[Ads-l] Antedating (?) BYOB and BYOL and BYOS

Mark Mandel mark.a.mandel at GMAIL.COM
Sat Dec 22 18:08:13 UTC 2018


That song is certainly different! But as you observe, the reference, along
with other entries in the Mudcat thread, proves that "Show me the way to go
home" was already well associated with drinking (to intoxication).

Mark


On Sat, Dec 22, 2018, 11:59 AM ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com
wrote:

> Mark Mandel wrote:
> > As additional evidence, I take the expression "show them the way to go
> > home" as an allusion to the song that begins:
> > >>>>>
> > Show me the way to go home.
> > I'm tired and I want to go to bed.
> > I had a little drink about an hour ago
> > And it went right to my head.
>
> Thanks for your response, Mark. The 1902 citation below indicates that
> the phrase “Show me the way to go home” does occur as a refrain in a
> drinking song. Although the song below seems to differ from the one
> you suggested.
>
> The famous temperance campaigner Carrie Nation visited the Yale
> campus, but she was heckled by students who interrupted her discourse
> by singing drinking songs.
>
> Date: October 1, 1902
> Newspaper: The Evening Standard
> Newspaper Location: Leavenworth, Kansas
> Article: Mrs. Nation Jeered by Yale Students
> Quote Page 1, Column 1
> Database: Newspapers.com
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> "I'm amazed at the sentiment of such
> songs; really in all my life"----
>
> Give us a drink, bartender,
> For we love it, as you know----
> And surely you will oblige us.
> With a little drop or so.
>
> "The saloon," shouted Mrs. Nation,
> "has been after those singers. It'll get
> 'em if they don't answer out."
>
> But the answer was:
> Show me the way to go home, Carrie,
> Show me the way to go home,
> For I've been drunk for the last six months,
> Show me the way to go home.
>
> "You're on the road to ----," screamed Mrs. Nation.
> [End excerpt]
>
> Garson
>
>
> > There's plenty of discussion of this song on the Mudcat Café website
> > (dedicated to discussion of filk and popular music). See among others
> > https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=9395#60669
> >
> > In that thread, the comment at
> > https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=9395#342162
> > provides some dates, though without citations:
>

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