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Lyr Req: All Go Hungry Hash House (Dave Macon)

11 Mar 02 - 12:20 AM (#666700)
Subject: Lyr Add: ALL GO HUNGRY HASH HOUSE (Dave Macon)
From: Les B

I cannot make out some of the words in this Uncle Dave Macon classic - can anyone fill in where the "???" are?
(Or any other errors that you may see!)

ALL GO HUNGRY HASH HOUSE
Uncle Dave Macon and his Fruit Jar Drinkers with Sam McKee

Banjo riff - Spoken: Hello folks, I'm in New York and from the country, but you can't tell me, don't you tell me, roastin' ears ain't corn.

There's a hotel in the city as we climb the golden stairs
(There's a hotel down the street where the tramps and hoboes meet - Coffer Bros.)
And they serve the hash up on the second floor
There's a graveyard in the cellar, Doctor's office in the parlour
And the undertaker keeps his shop next door

"Touch Me Not" is on the teacups; skeleton cross bones on the plates
???????????????????????????????????????????????????
Oh the biscuits they are named, and I'm going to have them framed
At that all go hungry hash house where I dwell

Oh the donuts they are wooden and we have Limburger puddin'
We kneel in prayer before we go to grub
If you chance to get a breeze of that Ambelonious cheese
You'd have swore somebody'd hit you with a club

That hotel where I stay, it is turning my hair gray
And the landlord is always full of beer
Oh the bedbugs must have rented, and the air was sweetly scented
By an old-fashioned pig pen in the rear

Oh the sausages they are marked, if you touch them they will bark
It's a relic sent from "Bingen on the Rhine.”
All the borders have the croup caught from drinking frozen soup
At that all go hungry hash house where I dine

They have India rubber pickles, exercises ?????????
And a dinner bell and gong they can't afford
When they open up the gates, we'll come skippin' on roller skates
At that all go hungry hash house where I board

There's a woman called the Duchess, brings the coffee in on crutches
And the cake looks like a sponge that petrified
Oh the pies are old and gray; they were tackled by a jay
Who went right out and committed suicide

Oh the molasses are made of paint, if you smell them you will faint
They are yellow, and dished up in a gourd
Oh the eggs are made to match, if you touch them they will hatch
At that all go hungry hash house where I board.

HTML line breaks added. --JoeClone, 13-Mar-02.


11 Mar 02 - 12:46 AM (#666708)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: All Go Hungry Hash House - Dave Macon
From: Mickey191

Les, I can't help you, but I sure like to know if it's available to buy.Great song.


11 Mar 02 - 01:04 AM (#666713)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: All Go Hungry Hash House - Dave Macon
From: masato sakurai

Versions (audio) by Cofer Brothers and Uncle Dave Macon can be heard HERE.

~Masato


11 Mar 02 - 07:49 AM (#666816)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: All Go Hungry Hash House - Dave Macon
From: Charley Noble

Refresh for further study!


11 Mar 02 - 08:10 AM (#666824)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: All Go Hungry Hash House - Dave Macon
From: nutty

Les ..... Apparently there are many versions/ recordings of thsi song as per info here

further info

and tune/lyrics here

Hungry Hash House


11 Mar 02 - 09:06 AM (#666862)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: All Go Hungry Hash House - Dave Macon
From: masato sakurai

Thanks, nutty, fot the links. Interesting to know it's related to The Boarding-house (The Traditional Ballad Index).

~Masato


11 Mar 02 - 10:23 AM (#666921)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: All Go Hungry Hash House - Dave Macon
From: BanjoRay

I think the first bunch of question marks should read "Copyright is on that turkey you could tell"

Cheers
Ray


11 Mar 02 - 10:54 AM (#666936)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: All Go Hungry Hash House - Dave Macon
From: BanjoRay

A couple more things:

Sam McKee is of course Sam McGee.
It could be "Carve Me Right" not "Copyright" The second set of ????? could "Exercises done by cripples"
In the spoken intro, the 78 on the Hongking Duck site has a jump in it so that it should be "You can't tell me roasting ears ain't corn" - what you actually hear on the site is "You can't tell me roast..(click)tell me roasting ears ain't corn"

