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Lyr Req: Born in a Barrel House

19 Aug 20 - 12:43 PM (#4068842)
Subject: Lyr Req: Born in a Barrel House
From: Joe Offer

from email:

    Dear Joe,
          I can’t find the words to a song I heard in the 1940’s or 1950’s. It goes:

    I was born in a barrel house
    Out behind a hill
    When the revenues
    Found my pappy’s still.
    Now I gotta ramble
    Ramble everywhere
    Me and my partner
    Old cane bottom chair.

    Dump ta deedle,
    dump ta deedle
    Dump te dum
    My fingers tapping out
    A rumpty dum
    Bacon on the fire
    80 cents a pound
    Better eat rabbit
    ‘Til the meat comes down.

    I can’t find it on the web. Can you?
           See you on Zoom tonight!
                   Louise



Can anybody help?

-Joe-


22 Aug 20 - 06:19 PM (#4069215)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Born in a Barrel House
From: cnd

Minor correction but I'd bet the word is "revenuers" and not revenues; "revenuers" was a term used to refer to alcohol enforcement officers.

Can't find anything else about the song, though.


22 Aug 20 - 08:02 PM (#4069223)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Born in a Barrel House
From: Joe Offer

Hi, cnd - I don't correct my friend Louise. She's over 80, and she's the real thing. She grew in the Ozarks and knows all the old songs, and yet she can recite Dylan Thomas and Stephen Vincent Benet. And it was a thrill to go to Scotland with her three times. She keeps finding new adventures.

As for revenuers, I think I see it spelled "revenooers" more often, but I think I've seen a dozen different spelling. The usual term I hear is "Alcohol Tobacco Tax" for the agency - I think that was the term used by oldtimers in federal law enforcement, and I knew a lot of those old guys.


24 Aug 20 - 07:29 PM (#4069502)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Born in a Barrel House
From: GUEST

Cnd is right.It was just a typo. I'd better check more carefully next time! Sure wish I had those other verses.         
                                  Louise


25 Aug 20 - 03:40 PM (#4069611)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Born in a Barrel House
From: GUEST,Starship

Bacon didn't sell for 80 cents a pound until 1966 (then again in 1972). Likely don't mean much, but there it is. PS: that was in the US.