From GIFFORD_P@lib.flint.umich.edu Mon Oct 23 10:18:19 1995 From: "Paul M. Gifford" To: Ed Cray Date: Mon, 23 Oct 1995 13:16:43 EDT Subject: Re: Old smutty song series Priority: normal X-mailer: Pegasus Mail v3.22 Message-ID: Status: RO X-Status: A > Date sent: Mon, 23 Oct 1995 08:58:57 -0700 (PDT) > From: Ed Cray > To: "Paul M. Gifford" > Subject: Re: Old smutty song series > Paul: > > Your collection of the fiddler's quatrains could be very important! Did > you ever transcribe them? > > I have always wondered if musicians did not use the quatrains as mnemonic > devices to remember the tunes. There are a dozen or so of them in the > second volume of Randolph's Unprintable Songs from the Ozarks. > > > Would you be willing to share your material with me? > > Ed Sure, why not. I transcribed them (on a typewriter) years ago, but more recently I started to enter them into a computer, but didn't finish the task. I was thinking of doing a kind of "memorial" pamphlet to give to friends. I'm not a folklorist, so you could probably make better use of them. Actually I thought of writing you some time ago. What about "politically incorrect" ethnic songs---"The Irishman's Shanty," "I Don't Love a Nigger," etc.? I've heard a lot of different versions of the first one, so it's pretty widely known, at least in Michigan. Here are Bigford's versions: (to "Irish Washerwoman"): Did you ever go into an Irishman's shanty Where fleas and bedbugs and mice were a-plenty A three-legged stool and a table to match And a hole in the floor for the chickens to scratch (to "Miss McLeod's Reel"): I don't love a Nigger, I'll be damned if I do I don't love a Nigger, I'll be damned if I do I don't love a Nigger, I'll be damned if I do Their hair is wooly and their bags is too. I know that Vance Randolph's collection has versions of some of the songs that Bill Bigford used to sing. Most of the songs I transcribed came from Bill Bigford, but some others came from Walt Taylor and another guy, but some I learned from casual contacts. I played music around a lot, and sang some of more acceptable quatrains, and occasionally someone might come up and whisper a song in my ear, so I don't necessarily know where they came from. There's one particularly filthy lumberjack song, sung to the melody of "Solomon Levi," which has some lines like: And when I get to Ludington, I think I am a man I'll wander up and down the streets with the dodger in my hand Until I meet some pretty lass, who chanced to go apast [Then something about ramming it up her ass, etc., causing blood, etc.; also the song has the line "Suck my snotty old fuck stick until your upper lip gets sore," etc.---Allusions to sodomy, rape, etc.] I'll be in touch. Paul Gifford