Cheers
Ray


11 Mar 02 - 11:29 AM (#666966)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: All Go Hungry Hash House - Dave Macon
From: Francy

The latest version I have on CD is on Norman Blake's 2001 recording entitled "Flower From The Fields Of Alabama". very nicely played on guitar by Norman and the vocals are straightforward and easy to copy down.....Shanachie 6053 Frank of Toledo


11 Mar 02 - 12:32 PM (#667019)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: All Go Hungry Hash House - Dave Macon
From: Geoff the Duck

You may not be aware of a very useful thread which is compiling Lyrics from Dave Macon songs. It started about a year back in response to a query of mine, but took on a life of its own. Mudcatter Stewie is responsible for most of the lyric additions (What a HERO!!!).
As yet Hungry Hash House has not appeared on the thread, but plenty of other sets of Uncle Dave's lyrics have.
Here is a link to the thread Uncle Dave Macon Lyrics
If you compile your set of lyrics for this song, please post them onto that thread so they can join their family!
If this thread doesn't clear up your request, try posting it onto the above link, and it may get a further response.
Quack!
Geoff the Duck!


11 Mar 02 - 02:54 PM (#667101)
Subject: Lyr Add: AT THE BOARDING HOUSE
From: Charley Noble

Here's another boarding house ditty, short but sweet:

AT THE BOARDING HOUSE
(In The New Song Fest Deluxe Tune: "Silver Threads Among the Gold")


At the boarding house where I stayed,
Everything was growing old;
Silver hairs among the butter,
And the bread was all a-mold;
When the dog died, we had sausage,
When the cat died, catnip tea;
But when the landlord died, I left there,
Spareribs were too much for me!

Keep up the good work!
Landlady's Daughter, not to be confused with Charley Noble


11 Mar 02 - 03:51 PM (#667133)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: All Go Hungry Hash House - Dave Macon
From: GUEST,Pete Peterson

Been singing those words for almost 35 years since I first learned them from Tom Paley, who I always thought had inherited the soul of Uncle Dave. I have my own interpretation of SOME of the words but some are still incomprehensible.
. . .skeleton, crossbones on the plate, AND THE WRITING ON THE TURKEY YOU CAN SPELL
We have India-rubber pickles, EXTRA SIZES COST TWO NICKELS
Paley's last chorus went:
And the flapjacks are like blankets, full of bugs and balls of hair
The sausages and bacon taste like Hell
The biscuits are li8ke lead, something's living in the bread
In that all go hungry hash house where I dwell.
also, "Ambeloneious cheese" I always heard has "man, bologna and cheese"-- I'm proud of figuring THAT one out.
of the many recordings of this, the first one I ever heard was Charlie Poole (or was it the New Lost City Ramblers covering Poole?) but I think I like Uncle Dave & the Cofer Brothers (sp?) best.


11 Mar 02 - 09:36 PM (#667391)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: All Go Hungry Hash House - Dave Macon
From: Les B

Thanks all for the input. I was aware of the Charlie Poole version, but when I heard the Uncle Dave Macon, and Coffer Brothers version, on the "Old 78's" site referenced above, I liked their's better than Poole's.

I hear now that there is a skip in the record at the beginning and that explains the roasting ears duple.

The extra words from Tom Paley are very interesting. I still hear the one phrase as "Ambelonious cheese" and the others I am cogitating over.

By the way, I've run across the Ballad Index site (referenced above) before, and I find their dates to be much more recent than one would expect. For instance, Charlie Poole's recording of "All Go Hungry Hash House" is in the late 20's, and they say its relative "The Boarding House" (couldn't find the words at their site to make a definitive comparison?!?) was only recorded in the 1940's. Does anyone else feel they are a bit conservative in this respect ?


15 Mar 02 - 10:47 PM (#669972)
Subject: Lyr Add: THE BOARDING HOUSE
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)

The All-Go-Hungry Hash House (Boarding House) may go back to the 19th C. A version was collected in Arkansas that was said to have been learned in 1895.
The ambilonious cheese may originally have been "antediluvian." There are other differences; it will be easier to reproduce the entire song.

