Louie Sands and Jim McGee

DESCRIPTION: Shanty: "Who feeds us beans? Who feeds us tea?/Louie Sands and Jim McGee/Who thinks that meat's a luxury?/Louie... We make the big trees fall ker-splash... Offers more examples of Sands & McGee's penury, usually with beans as the motif.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Shanty (from lumberjacks, not sailors): "Who feeds us beans? Who feeds us tea?/Louie Sands and Jim McGee/Who thinks that meat's a luxury?/Louie Sands and Jim McGee/We make the big trees fall ker-splash/And hit the ground an awful smash/And for the logs who gets the cash?/Louie Sands and Jim McGee". Other verses offer more examples of Sands & McGee's penury, usually with beans as the motif.
KEYWORDS: shanty lumbering work logger greed food nonballad worksong
FOUND IN: US(MW,NE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 19, "Louie Sands and Jim McGee" (1 text)
Beck-TheyKnewPaulBunyan, pp. 66-67, "Louie Sands and Jim McGee" (1 text)
Beck-LoreOfTheLumberCamps 23, "Louie Sands and Jim McGee" (1 text)
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 63-65, "The Black Stream Driver's Song" (1 text)
Roud #6521
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Beulah Land" (tune) and references there
NOTES [53 words]: One of the few work songs I've seen from European-Americans who weren't sailors. - PJS
In the Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine text, the bad bosses are "Johnny Ross and Cyrus Hewes," not "Louie Sands and Jim McGee," so clearly this was localized to multiple logging camps.
For Ross and Hewes, see also "John Ross." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: Be019

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