S.H. Dudley - Not By A Dam Side (1901)
- el año pasado
S. H. Dudley sings "Not By a Dam Side" on Victor 1090.
He recorded it on different dates, including November 9, 1901, and September 22, 1903.
He also recorded it for Edison as Standard 7977.
This 1901 song is credited to J. Val. Hamm (is that another name for George L. Giefer? the man who also wrote "Who Threw The Overalls in Mrs. Murphy's Chowder," wrote this "Dam" song?).
This song describes a young man eagerly showing his bride-to-be the home he has bought, but the house is near a mill's dam and she protests that she could never live near a dam, probably worried about flooding ("I won't marry you, I won't live with you, not by a dam side!"). The humor resides in this "little maid" uttering "dam" often and vehemently:
Not by a dam side
Would I live with you
Not by a dam side
Would your love be true
You promise me your tender care
You say that we'll be happy there
My love with you I'll ever share
But not by a dam side
Oaths were sometimes slipped into comic songs at this time. Another one is in Dudley's "Miss Helen Hunt," which offers the punch line "Go to Helen Hunt for it" (recorded in 1899 for Edison, in 1900 for Victor).
On May 23, 1900 Dudley cut another song with "dam" in the title: "Yuba Dam," issued as seven-inch 36 (he cut it again for Victor on July 26, 1904, and also cut it for Edison as Standard 7178). The song is described in the Improved Gram-o-phone catalog as "A very funny play on the Western town of that name." The humor resides in listeners hearing the oath "you be damned." Yuba City in California suffered a century ago from water running over the banks of the Feather and Yuba rivers but no Yuba Dam existed.
S. H. Dudley (15 January 1864 - 6 June 1947) may have been the most popular baritone to record at the turn of the century, his output by 1900 exceeding that of baritone J.W. Myers.
Dudley was in the right place at the right time in that his voice suited the crude recording devices of the time better than most. As a featured solo artist he was in studios regularly from 1898 to 1904, after which there is a noticeable drop-off.
In a letter to Jim Walsh quoted in the May 1946 issue of Hobbies, Dudley even calls himself the Bing Crosby of 1900, stating that "more records were sold of Dudley, Kernell, duets, quartets, than of any other singer of the time."
Dudley adds, "Too bad the days of royalties had not arrived!" The Bing Crosby analogy is misleading since Dudley records did not dramatically outsell those of Arthur Collins, Harry Macdonough, and a handful of other pioneers.
He was born Samuel Holland Rous in Greencastle, Indiana. His father was a professor at Asbury College and then a superintendent of county schools, a position that required constant moving. Rous wrote to Walsh in a letter transcribed in the May 1946 issue of Hobbies, "I never even went through high school, but was forced to get a job at 13 when my father lost his hearing and could no longer teach.
He recorded it on different dates, including November 9, 1901, and September 22, 1903.
He also recorded it for Edison as Standard 7977.
This 1901 song is credited to J. Val. Hamm (is that another name for George L. Giefer? the man who also wrote "Who Threw The Overalls in Mrs. Murphy's Chowder," wrote this "Dam" song?).
This song describes a young man eagerly showing his bride-to-be the home he has bought, but the house is near a mill's dam and she protests that she could never live near a dam, probably worried about flooding ("I won't marry you, I won't live with you, not by a dam side!"). The humor resides in this "little maid" uttering "dam" often and vehemently:
Not by a dam side
Would I live with you
Not by a dam side
Would your love be true
You promise me your tender care
You say that we'll be happy there
My love with you I'll ever share
But not by a dam side
Oaths were sometimes slipped into comic songs at this time. Another one is in Dudley's "Miss Helen Hunt," which offers the punch line "Go to Helen Hunt for it" (recorded in 1899 for Edison, in 1900 for Victor).
On May 23, 1900 Dudley cut another song with "dam" in the title: "Yuba Dam," issued as seven-inch 36 (he cut it again for Victor on July 26, 1904, and also cut it for Edison as Standard 7178). The song is described in the Improved Gram-o-phone catalog as "A very funny play on the Western town of that name." The humor resides in listeners hearing the oath "you be damned." Yuba City in California suffered a century ago from water running over the banks of the Feather and Yuba rivers but no Yuba Dam existed.
S. H. Dudley (15 January 1864 - 6 June 1947) may have been the most popular baritone to record at the turn of the century, his output by 1900 exceeding that of baritone J.W. Myers.
Dudley was in the right place at the right time in that his voice suited the crude recording devices of the time better than most. As a featured solo artist he was in studios regularly from 1898 to 1904, after which there is a noticeable drop-off.
In a letter to Jim Walsh quoted in the May 1946 issue of Hobbies, Dudley even calls himself the Bing Crosby of 1900, stating that "more records were sold of Dudley, Kernell, duets, quartets, than of any other singer of the time."
Dudley adds, "Too bad the days of royalties had not arrived!" The Bing Crosby analogy is misleading since Dudley records did not dramatically outsell those of Arthur Collins, Harry Macdonough, and a handful of other pioneers.
He was born Samuel Holland Rous in Greencastle, Indiana. His father was a professor at Asbury College and then a superintendent of county schools, a position that required constant moving. Rous wrote to Walsh in a letter transcribed in the May 1946 issue of Hobbies, "I never even went through high school, but was forced to get a job at 13 when my father lost his hearing and could no longer teach.