Lyr Req: Ode to the Little Brown Shack Out Back

10 Jun 00 - 09:12 PM (#240942)
Subject: Ode To TheLittle Old Shack
From: Dulcy

Does anyone have the Lyrics and music for "Ode To The Little Old Shack Out Back" by Billy Edd Wheeler?

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10 Jun 00 - 09:21 PM (#240946)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Little Old Shack
From: Pene Azul

Here (click) are a couple of versions of the lyrics.

PA

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25 Jan 01 - 12:44 PM (#382259)
Subject: Lyrics for 'Little Brown Building'
From: GUEST,Rob Hobby, Macon, GA

I'm looking for the lyrics and/or guitar chords for an old folk song about an outhouse. The chorus was: "Don't let 'em tear that little brown building down, (three times), For there's not another like it, in the country or the town." Any help?

Thanks!

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25 Jan 01 - 12:45 PM (#382260)
Subject: RE: Lyrics for 'Little Brown Building'
From: Sorcha

In the DT, ODE TO THE LITTLE BROWN SHACK (Billy Ed Wheeler)

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25 Jan 01 - 12:46 PM (#382261)
Subject: RE: Lyrics for 'Little Brown Building'
From: Sorcha

Whee ya! ONE minute!! I win!!!!!

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25 Jan 01 - 01:21 PM (#382292)
Subject: RE: Lyrics for 'Little Brown Building'
From: raredance

Can we all bring some hotdish over to your house to celebrate your victory?

rich r

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25 Jan 01 - 01:25 PM (#382295)
Subject: RE: Lyrics for 'Little Brown Building'
From: GUEST,Rob

WOW... what help, and in only ONE minute! Thanks guys...I want to use it at a banquet next month. Rob

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25 Jan 01 - 03:01 PM (#382378)
Subject: World Champion Response!
From: Joe Offer

Oh, my. It was just a few days ago that Sorcha tied Jeri and Pene's two-minute record. Now she went and made a

New World Record!

Since Rich is bringing the hotdish for the celebration, I'll make a Jello mold. We can have a real Midwestern shebang to celebrate this momentous event.
Hmmmm. I wonder if it's possible to post a response with a clickable link in NO minutes....
-Joe Offer, former champion (first to break the 3-minute mark)-

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25 Jan 01 - 04:17 PM (#382467)
Subject: RE: Lyrics for 'Little Brown Building'
From: Sorcha

Aw shucks. Sure, come on out!! Venison shish kebabs on the grill, and potato salad, coming up!

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26 Jan 01 - 02:01 PM (#383193)
Subject: RE: Melody for 'Little Brown Building'
From: GUEST,Blaine Scott

Where can I hear the melody to refresh my memory? Is there an MP# out there of this tune? I had just found this site this am and this particular song was the first one I looked for because I have been looking for it for years! the lyrics turned up with a simple search here on the mudcat. Yeha!

I recall it only from around the campfire at Camp Northern Lights north of Peterborough Ontario where Father Joe Lynch sang it for us. Anybody else out there learn it from Father Joe? He was the assistant pastor at Immaculate conception parish where I grew up. (I know it a million to one for finding anyone who knew father Joe but I thought I would leave this bit of digital query for posterity). I heard he left the priesthood. Wish I could find out how he is. Blaine Scott [e-mail]

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26 Jan 01 - 11:38 PM (#383412)
Subject: RE: Lyrics for 'Little Brown Building'
From: Bill D

well, you could cal ME and I'll sing it to you..*grin*,,,I have had the original Billy Ed Wheeler album for years,,,,and I sing the song several times a year....

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27 Jan 01 - 07:22 AM (#383528)
Subject: RE: Lyrics for 'Little Brown Building'
From: bob schwarer

There's another song too. Something about the "Interstate coming thru our outhouse".

Anyone have the words to that one?

Bob S.

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27 Jan 01 - 12:12 PM (#383661)
Subject: RE: Lyrics for 'Little Brown Building'
From: Sorcha

Bob, go check out this site Click The guy seems to think it is not a different song, just an alternate verse.........relative comment is about 3/4 down the page. I don't know.

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27 Jan 01 - 02:08 PM (#383758)
Subject: RE: Lyrics for 'Little Brown Building'
From: Katcina

There was an excellent folk singer that played in my place, The Sugar Shack, who went by the name of Bobby McGee who sang a song named "Steam-roller Through My Two-holer". It was a constant request when ever she was in but I've never heard it anywhere else so it might be of her own design. Worth a look though.