THE BOARDING HOUSE

There's a boarding house where I stay
That is turning my hair gray,
And the landlord is always full of beer.
The beds the bugs have rented
And the room is sweetly scented
By an old-fashioned tan-yard in the rear.

The doughnuts they are wooden,
We have cast-iron puddin',
We kneel and pray before we go to bed;
And if you would get a breeze
Of that antediluvian cheese,
You would think that someone hit you over the head.

We have India-rubber pickles,
Exercise them on bicycles, (bi-sick'-ells)
A dinner bell or gong we can't afford.
The minute they open the gates,
We rush in on roller skates,
At that all-go-hungry hash house where we board.

Our molasses are made of paint.
If you smell them you would faint.
They are green and dished out in a gourd.
The bread is full o' cracks.
You couldn't cut it with an axe,
At that all-go-hungry hash house where we board.

The big fat cook we call the duchess
Brings the coffee in on crutches.
The buckwheat cakes's like sponges petrified.
The pies are old and gray.
They were tackled by a jay
Who went right out and committed suicide.

The sausage it was marked.
If you'd touch it, it would bark.
The steak you couldn't cut it with a sword.
The eggs were brought to match.
If you'd shake them they would hatch,
At that all-go-hungry hash house where we board.

When we sit down to eat, we stutter.
There are whiskers in the butter.
The cheese comes from old Bingen on the Rhine.
All day yesterday we were tryin'
To get a skeleton for a sign
At that all-go-hungry Hash house where we board.

Sung by Laura Wasson, Elm Springs, Arkansas, 1942. "She learned it somewhere near Elm Springs, about 1895." The pronunciation "bi-SICK-ell" for bicycle was common from Oklahoma to Texas, Arkansas, and much of the border states area when I worked there in the 1950s.
Vance Randolph, Ozark Folksongs, ed. and abridged by Norm Cohen, 1982, Univ. Illinois Press, pp. 371-373.


26 Jul 03 - 11:23 PM (#991309)
Subject: Boarding House, Onion Hash
From: GUEST,AJ

My Grandfather sang a song about a boarding-house, does this song sound familiar to anyone??


There is a boarding-house not far away, where they eat onion hash three times a day.

Oh!, how the boarders yell when they hear that dinner bell!

Oh!, how the onions smell three miles away!


27 Jul 03 - 12:32 AM (#991328)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: All Go Hungry Hash House - Dave Macon
From: GUEST,Dale

This is a side trip, but an interesting one, I think.

Going back to Dicho's post of 15 Mar 02, I was raised in Northern Illinois, spent most of my life in Southern Illinois, and have been in Arkansas for about 8 years now. No matter where I have been, bicycle has ALWAYS been uniformly pronounced as bi-sickle. Tricycle followed the same pattern.

Now a motorcycle was usually pronounced motor-sycle, though a few might call it a motor-sickle. If shortened to cycle, I remember it as being sickle more often than not. Unicycles followed the motorcycle rule, though we only saw them on TV or in the rare circus.

When bicycles that didn't go anywhere became popular, well, they were exer-sycles. Not much of a rule there.


27 Jul 03 - 09:49 AM (#991423)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: All Go Hungry Hash House - Dave Macon
From: Padre

Guest AJ - The song you are thinking of sounds like "The Cookhouse" which was sung by Pete Seeger on an album called "Songs of the Spanish Civil War" put out by Folkways a long time ago.

The words, as I remember them, go:

There is a sweet cookhouse, not far away
Where we get sweet damn all
Three times a day
Eggs and ham we never see
Damn all sugar in our tea
And we are gradually
Fading away

The tune was "Old Soldiers Naver Die'

Padre


08 Dec 03 - 09:49 PM (#1068147)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: All Go Hungry Hash House - Dave Macon
From: GUEST,Dawn

Hello
This is in regards to your looking for words to all go hungry hash house

[1] "Touch Me Not" is on the teacups, skeleton cross bones on the plate,
And the writing on the turkey you can spell.
Oh, the biscuits they are named, and I'm going to have them framed
At that all go hungry hash house where I dwell.

