Topic: Charlie Poole lyrics

[Lastfirstface]

I remember Pat Conte talking on Secret Museum of Air about the myriad interpretations of what Charlie was saying on this one, so I'm sure I'm way off on some of this. Ok, well here goes nothing:



Monkey On a String

Most every year when the springtime comes and the birds begin to sing
An Italian comes around this town with a monkey on a string
An organ set where the monkey sat was in the grocery store
The foolish things that monkey done he sent me in a roar

Now that's the time when the monk begins
(laughter)
Oh how that monkey hopped and grinned
(laughter)

Some says he looks like Sally's [fish?]
Some say like Deacon Brown
And we sat by gosh the whole day long
With that darn monkey's song

(laughter)

Some say he looks like Sally's [fish]
Some say like Deacon Brown
And we sat by gosh the whole day long
With that darn monkey's song

Some said that the monk was made one night when I would see the way
And that the monk was made from an Italian on the great creation day
But a monk was made from an Irishman and I would see the way
That a monk was made from Italian to pass the time away

Now that's the time when the monk begins
(laughter)
Oh how that monkey hopped and grinned
(laughter)

Some says he looks like Sally's [fish?]
Some say like Deacon Brown
And we sat by gosh the whole day long
With that darn monkey's song

[Johnm]

Good on you for taking on "Monkey On A String", Lastfirstface.  I love the song and love to play it--Bflat is so pretty a key for the fiddle, but man, are those lyrics hard to hear--maybe the hardest to hear of any of Charlie Poole's lyrics.  I'll re-listen tomorrow and see if I can come up with anything.  It is interesting to sing the song, when the only part I feel reasonably certain about is the guffawing.
All best,
Johnm

[Lyle Lofgren]

"Monkey on a String" pretty much defeated Uncle Willie's word transcription abilities. Much of the entry is blank. He does, however, maintain that he hears "Some say he looks like Sally Smith ..." Wish I could be more helpful.

Lyle

[Lastfirstface]

I guess I picked 'Monkey On a String' to try to transcribe because of how difficult it is to get a grasp on some of the lines. A friend of mine and I do it together sometimes and he pretty much just makes it up as he goes along. After I posted earlier I remembered hearing somewhere that Poole might have got the song from the earlier Cal Stewart recording. After a bit of poking around, I found it on archive.org:

http://ia700202.us.archive.org/16/items/CalStewart_part1/CalStewart-MonkeyOnaString.mp3

Cal's lyrics are a bit different, and include a pretty clear "Sally Smith" on that line that Charlie always seems to swallow. I have my take on the lyrics to "You Ain't Talkin' to Me" written down somewhere, so I'll put those up too as soon as I find them.

[bayrum78]

Kinney Rorrer, a great nephew of Charlie Poole's and Posey Rorrer's (Charlie married Posey's sister), as alluded to by others wrote an excellent biography on him titled Rambling Blues The Life & Songs of Charlie Poole ( ISBN:  0-904395-01-4) that is full of historical information and colorful anecdotes and includes transcriptions to all of Poole's songs. It is a very informative and entertaining read. Here are the lyrics as transcribed therein.

Monkey On a String

Most every year when springtime comes
And the birds begin to sing
An Italian comes around this town
With a monkey on a string
And an organ that he plays around
At the corner grocery store
And the foolish things that monkey does
Just sets me in a roar

Now thats the time the fun begins
Ha-ha-ha-ha
Oh how that monkey hops and grins
Ha-ha-ha-ha
Some says he looks Sally Smith
Some say lie Deacon Brown
And its laugh by gosh, from morn til night
When that darn monk's in town

Ha-ha-ha-ha [etc]
Some say he looks like Sally Smith
Some say lie Deacon Brown
And its laugh by gosh, the whole day long
When that darn monk's in town

Some said that the monk was made one night
That I would see the way
And that the monk was made for mockery
On the great creation day
But a monk was made from an Irishman
That I might see the way
And a monk was made from....[?]
To pass the time away

Chorus

I just checked on Amazon and according to the description it is currently out of print. It is however, still available but selling for a ridiculously high price. I am fairly confident if you contacted Kinney directly he be able to source copies that wouldn't require  taking out a personal bank loan. I attended the CP festival last year in Eden, NC and I would swear copies were being sold there. BTW, Kinney heads up a tight knit band known as The New North Carolina Rambler's and he can pick just like CP. CD's and downloads are readily available and their playing can be heard on YouTube.

