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Lyr Req: Song of the Prune (Frank Crumit)

10 Jan 99 - 05:16 PM (#53216)
Subject: Lyrics for Song of the Prune
From: Harry Holland

Tiger, Thanks for the info re Song of the Prune, by Frank Crumit,unfortunately somehow or other my message has disappeared from this forum. Could you please reply again to my request for the lyrics, I would be pleased if you could forward them to me. Do you need my E-mail address to send them? Harry

10 Jan 99 - 06:55 PM (#53246)
Subject: RE: Lyrics for Song of the Prune
From: Panic Attack

Harry,

Perhaps you could post them up so we could all see them.

Thanks

Ian

10 Jan 99 - 08:26 PM (#53264)
Subject: RE: Lyrics for Song of the Prune
From: Ralph Butts

Harry...

I'll post 'em here. Come back ofter.

...Tiger

10 Jan 99 - 08:42 PM (#53268)
Subject: RE: Lyrics for Song of the Prune
From: Frank Maher

10 Jan 99 - 10:35 PM (#53302)
Subject: Lyr Add: SONG OF THE PRUNE (from Frank Crumit)
From: Ralph Butts

Here ya go, Harry. Sung by Frank Crumit (about 1930) but I don't know if he wrote it......Tiger

Song Of The Prune
As performed by Frank Crumit

(la la la la la, la la la la la)

Nowadays, we often gaze on women over fifty,
Without the slightest trace of wrinkles on their face.
Doctors go and take their dough to make them young and nifty,
But doctors, I defy, to tell me just why.....

    No matter how young a prune may be, it's always full of wrinkles.
    We may get them on our face; prunes get 'em every place.
    Prohibition worries us, but prunes don't sit and brood,
    For no matter how young a prune may be, it's always getting stewed.

In the kingdom of the fruits, the prune is snubbed by others,
And they are not allowed to mingle with the crowd.
Though they're never on display with all their highbrow brothers,
They never seem to mind, to this fact they're resigned.....

    No matter how young a prune may be, it's always full of wrinkles.
    Beauty treatments always fail; they've tried all, to no avail.
    Other fruits are envious, because they know real well,
    That no matter how young a prune may be, hot water makes 'em swell.

INSTRUMENTAL BREAK

    Baby prunes look like their dads, but not wrinkled quite as bad.

Every day, in every way, the world is getting better.
We've even learned to fly, as days go passing by.
But, what about the poor old prune? His life is only wetter.
No wonder he can't grin, in the awful stew he's in.

    No matter how young a prune may be, it's always full of wrinkles.
    We may get them on our face; prunes get 'em every place.
    Nothing ever worries them, their life's an open book,
    But no matter how young a prune may be, it has a worried look.

INSTRUMENTAL BREAK

    Prunes act very kind, they say, when sickly people moan,
    But no matter how young a prune may be, it has a heart of stone.

11 Jan 99 - 02:54 AM (#53347)
Subject: RE: Lyrics for Song of the Prune
From: Joe Offer

Here are the messages from the previous thread, which I'm going to delete. If you had put "prune" in the filter on the forum menu and set it for 3 days or more, you would have found it. Threads disappear from the menu if no new messages are posted in a day, but you can always get to old threads by using the search and filter functions.
Harry, it's better to keep coming back to a thread and look for replies, rather than hoping for an e-mail reply.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: Lyrics for Song of the Prune
From: Harry Holland
Date: 09-Jan-99 - 03:13 PM

I am looking for the lyrics and tune, if possible for a song heard on Canadian Broadcasting Company, entitled The Song of the Prune. Any information on this number would be appreciated. Thanks

Subject: RE: Lyrics for Song of the Prune
From: Ralph Butts
Date: 09-Jan-99 - 03:21 PM

Harry....

I have this on a Frank Crumit recording and would be happy to transcribe it if no one can come up with the words easily.

...Tiger

Subject: RE: Lyrics for Song of the Prune
From: Cuilionn
Date: 10-Jan-99 - 02:57 PM

I don't know the song to which you are referrin', but I'm minded of a broadcast on Oregon Public Radio a few years back with "The Neil Gladstone Show." They did a great a- cappella number, masquerading as a "word from our sponsor", which included the words:

"Prunes, stewed prunes... Prunes! Stewed prunes...
Prunes, stewed prunes: Stay in tune with prunes."

Don't know if you'll thank me or not for this wee memory and the sharing of it, but there you go anyway!

Gabh spors,

--Cuilionn

11 Jan 99 - 01:51 PM (#53439)
Subject: RE: Lyrics for Song of the Prune
From: Harry Holland

Many thanks Ralph Butts and Joe Offer et al for the words to the Song of the Prune. Also for info on operating the forum. This is the first time I have used the forum so I was a little ignorant "How to replying etc." many thanks to everyone who replied.

