Friends at the Table
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Bluff City 37: America's Playground Pt. 01
🕑 Added 2022-02-16 01:00:03 +0000 UTCThe Scamps Are About
The unusually mild spring of 1891 saw an unusual craze sweep the length of the Bluff City boardwalks, when the organ grinders found themselves targeted by the city’s children in an outbreak of particularly nefarious behavior. The children, moving in loosely organized packs, would fall upon one organ grinder after another. Some would find the cans that contained their tunes removed and dropped off the pier. Others would turn their organs’ handles and salt water would pour, improbably, from the pipes.
The organ grinders, by and large, were not much older than their assailants, and as mild spring turned into cold summer, unusual battle lines were drawn among Bluff City’s children. Elliot Callahan, discussing this song the following year, wrote: “I know not which young band of voices would raise these verses. Whether the beleaguered grinders - or, in parody, the roustabouts themselves - it matters not.”
The scamps are about! On the beaches and the boardwalks!
The scamps are about! Send the word along the line!
From the bait shop on pacific, in a mob that’s quite terrific,
Wearing grins that are horrific and demeanors so malign!
The scamps are about! Pouring southward, ever southward,
And they’re carrying those sacks they use to make their wicked play!
See the organ grinders panic, hear their melodies grow frantic,
As the antics of the scamps intensify along their way!
The scamps are about! Is there anyone to stop them?
Is there any lion-hearted soul to step into the fray?
If there’s someone strong of spirit then I’d really like to hear it,
Since the beer they poured inside my organ’s getting in the way.
Featuring: Austin Walker, Art Martinez-Tebbel, Jack de Quidt, Janine Hawkins and Keith J Carberry
Music & Description by Jack de Quidt
Mall Kids is available at https://mr-matthew.itch.io/mall-kids
A transcription is available for this episode here.
A full list of completed transcriptions is available here. Our transcriptions are provided by a fan-organized paid transcription project.
Comments
Cecil Harvey
Up here in Canada we have “beaver tails” for fried dough at fairs.
Paige Turner
Where I’m from we call fried dough “Elephant Ears”
