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Lyr/Chords Req: Mr. Johnny Trebeck...how coul

15 Feb 00 - 11:43 PM (#179184)
Subject: Mr. Johnny Trebeck...how could you be so
From: GUEST,mbpost@attglobal.net

I am looking for lyrics and chords to a song that went something like: Oh mr.johnny trebeck (rebeck) how could you be so mean I told you'd be sorry for inventing that machine. Now all the neighbores cats and dogs will never more be seen They'll all be ground to saugages in Johny rebecs machine.

Help?


Threads about this song:


15 Feb 00 - 11:52 PM (#179192)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Mr. Johnny Trebeck...how coul
From: Crowhugger

I surely do hope it comes up...the cranky canuckster here would gleefully fix it up for Alex Trebek. After the polar bear thing, of course.


16 Feb 00 - 12:33 AM (#179219)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Mr. Johnny Trebeck...how coul
From: Arkie

There was a thread on this some time ago. You might try searching the threads. It is also called Johnny Verbeck, or something like that.


16 Feb 00 - 12:45 AM (#179223)
Subject: Lyr Add: JOHNNIE VERBECK^^
From: Metchosin

JOHNNIE VERBECK

There was a Dutchman; his name was Johnnie Verbeck.
He was a dealer in sausages and sauerkraut and spec.
He makes the finest sausages that ever you did see,
But one day he invented a wonderful sausage machine.

CHORUS: Oh, Mister Johnnie Verbeck, how could you be so mean?
I told you you'd be sorry for inventing that machine.
All the neighbors cats and dogs will never more be seen,
For they'll be ground to sausage meat in Johnnie Verbeck's machine.

One day a little fat boy came a walking in the store.
He brought a pound of sausage and piled them on the floor.
The boy began to whistle and he whistled up a tune,
And all the sausages went a-dancing 'round the room. CHORUS

One day the machine got busted the blamed thing wouldn't go,
So Johnnie Verbeck, he climbed inside to see what made it so.
His wife, she had a nightmare and, walking in her sleep,
She gave the crank an awful yank and Johnnie Verbeck was meat. CHORUS


Camp song.


16 Feb 00 - 12:47 AM (#179224)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Mr. Johnny Trebeck...how coul
From: Metchosin

from another cranky canuck


16 Feb 00 - 12:53 AM (#179227)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Mr. Johnny Trebeck...how coul
From: Mbo

This is DUNDERBECK (click)!

--Mbo


16 Feb 00 - 01:04 AM (#179234)
Subject: Lyr Add: JOHNNY VERBECK (additional verses)^^
From: Metchosin

One day the meat inspector came knocking at the door.
He said, "I've come to check your shop, so give me money more!"
Johnnie got real angry and pushed him in the meat.
He fired up the old machine and now there's more to eat. CHORUS

One day there was a shortage; there was no meat to grind.
So Johnnie called the city pound to see what he could find.
They said, "We're out of business; we keep the strays no more,
But we'll refer all future finds directly to your store." CHORUS

One day a scouter leader, he had a brilliant thought.
He'd spend the cash in Johnnie's store for meat that he had sought.
"Mexican Lasagna", the recipe did read.
The irony was that the taste was fabulous, indeed! CHORUS

Have you ever wondered when you go camp,
The food is good and plentiful and never gives a cramp?
But early in the morning you'll see the trucker go,
And lettered on the drivers door is "JOHNNIE VERBECK & CO." CHORUS

More verses.


