Researching Yiddish penny songs (tenement song broadsides of theater and variety show songs, 1895-1925)
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List of the still-lost songs: do you know any of them?
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Der fayer eskeyp (On the fire escape)

A penny song called Zumer bay nakht af di dekher (aka zumer baynakht af di rufn) was so popular that this variation was concocted. I couldn't find the underlying melody ("On the Dear Old Farm") for a long time but now it popped up on the internet so I was able to record the song. It has only one verse and then chorus after chorus. Those tenement buildings on the Lower East Side were mighty hot at night so the denizens escaped to the roofs and fire escapes where disreputable activities took place. Here's my rendition, found on my new collection Yiddish Parlor Songs:

11. Der fayer eskeyp (The Fire Escape)

This was a penny song with a lost melody for a long time. It says on the broadsheet to sing with the melody of "On the Dear Old Farm." All I could find back then was the chorus (on a field recording that started: "This is J. D. Robb speaking. I'm going to sing a song that I remember singing out on the prairies of North Dakota back around 1907 or 1908. It is called "On the Dear Old Farm.""

I tried again recently and found that now the song's sheet music is available at the Baylor website. It's funny that this rural song's melody was used for a Yiddish song listing all the disreputable things done on tenement fire escapes on hot summer nights. Gus Goldstein wrote the parody. There's only one verse and then many choruses.

Az ir vilt boyen groyse hayzer, zoln hobn a sheynem 'sheyp'
Darft ir zen az fun fornt zol zayn a fayer eskeyp
Sheyne zakhn tsum lakhn, ven ir vilt nor zen
Darft ir in Hester, in Ludlow, a bisl zikh durkh geyn...

Af a fayer eskeyp, af a fayer eskeyp
Ir zet dort kloyz-pins blekhlekh in mesh
Shmutsike peyper un oykh nase vesh
Af a fayer eskeyp, af a fayer eskeyp
Ir kent zen fun untn, shmuts gantse buntn, af a fayer eskeyp

(Af a fayer eskeyp, af a fayer eskeyp
Zitsn boyes un meydn di gantse nakht dort
Redn fun shidukhim, fun geyn in kort
Af a fayer eskeyp, af a fayer eskeyp
Es iz gor keyn vunder, vos es iz do azoy fil kinder af...)

Af a fayer eskeyp, af a fayer eskeyp
Zits ikh mir azoy mitn ponim in gas
Ikh ze nit es zol regnen, far vos ikh bin nas?
Af a fayer eskeyp, af a fayer eskeyp
Shteyt a boy a gezunter un er pisht arunter

Af a fayer eskeyp, af a fayer eskeyp
Ven di hitz iz shtark, umdertreglekh groys
Khapt ayere peklekh un muft bald aroys
Af a fayer eskeyp, af a fayer eskeyp
Dort veln di vantsn, af aykh mer nit tantsn af a fayer eskeyp


When you want to build big houses with a nice shape
Make sure there is a fire escape on the front
You'll see pretty, funny things there
Just go for a little stroll on Hester Street, on Ludlow...

On a fire escape you see clothespins, tin cans and brass, dirty paper and also wet laundry.
From below you can see lots of dirty stuff on a fire escape.

On a fire escape... I'm sitting out on the street. I don't see that it's raining so why am I wet?
On a fire escape there stands a healthy boy peeing down on me

On a fire escape... When it's really unbearably hot grab your satchel and move out there right away
The bed bugs won't dance on you on the fire escape.

(On a fire escape the boys and girls sit there all night
Talking about courting and engagements. It's no wonder there are so many children on the fire escape)