“The Gay Caballero”
Description
The gay caballero meets a gay senorita who gives him "exceedingly painful clapito" that results in a doctor cutting off the end of his "latraballee" and one of his "latraballeros." (In another version, her husband arrives, with predictable results)
Notes
Logsdon's two texts, both from Riley Neal, have no words in common except "gay caballero"; one is a song about acquiring a veneral disease; in the other, the woman's husband shows up. Based solely on the texts, they are different songs. But Neal used the same tune, and both are in limerick form. I thought seriously about splitting them. But the "B" text, about the husband, is relatively clean. I suspect it might be a version for semi-polite company. So I'm lumping them, tentatively, until more data appears. - RBW
Cross references
- cf. "The Fire Ship" (plot) and references there
- cf. "Root, Hog, or Die (VI -- Cowboy Bawdy variant)" (theme of disease destroying sexual organs)
- cf. "Cielito Lindo" (tune) and references there
Recordings
- Frank Crumit, "The Gay Caballero" (Victor 21735, 1928) [a cleaned-up version, needless to say]
- Lazy Larry, "The Gay Caballero" (Cameo 9019, 1929) [presumably a cleaned-up version]
References
- Cray, pp. 231-235, "The Gay Caballero" (2 texts, 1 tune)
- Randolph-Legman I, pp. 492-493, "The Gay Caballero" (1 text, 1 tune)
- Logsdon 29, pp. 169-172, "The Gay Caballero" (2 texts, 1 tune)
- DT, GAYCAB
- Roud #10095
- BI, EM231