Barbara Moulton, Jun 28, 2013
Major William Clarke sings one of his "inspirational
songs".
-snip-
The caption in this sound file reads "Mayor William Clark my dad used to entertain us with this song".
-end of quote-
The lyrics to this version of "Cooties and Bed Bugs" are given below.
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Edited by Azizi Powell
This is Part I of a two part 2024 pancocojams series about the song "I Woke Up Sunday Morning" (also given as "Roaches and Bedbugs, "Cooties and Bedbugs", "Whipper Whooper" and other similar titles.
This post showcases five YouTube examples of that song along with transcriptions of their lyrics.
This post focuses on some of the different lyrics, tunes, and tempos that are used for this song. This post also presents some examples of the different ways this song is performed.
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2024/04/five-additional-youtube-examples-of.html for Part II of the 2024 pancocojams series about the song "I Woke Up Sunday Morning" (also given as "Roaches and Bedbugs, "Cooties and Bedbugs", "Whipper Whooper" and other similar titles. That post focuses on some of the different lyrics, tunes, and tempos that are used for this song. This post also presents some examples of the different ways this song is performed.
The content of this post is presented for folkloric, historical, cultural, and recreational purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to the unknown composers of these songs and thanks to all those who are quoted in this post. Thanks also to the publishers of these videos/sound files on YouTube.
-snip-
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2017/06/references-to-fbi-in-childrens-rhymes.html for the 2017 pancocojams post entitled " "I Woke Up Sunday Morning" (Roaches & Bedbugs Playing Basketball) Rhymes & Other References To "The FBI" In Children's Rhymes BEFORE The "I Believe I Can Fly I Got Shot By The FBI" Parodies"
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PANCOCOJAMS EDITOR'S NOTE
The mission of this pancocojams blog is to showcase the cultures of African Americans and of other Black people throughout the world. However, this pancocojams series isn't meant to imply that this song originated from or was/is only sung by Black people. As indicated above, I'm showcasing these examples for folkloric, historical, cultural, and recreational purposes.
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LYRICS FOR EXAMPLE #1 OF THIS SONG*
(from the video that is given at the top of this post)
*This is my transcription of this recording. It corrects the auto-generated English transcription without time stamps that accompanies this YouTube sound file.
[Spoken introduction]
"Hello. Here's a song that we use in schools, ah, and other venues for boys and girls. Some of them would snigger*. I hope you enjoy them.
First of all we have the rather sad story about a fellow who was standing on the corner of a street and the next thing he knew he got picked up a vagrancy charge and landed up in the county hoosegow.** Here's the tale:
[singing begins at .23 in this video.]
So, I was standin' on the corner.
I wasn't doin any harm.
Along came a policeman
And he took me by the arm.
he took me to a little box
And there he rang the bell.
Well, along they came in a police patrol
And took me to my cell.
I gazed upon the wall
Well, the cooties and the bedbugs
Were havin a game of ball,
The score was 19 to 20
The bedbugs was ahead.
The cooties knocked a home run
And they knocked me out of bed.
The toast was hard and stale
The coffee tasted very bad
The kind you get in jail.
The Indian Rubber beef steak,
The disconnected cheese
The sausage took a flip-flop
And it landed in the peas.
[end of song]
-snip-
*snigger =giggle/small laughs
**hoosegow=jail
****
ADDITIONAL VIDEOS & LYRICS
These examples are given in chronological order based on their publishing date on YouTube.
EXAMPLE #2 - Bed Bugs And Skitters Song
Brott1994, Jan 28, 2012
Papa sings Bed Bugs and Skeeters for his grandkids! Thanks,
Papa!
-snip-
"Skeeters" is an informal abbreviation of the English word "mosquitos".
-snip-
Here's the lyrics to this version of "Bed Bugs And Skeeters" from that video's English auto-generated transcript (given without time stamps, but corrected with the beginning word for each line of the song:
"i woke up in the morning
And looked upon the wall the bedbugs and the mosquitoes
Were having a game of ball
The score was two to one
The bedbugs were ahead
And this is about the time
That i got out of bed
Oh everybody
[The song ends without singing the chorus and any other verses of that song.]
