I Was Born About Ten Thousand Years Ago (Bragging Song)

DESCRIPTION: "I was born about ten thousand years ago, And there's nothing in this world that I don't know." The singer boasts of his past accomplishments, e.g. watching Adam and Eve eat the apple (and eating the core); teaching Solomon to read....
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1913
KEYWORDS: humorous bragging lie Bible
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,Ro,SE,So)
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Randolph 410, "I Was Born About Four Thousand Years Ago" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 426, "I Was Born About Ten Thousand Years Ago" (2 texts plus a fragment and mention of 2 more)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 426, "I Was Born About Ten Thousand Years Ago" (1 tune plus a text ringing)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 187, "The Historian" (1 text, 1 tune)
Richardson/Spaeth-AmericanMountainSongs, p. 101, "Four Thousand Years Ago" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol3, pp. 14-15, "10,000 Years Ago" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 330-331, "I Was Born About Ten Thousand Years Ago" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #180, "I Was Born ABout Six Thousand Years Ago" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 10, "I Was Born About Ten Thousand Years Ago" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 346-350, "The Highly Educated Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rorrer-RamblingBlues-LifeAndSongsOfCharliePoole, p. 69, "I'm the Man That Rode the Mule 'Round the World" (1 text, with a a final verse, and probably an extended introductory verse, by Charlie Poole)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 170, "I Was Born About Ten Thousand Years Ago" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 26, "I Was Born About Ten Thousand Years Ago" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 301, 302, 397-398, "I Was Born about Ten Thousand Years Ago" (notes only)
DT, (JUSTFACT) (BORN10K)
Roud #3127
RECORDINGS:
Clarence Ashley & Tex Isley, "I'm The Man That Rode the Mule Around the World" (on Ashley01)
Dwight Butcher, "The Man That Rode a Mule Around the World" (Victor 23810, 1933)
Fiddlin' John Carson, "When Abraham and Isaac Rushed the Can" (OKeh 40181, 1924)
Cramer Brothers, "I Was Born Four Thousand Years Ago" (Broadway 757, c. 1927 [as "I Was Born 4000 Years Ago"]; Broadway 8059, c. 1932; rec. 1927)
Crockett's Kentucky Mountaineers "I Was Born 10,000 Years Ago" (Crown 3101/Homestead 23040/0Montgomery Ward M-3024 [as Harlan Miners Fiddlers]/Joe Davis 3506 [as Kentucky Mountaineers]/Varsity 5088 [as Hale's Kentucky Mountaineers], all c.1931)
Vernon Dalhart, "I'm the Man That Rode the Mule Around the World" (CYL: Edison 5278, n.d.)
Otto Gray & his Oklahoma Cowboys, "4000 Years Ago" (Vocalion 5479, rec. 1931)
Georgia Organ Grinders, "Four Thousand Years Ago" (Columbia 15445-D, 1929)
Kelly Harrell, "I Was Born About 10,000 Years Ago" (OKeh 40486, 1925; on KHarrell01)
Bradley Kincaid, "Four Thousand Years Ago" (Gennett 6761/Champion 15687 [as Dan Hughey]/Supertone 9362, 1929; Superior 2656, 1931; Champion 45057 [as Dan Hughey], c. 1935)
Uncle Dave Macon, "Man That Rode the Mule Around the World" (Vocalion 5356, 1929)
Lester McFarland & Robert Gardner, "I Was Born Four Thousand Years Ago" (Brunswick 110/Vocalion 5028, 1927; Supertone S-2033, 1930)
Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, "I'm the Man That Rode the Mule 'Round the World" (Columbia 15043-D, 1925, with an extended introductory verse by Poole; on CPoole04)
Pete Seeger, "I Was Born 10,000 Years Ago" (on PeteSeeger11)
Smoky Mountain Twins, "I Was Born 4000 Years Ago" (Conqueror 7065, 1928)
Dock Walsh, "Educated Man" (Columbia 15057-D, 1925)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Day Columbus Landed Here"
cf. "Sara Jane" (lyrics of some versions)
SAME TUNE:
I Wish I Were a... (File: ACSF228I)
How Do You Do? (File: ACSF301H)
NOTES [248 words]: It need hardly be stated that there is very little truth in this song (even if one accepts the Bible as literally true). I won't state examples; they would just bore you.
I do suspect that the "Ten Thousand Years" title is original, and "four thousand years" is a later correction by those who thought the braggart couldn't have been born before 4004 BCE. And "six thousand years ago" may be an adjustment by someone who knew Archbishop Ussher's 4004 date and did some subtraction. - RBW
Not to be confused with the bawdy "Three Thousand Years Ago". -PJS
The verse "She's my darling, she's my daisy, She's humpbacked and she's crazy... She's my freckled-faced consumptive Mary Ann" (sung as part of this song, e.g., by Charlie Poole) is also associated with "Hungry Hash House," and that's where I've listed it when it occurs on its own. It's not clear that Poole's piece belongs there, but for the moment I'm listing that song with this one because it fits better metrically.
Woody Guthrie took this idea and rewrote it as "The Great Historical Bum." This was one of his Columbia River songs; Greg Vandy with Daniel Person, 26 Songs in 30 Days: Woody Guthrie's Columbia River Songs and the Planned Promised Land in the Pacific Northwest, Sasquatch Books, 2016, p. xvi, shows one of Woody's typed copies; it ends "But Coulee Dam's th' biggest thing that Man has ever done." Someone (Chad Mitchell Trio? Milt Okun?) then combined the two. Talk about a strange sort of folk process. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: R410

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