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27 Jan 01 - 03:22 PM (#383798)
Subject: RE: Lyrics for 'Little Brown Building'
From: bob schwarer

Sorcha: The Interstate song has an entirely different tune. I've got it "somewhere" on a tape I made from a show that was on a New Orleans radio station way back in the '70s.

Had to connect the tape input across the speaker terminals back then. No fancy stereo hookup. Thought someone else may know it.

Bob S.

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27 Jan 01 - 04:58 PM (#383853)
Subject: RE: Lyrics for 'Little Brown Building'
From: Sorcha

I suspected so, the the Site Guy that I linked to above wasn't sure........the song is not on the web anywhere that I could find. You may have the only extant copy!

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27 Jan 01 - 06:40 PM (#383925)
Subject: RE: Lyrics for 'Little Brown Building'
From: Bill D

well, the last version posted on that site is 'almost' exactly what I copied off the record....

in one verse, he sang.." It was not a castle fair, but a man could linger there"

....and there was applause, so the album version was recorded at a live concert..(while the rest of the stuff on the album seemed to be in a studio)

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27 Jan 01 - 07:51 PM (#383952)
Subject: RE: Lyrics for 'Little Brown Building'
From: Bill D

...just listened..and he DIDN't sing 'lingered'...see what 'folk processing' will do?

BILLY EDD WHEELER
Memories of America
ODE TO THE
LITTLE BROWN
SHACK OUT BACK

KAPP Records -Mono
KL-1425

title song recorded at The Mountain State Art & Craft Fair, Ripley W. VA....( no date given anywhere)..had to be late 60s-early 70s

blurb says he was born in 1932...and that he was living in BROOKLYN!at time of album release.. He wrote "The Reverend Mr Black"...Kingston Trio hit

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28 Jan 01 - 07:54 AM (#384140)
Subject: RE: Lyrics for 'Little Brown Building'
From: Banjer

I just checked my 45 collection and found that my 'Ode To The Little Brown Shack Out Back' by Billy Ed Wheeler is the B side of one by Wheeler called 'Duel Under The Snow'. another case where the B side outlived the A side. My record is on the Radio Cinema label and is a DJ copy, RC001. Are DJ copies worth more or less than a regular release, given equal conditions of the record?

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28 Jan 01 - 12:41 PM (#384249)
Subject: Lyr Add: ODE TO GRANNY AND THE LITTLE BROWN...
From: raredance

In the songbook "The Songs and Poetry of Billy Edd Wheeler" (1971, Big 3 Music Corp) the variable lines are printed:
It was not a castle fair, but I could dream my future there
And build my castles to the yellow jacket's drone.

The one recording I have of Billy Edd doing the song is "Billy Edd Wheeler Sings His Favorite Original & Traditional Folk Songs" (produced by BEW for The Southern Highland Handicraft Guild, Asheville, NC) has him singing the same words as the book. However in the chorus of this recording he adds an "n" to "another" so it comes out "another'n" as in a contraction of "another one"

"The Interstate is Coming Through My Outhouse" was written by R.C. Blankenship and H.G. Johe. At least one recording was by none other than Bill Edd Wheeler on his "Nashville Zodiac" album (United Artists UAS 6711). I guess a trilogy is completed when one adds in another song by Bill Edd Wheeler called "Ode to Granny and the Little Brown Shack Out Back". This is also from the songbook. As with a number of other BEW songs, most of it is spoken, except the "granny granny..." lines.

rich r

ODE TO GRANNY AND THE LITTLE BROWN SHACK OUT BACK
(Billy Edd Wheeler, 1965 Quartet Music, Inc.)

Granny, Granny, God bless my Granny

(Spoken)
When I got old enough to go out back,
Like the big folks to the little brown shack,
Who was right there to lead me back?
Old Granny.

I can see now it took somebody grand
To steady a boy by holding his hand
And still let him feel like, well,
he was a man.