16 Feb 00 - 02:36 AM (#179269)
Subject: Mr. Johnny Verbeck...how coul
From: Joe Offer

Do we have threads on this song? Why, certainly!
Click here
and here (click) is an "answer song" of dubious authenticity, believed to have been conjured up in Oregon.
Where I come from in Southeastern Wisconsin, this song is known as "Johnny Verbeck," pronounced fur-BECK. Other titles are of questionable authenticity, of course....
-Joe Offer, now in California, where they never heard of the song-
(Sausage isn't healthy enough for Californians, dontchaknow, and you certainly don't even speak of doing such things to cats and dogs)

e-mail sent to original requester


16 Feb 00 - 10:21 PM (#179786)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Mr. Johnny Trebeck...how coul
From: GUEST,thank you so much

Hi, Thanks for your help. My mother is elated and so am I. Mary


16 Feb 00 - 10:34 PM (#179790)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Mr. Johnny Trebeck...how coul
From: Amos

My aunt used to sing this one, but through some process of alteration she sang it "O, Dunderbeck, o, Dunderbeck". Funny how things shift....


08 Mar 00 - 04:20 PM (#192024)
Subject: Mr. Johnny Verbeck...how could you be so mean?
From: Joe Offer

Hi, Amos - I think the most common version of this song is "Dunderbeck." In southeastern Wisconsin, I learned it as "Johnny Verbeck," so I refuse to sing it any other way if I'm the one leading the song. It's not a song I've sung very often, so I have to use "cheat sheets" for the lyrics.
I was going to sing it at our pickers & singers gathering last Wednesday, but realized I the lyrics I had printed out didn't have and appropriately expository first verse. The one in the database ain't bad, but I prefer the one that I had known as a kid. The first set of lyrics Metchosin posted is almost exactly the same as the version I knew.
-Joe Offer-


08 Mar 00 - 06:44 PM (#192099)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Mr. Johnny Trebeck...how coul
From: Jacob B

I've also heard it as "Johnny Quebec". I live in New England, so it's understandable that Johnny Verbeck would have changed his name here to something people are more used to hearing. I've also heard it as Dunderbeck.


08 Mar 00 - 09:47 PM (#192256)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Mr. Johnny Trebeck...how coul
From: Barbara

I learned it in Michigan at camp as "Donderbeck".
Blessings,
Barbara


23 Mar 08 - 10:45 AM (#2295849)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Mr. Johnny Trebeck...how coul
From: GUEST,JOE DONT YOU KNOW

There were many songs my grandmother would sing to our scout troop around the campfire at night and at that time, this was scary as some of the horror movies are today. It was a simpler time.


23 Mar 08 - 11:30 AM (#2295873)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Mr. Johnny Trebeck...how coul
From: Camper-Ted

I learned this song at a summer camp in the 1950's. It was called Johnny Lebeque. The words were the same except for Johnny's last name. Anyone have the music or chords to this song?


23 Mar 08 - 12:56 PM (#2295925)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Mr. Johnny Trebeck...how coul
From: Don Firth

Usta bellow the "Johnnie Vorbeck" version at the top of my lungs with several hundred other Boy Scouts around the evening campfire at Camp Parsons on Hood Canal in Washington State three summers in a row, 1946,'47, and 48. Along with a whole bunch of other songs.

Printed in The New Song Fest compiled by Dick and Beth Best. Excellent collection of folk songs, camp songs, rounds, all kinds of good stuff. If you can find a copy anymore.

Don Firth


23 Mar 08 - 08:11 PM (#2296183)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Mr. Johnny Trebeck...how coul
From: Camper-Ted

Thanks! I found it on page 68 of "The New Song Fest."


28 Mar 08 - 10:40 PM (#2300140)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Mr. Johnny Trebeck...how coul
From: GUEST,Billie Glass

Thsnk god I found this. My husband though I made the whole thing up.I learned it as Johnnie Quebec in 1963 in Central Washington State.


17 Mar 09 - 04:08 PM (#2591289)
Subject: Oh Mr Mr Johnny LeBreque
From: GUEST,Harrow, Ontario

My mother always sang this one. In our area of Canada only a few minor changes. I've found a few versions and when I put them together and inter-change some of the words ...exactly the way I've been singing it for 45 years.

... most notable change, ...(and we loved this as kids)

...I told you'd be sorry for inventin' that damn machine.

she gave the crank a "helluva" a yank and a Johnny LeBreque was meat!


