Researching Yiddish penny songs (tenement song broadsides of theater and variety show songs, 1895-1925)
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I've been looking over some old files and realizing there are songs I never put on either of my blogs. Here's one I recorded in 2023. I love the zesty way Yiddish composers entered into American popular culture! And did you know that the eighteenth amendment made an exception for sacramental wine used by churches and synagogues. Rabbis' orders for wine increased by millions of gallons a year.

Daniel Okrent wrote: "A Jewish household was allowed a certain amount of wine per adult per year for which you had to have a certification from your rabbi. So, congregations grew in size from 1920 to 1921 by factor of 10 from 80 families to 900 families." See the lyrics and translation for this delightful song by Ruben Doctor (Rubin Doctor) below.

I'd also forgotten that it was in order to record this song that I bought myself a four-string mandolin!



Hert nor vos der kongres hot gepest di letste tsayt
A nayes vos amerika hot nokh nit gehat
Farbotn draye di beste zakhn - bronfn, vayn un bier
Oyb ir vilt a shnepsl makhn - muzt ir visn frier

Probishen, probishen, trinken tor men nit
Probishen, probishen, ay tel yu, nat a bit
Ver es vil a shnepsl koyfn, yener darf keyn yurop loyfn
Probishen, probishen, iz yetst in gantsn land.

Oyb ir filt amol nit git, dos hartz klemt a shrek
Keyn shnepsl krign kent ir nit, ir filt ir shtarbt avek
A dokter meg farshraybn aykh fun shnaps a meditsin
Gemisht mit biter zalts a sakh, ir trinkt un loyft derfin

Probishen, probishen, es plotst aykh shir nit di gal,
Probishen, probishen, yu tink yu loz yor sol
Dos makht aykh krank un opgeshvakht, ir loyft batog un oykh banakht
Probishen, probishen, iz yetst in gantsn land

Trinken fleg ikh on a shir, befor der nayer law
Yetst dreyt zikh oykh der kop ba mir, khotsh keyn bronfn iz nishto
Fun voszhe meynt ir ver ikh shiker
Az trinken trinkt ikh nit
Mayn vaybl hot a pisk mit liker, veyst ir vos zi tit

Probishen, probishen, zi git mir yeder sho
Probishen, probishen, zi kert nit far der law
Krenk kholeries on a shir, ikh ver shiker ikh krapir
Probishen, probishen, iz yetst in gantsn land

An eytse hob ikh far di shikurim - dos iz git in fayn
Vos flegn frier vi di khaseyrim - trinken shnaps un vayn
Onshtot trinken zoln zey - lekn esik drops
Khreyn un zoyer-zaltz mit tey - hot oykh a tam fun shnaps

Probishen, probishen, trinkt ba aykh in shtib
Probishen, probishen, dos kost aykh very cheap
Onshtot bronfn, bier un vayn, borsht mit fefer gist arayn
Probishen, probishen, iz yetst in gantsn land

Just listen to the law Congress passed recently, news America never had before. They’ve forbidden three of the best things: hard liquor, wine and beer. If you want to have a shnepsl, you need to know this first:

Prohibition! One is forbidden to tipple.
Prohibition! I tell you, not a bit. Whoever wants
to buy shnaps has to run to Europe.
Prohibition is now in the whole country.


If you don’t feel good, maybe it’s angina,
You can’t get any shnaps, you think you’ll up and die.
A doctor can prescribe shnaps as medicine,
but mixed with lots of bitter salts. Drink it, you’ll run away from it.

Prohibition! Your gall bladder's practically bursting.
Prohibition! You think you’re losing your soul. It makes you sick and weak, you run day and night. Prohibition is now in the whole country.


I used to drink constantly before the new law. Now my head is spinning, there isn’t even any brandy. How do you think I get drunk now, when I can’t drink? My wife has a snout full of liquor, know what she does?

Prohibition! She gives it to me every hour.
Prohibition! She doesn’t care about the law. Sickness, cholera all the time. I get drunk, I die. Prohibition is now in the whole country.

I have advice for the drunkards, it’s good and fine, for those who used to drink shnaps and wine like pigs. Instead of drinking, they should suck vinegar drops. Horseradish and sour salts with tea also has the flavor of shnaps.

Prohibition! Drink at home.
Prohibition! It will be very cheap.
Instead of booze, beer and wine,
pour borsht with pepper down your gullet.
Prohibition is now in the whole country.

UPDATE: I had already recorded this song when YIVO put on its splended Khantshe in Amerike presentation this week so I got it mixed (by Jerry Brown at the Rubber Room) and made this video with text and translation so you can sing along!



This is Sam Kestin, who sang this song in the operetta Khantshe in Amerike (my feature on the title song is here: Chantshe in America) in 1913. It's usually seen as merely "Ich hob."

A year later, Bennie Zeidmann recorded it. Zeidman was born in 1886 in Teplik, Kiev Gubernia, Ukraine. His father was a cantor and he, at the age of seventeen, conducted the choir for for Cantor Lipshitz in the Cannon Street Synagogue. He also started acting. In 1906 he came to America. He played vaudeville and Yiddish theater. (Thanks to the Museum of Family History)

Its trick is grammatical; it plays on the difference between Ikh hob (I have) and Ikh hob... gevolt, gezen, etc. (I wanted, I saw).

Unusually, all four verses were recorded. It took up both sides of the 78. You'll never find this song by searching because it is drowned in 1,000s of recordings of "Ikh hob dikh tsufil lib." So here it is:


Text and translation after the jump.


>>>>>READ MORE >>>>>

UPDATE: reposted to include a video I just did of this song.

