Researching Yiddish penny songs (tenement song broadsides of theater and variety show songs, 1895-1925)
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Alternate title: Jackele Mein Kind (Jackie My Child)

The recording is by Clara Gold. I couldn't find a picture of her. I imagine this song was recorded in her later years when she was playing the hefty mama roles which, luckily, there were a lot of. So here she is, click to listen:




The song is kind of dreadful to modern ears - slow, overwrought, loud (in the days before microphones, good vocal projection was the primary virtue). Clara sings only one verse: if she sang the whole thing, it would be about ten minutes long. Did anybody really sing the whole song, ever? They must have had much better attention spans than we have now.

Here's the songsheet (click for a larger version):

Here's a quick translation. Note Germanic vocabulary.

The word kaddish here means son - the son who is expected to say kaddish for his father some day.

[When] Jeykele was still young and small,
He'd steal pennies from his father.
The boy's father didn't spare the blows
The mama cried out, you could hurt the child
She used to close her eyes and suffer in silence
[Hoping] the father wouldn't hit his son [kadish]
And when she had the chance she would, off in a corner,
Grasp her child and say:

Jeykele, my dear child, obey your father, my dear son
Our great God will reward you if you behave well
God and respectable people will envy you
Remember, my son, the Fifth Commandment:
Because honoring your father and mother is a holy command
Remember, my child, and our great God
Will grant you long years
My dear child, you must remember
Honoring your parents is a holy commandment
And he who obeys is rewarded by our God

2
Jeykl grows up and laughs at his mother
He's become a fine thief:
He gets nabbed at a job and sent to jail
He's had enough, he now swears,
It doesn't help him, he wears a heavy chain,
He can go crazy with troubles there
The air presses down on him, at night in his sleep
He hears how his mother says to him with tears:

3
Jake has been free for a long time,
He has a wife and three children
He doesn't become better
He breaks a lock, the boss catches him,
He sticks a knife in his heart
He was soon sentenced to the electric chair
Now they take him to his execution
His wife wife cries with his three sons
And before his death he says to his children:

Youngsters, be good sons, obey your mother, dear children
You'll be saved from starving and death
Always treat her well, not like your terrible father
Remember the Fifth Commandment, children,
Because honoring your father and mother is a holy command
Remember it, children, and the great God will [reward you] with long years.

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For sheet music and/or performances contact me: jane@mappamundi.com

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Labels: morality, mores, mother, religion