True Blue Bill

Poststructural Pub
1

I’m posting this here since it’s not IRTRAD or anything else like that. This is a song my dad use to play on guitar and sing for us when we were kids. I’m guessing he learned it in the service and my brother just e-mailed me the lyrics he’d found online.

We loved this… anyone else know this one?

True Blue Bill

(Alternate Version, submitted by Colonel Tuel, USAF (Retired)

I was born up in the mountains,
Where the rattlesnakes have legs,
The hoot owls speak plain English,
And the roosters lay square eggs.

I shaved my beard and mustache,
The morning I was born,
That night I shook my old man up,
And drank his rye and corn.

I am a truthful fellow
My name is True Blue Bill
I’ve never told a falsehood
And I bet I never will.

I used to be a sailor,
I’ve sailed the seven seas,
By cannibals I was captured,
And tied up to the trees,

They danced and beat their tom-toms,
And they got rather rough,
But said I would not make good steak,
Because I was too tough.

I am a truthful fellow
My name is True Blue Bill
I’ve never told a falsehood And I bet I never will.

I used to be a flyer,
And in my aeroplane,
I flew across to Paris,
And started back again.

When I was half way over,
The doggone motor balked,
I left that thing a-settin’ up there,
And I got out and walked.

The father of our country,
Would never tell a lie,
And he was my great uncle,
So I ask you, why should I?

And one more verse…

When I woke up this morning
I looked up on the wall
The cooties and the bedbugs
were playing a game of ball

The score was six to nothing
The cooties were ahead
The bedbugs hit a home run
And knocked me out of bed

I am a truthful fellow
My name is True Blue Bill
I never told a falsehood
And I bet I never will.

2

Do you have ABCs or dots for the tune? I’m Googling it right now, so if I come up with anything I’ll post it. Meanwhile, we can be sure that Gene Autry sang it:

http://shopping.yahoo.com/p:That%20Silver%20Haired%20Daddy%20Of%20Mine%20(Box):1922427004

(listed on the 3rd disc)

Apparently it dates from the 1930s. Here’s a site with a fellow singing a version of it (click on “True Blue Bill”):

http://www.elkhorncity.org/NickIV.htm

3

I’ve been fooling around with the tune, or Air if ye like, of Oh Susannah.

Works fine..tidy little lyric.

Slan,
D. :wink:

4

Until I heard the fellow singing it, I had the words going to the tune of The Old Dungarvin Oak, myself.

5

:laughing: :laughing:


Yep,

I can hear that for sure…bit too dramatic for me though :wink:

Slan,
D. :laughing:

6

Apparently it dates from the 1930s. Here’s a site with a fellow singing a version of it (click on “True Blue Bill”):

http://www.elkhorncity.org/NickIV.htm

Aaha! That’s pretty much the tune Dad sang- some was a bit different. I don’t have ABC’s but could dig out the guitar and find the chords and sit at the piano and note the tune I guess. I don’t have time right now- IRS tax forms call-ugh- but I’ll do it. The above link is from Appalshop I notice. That’s not far from here. They do a lot to preserve old tunes and such.

In the meantime, Nano, you and Dubh have fun with your alternative tunes…

7

I’d like to hear it but the link is in Real format. A very big no-no.

8

I thought RealPlayer cleaned up the issues people used to object to.

9

While reading through the lyrics, the tune to Big Rock Candy Mountain was playing through my minds’ ear.

10

Maybe they did. I had boycotted it so I haven’t tried.