Farms: "How Ya Gonna Keep 'Em Down on the Farm?" (Nora Bayes, 1919)
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America was as quick in getting out of Europe following World War One as she was tardy in entering that conflict. As a nation, we were forever transformed...America's involvement in World War One brought a change of character with it, and that change was felt nowhere more keenly than Rural America. Looking back, the family farm has been in decline ever since. Walter Donaldson wrote the music to this in 1919 (Joe Young and Sam M. Lewis wrote the words), and the song wound up being an overnight smash hit. It was recorded by nearly everyone, but no rendition was more sublimely spirited than this one, recorded for Columbia by Nora Bayes - a vaudeville talent of legendary proportions. HOW YA GONNA KEEP 'EM DOWN ON THE FARM? Reuben, Reuben, I've been thinking Said his wifey dear Now that all is peaceful and calm The boys will soon be back on the farm Mister Reuben started winking and slowly rubbed his chin He pulled his chair up close to mother And he asked her with a grin How ya gonna keep 'em down on the farm After they've seen Paree' How ya gonna keep 'em away from Broadway Jazzin around and paintin' the town How ya gonna keep 'em away from harm, that's a mystery They'll never want to see a rake or plow And who the deuce can parleyvous a cow? How ya gonna keep 'em down on the farm After they've seen Paree'? How ya gonna keep 'em down on the farm After they've seen Paree' How ya gonna keep 'em away from Broadway Jazzin around and paintin' the town How ya gonna keep 'em away from harm, that's a mystery Imagine Reuben when he meets his Pa He'll kiss his cheek and holler "OO-LA-LA! How ya gonna keep 'em down on the farm After they've seen Paree'?
Comments
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Lego movie anyone?
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I'm here after watching the Lego movie
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I like olds 😇
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Thank you for posting this. You made my 93 year old grandfather extremely happy.
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tHANK YOU for posting this delightful share.
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How ya gonna keep em down on the farm once they've seen Karl Hungus?
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This was a very real concern after WW1. Most American "doughboys" had grown up in rural America and had probably never been more then a few miles from their hometown, now after having been overseas and experienced the night life of European cities like Paris, it was feared that many of these boys would be unwilling to return to the calm, and somewhat boring civilian life of rural farming that was the backbone of the still largely agrarian nation.
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I'm kinda young but I love old songs like this. I wonder how different the song would be if Shirley Temple sang it...
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I always interpreted this song as asking the question: "How are we going to get all those African American soldiers who fought in World War I to go back to being sharecroppers?" Terrorism, perhaps? During the "Red Summer" of 1919, whites attacked African Americans. These race riots occurred in over thirty cities throughout the United States. In some cases, like Chicago, those Black veterans fought back!
Violence of this sort led to the destruction of "Black Wall Street," in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1921, and Rosewood, Florida in 1923. -
When I was a kid, I listened to this song on the old wind-up Victrola in our basement. I would sing along, ad nauseam! It made me laugh!
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Recorded on December 21, 1918.
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wow, she still looks good
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Great song... thanks Lego Movie to bring us here ¡¡
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the history of all this is so cool feelin it
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My grandma and seriously my grandma....I know Im not alone ....the more we think we are better than past...the more likely we are doomed to repeat it...
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great grandma - for real?
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that is my grate grama
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How r ya gonna keep em down on the farm after they've seen PAMMMY!!! LOL
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Lego movie director's commentary --> Wrote song down --> here