[Dixielandjazz] Whattya sow, anyway? Whattya reap? Someday Sweetheart

[Ittzés Tamás]

Dear Dick,

What a discovery! It all happened exactly as you pointed out. You wrote:

> As I was working on a 1989 Bohem Ragtime Band LP last 
> week, I noticed that the singer sang this lyric to "Someday
Sweetheart":
> "And as you sow, so shall you reap,
>  And what you reap will make you sow, someday sweetheart"
...
> I just presumed that the Hungarian vocalist, whose English was heavily
> accented, had misheard and not understood the lyrics that he was
singing. 
> But now I've come to the 1974 double-LP on Vanguard of the New Orleans

> Ragtime Orchestra, and there's trumpeter Lionel Ferbos singing that
same 
> "wrong" lyric!
> Did Ferbos suffer a lapse in memory that got picked up by Hungarians 
> 15 years later, or is this odd lyric floating around other places?

Yes, we first heard Someday Sweetheart from the New Orleans Ragtime
Orchestra record and copied the lyrics from there. Although we play it a
lot differently, the arrangement we do today is still based upon that
recording. And we used to sing that wrong lyrics up until maybe 2 years
ago when DJML-fellow Tony Davis told us in England that the right word
at the end is supposed to be "weep"  - so we sing it since then
(although I might sing the wrong version someday, sweetheart :-)

And I hope that our singing is not THAT heavily accented today. When we
made that first recording in 1989 you came across I didn't even speak
any English. (I visited the US right after that and picked up my English
then.) Anyway, thanks for the note and the careful listening. Best
regards,

Tamas

PS.: By the way, we just had our 24th anniversary with the Bohém Ragtime
Jazz Band - I was in high-school when I founded the orchestra. See
www.bohemragtime.com

_________________________________________________

Tamas ITTZES
violin teacher, ragtime pianist, festival organizer
Bohem Ragtime Jazz Band
Kecskemet Jazz Foundation
Mailing address: H-6001 KECSKEMET, Pf. 652., Hungary
Phone: +36(20)82-447-82
E-mails: tamas at bohemragtime.com, bohem at fibermail.hu
Web site: http://www.bohemragtime.com