But that was Granny. She was never too old
to have some fun, or she could get you told.
When God made her, I guess He busted the mold
on Granny

Granny, Granny, God bless my Granny

But let me get back to that little brown shed
I was talkin' about,And you can strike me dead,
if this ain't the truth.I was sleepin' in bed
there with Granny

I guess I was just about two and a half.,
And wide awake as a big-eyed calf,
So I got up and snuck out with a laugh,
from Granny

You see, I had me a plan, My nerve was aroused
As I slipped out just as quiet as a mouse
And opend the door of that little brown house.
I was a brave one then

As I looked in, how my heart beat,
gettin' ready to climb to the big folks seat
that seemed to tower a good two feet
above my little teentsy one there

But to be more proper I'll call them chairs,
And I got to the big one by climbing the stairs
of piled up catalogs, "Shakey affairs,"
said Granny.

Ah
When all of a sudden I started to slide
toward the seat of the nation. My arms flung wide,
But lucky for me, I caught on the side,
And didn't dare look down.

I tell you, I was scared as a boy could be
As I held on for that eternity
Till finally, there smilin' down at me
was Granny

She clucked just like an old mother hen,
As she gathered me back in her arms again,
sayin' "boys can't sit in the seats of men,
like Granny."

Well since that time, I've dug some ditches,
And in my own way come from rags to riches,
But when I get to feelin' too big for my britches,

I think of the good old days, it's a fact
and have the awfullest time holding back
the tears, when I think of that little brown shack
and Granny

Granny, Granny, God bless dear old Granny

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28 Jan 01 - 12:53 PM (#384255)
Subject: RE: Lyrics for 'Little Brown Building'
From: Sorcha

Wow, rich! Good going, there.

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28 Jan 01 - 07:24 PM (#384425)
Subject: RE: Lyrics for 'Little Brown Building'
From: Bill D

that might be the lady in THIS story:

"Paw...you need to go out back and fix the outhouse"

"Oh, Maw...I'm tired..whuts wrong with it"?

"You gotta come see.."

"Oh...fer...ok....."

..*looks around*..."Maw, there ain't nothin' wrong here"

"Yes there is..poke your head in that there hole!"

"I ain't gonna stick my head in there!"

"You need to, so's you can see whut needs fixed..."

"Well, ok...but you better be right.."......*takes deep breath and pokes his head in"

"Maw...there ain't nothin' wrong in here....and I ain't gonna keep looking..."............*starts to pull head out and gives a loud yelp!!*

"Ouch, Maw...I caint get my head out....my beard's caught in a crack in the seat!"

................"..yup...aggravatin', ain't it?"

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28 Jan 01 - 08:41 PM (#384471)
Subject: RE: Lyrics for 'Little Brown Building'
From: Joe Offer

So, Rich - how 'bout the lyrics for the one about the Interstate?
-Joe Offer-

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29 Jan 01 - 11:44 PM (#385381)
Subject: Lyr Add: THE INTERSTATE IS COMING THROUGH MY...
From: raredance

Going a little bit out on a limb here. I found this version out on the web. I can't say if it is the same song that Billy Edd Wheeler sings. The needle broke on my turntable, so until I get it fixed I can only look at my LPs. I think it might be the same. Notice the name credited with the song. One of the two credits on the BEW album is an "H. Johe". "Howard Yowee" could be aural transmission and the folk process at work on the name. I also encountered a parody called "The Internet is Coming Through My Classroom" that said it was based on the "Howard Yowee" song

The Interstate is Coming Through My Outhouse
by Howard Yowee

I'm proud to live in West Virginee;
Them other places can't compare with us.
But now I must relate what's happenin' in our state;
By gosh it's really causin' quite a fuss.

Chorus:
Oh, the interstate is a comin' through my outhouse.
They tell me I'm on their right-a-way.
I'll sell today and I'll get rich but my path will end at the highway ditch.
I'm makin' my last visit there today.

Granny says to cancel Sears and Robuck;
Tell Uncle Sam to hurry up our dough.
With all this progress comin' we'll change to inside plumbin'
And shorten up our early mornin' stroll.

Oh, Uncle Ben has got a case of miseries;
A hikin' to that outhouse makes him tired.
But he'll be a gittin' better; he'll be an inside setter
When they install that cesspool in our yard.

Chorus:
Oh, the interstate is a comin' through my outhouse.
They tell me I'm on their right-a-way.
I'll sell today and I'll get rich but my path will end at the highway ditch.
Them engineers made 47 surveys;
They said to put it there and that was that.
They'll bring in a big steamroller and flatten my two-holer
But I'll keep right on votin' Democrat.

