Junker/Junko/Junco Partner

[Joel S. Berson]

At 1/20/2008 11:42 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>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"?

Hatband? And his head was probably in it when he was "shah
tup".  Anyone who would say "Soive' six munts" might say "hotban'".

(At this very instant I'm reading "The Whimsical Jester: or Rochester
in High Glee" (1788) -- in an attempt to get in tune with 19th
century humor -- with a similar incident:  a man finding another in
bed with his wife, throws the other's hat out the window.  Being
ashamed at what he had done, he goes to the king, who pardons him,
saying he was justified. "Yes, my liege, but his head was in it.")

Perhaps "lanky" is just a "long" tractor.

Joel


>   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
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>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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