16 Aug 10 - 07:10 PM (#2966727)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Mr. Johnny Trebeck...how coul
From: GUEST

Was surprised to find this song. My cousin used to sing it and play his guitar for us younger ones. There was another one he sang for the young married ones, wish I could find it. I figure it was from the same time period or there about. It was "THE SIX-MONTH BLUES." It goes:

I've just been married about six months, only six months, you see,
The first three months were all O.K. but the last three's killin' me.
My wife begin to hissin', she cut out all the kissin',
Then she failed to shine my shoes.
---------(another line)
They call it the six-month blues.


20 Aug 10 - 12:09 PM (#2969452)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Mr. Johnny Trebeck...how coul
From: Jim Dixon

GUEST: It's not a good idea to tack a new request onto an existing thread about a different song. Nobody will see your request except people who are interested in "Mr. Johnny Trebeck."

More people will see your request if you start a new thread.


06 Sep 10 - 03:00 AM (#2980767)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Mr. Johnny Trebeck...how coul
From: GUEST

My great Grandmother all ways sang it with his name as Johnny Quebec. She tolf me when I was younger that her mother sang it to her. There were a few others that she sang to me Pat Maginny's Goat, If You go to Darby Town, and another that was in Gaelic that I never really understood.


20 Apr 11 - 11:54 PM (#3139428)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Mr. Johnny Trebeck...how coul
From: GUEST

My great-aunts and grandmother used to sing this version to us as a lullabye(if you can imagine that, given the gruesome lyrics!):

Oh, Mr. Johnny Rebeck, how could you be so mean
to grind up little cats and dogs in your sausage machine?
Now all the little cats and dogs will nevermore be seen,
for they'll be ground to sausage meat in Johnny Rebeck's machine.

One day the machine broke and wouldn't work at all.
So Johnny Rebeck climbed to the top to see what made it stall.
His wife in her nightgown came dancing down the hall
and gave the crank a heck of a yank and Johnny Rebeck was meat!


04 Nov 11 - 08:50 PM (#3250563)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Mr. Johnny Trebeck...how coul
From: GUEST

Thank you this was a wonderful find.. My mother sang this and taught us children some verses. I wanted her to write them down before lost.. Now I found this to be very simuliar to her version. It was Johnny Quebec the way she sang it. These other verses would be a addition to the ones I know.


11 Jan 12 - 01:41 PM (#3288809)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Mr. Johnny Trebeck...how coul
From: GUEST

oh my god i can not beave i found this , i rember my dad singing thid to me many times. it brings back so many good memorys . thanks for everone who also remebers it.


09 Apr 12 - 07:00 PM (#3335979)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Mr. Johnny Trebeck...how coul
From: GUEST,batshy

Oh mr. johnny quebec, how could you be so mean. We told you you'd be sorry for inventing that machine. Now all the neighbors cats and dogs will never more be seen. they'll all be ground to sausages in johnny quebec's machine...


25 Jul 15 - 07:12 PM (#3726133)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Mr. Johnny Trebeck...how coul
From: GUEST,Guest, JRyu

Wow! I love this site!

My mother sang this song to me a few times, it was one she had learned as a kid. She was born and raised in Tacoma, Washington, and lived most of her adult life in Lakewood which was sort of considered a glorified suburb of South Tacoma. At least it was when I was a kid. ^_~

She always sang it as Kopeck, but I wonder now if that wasn't the result of her mis- hearing or misunderstanding the name Quebec/Quebeck as a child. Especially since, I believe, two other fellow Washingtonians mentioned learning it as Johnny Quebec.

She never told me where or how she came to learn it, whether t was a song they sang in school, or when she was in the Sea Scouts. Anyway, hear is what I can remember of it.

Oh Mister, Mister Johnny Kopeck
How could you be so mean
Now all the neighbor's cats and dogs will never more be seen,
They'll all be ground to sausages in Johnny Kopeck's machine.