Someday when I grow old and kind of feeble;
Some moonlit night I'll wake feelin' strange.
I'll finish up my bath and stroll down my old path
And wake up in a great big interchange.

Chorus:
Oh, the interstate is a comin' through my outhouse.
They tell me I'm on their right-a-way.
I'll sell today and I'll get rich but my path will end at the highway ditch.
I'm makin' my last visit there today.

'Cause I figure Spiro Agnew's here to stay.

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29 Jan 01 - 11:54 PM (#385389)
Subject: RE:Lyric Add: Interstate Is Coming Through My Out
From: Sorcha

WOW!! Just doing a LyrAdd in the subject box so maybe it will get harvested someday.

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30 Jan 01 - 12:05 AM (#385399)
Subject: RE: Lyrics for 'Little Brown Building'
From: raredance

Forgot to add I found another recording of "The Interstate..." song. A CD by THE SADIE GREEN SALES RAGTIME JUGBAND called "Rub A Dub Dub". I know nothing about the group so I am not endorsing it, just calling attention to its existence.

rich r

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30 Jan 01 - 07:12 AM (#385545)
Subject: RE: Lyrics for 'Little Brown Building'
From: bob schwarer

Thanks, Rich. That's the version I remember. I'm still trying to dig it out of a bunch of old, brittle tapes. I'll keep digging, but I think you have it all.

Bob S.

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30 Jan 01 - 09:29 PM (#386194)
Subject: RE: Lyrics for 'Little Brown Building'
From: GUEST,JWB

It's been a good while since I performed this one. The fella I learned it from said it was written in Freeport, ME. The words are real close to what's in the DT, though.

Most significant variation is in the verse that begins "I would hum a happy tune, Peeping through the quarter moon, As all my Daddy's kin had done before. It was a simple shack, and plain, Good in sunshine and in rain, And it gave the same relief to rich and poor."

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07 Jun 01 - 10:46 AM (#478355)
Subject: 'That Little Brown Building'
From: GUEST,[e-mail]

Hi,

I am looking for the lyrics of a song that is a humorous "nostalgic" song about tearing down the old outhouse. The lyrics include, "Verse 1: There's a building in the town and the're going to tear it down, ... Chorus: Don't let 'em tear that little brown building down, don't let 'em tear that little brown building down, don't let 'em tear that precious building down, 'cause there's not another like it in the country or the town."

Martha Haehl Kansas City, MO

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07 Jun 01 - 10:54 AM (#478360)
Subject: Lyr Add: DON'T LET' EM TEAR THAT LITTLE BROWN...
From: IanC

This it?

DON'T LET' EM TEAR THAT LITTLE BROWN BUILDING DOWN
by Bobby Bare

They passed an ordinance in the town
They said we'd have to tear it down
That little old shack out back so dear to me
Though the health department said, it's day is over and dead
It will stand forever in my memory

Chorus
Don't let'em tear that little brown building down
Don't let'em tear that precious building down
Don't let'em tear that dear old building down
For there's not another like it in the country or the town

It was not so long ago, that I went trippin' through the snow
Out to that house behind my old hound dog
Where I would sit me down to rest like a snowbird on his nest
And I'd read the Sears and Robot catalogue

Oh I would sing a happy tune, peepin' through the quarter moon
As my daddy's kin had done so much before
It was in that quiet spot, daily chores could be forgot
And it gave the same relief to rich or poor

It wasn't fancy built at all, it had newspapers on the wall
It was air conditioned in the winter time
It was just a humble hut, but its door was never shut
And a man could get inside without a dime

Cheers!
Ian

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07 Jun 01 - 10:57 AM (#478362)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'That Little Brown Building'
From: Sorcha

Ian, always check the DT/Cat first.......it can save you some trouble,(grin)

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07 Jun 01 - 11:01 AM (#478368)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'That Little Brown Building'
From: IanC

Whoops! Red face ... too busy with my Lords & Ladies quiz!!!

:-(
Ian

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07 Jun 01 - 11:15 AM (#478380)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'That Little Brown Building'
From: Bill D

but NOT written by Bobby Bare....written by Billy Ed Wheeler

there have been a couple threads about this, including history and alternate words based on various hearing of the author singing it.

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07 Jun 01 - 11:17 AM (#478381)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'That Little Brown Building'
From: Bill D

click here to read more

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