****
EXAMPLE #3 - The Cooties and the bedbugs :)
@Mickei2001, 2016
-snip-
No date is given for this YouTube short video. 2016 is the oldest of the dates for the two comments that have been posted for this YouTube short]
-snip-
Cooties = a body louse (lice)
A "YouTube short" is a video that is looped [constantly repeats itself].
-snip-
Here are the lyrics for this example:
I woke up this morning
And looked upon the wall
The cooties and the bedbugs
Were having a game of ball
The score was nine to nothing
The cooties were ahead
The bedbugs got a home run
And knocked me out of bed
I went down to my breakfast
The toast was hard and stale
The coffee was like tobacco juice
That you can get in the county jail
The Indian Rubber beef steak,
The syncopated cheese
The weiner did a flip-flop
And it landed right in my peas.
Oh, the ? has a baby
They named him Tiny Tim
They threw itin the river
To teach it how to swim
He swam on down the river
He came back up again
Then they threw it in the bathtub
To teach it how to swim
He swam all day and all night
He kept the neighbors up
The neighbors had a meeting
To tear the baby up
The tore it up to pieces
It made the preacher sad
If you don't believe a word of this
You can blame it on my dad
-snip
This is my transcription of that video. The words in italics mean that I'm not certain of that transcription. Additions and corrections are welcome.
-snip-
*Here are the only comments for this YouTube short (as of April 19, 2024 at 9:30 AM ET].
1. @PeggySeeger, 2016
"love it"
-snip-
Peggy Seeger is an American folk singer and songwriter.
**
2. @Whiteout7547, 2018
"Love this. Floods me with memories of one of my favorite
people."
****
EXAMPLE #4 - Whipper Whopper
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBuO7AVvAF8
Troop62462 Girl Scouts, Sep 14, 2019
-snip-
This video can't be embedded outside of YouTube. The video summary includes these lyrics:
"Whipper Whopper*
I woke up sunday morning
I looked up on the wall
The beatles and the bed bugs were having a game of ball
The score was six to nothing the beatles were ahead
The bed bugs scored a home run
And knocked me out of bed
(chorus)
I’m singing Enemy and a miney mo mo mo mo
Catch a whipper whopper by the toe
And if he hollers hollers hollers let him go
I’m singing enemy and a miny mo
I went downstairs to breakfast
I ordered ham and eggs
I ate so many eggs they all ran down my leg
(chorus)
I went outside to play
I looked up in the sky
I saw a little blue bird
Who poo-pooed in my eye
(chorus)
My mother is a banker
My father is a spy
And I’m the little big mouth who told the FBI
(chorus)
I made myself a snowball
as perfect as can be
I thought I’d keep it as a pet
And let it sleep with me
I made him some pajamas
A pillow for his head
But then last night it ran away
But first it wet the bed
(chorus)
I have myself a turtle
His name is Tiny Tim
I put him in the
bathtub
To see if he could swim
He drank up all water
He ate up all the soap
He tried to eat the bathtub
So I showed it down his throat
(chorus)"
-snip-
These lyrics are given as they were written in that video summary.
-snip-
"Whipper Whopper" is the title for this song and isn't sung.
"Whipper whopper" is a nonsense word with no assigned meaning, although "whopper" means something big. "Whipper Whooper appears to only be used in this "camp song".
****
EXAMPLE #5 - Bedbugs And Skeeters
Lambton Centre, May 1, 2020
This is a high energy song
-snip-
Here's my transcription of the lyrics to this version of that song (Additions and corrections are welcome)
"I woke up in the morning
And looked upon the wall
The bedbugs and the skeeters
Were having a game of ball
The score was four to seven
The skeeters were ahead
The bedbugs hit a home run
And knocked me out of bed
Singing eeny meeny meeny
Miney moe
Catch a ticker ticker by the toe
And if he hollers hollers hollers
Let him go
Singing eeny meeny meeny
Miney moe"
****
This concludes Part I of this pancocojams series.
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
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