“I Know a Boarding-House”
Description
"I know a boarding-house Not far away Where they have ham and eggs Three times a day." "Lord, how those boarders shout..." "Lord, how those boarders yell When they hear that dinner-bell!"
Notes
This is one of those composite songs -- the key element is humorous verses to the tune of "Silver Threads." The most common verse -- shared with "The Barefoot Boy" -- is "while the organ pealed potatoes"; my father learned this from a substitute teacher in Detroit around 1941.
Dave Macon copyrighted his "Country Ham and Red Gravy" version of this song, which does indeed seem to be a rewrite (rather racist), but it's clearly from the same roots. Though he may have supplied the tune, also known as "New Five Cents."
Laura Ingalls Wilder printed a stanza of this in _By the Shores of Silver Lake_, chapter 4. If she actually heard it then, it would date the song from 1879. But, of course, she was writing half a century later, and her work is much fictionalized anyway, so that's not a very trustworthy date. - RBW
Cross references
- cf. "There Is a Happy Land" (tune, form)
- cf. "The Barefoot Boy with Boots On" (floating lyrics)
Recordings
- Uncle Dave Macon, "Country Ham and Red Gravy" (Bluebird 7951, 1938)
References
- Randolph 479, "I Know a Boarding-House" (1 text)
- Pankake-PHCFSB, "At the Boarding House Where I Live" (1 text, tune referenced); also p. 190, "While The Organ Pealed Potatoes" (1 text, tune referenced)
- DT, BORDHOUS* (HAPYLND2*)
- Roud #7636
- BI, R479