Chinook Breeze, April 27, 2017
-snip-
The lyrics to this version of "Cooties and Bed Bugs" are given below.
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Edited by Azizi Powell
This is Part II of a four part 2024 pancocojams series about the song "I Woke Up Sunday Morning" (also given as "Roaches and Bedbugs, "Cooties and Bedbugs", "Whipper Whooper" and other similar titles.
This post showcases five additional YouTube examples of that song along with transcriptions of their lyrics.
This post focuses on some of the different lyrics, tunes, and tempos that are used for this song. This post also presents some examples of the different ways this song is performed.
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2024/04/five-youtube-examples-of-song-i-woke-up.html for Part I of this 2024 pancocojams series about the song "I Woke Up Sunday Morning" (also given as "Roaches and Bedbugs, "Cooties and Bedbugs", "Whipper Whooper" and other similar titles.
That post showcases five other YouTube examples of that song along with transcriptions of their lyrics.
That post focuses on some of the different lyrics, tunes, and tempos that are used for this song. This post also presents some examples of the different ways this song is performed.
Click __ for Part III of this pancocojams series. That post presents the text (words only) of an 1894 minstrel song that is probably the precursor of the beginning verse of the song "I Woke Up Sunday Morning" (also known as "Roaches And Bed Bugs' and other titles.)
Click ___ for Part IV of this pancocojams series. That post presents multiple text (word only) examples of the song "I Woke Up Sunday Morning" ("Roaches and Bedbugs") That Were Sung Before 1960.
The content of this post is presented for folkloric, historical, cultural, and recreational purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to the unknown composers of these songs and thanks to all those who are quoted in this post. Thanks also to the publishers of these videos/sound files on YouTube.
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Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2017/06/references-to-fbi-in-childrens-rhymes.html for the 2017 pancocojams post entitled " "I Woke Up Sunday Morning" (Roaches & Bedbugs Playing Basketball) Rhymes & Other References To "The FBI" In Children's Rhymes BEFORE The "I Believe I Can Fly I Got Shot By The FBI" Parodies"
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PANCOCOJAMS EDITOR'S NOTE
The mission of this pancocojams blog is to showcase the cultures of African Americans and of other Black people throughout the world. However, this pancocojams series isn't meant to imply that this song originated from or was/is only sung by Black people. As indicated above, I'm showcasing these examples for folkloric, historical, cultural, and recreational purposes.
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LYRICS FOR EXAMPLE #1 OF THIS SONG
These lyrics are given in the summary statement for the video that is given at the top of this pancocojams post.
"I woke up Sunday morning
I looked up on the wall
The skeeters and the bedbugs
Were havin’ a game of ball
The score was 4 to 7
The skeeters were ahead
The bedbugs hit a home run
And knocked me outta bed
Singin’ eeny meeny meeny miny mo
Catch a tigger tigger by the toe
If he hollers hollers let him go
Singin’ eeny meeny meeny miny mo
______________________________________
Repeat: get progressively faster"
-snip-
These lyrics are given in that video's summary statement.
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ADDITIONAL VIDEOS & LYRICS
These examples are given in chronological order based on their publishing date on YouTube.
EXAMPLE #2 - Skeeters and Bedbugs
Butch Bost, Aug 16, 2010
http://BanjoButch.blogspot.com . Johnny Eubanks sings a song he learned long,
long ago. This was on 8/16/2010 at the
home of Frank Sox. Free instructional
videos at http://BanjoButch.blogspot.com for guitar and banjo.
Here are the words:
I woke up this morning and looked up on the wall
The skeeters and the bedbugs were having a game of ball.
The score was two to nothing. The skeeters were ahead.
The bed bugs hit a home run and knocked me out my bed
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EXAMPLE #3 - The Beetles & The Bedbugs
Camp Kateri Tekakwa
Featuring Oak & Astro, Jul 4, 2018
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Here's the lyrics to this version of this song from that video's English auto-generated transcript (given without time stamps, but corrected with the beginning word for each line of the song, and my corrections of some of those auto-generated lyrics).
