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----- Original Message ----- From: "Aaron Z Snyder" <[log in to unmask]> > I have no information regarding the tune. All I have is a comment on the > "lyrics". My only previous exposure to these verses was a variant which was > published in "fact:" magazine, circa 1965. The magazine was one of the more > successful ventures by Ralph Ginzburg, who was better known at the time for > his legal troubles over distribution by the US Postal System of his magazine > "Eros". That was the same period in which poor Lenny Bruce was being > persecuted for his so-called obscenities which he used on the stage. The > "good old days" were anything but! > > The variant of the lyrics in question was published in an article about > lavatory graffiti, and that was my only exposure to Sam prior to this > posting. I had no idea that Sam had actually made it to recorded media! I > suspect that ARSC-member Bill Schurk knows everything there is about this > song (I was bowled over by his encyclopedic knowledge of such things at last > year's ARSC convention.). He certainly would be a good starting-point for > your inquiry. > Well, back in my younger days (yes, Virginia, I was once young!) we used to know dozens of these ribald ballads...which, in a sense, were TRUE folk songs (handed down by oral tradition, and anonymously, since no one dare claim them!). I further added to my collection by hanging out with various drunks and ski bums during my stay in Garmisch. I probably know a few dozen, but there seems to be little demand for such melodies these days (seems like there ought to be a web site devoted to such ephemera, but I have yet to find it!). A few of my favourites (titles are as I knew 'em): An Engineer Told Me Before He Died Ay Ay Yi Yi (same song as "Rhymes" but different chorus, unexpurgated-- repeats as many limericks as the participants know) Columbo Four and Twenty Virgins Gonna Tie My P***r To a Tree (tune of "Come Ti Yi Yippie Yippie Ay) My God, How the Money Rolls In The Night Before Christmas (lewd version) (forgot some of this one!) The Wild West Show While the Train Is In the Station (tune of "Humoresque") and one I have never found is "Seven Old Ladies (Were Locked In the Lavatory)" Steven C. Barr