“Hungry Hash House”

Description

"I'm a boarder and I dwell in that second-rate hotel. If I stay here long, I think I'll go insane...." "Well, she promised she would meet me when the clock struck seventeen...." "She's my darling, she's my daisy. She's hump-backed and she's crazy...."

Notes

The verse "She's my darling, she's my daisy, She's humpbacked and she's crazy... She's my freckled-faced consumptive Mary Ann" floats (e.g. Charlie Poole uses it in his version of "I Was Born About Ten Thousand Years Ago (Bragging Song)"), and it also appears in "Sara Jane." Paul Stamler thinks that the most likely source, so we are now, somewhat tentatively, listing lose citations of that verse there unless we can determine their source. See, however, "Dennis McGonagle's Daughter Mary Ann." - RBW

Cross references

• cf. "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (tune) and references there
• cf. "Sara Jane" (tune, floating lyrics)

Recordings

• Arkansas Charlie [pseud. for Charlie Craver], "That Old Go Hungry Hash House" (Vocalion 5401, 1930)
• Binkley Brothers' Dixie Clodhoppers, "All Go Hungry Hash House" (Victor 21758, 1928)
• Charley Blake, "Hungry Hash House" (Supertone 9534, 1929)
• Cofer Brothers, "All Go Hungry Hash House" (OKeh 45099, 1927)
• Bill Cox, "Hungry Hash House Blues" (Champion 15792, 1929)
• Uncle Dave Macon, "All Go Hungry Hash House" (Vocalion 15076, 1925)
• New Lost City Ramblers, "Hungry Hash House" (on NLCR13)
• Charlie Poole & the North Carolina Ramblers, "Hungry Hash House" (Columbia 15160-D, 1927; Velvet Tone 2492-V/Clarion 5432-C [both as Pete Harrison & his Bayou Boys], 1932; rec. 1926; on CPoole03)
• Ernest V. Stoneman, "The Old Go Hungry Hash House" (Okeh 45062, 1926); "All Go Hungry Hash House" (Victor 20237, 1926); [Ernest Stoneman &] The Dixie Mountaineers, "All Go Hungry Hash House" (Edison, unissued, 1927) (Edison 52350, 1928) (CYL: Edison [BA] 5528, 1928)
• Gordon Tanner, Smokey Joe Miller & Uncle John Patterson, "Lonesome Hungry Hash House" (on DownYonder)

References

1. Randolph 478, "The Boarding-House" (1 text, 1 tune)
2. Randolph/Cohen, pp. 371-373, "The Boardinghouse" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 478)
3. Sandburg, p. 207, "She Promised She'd Meet Me" (1 short text, 1 tune)
4. Cohen/Seeger/Wood, pp. 220-221, "Hungry Hash House" (1 text, 1 tune)
5. Rorrer, p. 74, "Hungry Hash House" (1 text)
6. Gilbert, pp. 191-192, "The All Go Hungry Hash House" (1 text)
7. DT, HASHOUSE*
8. Roud #11719
9. BI, San207