Sunday, February 22, 2009

Long Boy

Some of my fondest memories of my Grandpa King Turpin (1902/03 - 1977) were of the funny songs he used to sing. There was one song that he sang over and over again, but until recently I have not been able to find it anywhere. All I could remember were lines that went something like this: "Goodbye ma and goodbye pa. Goodbye mule...."

Grandpa Turpin would sing those lines while playing his guitar, and when he finished he would just laugh.

Isn't Google wonderful! By simply googling part of a line that I could remember, both the lyrics and an audio clip of the song were instantly on my screen!

The song's title is "Long Boy." It was a World War I song released in 1917. The lyrics are here (PDF document), and the audio clip is here (mp3 file).

I am assuming that these materials have passed into the public domain. If such is not the case, please let me know, and I will correct the situation.