[78-L] Hell to pay

[Sammy Jones]

Not a "hell," but a "damn":

If you think you'll sink our new boats/
With your damned old U-boats/
Tell that to the Marines!

Al Jolson Columbia recording of "Tell That to the Marines" from around 1918
(sorry, I don't have the discographical info at hand).  It's on the Pearl
Music From the New York Stage, Vol. 4. CD.

dl--did your Jolson releases get up that far?

Also, in "College Medley," Jack Norworth almost says "hell" (in fact, I
thought he did until I just listened again):

We can't swim ourselves/
So how in the he--world can we help you?

That's also from Pearl's Music from the New York Stage (Vol. 2, this time).

Connecting this topic with acoustic disc playback speed, I have Norwood's
"College Medley" on a 12-inch purple label Victor, and it seems to pitch
down around 71.  According to the Encyclopedic Discography of Victor
recordings, this side was recorded on either March 7, or April 4, 1910
(matrix B-8703, take 1 or 2), which seems awful late for Victor to be
pitched so low.  In my experience, recordings of this period seem to settle
in the 74-76 rpm range.

Sammy Jones


Taylor Bowie wrote: 
> Yeah and "She Looks Like Helen Brown" is another one.I guess what I'm
> looking for are lyrics which actually use "Hell" as an oath or
> profanity, and not as an actual place or hidden within a pun. So by my
> newly determined standard, none o' these earlier ones would fit except
> for the Spinach tune.T