[2] They have India rubber pickles, extra sizes cost two nickels,
And a dinner bell and gong they can't afford.
When they open up the gates, we'll come skipping on roller skates
At that all go hungry hash house where I board.

Another line from above I found was

They have India rubber pickles
Exercise them on bi-sick-ells

and the rest is the same

GOOD LUCK
DAWN


29 Jan 04 - 06:55 PM (#1104711)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: All Go Hungry Hash House - Dave Macon
From: GUEST,silveranne

I am looking for more on that song!
All I can remember is the chorus:

OH how the onions smell, when they hear that dinner bell!
OH how the onions smell, three miles away.

It's a joyful song and I sing it with gusto. My father sang it.


29 Jan 04 - 09:06 PM (#1104801)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: All Go Hungry Hash House - Dave Macon
From: Stewie

Silveranne, the song you are looking for is 'Country Ham and Red Gravy'. I posted an attempted transcription of it HERE, but it had several inaccuracies. I have posted a corrected transcription to the Uncle Dave lyrics thread. You will find it as the most recent posting to that thread:

Uncle Dave lyrics thread.

--Stewie.


06 Sep 08 - 08:11 PM (#2432944)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: All Go Hungry Hash House - Dave Macon
From: GUEST,Tony Edwards as sung by English (Eng-Bo) Jo

There's a place far, far, away where I used to go and stay.
You could go there any time you wanted to board.
If you'd go and stay one day, you would want to get away,
And you'd never want to be seen there anymore.

The old lady they called "Dutchess" brings the coffee in on crutches,
And the cobwebs are swept up in a gourd.
The molasses mixed with paint, if you smell them you will faint,
At that all-go-hungry hash house where I board.

The beef-steak it was rare, and the butter had red hair,
And the coffee wasn't hot when it was poured.
The old eggs were put in a batch. If you touched them they would hatch
At that all-go-hungry hash house where I board.


06 Sep 08 - 09:53 PM (#2433015)
Subject: Lyr Add: HUNGRY HASH HOUSE (from Charlie Poole)
From: bluerabbit10

Here's a version I posted sometime ago on Country Tabs. Lyrics I took from the CD. The chords may not be right. I did it several years ago and would do it better today...

HUNGRY HASH HOUSE
Recorded by: Charlie Poole, New Lost City Ramblers
bluerabbit10 Valley Park, Mo

([D]) I'm a boarder and I ([D]) dwell in that second-rate ([D]) hotel.
([E7]) If I stay here long, I think I'll go ([A]) insane;
([D]) For I lay here on my ([G]) bunk and I cannot reach my ([G]) trunk
([A]) And the board would break a million- ([D]) aire.

([D]) Oh, they feed on chicken pie. If you eat it you will die.
([E7]) The meat you cannot cut it with a ([A]) sword.
([D]) Oh, there's undertakers hangin' ([G]) 'round, for there's good work to be ([G]) found
([A]) In that all-go-hungry hash house where I ([D]) board.

([D]) Oh, they carried me upstairs one night. You would need a fork and knife.
([E7]) It was something they had never done ([A]) before.
([D]) Oh, the fleas all held me ([G]) down while the cheesecake scrapped ([G]) around
([A]) In that all-go-hungry hash house where I ([D]) board.

([D]) Oh, the beefsteak it was rare and the butter had red hair,
([E7]) And the baby had its feet both in the ([A]) stew.
([D]) Oh, the eggs you dared not ([G]) touch. If you kicked one, it would ([G]) hatch.
([A]) In that all-go-hungry hash house where I ([D]) dine.

([D]) Well, she promised she would meet me when the clock struck seventeen
([E7]) At the stock-yards just five miles outside of ([A]) town;
([D]) Where there's pig's feet and pig's ([G]) ears, and tough old Texas ([G]) steers
([A]) Sell for sirloin steak at nineteen cents a ([D]) pound.

