“Charley Bell”

Description

"If you ever go to lumbering woods, Please take my advice": don't work for Charley Bell. His spruce is rotten, his road is too crooked to be steered, his food squeals when bitten, and you get eaten alive by lice from Charley.

Supplemental text

Charley Bell
  Partial text(s)

          *** A ***

From Louise Manny and James Reginald Wilson, Songs of Miramichi,
#10, pp. 73-74. From the singing of George C. Alexander of
Doakstown around 1950.

(Come all you jolly?) lumbermen,
  Wherever that you be,
And if you pay attention,
  Come listen unto me.
If ever you go to lumbering woods,
  Please take my advice,
For if you go with Charley Bell,
  He'll eat him alive with lice.

Chorus
Look out for number one,
  Come listen to me,
For the man who works for Charley Bell
  'S no better than he ought to be.

(5 additional stanzas)

Notes

And he's ugly, too.

(No, amazingly enough, the song doesn't say that. Author Patrick Murphy is said to have been a circus performer. His act must have been interesting, to say the least.) - RBW

References

1. Manny/Wilson 10, "Charley Bell" (1 text, 1 tune)
2. ST MaWi010 (Partial)
3. Roud #9201
4. BI, MaWi010