Additions and corrections are welcome.
"I woke up Sunday morning
And looked up on the wall
The beetles and the bedbugs
Were playing a game a ball
Singin eeny meenie and ah miney moe
Hey!
Catch a whiffer whiffer whooper
By the toe
And if he hollers, hollers, hollers
Well then let him go
Singing eeny meenie and ah miney mo
The score was six to nothing
The bedbugs were ahead.
The beetles did a homer
And knocked me out of bed
Singin eeny meenie and ah miney moe
Hey!
Catch a whiffer whiffer whooper
By the toe
And if he hollers, hollers, hollers
Well then let him go
Singing eeny meenie and ah miney mo
They threw me in the sewer
And that is how I died
They didn’t call it murder
They called it sewer- side
Singin eeny meenie and ah miney moe
Hey!
Catch a whiffer whiffer whooper
By the toe
And if he hollers, hollers, hollers
Well then let him go
Singing eeny meenie and ah miney mo"
[Each iteration of the chorus is sung faster and more enthusiastically than the preceding ones.]
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EXAMPLE #4 -Bedbug Song
Tracy Pond, Sep 5, 2019
Bedbug Song 09-05-2019 from the CC camps from the Depression
1929
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Here's information about the CC camps in the United States during the 1920s "Great Depression":
From https://www.history.com/topics/great-depression/civilian-conservation-corps
"The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a work relief
program that gave millions of young men employment on environmental projects
during the Great Depression. Considered by many to be one of the most
successful of Roosevelt’s New Deal programs, the CCC planted more than three
billion trees and constructed trails and shelters in more than 800 parks
nationwide during its nine years of existence. The CCC helped to shape the
modern national and state park systems we enjoy today."
-snip-
This song is sung in unison with a few accompanying motions such as one man mimicking swinging a baseball bat when they sang "The roaches hit a home run." and mimicking drinking coffee when they sang the words "The coffee was like tobacco juice".
Here's the lyrics to this version of "Bed Bugs And Skeeters" from that video's English auto-generated transcript (given without time stamps, but corrected with the beginning word for each line of the song, and my corrections of some of those auto-generated lyrics).
Additions and corrections are welcome.
"I woke up in the morning
and I gazed upon the wall
The roaches and the bedbugs
Were having a game of ball
Now the score was 19-20
And the bedbugs were ahead
The roaches hit a home run
And knocked me out of bed
So I went down to my breakfast
The toast was hard and stale
That coffee was like tobacco juice
The kind you get in jail.
So I went down to the market-
The free and public place
But the darn old market
Was certainly out of place.
Then we went down to the __
It had automated cheese
Indian rubber beefsteak
And double- jointed beans.
Well, the beans took a flip-flop
And landed in the soup
Then we all had the jib jab
From eating Martin's soup.
It's the summer's day of winter
And the snow is falling fast.
A barefoot boy with shoes on
Was sittin in the grass
While the organ peeled potatoes
A song was rendered by the choir
The sexton rang the dish rag
And set the church on fire
The preacher shouted "Holy smoke!"
The sexton lost his hair
And now his head resembles
Our dear departing mayor
Now maybe you don't believe me
And maybe you think I lied
But if you got to Darby town
They'll tell you the same as I
I wish I were an elephant
And you a bale of hay
I'd pick you up in my rubber trunk
And carry you away"
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EXAMPLE #5 - Beetles And Bedbugs
GSESC Troop 740, Sep 22, 2019
I woke up Monday morning,
I looked up on the wall,
The beetles and the bed bugs
Were having a game of ball.
The score was six to two
The beetles were ahead
The bed bugs hit a home run
And knocked me out of bed.
Singing eenie meanie and a minee moe
Catch a whipper whopper by the toe
And if he hollers, hollers, hollers
Don’t let him go
Singing eenie meanie and minee moe"
This concludes Part II of this four part pancocojams series.
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor commetns are welcome.