13 Jan 99 - 11:46 PM (#53969)
Subject: Lyr Add: SONG OF THE PRUNE (Crumit/DeCosta)
From: Frank Maher &Joe Offer

Frank posted these in another thread, and I didn't want them to get separated from the "mother thread."
-Joe Offer-

Frank Crumit made two versions of THE SONG OF THE PRUNE..Written by Crumit/daCosta 4/5/28
The first one in 1928 and the second one in 1934 with a couple of different Verses.
This is the 1934 version's different words.

No matter how you a prune may be, he's always full of wrinkles.
Now, we may get 'em here and there, but prunes get 'em everywhere.
Babies fret until they hear a mother's lullaby,
But no matter how young a prune may be, you'll never hear it cry.

No matter how young a prune may be, he's always full of wrinkles.
Old maids get 'em on their face; prunes get 'em every place.
Peaches and bananas have that skin you love to touch,
But no matter how young a prune may be, it don't amount to much.

28 Aug 00 - 07:27 PM (#286841)
Subject: RE: Lyrics for Song of the Prune
From: rabbitrunning

By the time I learned this one from my older sister it had metamorphed to:

A prunie ain't no use at all except for getting wrinkles
A baby prune's just like his dad,
'Cept he ain't wrinkled half so bad
We get wrinkles on our face,
but prunies get them everyplace.
A prunie ain't no use at all except for getting stewed.

spoken
Little seed inside a pru-in
is it night, or is it noo-in?
Whatcha doin' pru-in, stewin', hmmm?
A prunie ain't no use at all except for getting stewed!


I've heard the Crumit version on a CD of "Vintage Children's Favourites" and the tune had morphed, too.

17 Sep 07 - 08:08 PM (#2151506)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Song of the Prune (Frank Crumit)
From: GUEST,john bolger-smith. Ireland

Thanks,thats what i was looking for,i often sing the ch.at work and all the guys get the cranks cause its all i knew.I heard the song done about 15years ago by an aussi band called The hokum ensemble,the singers name was al ward,i think they recoreded it.                                                                                                                                                Thanks again, john.

16 Jan 10 - 02:25 PM (#2813778)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Song of the Prune (Frank Crumit)
From: GUEST

Does anyone have the chords for this song?

16 Jan 10 - 02:33 PM (#2813785)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Song of the Prune (Frank Crumit)
From: GUEST,999--CHORDS on the below thread. Can't make

Subject: Discussion - Frank Crummit
From: Foolestroupe
Date: 12 Sep 03 - 03:25 AM

16 Jan 10 - 04:07 PM (#2813854)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Song of the Prune (Frank Crumit)
From: Desert Dancer

There are chords in the that thread, but not to the Prune Song...

16 Jan 10 - 04:22 PM (#2813862)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Song of the Prune (Frank Crumit)
From: Will Fly

I posted The Song Of The Prune on YouTube in a moment of madness some years ago. If you look closely at the video, you can probably make out what chords I'm playing. If not - PM me and I'll write them out...

16 Jan 10 - 04:27 PM (#2813863)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Song of the Prune (Frank Crumit)
From: GUEST,999--DAMN

Sorry.

16 Jan 10 - 04:48 PM (#2813874)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Song of the Prune (Frank Crumit)
From: GUEST

DD, I was so happy to see chords I didn't check the lyrics.

WF--any chance you could post 'em here?

16 Jan 10 - 04:57 PM (#2813881)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Song of the Prune (Frank Crumit)
From: Will Fly

Chords I use for The Song Of The Prune - in the key of G:

Verse
G / / / G / / / G / / / D7 / / /
D7 / / / G / / / A7 / / / D7 / / /
G / / / G / / / G / / / D7 / / /
D7 / / / G / / / A7 / / / D7 / / /

Chorus
G / / / G / / / G / / / D7 / / /
D7 / / / G / / / A7 / / / D7 / / /
G / / / G / / / G / / / B7 / / /
C / / / G / E7 / A7 / D7 / G / D7 / etc.

These are from memory - there may be the odd passing minor chords here and there, but this is the gist of it.

16 Jan 10 - 07:55 PM (#2813996)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Song of the Prune (Frank Crumit)
From: GUEST,999

Many many thanks to you, Will Fly.

17 Jan 10 - 06:47 AM (#2814125)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Song of the Prune (Frank Crumit)
From: Leadfingers

Diz Disley used to do a great job on this . and a lot of other Crumit songs !

17 Jan 10 - 07:44 AM (#2814150)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Song of the Prune (Frank Crumit)
From: Will Fly

Diz's version was the very first one I heard - at the Redan pub on the corner of Westbourne Grove and Queensway - around 1970. He lived upstairs at the time and our band played there every Thursday. He used to sit in quite regularly. When I'd moved down to Sussex in '76, I accompanied him now and then when he ventured down for a folk club gig. The prune song was a regular event - plus the song about breaking a lady's tambourine!

07 Jul 14 - 01:33 PM (#3639843)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Song of the Prune (Frank Crumit)
From: Desert Dancer

Frank Crumit's recording on YouTube

~ Becky in Long Beach