([D]) She's my darling. She's my daisy. She's hump-backed and she's crazy.
([E7]) She's knock-kneed, she's bow-legged and she's ([A]) lame.
([D]) And though they say her breath is ([G]) sweet, I would rather smell her ([G]) feet.
([A]) She' my freckle-faced consumptive Mary ([D]) Jane.


06 Sep 08 - 10:06 PM (#2433021)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: All Go Hungry Hash House - Dave Macon
From: pdq

This song is also on Norman Blake's "Flower From The Fields Of Alabama" CD, Shanachie 6053. This is as close to "folk" as Narman Blake has ever been. Amazing sense of timing and solid guitar work, but no attempt to do the pyrotechnics of "Blackberry Blossom" and a couple of his other records in the mid to late 1970s.


07 Sep 08 - 07:58 PM (#2433683)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: All Go Hungry Hash House - Dave Macon
From: Stewie

I have added a transcription of Uncle Dave's recording of 'All Go Hungry Hash House' to the Uncle Dave Macon lyrics thread. It differs in various places from the transcription given by Les B. at the top of this thread.

Uncle Dave lyrics thread

I am unable to find any evidence to support Les B's claim that Uncle Dave recorded the song with the Fruit Jar Drinkers. His 1925 recording, the first audio recording of the song, was a solo effort. As far as I can tell from a quick troll through the discographies, Uncle Dave recorded it again on 23 December 1939 with his son Doris at the Grand Ole Opry, but this remained unissued until the recent Bear Family Box set of Uncle Dave's recordings. The only other occasion that he recorded the song was in the Spring of 1950 at his home in Kittrell, Tennessee, but this again was a solo effort. It was issued on a Davis Unlimited LP and reissued in the Bear Family box set.

--Stewie.


07 Sep 08 - 08:27 PM (#2433700)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: All Go Hungry Hash House - Dave Macon
From: Joe_F

I am charmed by the evident existence of a dialect in which "molasses" is plural.


30 Sep 08 - 11:35 AM (#2453833)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: All Go Hungry Hash House (Dave Macon)
From: Jim Dixon

I am convinced this is what Uncle Dave Macon sings:

"Copyrighted" on that turkey you could spell.


30 Sep 08 - 12:15 PM (#2453877)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: All Go Hungry Hash House (Dave Macon)
From: Mark Ross

Glenn Ohrlin had a version of this that I am trying to recall. Anybody have the lyrics? If not I can track Glenn down and ask him.

Mark Ross


09 Mar 09 - 03:37 AM (#2584407)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: All Go Hungry Hash House (Dave Macon)
From: GUEST,John Earle

My greataunt, a prim Victorian lady from upstate New York, taught me a song in the late 1940s that she remembered from her youth:

I know a boarding house, far, far away.
Where they serve ham and eggs three times a day.
Oh how the boarders yell when they hear that dinner bell
Oh what an awful smell three times a day.

It would appear to have been a popular folk song with many variants over 100 years ago when boarding houses were omnipresent.


09 Mar 09 - 08:55 PM (#2585216)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: All Go Hungry Hash House (Dave Macon)
From: Joe_F

John Earle: That must be TTTO "Old Soldiers Never Die". That song has been extensively parodied, especially since it was quoted by Gen. MacArthur in his speech to Congress.


09 Mar 09 - 09:31 PM (#2585232)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: All Go Hungry Hash House (Dave Macon)
From: open mike

i was reminded of another Dave...Dave Von Ronk,
but that was another dish..one meat ball..


10 Mar 09 - 12:11 AM (#2585280)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: All Go Hungry Hash House (Dave Macon)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)

Ray Wood (Houston, TX) sings "I know a boarding house," The John and Ruby Lomax 1939 Southern States Recording Trip. Same old tune.
The melody is the old hymn, "There is a happy land."

Mrs. Clancy's Boarding House, and Flanigan's Boarding House, were vaudeville songs popular about 1908, but I haven't heard them.


