I’m Goin Back
I'm
goin' back to where I come from
Where the honeysuckle smells so sweet it durn near makes you sick.
I used to think my life was hum-drum,
But I found I learned a lesson that is bound to stick.
There ain't no use in my pretendin'
'Cause this city sure ain't no place fer a guy like me to end in.
Goin' back to where I come from,
Where the mockingbird is singin' in the lilac bush
I
used to go down to the station
Every evenin' just to watch that Pullman train come rollin' in.
And then one night, that great temptation
Got the best of me and led me to a life of sin.
I took my hat and fourteen dollars
And I went to all the trouble of that life that always follers
When you're rich and huntin' romance.
Well, my huntin' days are over I can tell you that
I
met a gal in Kansas City.
She winked at me and asked me if I'd like to step around,
And I said, 'Yep! That's what I'm here fer.'
So she said she'd take me to the hottest spots in town.
But there were things she had to fix up,
So she took my fourteen dollars, but there must've been a mix-up.
She's been gone since Thursday evenin',
And I've got a hunch I'll never see that gal no more.
When
I grow up, and have a grandson,
Well, I'll tell him 'bout my romance and then watch his eyes bug out,
But chances are he won't believe me
And he'll do the same durn thing when he grows up, no doubt.
But he can't say I didn't warn him
What would happen when he meets up with them city gals, go learn;
I'm goin' back to where I come from,
Where the mockingbird is singin' in the lilac bush
Eternal Father
Eternal
Father, strong to save,
Whose arm hath bound the restless wave,
Who bidd'st the mighty ocean deep
Its own appointed limits keep;
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,
O
Christ! Whose voice the waters heard
And hushed their raging at Thy word,
Who walked'st on the foaming deep,
And calm amidst its rage didst sleep;
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in peril on the sea!
Most
Holy Spirit! Who didst brood
Upon the chaos dark and rude,
And bid its angry tumult cease,
And give, for wild confusion, peace;
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in peril on the sea!
O
Trinity of love and power!
Our brethren shield in danger's hour;
bFrom rock and tempest, fire and foe,
Protect them wheresoe'er they go;
Thus evermore shall rise to Thee
Glad hymns of praise from land and sea
Lord,
guard and guide the men who fly
Through the great spaces in the sky.
Be with them always in the air,
In darkening storms or sunlight fair;
Oh, hear us when we lift our prayer,
For those in peril in the air!
Thoughts on Music and Singing
by Charles
Dodds – about 1993
I was born in
Baltimore in 1913, and from the age of about five or six until I entered the
Naval Academy in 1933 my family spent summers at a wonderful place on the
Severn River near Annapolis. On
18 acres of waterfront woodland there were four houses all occupied by family
and friends, most with children of various ages.
Our living conditions were primitive, by modern standards.
Our ‘bathrooms’ were equipped with large water pitchers and
associated crockery. We had no
garbage or trash collection so refuse had to be burned or buried. We had no central heating, so fireplace wood had to be cut
and hauled when the weather turned chilly.
On most evenings
after supper about a dozen adults and children from the various homes would
gather at my Father’s house and we would sing, without accompaniment.
We sang a wide variety of songs, -- most initially introduced by the
adults and quickly learned by us kids. We
had no radio and of course no television.
The years slipped by
and I found myself a member of the Junior Officer’s Mess aboard a battleship
in the Pacific. I acquired a used accordion which I began coaxing tunes out of
in the privacy of my room aboard ship. One
evening a messmate stuck his head in my room and said, “Hey, that sounds
pretty good, -- why not bring it into the Mess (dining room)”.
I did, and it was a modest but definite success.
More years went by
and World War II came along. I
found myself island hopping in the South Pacific with a twin engined Lockheed
Squadron. Each time we moved off my old accordion went along in the nose
section of my plane, - it’s forty pound weight carefully entered in the
weight and loading calculations. On each of the islands, as I recall, we had
no commercial radio broadcasts and of course no television but we enjoyed a
great deal of singing of all kinds of songs with accordion accompaniment. It never ceased to amaze me how many singable songs were
contributed by individual pilots and soon became well known to all of us. Some
were so bawdy that I have ever since refrained from singing them in mixed
company. We also made up numerous
songs describing our adventures which we sang to old familiar airs. After a
fairly long tour in South America and about halfway into our Pacific tour the
bellows of my accordion commenced to develop serious leaks. To cope with this
unhappy development, several junior officers were directed to chew large wads
of gum prior to each singing session. The
gum was applied to the bellows leads and the singing proceeded satisfactorily.
More years rolled by,
and we enjoyed many duty stations in various parts of the country, -- Florida,
Virginia, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Maryland and California.
At each, we gathered of an evening and sang.
Our repertoire steadily increased and we ventured into four-part
harmony. Periodically back in
Annapolis, we often played and sang in the Music Room at Randall House and
also enjoyed wonderful musical evenings at Peter and Molly Hall’s around the
corner on Prince George Street. These
Hall gatherings were particularly pleasant, -- attended by many Faculty and
Student Body members from St. John’s College as well as kindred
souls from the Naval Academy and the Annapolis community. We enjoyed really competent performances on a variety of
stringed instruments and my efforts on the accordion were always kindly
received.
