Researching Yiddish penny songs (tenement song broadsides of theater and variety show songs, 1895-1925)
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Youtube: all the Penny Songs I've recorded so far (with subtitles)
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List of the still-lost songs: do you know any of them?
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Here is the broadside cover (click for a larger view). It says, "To the very famous melody A mentsh zolstu nor zayn" which is more commonly known as A mentsh zol men zayn, oder, Mit gelt tor men nit shtoltsirn. I note that it says at the bottom, "Reproduction forbidden," though I bet the folks forbidding you to make copies did not themselves ask permission to steal this melody. 

The lyrics here are by Margolis|Margulies|Margolies - probably the same one who wrote Dos greste umglik fun der shif Titanic.

A couple years ago Ken Bloom and Jim Baird of my band Mappamundi stopped by and recorded the original song with me:



Now I'm using their same old tracks as backup to the new song. So here we are, Jim and Ken from a couple years ago and me from yesterday:


I sang just the second and third verses. Here's the whole song, with translation. There are some things in here I did not understand, so I took a stab at them anyway; if you have improvements please let me know. When the newly minted dentist wants to get rid of his girlfriend, who's been faithfully supporting him, he says "bney odem" - what you say when you swing the kapore around your head and let everything go.



Everything in the world that you might want to do,
They're going to seek to profit from your money and use you
When somebody swears something endlessly
Don't believe him, it's a bluff
First look around carefully - if you don't you'll have troubles forever
Listen and watch, think and understand,
Because later it may be too late.

This is important: you should always verify.
Think carefully if somebody's making a trap before you fall in.
You have to understand, people are trying to mess you up.
Don't believe anybody, don't fall for any bluff, don't be a fool.

A worker earned good money and had a fine life
He wanted to cut the whole world, he wanted to be impressive.
He wasn't satisfied with his wages so he made his wife go into business
That didn't work out well, so he damned her to hell.
He works and laments and complains
And she's living the good life!

A maiden was bitterly plagued by her miserable sweatshop life.
She would only marry - a dentist!
She supported him for a few years, she gave him her wages.
When he gets his diploma he throws her away like the sacrificial chicken.
She's no beauty, she has no dowry, no boyfriend or husband.

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

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Labels: battle between the sexes, history, humor, marriage, morality, mores, New York, travails