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07 Aug 02 - 12:27 PM (#761344) Subject: Someone's in the Kitchen with Diana From: GUEST,oldtimemusic1@aol.com Can someone help me locate the lyrics of an old song? I'm not sure if I have the title right, but there is a line which goes: "Someone's in the kitchen with Diana. Someone's in the kitchen I know ho ho. Someone's in the kitchen with Diana, Strumming on the old banjo". Please help. The tune is driving me nuts. not a long trip. Thanks Tom |
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07 Aug 02 - 12:36 PM (#761348) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Someone's in the Kitchen with Diana From: GUEST,Jerry Tom, You're looking for "I've Been Working on the Railroad." The lady's name in the verse you quote is actually Dinah. Jerry |
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07 Aug 02 - 12:36 PM (#761349) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Someone's in the Kitchen with Diana From: Sorcha In the DT, I've Been Working on the Railroad |
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07 Aug 02 - 01:28 PM (#761389) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Someone's in the Kitchen with Diana From: masato sakurai This song these days is usually sung as the second part of "I've Been Working On the Railroad," but it was a separate song. "The words and a different melody appear under the title Old Joe, or Somebody in the House with Dinah published by Duncomb, 10 Middle Row, Holborn, London, ca. 1835-1848, the 'music composed' by J.H. Cave. [...] As the late Sigmund Spaeth pointed out to the author [James J. Fuld], the melody is basically an embellishmet of the melody of Goodnight Ladies." (James J. Fuld, The Book of World-Famous Music, 4th ed., Dover, 1995, pp. 513-514). ~Masato |
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08 Aug 02 - 03:57 AM (#761747) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Someone's in the Kitchen with Diana From: masato sakurai On "Good Night Ladies", see this thread: Lyr Req: Good Night Ladies. ~Masato |
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08 Aug 02 - 12:52 PM (#761979) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Someone's in the Kitchen with Diana From: GUEST,Les B. And I thought that someone had written a song about the late, lamented Princess !! |
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08 Aug 02 - 01:59 PM (#762000) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Someone's in the Kitchen with Diana From: Blackcatter Maybe - but what would Diana be doing in the kitchen? |
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09 Aug 02 - 11:30 AM (#762602) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Someone's in the Kitchen with Diana From: GUEST,Les B. Probably exiting the hotel the back way to avoid Paparazzi. |
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10 Aug 02 - 11:25 AM (#763018) Subject: Lyr Add: LEVEE SONG From: masato sakurai There's a note to the name "Dinah" HERE, which says: "Dinah was a slang term for a slave woman and, by extension, any woman of African-American descent, as in the song lyric 'Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah, Someone's in the kitchen, I know.'"
James J. Fuld writes in The Book of World-Famous Music, 4th ed. (Dover, 1996, p. 309): "The first known appearance in print of I've Been Working on the Railroad is under the title Levee Song, in Carmina Princetonia (8th ed., Martin R. Dennis & Co., Newark, N.J., 1894), p. 24." This version doesn't have the "Someone's in the Kitchen" part. It would be interesting to quote the whole song, from my copy of Carmina Princetonia: The Princeton Song Book, 21th ed. (G Shirmer, 1927, pp. 70-71).
LEVEE SONG
1.
