Junker/Junko/Junco Partner

[Jonathan Lighter]

Vic Damone?? Who'da thunk it?  Most interesting and valuable, Wilson.

  I can't guess at "lanky" either.  And what's a "hotban'"?  Maybe a "hop pad"?

  JL

Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Wilson Gray
Subject: Junker/Junko/Junco Partner
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I was surprised to come across mention of this song in Linguist List.
Since this is pretty much a folk song, it has a wide variety of words.
So, FTHOI, I thought that I'd just throw some others into the pot. The
words below are the oldest that I know of, as I was able to understand
them from a lo-fi, ca.1949, 78rpm recording by Vic Damone, back in the
day. It was the B-side of "Vagabond Shoes."

-Wilson

Down the road
Comin' a junko potnuh
Fo' he was low-did as can be
He wuh knocked-out
Knocked-out low-did
And he was sangin' this song to me

Soive' six munts
Ain't no sinnunce
What I did ain' no crime
I jes' shah tup
A Cajun's hotban'
He was in it
Ah the verih time

Well, when I had
Plin-tee of muh-nih
I thought I had-a minnih frins
All ovuh town
Now, I ain't got no mo' munnay
An' my bes' frins
Have put me down

Had to pawn my watch and pih-stole
An' I shoulda pawned my key an' chain
Would have pawned my Ee-zo-bell-lah (Isabela?)
But the po' gal wouldn' sign her name

Well, if I had
One milly-own dah-lahs
Jest-a one milly-own
To call my own
I would buy me a lanky(?!) trak-toe
An' I would raise me a tobacco fome

Well, give me watuh, watuh
When I'm thois-tee
Give whiskih when I'm dry
Give me kine-niss when I'm sicklih
An' heh-vah-ah-on when I die

Down the road
Come a junko potnuh
An' he was a-low-did
As can be
He wuh knocked-out
Knocked-out low-did
An' he was kuh-vud
In mih-zuh-ree

Down the road
come a junko potnuh, potnuh, potnuh

--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
-Sam'l Clemens

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