Dino had an excuse though ...
Posted on 09/14/2017 4:42:13 PM PDT by Impala64ssa
Al Jolson - Waiting for the Robert E Lee
Dino had an excuse though ...
My late wife performed that song in a high school musical. She also used to sing it to me.
Lyrics Please
Waiting for the Robert E. Lee--Byron Harlan and Arthur Collins (1912)
It’s hard to fault prosperity from any perspective, whether from the cotton economy or the general fertility of certain states. But there isn’t much of a cotton economy here anymore, and while agriculture is still important, industry has far surpassed it. Perhaps some old songs need to be rewritten to reference places where there still is a cotton economy. “Way down upon the Ganges”? What river runs through Peru?
Waitin’ for the Robert E. Lee
Al Jolson, Bing Crosby
Way down on the levy in old Alabamy
There’s Daddy and Mammy
There’s Ephraim and Sammy
On a moonlight night you can find them all
While they are waiting,
The banjos are syncopating
What’s that they’re saying?
What’s that they’re saying?
While they keep playing
A - humming and swaying
It’s the good ship Robert E. Lee
That’s come to carry the cotton away!
Watch them shuffling along,
See them shuffling along!
Go take your best gal, real pal
Go down to the levy, I said to the levy,
And join that shuffling throng
Hear that music and song!
It’s simply great, mate, waiting on the levy
Waiting for the Robert E. Lee!
The whistles are blowing, the smokestacks are showing
The ropes they are throwing, excuse me I’m going
To the place where all is harmonious
Even the preacher, he is the dancing teacher!
Have you been down there?
Were you around there?
If you ever go there you’ll always be found there,
Why, dog-gone, here comes my baby
On the good old Robert E. Lee!
Watch them shuffling along,
See them shuffling along
Go take your best gal, real pal
Go down to the levy, I said to the levy,
And join that shuffling throng
Hear that music and song!
It’s simply great, mate, waiting on the levy
Waiting for the Robert E. Lee!
Songwriters: L WOLFE GILBERT, LEWIS F MUIR
© MUSIC SERVICES, INC.
For non-commercial use only.
Data from: LyricFind
I live in the Florida Panhandle.
Probably more peanuts than cotton but still see quite a bit. When I was a kid, I picked it for 3 cents a pound. My Uncle would pay us when he sold it at the gin.
Now they do it by machine. I see these huge bricks of cotton covered with tarps. I will say one thing for us tho. The machine leaves a whole lot more in the field than we did.
Another great one of Jolson's is Chinatown:
When the town is fast asleep, and it's midnight in the sky,
That's the time the festive chink starts to wink his other eye,
Starts to wink his dreamy eye, lazily you'll hear him sigh.
Strangers taking in the sights, pigtails flying here and there.
See that broken wall street sport, still thinks he's a millionaire.
Still thinks he's a millionaire, pipe dreams banish every care.
Chinatown, my Chinatown
Where the lights are low,
Hearts that know no other land,
Drifting to and fro.
Dreamy dreamy Chinatown,
Almond eyes of brown,
Hearts seems light and life seems bright,
In dreamy Chinatown.
It could hold 5741 bales of cotton
I always thought Al Jolson, was black. Heard his music, liked it, just never saw or paid any mind to, his picture.
I love this thread! It has really made my day; thanks for posting!
I had never seen cotton fields before I started vacationing in the panhandle. I saw them as I drove south on SR 71 toward Port St Joe. They are beautiful.
I have some photos of cotton fields near here. They show the cotton just before picking. My Grandfather wrote a song about when the harvest is white and I knew exactly what he was thinking.
On the other hand my Grandmother who was born in the 1800s near here had never seen cotton until her Father took her on a trip to Geneva, Alabama on an oxcart. It was still green and she thought it was okra.
Great heritage. I hope to retire in the panhandle.
Around 1984 I was eating in a booth at a Red Lobster in Wichita.
There were two couples in the booth next to me and it was obvious the husbands were pilots at the base there, I think it was McConnell.
Anyway I heard one of them say they were going to retire at Eglin. The other lady said it sure was nice there and they were thinking about it too.
Now my Father worked at Eglin and I was tempted to say hello to them but decided not to.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.