Lyr Req: The Man Who Wrote Home Sweet Home

18 Apr 00 - 12:29 PM (#213746)
Subject: ManWhoWroteHomeSweetHomeNeverWasMarried
From: Uncle_DaveO

I have an excellent set of CDs, called The North Carolina Banjo Collection, and one of the songs is called "The Man Who Wrote Home Sweet Home Never Was a Married Man."

I can follow the "plot" pretty well, but can't get all of the words. Can anybody give me the words?

Dave Oesterreich

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18 Apr 00 - 01:42 PM (#213797)
Subject: Lyr Add: THE MAN WHO WROTE HOME SWEET HOME
From: Ed Pellow

Dave:

This is the Grateful Dead's version:

Man comes home from work at night,
    hungry and he wants to eat
His wife is lying piled in the bed,
    lying there sound asleep
He gets so mad that he tears his hair,
    swears and declares that he won't stay there.

And the man that wrote the Home Sweet Home,
    never was a married man
He never had no loving wife,
    to greet him with a frying pan
She'll meet you at the door when you go to come in
    and knock you down with a rolling pin
And the man that wrote the Home Sweet Home,
    never was a married man.

A man comes home from work at night,
    tired and he goes to bed
Baby's lying there in the cradle,
    screaming loud enough to wake the dead
He sits and rocks for about an hour,
    with never a hand to help prepare.

And the man that wrote the Home Sweet Home,
    never was a married man
He never had no loving wife,
    to greet him with a frying pan
She'll meet you at the door when you go to come in
    and knock you down with a rolling pin
And the man that wrote the Home Sweet Home,
    never was a married man.

Ed

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18 Apr 00 - 09:24 PM (#214054)
Subject: Lyr Add: THE MAN WHO WROTE HOME SWEET HOME
From: Stewie

The version by Mack Woolbright on the banjo collection has the same chorus, but some different verses to that posted by Ed. Doesterr, this is how I hear it:

THE MAN WHO WROTE HOME SWEET HOME NEVER WAS A MARRIED MAN
(Fleta Jan Brown)

Man gets up early in the morn
Leaves his wife in bed
She lies there, the kid wakes up
Get up and cook some bread
Let me tell you a thing or two
That a woman like that won't never do
And the man that wrote the Home Sweet Home
He never was a married man

He never had no loving wife,
To greet him with a frying pan,
She'll meet you at the door when you go to come in,
She'll knock you down with a rolling pin,
And the man that wrote the Home Sweet Home,
He never was a married man

Man's gone to sit at dinner time
Hungry and he wants to eat
Finds his wife piled up in bed
Or lying there sound asleep
Gets some air before he pulls his hair
Swears and declares that he won't stay there
And the man that wrote the Home Sweet Home
He never was a married man

He never had no loving wife,
To greet him with a frying pan
She'll meet you at the door when you go to come in
She'll knock you down with a rolling pin
And the man that wrote Home Sweet Home,
He never was a married man

Man comes in from work at night,
Tired and he goes to bed
The baby lying there in the cradle,
Screaming loud to wake the dead
He'll sit and rock for about an hour,
With never a hand to help prepare.
And the man that wrote Home Sweet Home,
He never was a married man

He never had no loving wife,
To greet him with a frying pan
She'll meet you at the door when you go to come in
She'll knock you down with a rolling pin
And the man that wrote Home Sweet Home,
He never was a married man

The man that wrote Home Sweet Home
He never was a married man
He never had no loving wife,
To greet him with a frying pan
She'll meet you at the door when you go to come in
She'll knock you down with a rolling pin
And the man that wrote Home Sweet Home,
He never was a married man

Ed, what's the HTML secret of getting the alternate line of verse to stay indented?

Cheers, Stewie.

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18 Apr 00 - 09:43 PM (#214067)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: ManWhoWroteHomeSweetHomeNeverWasMarr
From: Uncle_DaveO

Thanx.

Dave Oesterreich

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21 Apr 00 - 11:30 AM (#215588)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: ManWhoWroteHomeSweetHomeNeverWasMarr
From: Rex

It's also in the New Lost City Rambler's "Old-Time String Band Song Book.

Rex

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29 Oct 16 - 07:17 PM (#3817140)
Subject: Lyr Add: THE PARTY THAT WROTE "HOME SWEET HOME"
From: Jim Dixon

I ran across this sheet music at the University of Oregon website:


THE PARTY THAT WROTE "HOME SWEET HOME" (NEVER WAS A MARRIED MAN)
Words and music by Fleta Jan Brown, ©1908.

1. Alexander Brown sat around on the fence and he wished he could die right there.
Women, he'd admit, had their troubles, of course, but men had more than their share.
He'd ventured out on the night before
And forgotten the key that unlocked his door.
When he roused the neighbors in the morn at four,
Missus Brown used language and her husband got sore.

CHORUS: Oh, the party that wrote "Home Sweet Home" never was a married man.
He never had a lovin' wife to greet him with a fryin' pan.
Oh! He never knew that a "Welcome" mat
Meant family jars and things like that.
Oh, the party that wrote "Home Sweet Home" never was a married man.

2. When a man comes home from his office at night, he is tired, so he goes to bed.
'Long about eleven, the baby awakes, and his screams would waken the dead.
Then papa rocks him for 'most an hour,
And goes thro' ev'ry antic within his pow'r.
When he fin'lly thinks of the milk, it's sour.
When he sleeps, it's five by the clock in the tower.