One day a little Dutchboy came walking in the store
He bought a pound of sausages and laid them on the floor.
Then he began to whistle, he whistled up a tune
And all the little sausages went dancing round the room.

One day the thing got busted
The darned thing wouldn't go
And Johnny Kopeck,, he climbed inside to see what made it so
His wife was having nightmares, came walking in her sleep
She gave that crank a heck of a yank, and Johnny Kopeck was meat.

Tune she sang it to was a fairly spritely, upbeat sounding one, for such a morbid song. lol.
It also sounded vaguely familiar to me, but I couldn't place it then or now.
Nor am I familiar with the song that was mentioned several times in the Dunderbeck thread as having the same tune.


29 Sep 19 - 05:12 PM (#4011119)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Mr. Johnny Rebeck...how coul
From: GUEST,Steve Tart

I learned the lyrics in the summer of 1944 when I was 13 from two locals - in Shorewood (suburb of Milwaukee)Milwaukee was a destination for Germans 100 years before and had a great population of saloons.

Once there was a Dutchman. His name was Johnny Rebec.
He was a dealer in sausages and sauerkraut and speck.
One day, he invented a wonderful sausage machine
That turned cats and dogs into little sausages.

Chorus:
Oh Mr. Johnny Rebec, how could you be so mean - for inventing that machine?
Now all the neighbor's cats and dogs will never more be seen;
they all were ground to sausages from Johnny Rebec's machine.

Verse #2

One day a boy came walking - a-walking in the store.
He bought a pound of sausages and laid them on the floor.
The boy began to whistle, he whistled a merry tune;
And all the little sausages went waltzing - a-waltzing around the room.

Verse #3
One day the machine went on the blink; the damn thing wouldn't go.
So, Johnny crawled in the machine to see what made it so.      
His wife she had a nightmare came a-walking in her sleep.
Gave the crank a hellava yank, and Johnny Rebec was MEAT!

Note: Sung in a rollicking roll. Lived all over the Midwest and went to summer camp with boys from all over the Midwest. Yet never heard it elsewhere. Later, I though it was an ethnic German song. Definitely not Yiddish - working class German from another era.

It has been fun reading the threads.

Definitely learned Rebec - not some other variation.


30 Sep 19 - 02:22 AM (#4011166)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Mr. Johnny Trebeck...how coul
From: Joe Offer

Hi, Steve - I also learned the song in the Milwaukee area (south side), but in the 1960s. And I learned it as "Johnny Verbeck" - but otherwise, the lyrics were almost exactly what you recall.
-Joe-


10 Feb 21 - 07:39 PM (#4092545)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Mr. Johnny Trebeck...how coul
From: GUEST,SGG EVV

Just to add another version into the mix, this is how it was taught to me by my brother-in law who learned it growing up in St.Louis. I am looking for som simple guitar chords to go with it.
JOHNNY REBECK

There was a jolly Dutchman his name was Johnny Rebeck
He was a dealer in sausages, sauerkraut and speck
One day he invented a wonderful sausage machine
Now all the neighbor’s cats and dogs will never more be seen


REFRAIN: Oh Mister Johnny Rebeck, how could you be so mean
I told you you’d be sorry for inventing that machine
Now all the neighbors cats and dogs will never more be seen
For they were all ground into sausages in Johnny Rebeck’s machine

One day a boy went walking he walked into a store
He bought a dozen sausages and laid them on the floor
The boy began to whistle he whistled up a tune
And all the little sausages danced around the room

Refrain

One day the machine got busted, the darn thing wouldn’t go
So Johnny Rebeck he climbed inside to see what made it so
His wife she had a nightmare and while walking in her sleep
She gave the crank a heck of a yank and Johnny Rebeck was meat

Refrain


11 Feb 21 - 09:48 AM (#4092624)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: Mr. Johnny Trebeck...how coul
From: GUEST,#

https://www.horntip.com/html/books_&_MSS/1930s/1938ca_IOCA_song-fest_(PB)/index.htm

See p. 47