Timbuctoo

[godismyco...@yahoo.com]

In case anyone is interested, here are the correct lyrics to the song
Timbuctoo, which Groucho sang at the Carnegie Hall concert in 1972,
including the second refrain, whcih Groucho didn't sing.

Timbuctoo
by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby

Long ago in old New Amsterdam
There lived a cousin of the Duke of Buckingham,
His friends knew Buckingham to be a sport;
So they cut the "ham" and called him "Buck" for short.

One day Buck met a little cluck,
And he whispered, "duckie dear,"
In accents loud and clear,
"Please marry me right here."
She replied "I will be your bride,
But there must be no delay,"
So they were buckled up that day.

Chorus:
Soon they had a lot o' little bucks and oh! how fast they grew,
There was one buck, two bucks, three bucks, four bucks;
No one knows how many more bucks.
MIssus Buck would play the ukelele, ev'ry morn 'till two,
And while old man Buck was singing;
All the little bucks were buck and winging.
When they had eggs for breakfast Buck was out of luck,
Each Buck would eat a dozen eggs and a dozen cost a buck.
The landlord tried to raise Buck's rent,
Buit he would not pay a sou;
So he backed up a motor truck,
And he said "goodbye," and he said good luck,"
And he moved his wife and all the little bucks
To Timbuctoo.

When the Bucks arrived in Timbuctoo
A Zulu chieftan by the name of Buckaroo,
Was waiting with a Buckboard at the pier;
And he said to Buck, "pile all your bucks in here."

Old man Buck said, "I think I'll duck,
Cause the place looks mighty queer,"
The chieftan said, "Don't fear,
I know you'll like it here."
Just then Buck hollered "we're in luck,"
'Cause he spied a great big sign,
Which read 'the buck beer here is fine.'

Chorus
Soon they had a lot o' little bucks and oh! how fast they grew,
There were two bucks, four bucks, six bucks, eight bucks;
Overfed and underweight bucks
Old man Buck got on a bucking Broncho, and away he flew,
He came back home feeling frisky;
On a bucket full of buckeye whiskey.
The little bucks had never tasted chops or steaks,
Cause Missus Buck fed all the bucks on homemade Buckwheat cakes.
Old Buck was such a funny sight,
He was over six-foot-two;
Oh! He looked like a big giraffe,
When he walked with his son, he would make you laugh
Cause they both looked like a buck and a half,
In Timbuctoo

[Paige]

Har! I don't know the song, but it's almost like a Dr. Seuss tongue
twister. I can picture Groucho singing this ... hee hee.

paige

[Bob Kaplow]

In article <1140789895.3...@z34g2000cwc.googlegroups.com>, "Paige" <paige...@yahoo.com> writes:
> Har! I don't know the song, but it's almost like a Dr. Seuss tongue
> twister. I can picture Groucho singing this ... hee hee.

Imagine Groucho reading "Fox in Sox"...

--
Bob Kaplow NAR # 18L >>> To reply, there's no internet on Mars (yet)! <<<
Kaplow Klips & Baffle: http://nira-rocketry.org/Document/MayJun00.pdf
www.encompasserve.org/~kaplow_r/ www.nira-rocketry.org www.nar.org

S&T is becoming this decades Steve Weaver!

[godismyco...@yahoo.com]

Bob Kaplow wrote:
> In article <1140789895.3...@z34g2000cwc.googlegroups.com>, "Paige" <paige...@yahoo.com> writes:
> > Har! I don't know the song, but it's almost like a Dr. Seuss tongue
> > twister. I can picture Groucho singing this ... hee hee.
>
> Imagine Groucho reading "Fox in Sox"...

I think they'd have to put him an a 7-second tape delay.

[I'm Not Mentok]

Summoning all the courage he could muster, godismyco...@yahoo.com had the
temerity to write:

:-D If only there was a link to an actual recording, /that/ would have truly
made my day!

Thank you all the same, but I have a quibble; unless you have transcribed the
lyrics verbatim, I believe the name is spelled *Timbuktu".

Just a quibble. Please don't slap me.

Sidenote, though: my Dad has - or had - a 45rpm recording of a Groucho tune
called "Omaha, Nebraska" that I'll bet has a significant "ebay value", if he, in
fact, still has it. Here's a link for a clip of it, filename, gm.ram, so you'll
need RealPlayer to play it:

http://www.goletapublishing.com/nebraska/songs.htm

"There's a place called Omaha, Nebraska, in the foothills of Tennessee,
My sweetie told me that,
Someday she'll meet me at,
The corner of Delancey Street and Avenue B....."

It is also available in its entirety on several albums of Groucho compilations
on Amazon.com, for example.

--
I'm Not Mentok :-P

"All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy."

[Gramm...@mindspring.com]

> :-D If only there was a link to an actual recording, /that/ would have truly
> made my day!

I wish I had one. It would make my day, too.

> Thank you all the same, but I have a quibble; unless you have transcribed the
> lyrics verbatim, I believe the name is spelled *Timbuktu".
>
> Just a quibble. Please don't slap me.

<SLAP!>

Oops. I forgot for a second this was a Marx Brothers group, not the
Three Stooges. Sorry.

I didn't transcribe the lyrics from a recording, I copied them from the
sheet music and it is indeed spelled "Timbuctoo." I paid particular
attention to the punctuation.

It's not the original sheet music, it's from a book called Witty
Ditties put out by Mills Music. The book itself isn't dated, but the
latest date in it is 1932. Since the cover price is 50 cents and it
runs 64 pages, that may be about when it was put out.

