Bald-Headed End of the Broom
Notation:
Standard Notation
ABC Notation
Mandolin Tablature
legacy / lyric song
PDF Files:
--- choose file type ---
Standard Notation
Mandolin Tablature
Song Sheet
Harry Bennett
Play
MIDI
No audio
available
Transcription: by Darryl D. Bush
View
notes
Lyrics:
Love, it is a very funny thing,
It catches young and old.
Just like a dish of boarding house hash
To many a man it's sold.
Makes you feel like a fresh water eel,
Causes your head to swell.
You'll lose your pride,
Your love is tried,
Empty your pocketbook as well.
Chorus
So boys stay away from the girls I say,
Give 'em lots of room,
'Cause when you're wed they'll beat you 'till you're dead
With the baldheaded end of the broom.
When a boy goes out with a pretty little miss
He talks as gentle as a dove.
He courts his honey and spends his money
Just to prove he's solid in love.
When his money's all gone
And his clothes in hock
And he has no bread to chaw,
He'll call someone to load up his gun
And vaccinate his mother-in-law.
Chorus
Now young men take my advice,
Don't be in a hurry to wed.
You'll think you're in clover
'Till the honeymoon's over
And then you'll wish you're dead.
With a cross-eyed baby on each knee
And a wife with a pimple on her nose,
You'll find that love doesn't run so smooth
When you have to wear second-hand clothes.
Chorus
"The Bald-Headed End of the Broom" is an American song probably written around<br> 1877 by Harry Bennett, originally titled "Boys Keep Away from the Gals".<br> It became widely popular and was often recorded as an early country music song<br> (1920s-1950s). Most singers consider it traditional.<br> It appears in the Roud Folk Song Index as #2129.<br> It was printed in<br> Randolph's Ozark Folksongs (1946-1950),<br> Brown's The Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore, Volume Two:<br> Folk Ballads from North Carolina (1952),<br> Browne's The Alabama Folk Lyric: A Study in Origins and Media of Dissemination (1979),<br> Henry's Songs Sung in the Southern Appalachians (1934),<br> Beck's Lore of the Lumber Camps (1948),<br> Fahey's Eureka: The Songs that Made Australia (1984),<br> Kennedy's Folksongs of Britain and Ireland (1975),<br> Huntington's Folksongs from Martha's Vineyard (1967),<br> Darling's The New American Songster: Traditional Ballads and Songs of North America<br> (1992),<br> Gilbert's Lost Chords: The Diverting Story of American Popular Songs (1942),<br> Rorrer's Rambling Blues: The Life & Songs of Charlie Poole (1982).<br> It was recorded by<br> Jeff Warner on Jolly Tinker (2005),<br> Waterson:Carthy on Broken Ground (1999),<br> The New Deal String Band on The World of Folk 2,<br> Martin Carthy on The Carthy Chronicles (2001),<br> Grandpa Jones (1948),<br> Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers as "Look Before You Leap" (1930),<br> George Reneau (1924),<br> Walter "Kid" Smith & Norman Woodlief with Posey Rorer (1929) and<br> Mike Seeger on Oldtime Country Music (1962).<br> <br>
Click
here
for a full page view.