Hungry Hash House

DESCRIPTION: "I'm a boarder and I dwell in that second-rate hotel. If I stay here long, I think I'll go insane...." "Well, she promised she would meet me when the clock struck seventeen...." "She's my darling, she's my daisy. She's hump-backed and she's crazy...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (recording, Uncle Dave Macon)
KEYWORDS: poverty hardtimes home disease nonballad nonsense madness food
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,Ro,SE,So,SW)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Randolph 478, "The Boarding-House" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 371-373, "The Boardinghouse" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 478)
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, pp. 100-101, "The Lonesome Hungry Hash House" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #233, "The Apex Boarding House" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 131, "The Apex Boarding House" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, p. 207, "She Promised She'd Meet Me" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood-NewLostCityRamblersSongbook, pp. 220-221, "Hungry Hash House" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rorrer-RamblingBlues-LifeAndSongsOfCharliePoole, p. 74, "Hungry Hash House" (1 text)
Gilbert-LostChords, pp. 191-192, "The All Go Hungry Hash House" (1 text)
Huntington-FolksongsFromMarthasVineyard, pp. 53-55, "My Kentucky Jane" (1 text, 1 tune, probably influenced by other songs)
DT, HASHOUSE*
Roud #11719 and 10173 and 7635
RECORDINGS:
Arkansas Charlie [pseud. for Charlie Craver], "That Old Go Hungry Hash House" (Vocalion 5401, 1930)
Binkley Brothers' Dixie Clodhoppers, "All Go Hungry Hash House" (Victor 21758, 1928)
Cofer Brothers, "All Go Hungry Hash House" (OKeh 45099, 1927)
Bill Cox, "Hungry Hash House Blues" (Gennett 6974/Champion 15792 [as Luke Baldwin]/Supertone 9534 [as Charley Blake], 1929)
Uncle Dave Macon, "All Go Hungry Hash House" (Vocalion 15076, 1925)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Hungry Hash House" (on NLCR13)
Charlie Poole & the North Carolina Ramblers, "Hungry Hash House" (Columbia 15160-D, 1927; Velvet Tone 2492-V/Clarion 5432-C [both as Pete Harrison & his Bayou Boys], 1932; rec. 1926; on CPoole03)
Ernest V. Stoneman, "The Old Go Hungry Hash House" (Okeh 45062, 1926); "All Go Hungry Hash House" (Victor 20237, 1926); [Ernest Stoneman &] The Dixie Mountaineers, "All Go Hungry Hash House" (Edison, unissued, 1927) (Edison 52350, 1928) (CYL: Edison [BA] 5528, 1928)
Gordon Tanner, Smokey Joe Miller & Uncle John Patterson, "Lonesome Hungry Hash House" (on DownYonder)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" (tune) and references there
cf. "Sara Jane" (tune, floating lyrics)
NOTES [141 words]: 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" floats (e.g. Charlie Poole uses it in his version of "I Was Born About Ten Thousand Years Ago (Bragging Song)"), and it also appears in "Sara Jane." Paul Stamler thinks that the most likely source, so we are now, somewhat tentatively, listing loose citations of that verse there unless we can determine their source. See, however, "Dennis McGonagle's Daughter Mary Ann."
Roud, it will be noted, regards this as multiple different songs, and he may well be right; this entry grew by accretion. I've also split off some of the songs he lists under 10173 into other songs. There is a clear need for a real study of "crummy boarding house" songs, many of which, I suspect, were considered unprintable for a long time. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: San207

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