Dunderbeck

DESCRIPTION: The German Dunderbeck invents a steam-powered machine to turn any sort of meat into sausages. Thus vanish all the rats and cats of the town. When Dunderbeck's machine breaks down, he tries to fix it; his wife accidentally starts it with him inside.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 (Harrigan & Hart's Comique Songster)
KEYWORDS: technology disaster animal humorous food campsong
FOUND IN: US(MW,So)
REFERENCES (10 citations):
Randolph 488, "Donderbeck's Machine" (2 texts)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 107, pp. 135-136, "Dunderbeck" (1 text)
Spaeth-ReadEmAndWeep, p. 80, "Dunderbeck" (1 text, tune referenced)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 239, "Dunderbeck" (1 text)
Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 139-140, "The Sausage Meat Machine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 515-516, "Son of a Gun -- (Son of a Gambolier; Dunderbeck; and Rambling Wreck from Georgia Tech)"
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 99, 114, 129, 232, 289, 291, "Johnny Verbeck" (notes only)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, pp. 18-19, "Johnny Verbeck" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, DUNDER*
ADDITIONAL: [Edward Harrigan and Tony Hart], _Harrigan & Hart's Comique Songster_, A. J. Fisher (New York), 1874, p. 14, "Dunderbeck's Machine" (1 text, tune referenced)
Roud #4461
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Son of a Gambolier" (tune & meter) and references there
cf. "O Where O Where Has My Little Dog Gone" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Johnny Rebeck
Johnny Rebec
Johnny Robeck
NOTES [125 words]: Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 291, based on something in Fuld, seems to attribute this to Edward Harrigan. This probably follows from its inclusion in Harrigan & Hart's Comique Songster of 1874, where it is listed as "by Ed. Harrigan, sung by Harrigan & Hart. Air: Thomas's Machine." Yet Spaeth, p. 80, does not attribute the song, even though he has a section on Harrigan and Hart, and lists the tune oas "The Song of a Gambolier." Nor does the song get any real mention in the accounts of Harrigan's later successes. If he had had an early hit with this, surely someone would have noticed! I have to suspect that, although Harrigan and Hart sang the song, it is not actually by Harrigan -- who performed mostly as "Irish" anyway, not German! - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: R488

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