Chorus:
2. ~Masato |
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14 Jul 10 - 02:08 PM (#2944986) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Someone's in the Kitchen with Diana From: GUEST,ADalton Here are the lyrics to "I've been working on the Railroad" as they appear in "Fireside Book of Folk Songs" selected and edited by Margaret Bradford Boni, copyright 1947 by Simon & Schuster. "Oh I was bo'n in Mobile town, I'm wukkin' on de levee All day I roll de cotton down, A wukkin' on de levee chorus: I been wukkin' on de railroad all de live-long day I been wukkin' on de rail-road to pass de time a-way Doan' yo' hyar de whistle blowin? Rise up so early in de mawn Doan' yo' hyar de Cap'n shoutin' 'Dinah blow yo' hawn' I use' to have a dog name' Bill, A wukkin' on de levee He run away, but I'm here still, A wukkin' on de levee (chorus) Dat li'l ole dog up an' beg, A-wukkin' on de levee Till I done give him chicken leg, A wukkin' on de levee (chorus) I once did know I girl named Grace,while wukkin' on de levee, She done bring me to dis sad disgrace, A-wukkin' on de levee." |
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14 Jul 10 - 03:54 PM (#2945079) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Someone's in the Kitchen with Diana From: Tattie Bogle Hmmm, only 8 years on, but we used to song this as a Girl Guide camp-fire song in England, way back in my long-distant youth! It didn't have many verses, but we used to do banjo-playing impressions! I think we sang it about 3 times over, getting faster each time. And we might have split the singers in half with one half doing the first part against the others doing the other part. As another poster has said, the tune was like "Goodnight Ladies" (tho' more syllables to fit in) Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah, Someone's in the kitchen, I know, I know, Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah, Playing on the old banjo. And it went oo-plunk eye-plunk fiddley-i-o-plunk Oo-plunk eye-plunk fiddley-i-o plunk Oo-plunk eye-plunk fiddley-i-o plunk Playing on the old banjo. |
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29 Feb 12 - 01:45 PM (#3315184) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Someone's in the Kitchen with Diana From: GUEST,malcolm tonkin It may interest people to learn that this song is till sung with gusto in parts of Cornwall or when Cornish people get together. It seems to have been adopted into their folklore history. I believe it to have come into prominece when a touring trio of American singers visited the county years ago. |
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01 Mar 12 - 06:27 AM (#3315502) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Someone's in the Kitchen with Diana From: Mo the caller I think it was a pop song in the UK in the 50s maybe. I certainly heard it a lot at one time. |
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01 Mar 12 - 06:38 PM (#3315820) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Someone's in the Kitchen with Diana From: Joe_F I was startled to see "Sing a song o' the city" appear as the original second stanza of "I've been working on the railroad". It reappears, by itself, cleaned up a bit, to a different tune, in _The New Song Fest_: Sing a song of cities; roll dat cotton bale; Rustabout am happy, as long's he's out of jail; Norfolk fo' its oyster shells, Boston fo' its beans; Cha'leston fo' its rice an' corn, but fo' lassies, New Orleans. And to that tune, later on, that book also has 'Twas only an old beer bottle, floating on the foam. 'Twas only an old beer bottle, a thousand miles from home. Inside was a piece of paper, with these words written on: "Whoever finds this bottle, finds the beer all gone...." Thereupon I am tempted to chime in with "Man on top of woman...", but never mind. |
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01 Mar 12 - 07:43 PM (#3315844) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Someone's in the Kitchen with Diana From: Tattie Bogle As I knew it minus the "plunks": and what IS that instrument he's playing?? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcPk1-UjHKQ |
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01 Mar 12 - 08:35 PM (#3315888) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Someone's in the Kitchen with Diana From: Desert Dancer gas can banjo, a close relative of the cigar box banjo and cookie tin banjo. |
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24 Jul 13 - 02:24 PM (#3541286) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Someone's in the Kitchen with Diana From: GUEST Name is: "Dihna". Do a search for this, and get MANY results. |
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25 Jul 13 - 01:19 AM (#3541438) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Someone's in the Kitchen with Diana From: PHJim My brother Bob wrote a song to be sung with I've Been Workin' On The RR. Here's a link to the tune on what's left of his myspace page. I seem to be able to hear it. He got his daughter, Steph to sing it. Although Steph is a banjo player, she plays guitar for this version. Steph sings Dinah's RR Song |
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26 Jul 13 - 10:01 AM (#3541977) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Someone's in the Kitchen with Dinah From: Dave Hunt Collected in Broseley Shropshire - used by the local morris dancers in the 19th century We (Ironmen of Ironbridge, about mile from Broseley) still use the tune for one of our dances. Shropshire Bedlams also use it. It's a version of Not for Joe Somebody's in the house with Dinah, somebody's in the house I know Somebody's in the house with Dinah, playing on the old banjo Too ra loo ra li doe, too ra loo ra li doe, too ra loo ra li doe playing on the old banjo Oh there was a little n***er and he grew no bigger, so they put him in the wild west show He tumbled from the wind'er and he broke his little finger And couldn't play the old banjo |
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26 Jul 13 - 07:53 PM (#3542207) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Someone's in the Kitchen with Dinah From: Joe_F As has been pointed out elsewhere, if "I've Been Working..." is sung simultaneously with "Old Black Joe", there is a naughty coincidence. |