Still more years
slipped by and we found ourselves middle aged.
We began to notice that those of us who had sung the old songs in our
twenties were still singing them in our forties and fifties but few young
people were joining in to learn them. The
young had never heard of Burl Ives or Jean Ritchie, and most knew no songs at
all.
And now, as I
approach my eightieth year, I am mulling over the idea of recording these old
songs. I have typed a list of
song titles that is eight pages long already and to which I am adding titles.
Virtually all of these songs I know the tunes of, most of them I know
some of the words of, and a good many I know all the words of.
With a good deal of research I believe I could flush up missing lines
and verses. However, I have
serious doubts about the lack of interest in old song singing on the part of
younger generations. Furthermore,
with satellites zooming the earth, there will be no place on earth where
reception will not be excellent and troops will no doubt be routinely equipped
with sophisticated radio and television sets,
so that they will be entertained no matter to what remote spot they are sent.
Perhaps I should
leave the recording of old songs to the Library of Congress.
Menagerie
Van Amburgh is the man, who goes to all the shows
He goes into the lion's cage, and tells you all he knows;
He sticks his head in the lion's mouth,and keeps it there a-while,
And when he pulls it out again, he greets you with a smile.
Chorus:
The elephant goes around, The band begins to play,
The boys around the monkey's cage had better get out of the way.
First comes the African Polar Bear, oft called the Iceberg's Daughter,
She eats three cakes of ice per day then calls for soda water;
She wades in the water up to her knees, not fearing any harm,
You may growl and grumble as much as you please, and she don't give a
"darn."
(chorus)
That Hyena in the next cage, most terrible to relate,
Got awful hungry the other day, and ate up his female mate;
He’s a very ferocious beast, don't go near him little boys,
For when he's angry he shakes his tail, and makes this awful noise.
(imitate growling)
(chorus)
Next comes the Anaconda Boa Constrictor, oft called Anaconda for
brevity,
He's known throughout the whole wide world for his age and great
longevity;
He can swallow himself, crawl into himself, and crawl out again with
facility,
He can tie himself into a double-bow-knot with his tail, and smile with
the greatest facility.
(chorus)
Next comes the Great Vulture, awful bird, from highest mountain's top,
He's been known to eat up little girls, and then to lick his chops;
The performance can't go on, there's too much noise and confusion,
Ladies don't feed those monkeys cakes, you'll ruin their constitu
tions.
(chorus)
Dunderbeck
There was a big fat Dutchman - his name was Dunderbeck
Hew was very fond of sauerkraut - and sausages and speck
He owned a great big grocery shop - the biggest ever seen
And he got himself a patent on a sausage meat machine
Chorus:
Dunderbeck oh Dunderbeck how could you be so mean
I’m sorry you ever invented - that horrible machine
For pussy cats and long tailed rats - will never more be seen
They have all been ground to sausage meat -
in Dunderbeck’s machine
One day a small boy - came into the store
To buy a pound of sausage
meat - and eggs a half a score
While he stood there waiting - he whistled up a tune
And the sausages jumped up and down - and danced around the room
(Chorus)
But something got the matter - the machine it would not go
So Dunderbeck he climbed
inside - the matter for to know
His wife she had a nightmare - a walking in her sleep
She gave the crank an awful yank - and Dunderbeck was meat
(Chorus)
Aura
Lee
As the blackbird
in the spring,
'neath the willow tree,
Sat and piped, I heard him sing,
In praise of Aura Lee.
Chorus:
Aura Lee, Aura Lee,
Maid with golden hair,
Sunshine came along with thee,
And swallows in the air.
Take my heart and take
my ring,
I give my all to thee.
Take me for eternity,
Dearest Aura Lee.
(chorus)
In her blush the rose was born,
'twas music when she spake.
In her eyes the light of morn,
Sparkling seemed to break.
(chorus)
Aura Lee, the bird may flee,
The willow's golden hair,
Then the wintry winds may be,
Blowing everywhere.
Final Chorus:
Yet if thy blue,
Eyes I see,
Gloom will soon depart.
For to me, sweet Aura Lee,
Is sunshine to the heart.
My
Last Cigar
‘Twas off the blue Canary Isles, a glorious summer day,
I sat upon the quarter deck and wiff’d my cares away
And as the volumed smoke arose, like incense in the air,
I breath’d a sigh to think in sooth, it was my last cigar
Chorus:
It was my last cigar, it was my last cigar
I breath’d a sigh to think in sooth, it was my last cigar
I lean’d against the quarter rail, and look’d down in the sea,
E’en there the purple wreath of smoke was curling gracefully;
Oh, what had I at such a time to do with wasting care?
Alsa the trembling tear proclaim’d it was my last cigar.