Half of each issue of Katzenelenbogen's Lider magazin comprised the lyrics to songs from one Yiddish operetta. I mostly ignored those songs, since generally they're available as sheet music from the Library of Congress website. But here's one example, from the issue that featured texts from Dovids fidele (Dowids fiedele, David's violin), an opera by Lateiner & Mogulesco. The words of this one attracted me although the tune is repetitive.



I made this a new way: I sang a cappella into the webcam and then came along behind and added keyboard. The words don't fit nicely; in these cases you can either smoosh and stretch the words to fit a rhythmic accompaniment, or you can smoosh and stretch the accompaniment to fit the words. That's what I did here. But my webcam has a horrible microphone so I ended up re-doing the vocal over the new keyboard part. I DO NOT recommend this method, it was time consuming and the result is lousy.

BTW the sheet music transliteration is Shiker Lied (Noiach kuplet). I guess Noah was the drunkard. And note the LOC transliteration: The music is found in a folio here: Dowid's fiedele

For ease of reading I redid the sheet music onto one page. The tune is repetitive but the words are fun. You have to pronounce neyn "nayn" or it doesn't rhyme.
For ease of reading I redid the sheet music onto one page. Click to see/save the full-sized page.



The Yiddish lyrics, transliterated, and a translation after the jump.

>>>>>READ MORE >>>>>

UPDATE: Arun Viswanath is working on indexing and transcribing the songs his great-grandmother Lifshe Schaechter-Widman sang to Barbara Kirschenblatt in the early 1970s, many hours of recordings, and he's finding wonderful things. He contacted me about this song and then found a musical transcription of Katsap's Mapole in Shmuel Lehman's Arbet un Frayhayt entitled there Yeder eyner veys.

---

Russia's downfall To sing with the melody of "Sholem Aleichem" Created by badkhn Max Zavodnik

Port Arthur Created by Max Zavodnik To sing with the English melody "Good Bye my Blue Bell"

(click for full-sized image)

I don't feel like putting either of these together because the tunes are not very interesting. 

So I'm giving you the pieces in case you want to put it together yourself. 

The Sholem Aleichem referenced here is available at the Library of Congress website here: Sigmund Mogilewsko's Roaring Success - Sholem Aleichem - from the Opera DER-CHEREM IN BETH-HAMIKDOTH

The other tune, Blue Bell, is available here: Blue Bell, by Madden and Morse. (Note how the girl he is planning to leave behind is wearing white, the ubiquitous symbol of purity.)

Below, a transcription of Max Zavodnik's text. (The other song, Port Arthur, referencing the Battle of Port Arthur, is after the jump.) Interestingly Zavodnik states that Japan's defeat of Russia was divine retribution for the Kishinev pogrom.

A yeder eyner veys vi mekhtik un vi groys
Iz geven di rusishe medine
Zi hot zikh forgeshteltfar der gantser velt
Az zi shpilt di greste role af di bine
Un di mekhte fun arum zaynen geblibn shtum
Tsaygndik zayn heldishe gvure
Fun di dume kep mit di lange tsep
Hot er tsugenumen a shtik land mandzshuriye (Manchuria)

Ober yetst - zet nor vi er hot oysgekreynkt
Az dos vet im aropgeyn glat hot er zikh gedeynkt
Yapon hot zikh gegn im geshtelt
Mit di simpatiye fun der gantser velt
Un shlogt dem Fonye dem groyser held

Endlekh zikh dervart vos mir hobn gegart
Dos iz far undz di eyntsike nekhome
Az der rusisher tiran fun dem kleyniker Yapon
Khapt yetst klep in der blutiker milkhome
Ayngezunken tif a shif nokh a shif
Zayn shtrof hot er endlekh yetst bakumen
Getsaygt hot im es Got az ales vos er hot
Iz nor far di blutike pogromen

Zol nit denken der katsap az dos iz der letster klap
Nit eyner tut af im dem meser sharfn
In zayn eygn land muz er vatshn yede hand
Koym vil im ver a bombe untervarfn
Far dem nihilistn bund tsitert yetst der hund
Tsores hot er fun beyde zaytn
Umshuldike fekshikt? nekshikt?
Rabe nemen zey yetst fun dervaytn

Dos iz dokh virklikh sheyn, prakhtfol on tsu zen
Shteyendik un kukn fun dervaytn
Vi a ber mit a flig zaynen aroys in krig
Un der shvakher zol dem shtarkn faytn
Dos zeyen mir atsind vi feik un geshvind
Der kleyner yapon halt im ongebundn
Yetst batsolt er gut far keshenever blut
Nokh nit farheylt hobn zikh yene vundn

Admiral Makarov hot gekhapt a shvartsn sof
A yam kazak iz er geven der grester
Feter Pavlovsk iz oykh geven a shif gor ontsuzen
Es git keyn tsveytn zol fun ir zeyn fester
In eyn oygnblik tseshtetert zi in shtik
In tifn yam muzn zey yetst foyln
Zey visn Makarov az do iz nit Kishenov
Kleyne kinder dort oys tsu koyln

>>>>>READ MORE >>>>>

I've published some videos recently of songs by Solomon Smulewitz (Solomon Small) that are found on the Library of Congress website. I was wondering what to call them: they weren't sold on the street, so they're not really penny songs. They weren't, as far as I know, sung in the Yiddish theater. I think what they are is the Yiddish equivalent of parlor songs. Smulewitz put them out in albums, probably for singing in the home.

The language is difficult. Since the songs are usually published without oysyes (probably for an audience which was losing its ability to read them), and the transliterations are inconsistent and not at all up to klal Yiddish standards, a lot of guessing is involved. I've discovered the language of this time and place (early 1900s, New York) enrages or disgusts today's Yiddishists with its Daytshmerisms and Yinglish. I think, though, there is a lot to be learned about the time and place by studying (or singing) these songs. There are dissertations by the dozens waiting to be written! Here's my living room recording from yesterday: