A variation on the shaving cream song

[George Thompson]

I have the very good fortune to live within broadcast range (just barely) of
WHVW, a  very low-powered Poughkeepsie radio  station specializing in music
recorded before the mid 1950s.  If there is another station in th country on
which oe can here, withing an hour, recordings by Marion Harris, Eddie
Cantor, Gid Tanner and the Skillet Lickers, Louis Armstrong, Bert Williams
and Enrico Caruso, let me know and I will consider moving there.

Several weeks ago I heard a record called "Sweet Violets #3", recorded by
the "Sweet Violets Boys", probably in the late 1930s.  It seems that this
was a name used by a group called "the Prairie Ramblers" when recording
songs with indelicate lyrics.  The owner of the station is a collector of 78
rpm records -- "Sweet Violets #3" seemed to have been a new acquisition, and
he commented with surprise that there must have been a Sweet Violets #1 &
#2.

None of these are on the net yet, but I do find the following:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1sfCnx1z-Q

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ.
Pr., 1998, but nothing much since then.


On Sun, May 29, 2011 at 12:29 AM, Garson O'Toole
<adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>wrote:

> Wilson Gray wrote
> > This has the same tune as another song of this type from the '50's,
> > Sweet Violets, by Dinah Shore:
> >
> > Sweet violets
> > Sweeter than the roses
> > Covered all over from head to toe
> > Covered all over with sweet violets
> > There once was a farmer who took a young miss
> > In back of the barn to give her a lecture
> > On horses and cows and chickens and eggs
>
> Thanks for mentioning this entertaining song, Wilson. YouTube has a
> version of Sweet Violets sung by Dinah Shore. Here is a link:
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtnLvrmyh3E
>
> Wikipedia has an entry for Sweet Violets that is written in a language
> resembling English.
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_Violets
>
> Wilson Gray message continued:
> > And told her that she had such beautiful
> > Manners that befitted a girl of her charms
> > A girl that he wanted to take in his
> > Washing and ironing and then if she did
> > They would get married and raise lots of
> > Sweet violets
> > Sweeter than the roses
> > Covered all over from head to toe
> > Covered all over with sweet violets
> > The girl told the farmer that he'd better stop
> > And she called her father and he called a
> > Taxi and got there, before very long
> > 'Cause someone was doin' his sweet, little girl
> > Right for a change, and so that's why he said
> > If you marry her, son, you're better off single
> > 'Cause it's always been my belief
> > Marriage will bring a man nothing but
> > Sweet violets
> > Sweeter than the roses
> > Covered all over from head to toe
> > Covered all over with sweet violets
> > The farmer decided he'd wed, anyway
> > And started in planning for his wedding
> > Suit, which he purchased for only one buck
> > But then he found out he was all out of
> > Money and so he got left in the lurch
> > A-standin' and waitin' in front of the
> > End of the story which just goes to show
> > All a girl wants from a man is his
> > Sweet violets
> > Sweeter than the roses
> > Covered all over from head to toe
> > Covered all over with sweet violets
> > Sweet violets
> >
> >
> > There's yet another version called The Shaving-Cream Song?
> >
> > Youneverknow,
> >
> > --
> > -Wilson
> > -----
> > 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.
> > -Mark Twain
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ.
Pr., 1998, but nothing much since then.

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org