10 Mar 09 - 12:22 AM (#2585285)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: All Go Hungry Hash House (Dave Macon)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)

According to the Cyberhymnal, the tune to "There is a Happy Land" was arranged in 1850 by Leonard P. Breedlove, based on a Hindustani air.

This air has not been identified, Breedlove may have said that because he didn't know the origin, or he composed it himself. The words to the hymn are by Andrew Young, 1838.
(I think all this is in another thread but I don't feel like searching).

Happy Land


10 Mar 09 - 01:06 AM (#2585300)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: All Go Hungry Hash House (Dave Macon)
From: Seamus Kennedy

As a kid we'd sing:

There is a happy land far, far away,
Where we get bread and jam three times a day.

Seamus


01 Apr 10 - 10:41 AM (#2877381)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: All Go Hungry Hash House (Dave Macon)
From: GUEST

There's a part in the book "By the Shores of Silver Lake" that is on of the "Little House on the Prairie" series where the family travels to a city. When they get off the train they pass a man singing a song to the tune of one Ma's favorite hymns, "There is a Happy Land."

But instead of the familiar words of the hymn, the man is singing:

There is a boarding house
Not far away
Where they have steak and eggs
Three times a day

Boy, how those boarders yell
When they hear that dinner bell
Wow, how those egss do smell
Three times a day!

Ma looks so displeased at the man singing a song, in front of her & her daughters no less, that the man stops singing until they pass.

I have to admit, I laughed but I know Ma wouldn't have approved.

= )


02 Apr 10 - 01:15 AM (#2877871)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: All Go Hungry Hash House (Dave Macon)
From: MGM·Lion

Now we have thread-drifted on to songs to tune of There·Is·A·Happy·Land, I recall that the late Robin Hall, when he first came to London in 1956 with his stock of Glasgow children's street ballads {e.g. Ye Cannae Shove Your Granny Off A Bus}, used to sing one that went

There is a happy land
Down in Duke Street Jail
Where all the convicts stand
With their mops and pails
Ham and eggs you'll never see
Dirty water to your tea
Here we live in misery
Down in Duke Street Jail


30 Nov 12 - 06:58 PM (#3445073)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: All Go Hungry Hash House (Dave Macon)
From: GUEST,Patty

We had a professor in graduate school who used to sing a song that went something like:
There is a boarding house
Far far away
Where they serve sausages
Three times a day
You can hear the the boarders shout
When they bring the sausages out
Hoootla haya hootla hout
Three time a day


30 Nov 12 - 08:56 PM (#3445142)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: All Go Hungry Hash House (Dave Macon)
From: pdq

The Binkley Brothers recorded this song in 1928 in Nashville.

The were very popular at the Grand 'Ole Opry until they quit music in 1938.

There are only six songs they recorded that survived to present times.

"Give Me Back My 15 Cents" is another.


01 Dec 14 - 06:24 PM (#3681585)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: All Go Hungry Hash House (Dave Macon)
From: GUEST,Dick Huey, Dubois, Pennsylvania.

This is how I remember my Dad doing this song. I hope it helps.


Oh that boarding where I stay, it is turning my hair gray
the landlord is always full of beer
and the beds and the bugs are rented, by a room sweetly sented
By an old-fashioned pig pen in the rear
They have indian rubber pickles exercises on bicycles a dinner bell a gone you can't afford when the open up the gates they ride in on roller skates at that ole go hungry hash house where I board

Now the old fat cook calld Dutches beings the coffe in on crutches the buck wheat cake like spunges petrified the pies were old and gray the were tackled by a jay who went right out and commited sucide the eggs were boiled to match and if you touched them they would hatch the biskets were as hollow as a gord the pie were old and gray they were tackled by a jay who went right out and comitted sucide

Now we all sat down to supper and there were wiskers on the butter the the chees was at the beginning of the rine the sausages were fat marked, if you touch them it would bark and the prunes were dated 1849 the molasses was made of paint, if you smell it you will faint and the beef stake couldn't with any sword and yesterday was the time to trade a skeleton for a sign at that old go hungry hash house where I board.