Among the other masterpieces in the book are

I Don't Want A Doctor All I Want Is A Beautiful Girl
I Love to Dunk a Hunk of Sponge Cake
Laff it Off! (Also by Kalmar and Ruby, and this one I do have a
recording of, by Eddie Cantor)
No Wonder She's A Blushing Bride
Since Maggie Dooley Learned the Hooley Hooley

and

Who Played Poker with Pocahantas?

>
> Sidenote, though: my Dad has - or had - a 45rpm recording of a Groucho tune
> called "Omaha, Nebraska" that I'll bet has a significant "ebay value", if he, in
> fact, still has it. Here's a link for a clip of it, filename, gm.ram, so you'll
> need RealPlayer to play it:
>
> http://www.goletapublishing.com/nebraska/songs.htm
>
> "There's a place called Omaha, Nebraska, in the foothills of Tennessee,
> My sweetie told me that,
> Someday she'll meet me at,
> The corner of Delancey Street and Avenue B....."

Very cool! Especially having an original.

[John W. Kennedy]

I'm Not Mentok wrote:
> "There's a place called Omaha, Nebraska, in the foothills of Tennessee,
> My sweetie told me that,
> Someday she'll meet me at,
> The corner of Delancey Street and Avenue B....."

For those not from the area, it should be noted that Delancey Street and
Avenue B are in New York, and they do not intersect.

--
John W. Kennedy
"But now is a new thing which is very old--
that the rich make themselves richer and not poorer,
which is the true Gospel, for the poor's sake."
-- Charles Williams. "Judgement at Chelmsford"

[I'm Not Mentok]

Summoning all the courage he could muster, John W. Kennedy had the temerity to
write:

> I'm Not Mentok wrote:

>> "There's a place called Omaha, Nebraska, in the foothills of Tennessee,
>> My sweetie told me that,
>> Someday she'll meet me at,
>> The corner of Delancey Street and Avenue B....."
>
> For those not from the area, it should be noted that Delancey Street and
> Avenue B are in New York, and they do not intersect.

Nor is Omaha in the foothills of Tennessee, tee-hee. :D

I'm gonna have to rob the cookie jar and break down and buy these compilations,
they look so appealing.

--
I'm Not Mentok

"All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy."

[I'm Not Mentok]

Summoning all the courage he could muster, Gramm...@mindspring.com had the
temerity to write:

>> Thank you all the same, but I have a quibble; unless you have transcribed
>> the lyrics verbatim, I believe the name is spelled *Timbuktu".
>>
>> Just a quibble. Please don't slap me.
>
> <SLAP!>

YEEOUCH! OK, was that open-hand, fingers together or apart?

> Oops. I forgot for a second this was a Marx Brothers group, not the
> Three Stooges. Sorry.

'z-OK, I get that way sometimes.

> I didn't transcribe the lyrics from a recording, I copied them from the
> sheet music and it is indeed spelled "Timbuctoo." I paid particular
> attention to the punctuation.

Okey-doke.

> It's not the original sheet music, it's from a book called Witty
> Ditties put out by Mills Music. The book itself isn't dated, but the
> latest date in it is 1932. Since the cover price is 50 cents and it
> runs 64 pages, that may be about when it was put out.
>
> Among the other masterpieces in the book are
>
> I Don't Want A Doctor All I Want Is A Beautiful Girl
> I Love to Dunk a Hunk of Sponge Cake
> Laff it Off! (Also by Kalmar and Ruby, and this one I do have a
> recording of, by Eddie Cantor)
> No Wonder She's A Blushing Bride
> Since Maggie Dooley Learned the Hooley Hooley
>
> and
>
> Who Played Poker with Pocahantas?

Now i've gotta go out and buy it! Avast, and have at you! Oh wait, that's the
Python group....:D

--
I'm Not Mentok

"All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy."

[Roger the Saurus]

<Gramm...@mindspring.com> wrote

> Among the other masterpieces in the book are
>
> I Don't Want A Doctor All I Want Is A Beautiful Girl
> I Love to Dunk a Hunk of Sponge Cake
> Laff it Off! (Also by Kalmar and Ruby, and this one I do have a
> recording of, by Eddie Cantor)
> No Wonder She's A Blushing Bride
> Since Maggie Dooley Learned the Hooley Hooley
>
> and
>
> Who Played Poker with Pocahantas?

It was the truly wonderful Bonzo Dog Band who specialised in finding old
songs with strange titles and performing them, including

There's no room to rumba in a sports car
I'm going to take a watermelon to my baby tonight
Hunting tigers out in INDIAH
My brother makes the noises for the talkies

and

Tubas in te moonlight

There is a CD of such songs performed by the original artists plus copies of
the sheet music to be released in April
--
Roger the Saurus
(remove bollix to reply)

[KayL...@aol.com]

I have a CD with Eddie Cantor singing "Timbuctoo" from a 1921
recording. Both Groucho Marx and Eddie Cantor sang songs composed by
Kalmar and Ruby.
--Kay Lhota

[Gramm...@mindspring.com]

I'd like to hear it. Is the CD still available?

I've got a 2-CD Cantor collection called "The Columbia Years:
1922-1940." It has several Kalmar/Ruby songs:

Susie
Joe Is Here
Laff It Off
What a Perfect Combination (cowritten with Harry Akst and Irving
Caesar)
Look What You've Done

[bowlo...@gmail.com]

Thank you so much for posting this! My dad always sang this sone to me throughout his life, up until he was 98 years old! He remembered every word. I even have him on videotape singing it to my son when he was about two years old, sitting on his lap. Brings back great memories!

[Pete The Upstart]

My favorite is

Say, It's better to run to Toronto
Then live in a place you don't want to