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DTStudy: Here's to You Rounders

31 May 17 - 03:35 AM (#3858014)
Subject: DTStudy: Here's to You Rounders
From: Joe Offer

This is an edited DTStudy thread, and all messages posted here are subject to editing and deletion.
This thread is intended to serve as a forum for corrections and annotations for the Digital Tradition song named in the title of this thread.

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HERE'S TO YOU ROUNDERS (DT Lyrics)
(Don Lange)

I never knew my grandad, he was always on the bum
Every September he'd get on the Southbound and ride
Then round about Christmas, me and my brother
We'd get a few coins in the mail we'd go and spend them,
They were all he could send from that Mexico City jail

Here's to you rounders and here's to you railroad bums
Hope that you make it home soon
Here's to the women who married for love
And lived with the man in the moon

Back in the thirties when the going got rough
Old grandad, he'd hit the road
Mother was young then, she only remembered his name
Then granny got work in the canning factory
She took in some wash on the side
She promised herself that she'd never forgive him
A promise she kept till she died

One time near the end, he rolled into town
He was riding the greyhound line
I guess he got old and those boxcars were harder to climb
He dropped his last dime in a call to my granny
But "no" was here only reply
She hung up the phone, she cursed him in German
But I saw the pain in her eye

I never knew my grandad, he was always on the bum
The Salvation Army wrote us a note when he died
Now me and my brother carry the memory
Of a place we never did see
Like some foreign coin that lies cold in the pocket
Of a young boy's dirty blue jeans

Copyright Barking Spider Music
@bum @train
filename[ HEROUNDR
TUNE FILE: HEROUNDR
CLICK TO PLAY
SOF


31 May 17 - 03:38 AM (#3858015)
Subject: RE: DTStudy: Here's to You Rounders
From: Joe Offer

I wish Art Thieme were still around, so he could tell us more about this song. Anybody know who Don Lange is/was? Here's what Art had to say back in 1999. We miss you, Art.

Thread #9357   Message #60408
Posted By: Art Thieme
26-Feb-99 - 10:32 AM
Thread Name: Politics and Social Justice Songs
Subject: Lyr Add: HERE'S TO YOU ROUNDERS (Don Lange)^^^

just a bit askew from your actual topic would be a fine song by Don Lange, still a fine singer but now making exceptional wine out in Oregon, called "Here's To You Rounders". Don allowed me to record it on my first LP for Kicking Mule,(KM-150), __Outright Boldfaced Lies__, even before he did that himself. Priscilla Herdman did it later and several others that don't come to mind right away. Don's version was on Flying Fish.

Chorus) Here's to you rounders and here's to you railroad bums,
Hopin' that you make it home soon,
And yhere's to the women who married for love,
And lived with the man in the moon.

I never knew my grandad, he was always on the bum,
Every September he'd grab him a southbound and he'd ride,
Then along about Christmas me and my brother, we would get a few coins in the mail,
But we couldn't spend 'em, it was all he could send, from the Mexico City jail.

Back in the '30s, when the going got tough, old grandad , he hit the road,
Mother was young then and only remembers his name,
Then granny got work in the old canning factory and she took in some wash on the side,
She promised herself that she'd never forgive him, a promise she kept 'til she died.

One time near the end he rolled into town, he was riding the Greyhound line,
I guess he got old and those boxcars got harder to climb,
He dropped his last dime in a call to my granny, but "NO" was her only reply,
She hung up the phone, and she cussed him in German but I saw the pain in her eyes.

I never knew my grandad, he was always on the bum,
The Salvation Army, they wrote us a note when he died,
Now me and my brother, we carry the memory of a face we never did see,
Like some foreign coin layin' cold in the pocket of a young boy's dirty blue jeans.

Social justice, huh? Art



Here's the Don Lange recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIO6svDFsJk

Ed Trickett / Bok-Muir-Trickett: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0iiyUGiJRo


31 May 17 - 08:12 AM (#3858084)
Subject: RE: DTStudy: Here's to You Rounders
From: clueless don

I saw Don Lange in concert, back in 1981 in Southern California (I was visiting a friend.) All I remember about his set was this song, plus a song about a moose. Good song!

Don


31 May 17 - 09:02 AM (#3858097)
Subject: RE: DTStudy: Here's to You Rounders
From: Jack Campin

I first heard that on a cassette of Anne Feeney's from the 1980s. So it had caught on by then.


31 May 17 - 11:39 AM (#3858124)
Subject: RE: DTStudy: Here's to You Rounders
From: Mark Ross

I learned it back in the 70's from Fred Holstein. What a great song.

Mark Ross


31 May 17 - 12:18 PM (#3858130)
Subject: RE: DTStudy: Here's to You Rounders
From: GUEST,Hootenanny

Hi Joe,

Interested in hearing the song but neither of those videos is available when I try the links.


31 May 17 - 01:46 PM (#3858149)
Subject: RE: DTStudy: Here's to You Rounders
From: Greg F.

Semi thread drift, but it put me in mind of Jerry Jeff Walker's "My Old Man" who "had a rounder's soul".


31 May 17 - 02:59 PM (#3858164)
Subject: RE: DTStudy: Here's to You Rounders
From: Joe Offer

Don't know how to fix the links, Hootenanny. I'm supposing you're in Europe or on those little Brexit islands offshore, and the videos may be blocked where you live. The links work here in California.

Does this Fred Holstein link work better for you? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHZD35tiy5o

And another Don Lange link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_C-RZL2oXo

-Joe-


31 May 17 - 05:09 PM (#3858195)
Subject: RE: DTStudy: Here's to You Rounders
From: Bonnie Shaljean

I first heard this song in Dingle's Folk Club in the mid-70s, central London.


31 May 17 - 05:14 PM (#3858198)
Subject: RE: DTStudy: Here's to You Rounders
From: Bonnie Shaljean

I liked it so much that I actually wrote to Don c/o (???) Sing Out magazine - or one of those - asking how I could get ahold of this song, and he wrote me a lovely reply, enclosing it. What a gent.


31 May 17 - 06:01 PM (#3858203)
Subject: RE: DTStudy: Here's to You Rounders
From: GUEST,Hootenanny

Thanks Joe both of those worked fine. No idea why the links you gave earlier don't work here in the UK.

Nice song.