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L’il Liza Jane (See also: Good-bye Liza Jane; Liza Jane)
Old-Time, Bluegrass, Western Swing; Breakdown. USA, Widely Spread, Composed by Countess Ada de Lachau – 1916.
ARTIST: From Pete Seeger- Almanac Singer (Almanac 1102-B)
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes DATE: Published in 1916
OTHER NAMES: “Little Liza Jane” “Sweet Little Liza Jane” Used for other “Liza Jane” songs.
RELATED TO: Other “Liza Jane” Songs.
RECORDING INFO: First recorded "L'il Liza Jane" by Harry C. Brown in 1918, Co A2622; “Liza Jane” John and Emery McClung in 1927 Br 135; "L'il Liza Jane" Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys 1941 on OK 06371; Little Liza Jane; Blair, Kay. Potpourri, Dancing Doll DLP 612, LP (1985), cut#A.10; Simmons Family. Wandering Through the Rackensack, Dancing Doll, LP (198?), cut#A.06; Smith, Betty. For My Friends of Song, June Appal JA 0018, LP (1977), cut# 11; Tarriers. Tarriers at the "Bitter End", Decca DL 4342, LP (196?), cut#A.04; Wear, DeWayne; and the Great Wear Family. Hoe Down! Vol. 4, Rural Rhythm RR 121, LP (197?), cut# 18; Wills, Bob; and the Texas Playboys. Tiffany Transcriptions, Vol. 8. More of the Best, Kalidescope F-32, LP (1988), cut# 11; Monroe, Charlie; & the Kentucky Pardners. Songs of Charlie Monroe and the Kentucky Pardners, County 539, LP (1974), cut# 3
SOURCES: Silber-FSWB, p. 37, "L'il Liza Jane" (1 text)
NOTES: Composed by Countess Ada de Lachau in1916, "L'il Liza Jane" was a take off on the earlier minstrel songs and was written in minstrel dialect (see Version) In my opinion, it is basically a rewrite of “Camptown Races” by Stephen Foster with “L’il Liza Jane” substituted for “Oh doo-day day:”
Verse: De Camptown ladies sing dis song,
Doo-dah! doo-dah!
De Camp-town race-track five miles long,
Oh! doo-dah day!
Come my love and live with me;
L'il Liza Jane
I will take good care of thee;
L'il Liza Jane.
“Liza Jane” was a common minstrel and Tin-Pan Alley name. In the 1880's Eddie Cox, a minstrel show performer, published "Good-bye, Liza Jane" and in 1903 the Tin Pan Alley composer, Harry von Tilzer, published "Good-Bye, Eliza Jane."
The “L’il Liza Jane” song (“I's got a gal and you've got none, L'il Liza Jane”) is an entirely different song combining the “Liza” name from Cox and Von Tilzer with the Camptown Races melody. The tag (Chorus) was added making it a unique adaptation: “Oh Liza, L'il Liza Jane; Oh Liza, L'il Liza Jane.”
Bob Wills did a Texas Style breakdown version in Hollywood, Ca. in 1941, similar to the version found in Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes), Vol. 1, 1994; pg. 143. The title “Little Liza Jane” appears in a list of traditional Ozark Mountain fiddle tunes compiled by musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph, published in 1954 (may refer to any of the "Liza Jane" variants).
Here are the lyrics to “L’il Liza Jane” from Pete Seeger:
I got a girl in Arkansas, little Liza Jane,
She sleeps in her kitchen with her feet in the hall, little Liza Jane.
CHORUS: Oh! Won't you... Oh! Eliza, little Liza Jane,
Oh! Won't you... Oh! Eliza, little Liza Jane.
I'm gonna marry her if I can...
She loves me 'cause I'm a union man...
Heard a speech by the President...
Wants to put me in a regiment...
I went to the draft and stood in line...
Now I'm a number 609...
Said in Congress yesterday...
"Take the right to strike away..."
They say that labor camps are fine...
To make the young folk toe the line...
I can't marry you today...
I can't afford it on my pay...
Cut the pay and raise the rents...
It's all for national defense...
Better make the government change its plan...
I aim to be a married man...
Dry your tears, get out your knittin'...
I don't aim to be no bundle for Britain...
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