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lyr/info req: Pampoo

22 Jul 98 - 02:14 PM (#33144)
Subject: Pampoo
From: Anthony Carter

Does anyone have information (lyrics, title, recordings) on a song about a man who goes out walking without his dogs, is treed by a bear (?) and calls on the dogs to come and rescue him. The chorus includes the line "your master's almost gone." One of the dogs is named Pampoo.

My relatives may have learned the song in Kentucky. I believe it is NOT "The Preacher and the Bear."


23 Apr 07 - 02:55 PM (#2033653)
Subject: RE: Pampoo
From: MMario

okay folk(ies) this is a chance for MudCat to shine. Anthony has been looking for this song for 10 years (there is another request in '97 that appears to be from him) and hopefully someone else has run across this song.


23 Apr 07 - 03:31 PM (#2033676)
Subject: RE: Pampoo
From: Peace

If Anthony is still around, more info of any sort would be very welcom. Ya'd figure with a name like Pampoo it would be easy. Not so.


24 Apr 07 - 01:02 PM (#2034478)
Subject: RE: Pampoo
From: Mrrzy

I just tried to google the phrase "master's almost gone" and up popped a site called Pampoo - I was all psyched till I realized I had successfully googled... this thread!


24 Apr 07 - 01:34 PM (#2034524)
Subject: RE: Pampoo
From: GUEST,Q (demoted to Guest)

A wild guess-
Perhaps Pampoo is a mis-reading of the minstrel multi-faceted character Pompey.
Can't find a possible minstrel routine, however.


24 Apr 07 - 01:59 PM (#2034553)
Subject: RE: Pampoo
From: GUEST,Q (demoted)

I was reminded of the stories of Pompey Smash, in minstrel routines from the 1830's on.
The first Pompey Smash routines concerned Pompey as a character who fought Davy Crocket, and had adventures which parodied Crocket's fictional exploits (grinning a coon crazy, grinning the bark off a tree, etc.). Later on, Pompey had several reincarnations, some entirely different from earlier ones. One of the originals may be found in part here:
http://www.comedyontap.com/pantheon/crocket/crockettsongs.htm
Pompey

As I said before, a wild guess; I don't know of a routine where Pompey was a dog.


26 Apr 07 - 10:46 PM (#2036777)
Subject: RE: lyr/info req: Pampoo
From: Jim Dixon

Could the spelling be "Pampou"? There is a château by that name in France.


30 Nov 10 - 12:03 PM (#3043608)
Subject: RE: lyr/info req: Pampoo
From: GUEST,Jennifer Cutting

In answer to the same question, which we received here at the American Folklife Center (Library of Congress), we located a story called "The Poopampareno" on pages 518-19 of Benjamin Botkin's _A Treasury of Southern Folklore_. In this story, a prideful hunter went out into the woods alone, thinking that he could do without his faithful dogs. He was soon treed by a terrible saw-toothed creature called a Poopampareno, who began gnawing at the tree trunk to fell the tree and eat the hunter. The hunter twice calls to his dogs "Here, Sambo! And Ringo! Your master's almost gone! And a poo-pam and a poo, and a poo-pam and a po-o-o." The second time the hunter calls them, the dogs hear him and rush to his rescue, killing the Poopampareno just in the nick of time.

Botkin's footnote for this story says "By Julia Beazley. From Coyote Wisdom, edited by Frank Dobie, Mody C. Boatright, and Harry H. Ransom, Texas Folklore Society Publications, Number XIV, pp. 252-254. Copyright, 1938, by Texas Folk-Lore Society. Austin. The story of the terrible and wonderful poopampareno I heard from the Reverend Mr. Werlein, rector of Eastwood Community Church in Houston, who told it at a children's story hour. As he told the story, with action finely suited, he gave the line, 'Here Sambo! And Ringo!' a kind of 'Old Black Joe' tune - J.B."

I hope this is the information you were seeking...albeit many years later!

Jennifer Cutting, American Folklife Center


30 Nov 10 - 02:10 PM (#3043706)
Subject: RE: lyr/info req: Pampoo
From: open mike

i found these references to the preacher and the bear online:
http://lyricsplayground.com/alpha/songs/t/thepreacherandthebear.shtml
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUmpO_TQ14Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pn-qfpoCtXE


and you can hear one version of the song here..
http://web.lyon.edu/wolfcollection/songs/applepreacher1252.mp3

and here is a joke about a preacher and a bear

Bear-Hunting Preacher

A country preacher decided to skip services one Sunday and head to the
hills to do some bear hunting. As he rounded the corner on a perilous twist in the trail, he collided with a bear, sending him and his rifle tumbling down the mountainside. His rifle went one way, and he went the other, landing on a rock and breaking both legs.

That was the good news. The bad news was the ferocious bear was charging at him, and he couldn't move.

"Oh, Lord," the preacher prayed, "I'm so sorry for skipping services today to come out here and hunt. Please forgive me and grant me just one wish: Please make a Christian out of that bear that's coming at me. Please, Lord!"

That very instant the bear skidded to a halt, fell to its knees, clasped its paws together and began to pray aloud at the preacher's feet:

"Dear God, bless this food I am about to receive..."