[Dixielandjazz] Elbow Room / Buffum / McGee -- more research

[Dick Baker]

Well, this is right up my Stomp Off index alley, although the song 
has never shown up on Stomp Off, rather surprisingly.

I rechecked Bill's search for Herbert Buffum copyrights quite 
thoroughly.  He first shows up in 1910, but doesn't really hit his 
stride until the mid-1920s, when he starts pumping the gospel organ 
prodigiously.  But nothing about Elbow Room--maybe (see below).

F. W. McGee, as Bill reported, had the song copyrighted in his name 
by Southern Music Co. in September 1933; I also found that McGee 
personally renewed that copyright in September 1960.

But one thing is slightly intriguing:  In 1924 Herbert Buffum 
copyrighted a hymn titled "There'll Be Room Enough in Heaven," which 
is the underlying theme of Elbow Room.

         When the gates swing wide on the other side
         Just beyond the sunset sea
         There'll be room to spare as we enter there
         Room for you and room for me
         For the gates are wide on the other side
         Where the flowers ever bloom
         On the right hand, on the left hand
         Fifty miles of elbow room

But I suspect that the roominess of Heaven is a pretty common theme 
in the gospel world.

It would be darned interesting, though, to find the lyrics to 
Buffum's song to see if they're anything like the ones that McGee 
sang and copyrighted.

And guess what?  Not only was Buffum's song published as a single 
sheet, there's a copy of it for sale on amazon.com:

         http://www.amazon.com/Therell-Be-Room-Enough-Heaven/dp/B003Q1VD92

I was a little surprised that I couldn't find Buffum's lyrics 
elsewhere; perhaps somebody else with heightened Google skills could 
take up the chase.  Or just go by the darned thing from Amazon!





--Dick Baker
Still at work on the Stomp Off Records Tune Titles and Composers Index
See http://stompoff.dickbaker.org/