(Chorus)
I watch’d the ashes, as it came fast drawing t’ward the end,
I watch’d it as a friend would watch beside a dying friend;
But still the flame crept slowly on, it vanish’d into air,
I threw it from me – spare the tale – it was my last cigar.
(Chorus)
I’ve seen the land of all I love fade in the distance dim,
I’ve watch’d above the blighted heart where once proud hop hath been;
But I’ve never known a sorrow that could with that compare,
When off the blue Canary Isles I smoked my last cigar.
(Chorus)
An old naval officer writes that this was composed
by a naval officer on duty off the coast of Africa before the Civil War, when
the United States kept a patrol there to guard against slave trade.
This was a very tedious duty entailing many hardships and long months
at sea. The smoking of the
composer’s last cigar would constitute this a real heart song.
The
Titanic
Oh, they built the ship Titanic to sail the ocean blue,
And they thought they had a ship
That the water wouldn't go through;
But, the good Lord raised his hand,
Said this ship will never land,
It was sad when the great ship went down.
CHORUS:
It was sad, it was sad,
It was sad when the great ship went down
To the bottom of the sea (husbands and wives, little children lost their
lives),
It was sad when that great ship went down.
Oh, they sailed away from England and were almost to the shore,
When the rich refused to associate with the poor,
So they put them down below, where they were the first to go,
It was sad when the great ship went down.
CHORUS
The boat was full of sin, and the sides about to burst,
When the captain shouted "All women and children first".
Oh, the captain tried to wire, but the lines were all on fire,
It was sad when the great ship went down.
CHORUS
Oh, they swung the lifeboats out o'er the deep and raging sea,
When the band struck up with "Nearer My God to Thee",
Little children wept and cried as the waves swept o'er the side,
It was sad when the great ship went down.
CHORUS
Father’s Grave
They’re digging up father’s grave to build a
sewer.
They're digging it up regardless of expense!
They're shifting his remains
To put in 9-inch mains
To glorify some rich bloke's residence.
Now what's the use in having a religion,
And thinking when you're dead your troubles cease?
If some rich city chap
Wants pipelines to his crap.
He doesn't let a workman sleep in peace.
Now father in his life was not a quitter,
I don't suppose he'll be a quitter now.
Cause when the job's complete,
He'll haunt that sewer sweet:
They'll only take a crap when he'll allow.
Oh won't there be some bleedin' constipation;
And won't them city toffs begin to rave!
It's more than they deserve:
For they had the bloody nerve
To muck about a British workman's grave.
Lying
in the Gutter
I was lying in the gutter, all guzzled up with beer,
Pretzels in my whiskers, I knew the end was near,
But a bowl of beans and Jesus’ tears they saved me from the hearse
Glory, Glory hallelujah sing the second verse,
Chorus:
Hallelu, Hallelu, put a nickel on the drum,
Save another drunken bum.
Hallelu, Hallelu, put a nickel on the drum,
And you’ll be saved
Once when I was young, I was the village belle,
But the way I carried on, I was headed straight for Hell.
I rode my tandem bicycle with my ankles in full view,
But now that I have seen the light, I’m a maiden wrought anew.
Chorus
I was purveyor of fine liquors by appointment of King George,
I posed for Calvert – glass in hand – distinction made me large.
But I took a sip while posing – my descent was swift and hard,
Now I am a common laborer in the vineyards of the Lord.
Oh it’s G L O R Y to be S A V E D,
G L O R Y to be F R double E,
F R double E from bonds of S I N,
Glory, Glory Hallelujah Jesus Christ Ah men.
Chorus
Ten
thousand years
I
was born about ten thousand years ago
And there's noth'in in this world that I don't know
I saw Satan when he
look th garden o'er
I saw Adam and Eve driven from th door
And behind th bushes peeping
I saw the apple they were eating
And I'll swear that I'm th guy that ate th core
I saw Jonah when
he embarked within th whale
And thought he'd never live to tell th tale
But ole Jonah had eat'in garlic
And he gave th whale th colic
So he coughed up and let him out'a jail
I saw Sampson when
he laid th village cold
Saw Daniel tame th lions in the hold
And to help build th tower of Babble
Up as high as we were able
And there's lots of other things I have'nt told
I taught Solomon
his little ABC's
I helped Brigham Young to make limburger cheese
And while sailing down th bay
With Methusela one day
I saved his flowing whiskers from th breeze
Queen Elizabeth,
she fell in love with me
We were married in Milwaukee secretly
But I schemed around and shook her
And I went with General Hooker
To shoot mosquitoes down in Tennessee
I remember when th
country had a king
I saw Cleopatra pawn her wedding ring
And I saw th flags a-fly'n
When George Washington stopped lie'n
On th night when Patt first begin to sing
So you see I am an
educated man
To keep my brains in my head I plan
Cause I been on earth so long
That I use to sing a song
While Abraham and Issac played th band
I was born about
ten thousand years ago
And there's noth'in in this world that I don't know
I saw Peter, Paul and Moses
Playing ring-around-th-roses
And I can lick the guy that says it isn’t so
