexico Daily Lobo, Vol LII, No. 34, dated February 28, 1950, page 3. This is the newspaper of the University of New Mexico at Albuquerque.

Retrieved from here:

https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1009&context=daily_lobo_1950

With this reference, this song has an earlier date "Great Green Gobs of Greasy Grimy Gopher Guts".

25 May 23 - 06:08 PM (#4173144)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: National Embalming School
From: and e

NATIONAL EMBALMING SCHOOL

For you we live, for you we die —
Nat. Embalming School
We do our best to give you rest
Nat. Embalming School

And when you die we bury you
We dig a hole and shove you through
For you we live, for you we die —
Nat. Embalming School

Post mortems, post mortems, post mortems,
Autopsies we perform.
Post mortems, post mortems, post mortems,
Autopsies we perform.
RIP — SLASH-CUT THE BODY!
There must be a reason.


From Party Songs of Alpha Sig, Beta Theta Rutgers

See here: https://archive.org/details/1957ca-party-songs-of-alpha-sig

The notes say that this was acquired from the son of the man
that joined the Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity, at Rutgers University
in 1956.   This is ca 1957.