My God, How the Money Rolls In

DESCRIPTION: A quatrain ballad, "My God" describes the various illegal or dubious occupations of family members, e.g. "My sister she works in a (cathouse/laundry), My father makes synthetic gin, My mother she takes in washing, My God, how the money rolls in"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: bawdy humorous family
FOUND IN: Australia Canada Britain(England,Scotland) Ireland US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,Ro,SE,So,SW) New Zealand
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Cray-EroticMuse, pp. 107-109 (related songs to p. 114), "My God, How the Money Rolls In" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morgan/Green-RugbySongs, pp116-117, "My God How the Money Rolls In" (1 text)
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, p. 161, "How the Money Rolls In" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 381, "My Sister She Works in a Laundry" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 68, "Me Father's a Lawyer in England" (1 text, 1 tune -- seemingly a composite text with a different chorus and some floating verses, e.g. from "The Cobbler")
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 181, "Me Father Is a Lawyer in England" (2 short texts, 2 tunes, both very mixed; "A" has the first verse of "Me Father Is a Lawyer in England,"; the second is "Me father is a hedger and ditcher, and the third and the chorus are from "The Cobbler"; the "B" text is also clearly mixed though the elements are less clear)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 31, "My God, How the Money Rolls In" (1 text)
Harbin-Parodology, #46, p. 18, "My Bonny Parodies" (1 text, which seems to be partly a bowdlerized version of this)
DT, MYGODHOW MYGOD* (MONTSARG*)
Roud #10143
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" (tune) and references there
cf. "Please, Don't Burn Our Shithouse Down"
cf. "The Cobbler (I)"
cf. "Roll In My Sweet Baby's Arms" (words)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Poor Tailor's High Relations
NOTES [72 words]: This is one of the most commonly found of bawdy songs, virtually ubiquitous in the English-speaking world. - EC
On the off chance you didn't know, the tune is "My Bonnie." And I've even heard clean versions.
It's possible that "Me Father's a Lawyer in England" is a separate song, or at least a separate subtext -- but the versions I've seen are mixed enough that splitting them based on a single key line seemed rather extreme. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: EM107

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song List

Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or Discography