Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Tattooed Lady

When I looked up the words to "With Her Head Tucked Underneath Her Arm", I also found the lyrics to another one of the songs our family used to sing when the boys were little. Again, not the most uplifting lyrics. I guess we have some tradition of teaching our children naughty things.

Tattoed Lady

Nick Reynolds/Bob Shane/John Stewart

We came to town to see that old tattooed lady.
She was a sight to see, tattooed from head to knee.
My uncle Ned was there. He came to gape and stare.
"I've never!"; he declared, "Seen such a freak so fair!"

And on her jaw was the Royal Flying Corp
and on her back was the Union Jack, now could you ask for more?
All up and down her spine marched the Queen's own guards in line
and all around her hips sailed a fleet of battleships.

And over her left kidney was a bird's eye view of Sydney
but what we liked best was upon her chest
A little home in Waikiki! (What did you say?) (Repeat all lines)

2 comments:

  1. Everyone in our family knows the words to this song:
    Truthful Bill

    I live out in the mountains
    Where the snakes they all have legs
    The hoot-owls talk in English
    And the roosters lay square eggs
    I shaved my beard and mustache
    The morning I was born
    I beat my old granddad to death
    And drank his rye and corn

    O I'm a truthful feller
    They call me truthful Bill
    I never told a falsehood
    And I bet I never will

    I used to be a flyer
    And in my aeroplane
    I flew across to Paris
    And started back again
    When I got halfway over
    The doggone thing it balked
    So I left the darn thing sitting up there
    And I got out and walked

    O I'm a truthful feller
    They call me truthful Bill
    I never told a falsehood
    And I bet I never will

    One day when I was stranded
    On an island in the sea
    The cannibals they got me
    And tied me to a tree
    They danced and beat their tom toms
    And they got rather rough
    They said I wouldn't make good beefsteak
    Cuz I was too doggone tough

    O Father of our country
    He never told a lie
    He was my great grand uncle
    So I ask you why should I?

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  2. That's great! That was in our family because it was on a Kingston Trio album we played a lot when we were growning up.

    Our family sang a song from the Richins side that's also pretty fun:

    The Johnny Burbeck Song

    There was a man in our town, his name was Johnny Burbeck,
    He delt in meat and sausages, and hamburger and sech,
    He made the finest sausages the world has ever seen,
    and one day he invented a wonderful sausage machine.

    Chorus: Oh, mister mister Johnny Burbeck, how could you be so mean?
    I told you you'd be sorry for inventing that machine,
    Now all the neighbors cats and dogs will never more be seen,
    They'll all be ground to sausages in Johnny Burbeck's machine!

    Verse 2
    One day a boy came walking, a'walking in the store,
    He bought a pound of sausages and put them on the floor,
    The boy began to whistle, he whistled a merry tune,
    And all the little sausages went dancing 'round the room....Oh, (chorus)

    Verse 3
    One day the darn thing busted, the darn thing wouldn't go,
    So Johnny Burbeck, he crawled inside, to see what made it so..
    His wife was having a nightmare, a'walkin' in her sleep,
    She gave the crank a heck of a yank, and Johnny Burbeck was meat...OH, (chorus)

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