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from Volkslieder (Folksongs)

Kansas boys
Language: English 
Hello girls, listen to my voice
Don't you fall in love with no Kansas boys,
For if you do, your fortune it will be
Hoecake, hominy, and sassafras tea.
They'll take you out on a jet-black hill, 
Take you there so much against your will, 
Leave you there to perish on the plain,
That's the way with the Kansas range.
Give me a home where the buffalo roam
Home is a cabin with a big log wall
Nary a window in it at all
Where the deer and the antelope play
Smoky chimney and a shaky floor,
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word
Clapboard roof and a broken-down door,
Where the cyclones are blowin' all day
That's the way with the Kansas boys.
Swing that pretty girl, 'round we go,
Sashay right and docedo,
Hey ho, diddledum day,
When they go dancing the clothes that they wear, 
Is an old brown coat all picked and bare,
And an old white hat more rim than crown, 
A pair of cotton socks that they wore the week around.
If Kansas boys ever fall in love
First it's "honey," then it's "turtle dove,"
After they're married, it's no such thing,
"Get up and get my breakfast, you no good thing!"

Text Authorship:

  • from Volkslieder (Folksongs)  [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

  • by Kirke Mechem (b. 1925), "Kansas boys", op. 46 [SATB chorus and piano], from American Madrigals: Madrigal Cycle on American Folks Songs, Carl Fischer [
     text verified 1 time
    ]

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2012-06-08
Line count: 28
Word count: 208

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