CHORUS: Oh, the party that wrote "Home Sweet Home" never was a married man.
He never had a family to interfere with ev'ry plan.
Oh! He never knew that a Tootsywoots
Was a smiling cherub and worst of brutes.
Oh, the party that wrote "Home Sweet Home" never was a married man.

3. When a man's in love, there are things he can't see, or at least not till later on.
Charley married Mabel, a shy little flow'r with a lovely bundle of "con."
Charley came home from the club quite tight,
But he paused just outside his own gate in fright.
There was someone lurking in the pale moon light!
Then he saw the coachman kiss his Mabel goodnight.

CHORUS: Oh, the party that wrote "Home Sweet Home" never was a married man.
He never had a pretty wife that fools him ev'ry time she can.
Oh! He never knew that the help-men-hire
Will spoon with their wives by the parlor fire.
Oh, the party that wrote "Home Sweet Home" never was a married man.

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29 Oct 16 - 11:07 PM (#3817150)
Subject: Lyr Add: I DON'T KNOW WHO WROTE "HOME, SWEET HOME"
From: Jim Dixon

Another variation on the theme. Sheet music can be seen at Mississippi State University:


I DON'T KNOW WHO WROTE "HOME, SWEET HOME" BUT HE MUST HAVE BEEN A SINGLE MAN^[1]
I DON'T KNOW WHO WROTE "HOME, SWEET HOME" BUT I BET HE WAS A SINGLE MAN^[2]
Words and music by Clare Kummer, ©1908.

1. I'm married to a girl in town.
She's got the whole thing written down:
"Wilson Jones to Mandy Brown, the thirteenth day of June."
She made me get a Harlem flat,
And that's where we are living at,
An' if I am not always there, I'll come, not yet, but soon!
She's got a motto on the wall,
Says, "Wilson's Home Sweet Home," that's all!

CHORUS: Oh, I don't know who wrote "Home Sweet Home" but I bet he was a single man!
An' he never had a loving wife for to hit him with a frying pan!
This "Home Sweet Home" is an awful shine!
If anybody wants one, they can just take mine!
Oh, I don't know who wrote "Home, Sweet Home" but I bet he was a single man!

2. When I first fell for Mandy's charms,
When I first held her in my arms,
She says, "Is dis dat Love's first kiss, or has you loved befo'?"
I answers Mandy, I says, "No!
Those other girls was all too slow.
Not one of them was kind to me." But now, alas, I know!
They ev'ry one was kind, I see,
Because they never married me!

CHORUS: Oh, I don't know who wrote "Home Sweet Home" but there was no wedding bells in his!
If he's married, soon he'll change his tune, and as for me, I hope he is!
This "Home Sweet Home" is an awful bluff!
If anybody axes me, I've had enough!
Oh, I don't know who wrote "Home, Sweet Home" but I bet he was a single man!

3. Before I married, I had dreams,
How Mandy'd greet me with a kiss,
But when I come, the baby screams, an' Mandy looks like this!
An' since she joined the Woman's Club,
I even has to chase my grub.
I feel just like a great big dub when I sing the baby this:
"Home Sweet Home" is a grand old place,
The baby laughs right in my face.

CHORUS: Oh, I don't know who wrote "Home Sweet Home" but he must have had it in for me.
For 'twas hearing 'bout the charms of "Home" that got me going, don't you see?
Oh, "Home Sweet Home" may be all right,
When every other place is closed up tight!
Oh, I don't know who wrote "Home Sweet Home" but I bet he was a single man.

4. Oh, Mandy reads the "Women's Page"
An' then she gabs my weekly wage
An' that's her last only any stage, till every cent is gone.
Before I married, goodness knows,
I needed buttons on my clothes
Well, now I have the buttons, but no clothes to sew them on!
{I'm wearing holes instead of socks,
While Mandy sports those Empire frocks} OR
{I'm wearing holes instead of shirts,
While Mandy sports those new sheath skirts.}

CHORUS: Oh, I don't know who wrote "Home Sweet Home" but I bet he was a single man,
An' he never had a wife like mine, or he would have been an "also ran,"
To me it is one sad refrain.
No wonder someone says the feller's name was "Payne,"
Oh, I don't know who wrote "Home Sweet Home" but I bet he was a single man.

5. Oh, Mandy goes an' get "Three Weeks"
An' for three days she never speaks,
An' then, one night, oh, what a sight! As I come in the door,
For everything is changed about
The furniture is all moved out
An' Mandy on a tiger skin is stretched out on the floor
An when I ax her what it meant,
She says, "Has you no temperament?"

CHORUS: Oh, I don't know who wrote "Home Sweet Home" but I know he made a lot of trouble.
If it hadn't been for that same "pome," I'd be single now instead of double.
Oh, Mand says to me, says she,
"It's plain dat you ain't my affinity!"
Oh, I don't know who wrote "Home Sweet Home" but I bet he was a single man.

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1. Title as given on the sheet music cover.
2. Title as given on the first page of the sheet music.

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30 Oct 16 - 07:09 PM (#3817312)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Man Who Wrote Home Sweet Home
From: GUEST,Larry the Radio Guy

But the bigger question is.........is the song true.   Did the writer of "Home Sweet Home", John Howard Payne, ever marry?

According to Wikipedia, the narrator is right.   He apparently never married.

So "the man who wrote home sweet home never was a married man".


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Howard_Payne

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