Bayrum78

[bayrum78]

Backtracking a bit to the lyrics of  If I Lose, I Don't Care
....The boys was fighting Spaniards while i was fighting I always thought was The boys was fighting Spaniards while I was fighting gnats

[bayrum78]

(pardon the politically incorrect coon reference - but it is what he sings)



Coon From Tennessee



There's a coon from Tennessee
Just as black as she could be
And she never went to church or Sunday school
Says she went there one day
When she heard that preacher say

I'm gonna live in highways 'til I die
The life I aim on living's very high
Oh, sticks and stones gonna break my bones
Talk about me when I'm dead and gone
But I'm gonna live in highways 'til I die

I'm gonna run me a cemetery of  my own
If you don't let my girl there alone
Gonna buy me a razor, gonna scrape the blade
Gonna lay some son of a gun in the shade
For I'm gonna live in highways 'til I die

The Georgia Yellowhammers also have a fantastic version of this song.
 Jim Jackson (and probably many others) sing about starting graveyard/cemetery of their own -may have been a common verse within the "coon song" genre

[Rivers]

I'm gonna live in highways 'til I die

Sounds more like "I'm gonna live in Iowa 'til I die" to me. Neither make a whole lot of sense but there you go. And please transcribe all the verses and choruses, thanks.

[Lyle Lofgren]

Kinney Rorrer reprinted his book (originally published by Old Time Music in England), and, last I heard, sells it himself. I highly recommend it. The last address I have for him is Kinney Rorrer, 301 Carson Jones Road, Danville, VA 24540.

Lyle

[dj]

I'm gonna live in THE HIGH WAYS 'till I die

This has the benefit of making sense.   

[Lyle Lofgren]

To paraphrase Tina Turner, what's sense got to do with it?

Lyle

[Gumbo]

I agree on THE HIGHWAYS

and I also hear

Says she WENT ONE day (no 'there')
When she heard that preacher say

and

I'm gonna live in THE highways 'til I die
The life I AM A-LIVIN's very high
Oh, sticks and stones gonna BREAK_A my bones

[banjochris]

Not that this is necessarily what Poole sings, but I believe the original sheet music for Coon from Tennessee has

I'se gonna live anyhow until I die

food for thought.
Chris

[uncle bud]

(pardon the politically incorrect coon reference - but it is what he sings)

Coon From Tennessee

There's a coon from Tennessee
Just as black as she could be
And she never went to church or Sunday school
Says she went there one day
When she heard that preacher say

I would say the gender is incorrect here and that Poole sings HE, and not she, throughout the verse. It would be more logical with the reference in the later verse to leaving his girl alone as well.

At the end in line 5.1, I think it might actually be "WHENCE he heard that preacher say"

I'm gonna live in highways 'til I die
The life I aim on living's very high
Oh, sticks and stones gonna break my bones
Talk about me when I'm dead and gone
But I'm gonna live in highways 'til I die

Agree with dj on THE HIGH WAYS.

2.1 The life I ARE living's very high

Re. the above. Not 100% certain of it, but I think that's what he's singing, and it would be typical of the deliberately mangled grammar of some coon songs (think Ragtime Joe in Sam McGee's version of Chicken - "'C' am the way to begin"..."'I' that am the third", "that am the way to spell chicken" etc.)

Missing repeated chorus:

I'm gonna live in the high ways 'til I die
The life I are living's very high
Oh, sticks and stones gonna break-a my bones
Talk about me when I'm dead and gone
But I'm gonna live in the high ways 'til I die

Possibly singing FOR instead of BUT in the last line?

I'm gonna run me a cemetery of  my own
If you don't let my girl there alone
Gonna buy me a razor, gonna scrape the blade
Gonna lay some son of a gun in the shade
For I'm gonna live in highways 'til I die

4.2 If you don't let my GAL there alone
4.5 For I'm gonna live in THE HIGH WAYS 'til I die

Missing repeated choruses:

I'm gonna live in the high ways 'til I die
The life I are living's very high
Oh, sticks and stones gonna break-a my bones
Talk about me when I'm dead and gone
FOR I'm gonna live in the high ways 'til I die

I'm gonna live in the high ways 'til I die
The life I are living's very high
Oh, sticks and stones gonna break-a my bones
Talk about me when I'm dead and gone
FOR I'm gonna live in the high ways 'til I die

The Georgia Yellowhammers also have a fantastic version of this song.

Nate, did you mean the Georgia Crackers? They also sing "I'm a-gonna live anyhow till I die" in the chorus as Chris notes.

Here's a link to the original sheet music from 1901 for "I'm Gonna Live Anyhow Till I Die" by Shepard N. Edmonds that Chris mentioned.

[dj]

I agree with most of uncle bud's suggestions.

Like uncle bud, I do think the gender in the first verse is masculine.  This would mean that the third line would be "AS HE never went to church or Sunday school" as there's a definite "s" at the end of the first or the beginning of the second syllable.

Where uncle bud and I part ways is in the second line of the chorus.  I think Poole is singing either "The life I AM A-livin's very high" or "The life I AIM ON livin's very high".  With Poole's accent, the sounds of the two variants are essentially identical, so "you pays your money and you takes your pick" as my parent's used to say.