Henry's Songbook

Now I'm my own grandpa, I'm my own grandpa
It sounds funny I know, but really it's so
I'm my own grandpa

Many many years ago when I was twenty-three
I was married to a widow who was pretty as could be
This widow had a grown-up daughter who had hair of red
My father fell in love with her and soon the two were wed

This made my dad my son-in-law and changed my very life
My daughter was my mother, 'cause she was my father's wife
And to complicate the matter even though it brought him joy
He soon became the father of a bouncing baby boy

The little baby then became a brother-in-law to Dad
And thus became my uncle though it was very sad
For if he was my uncle then that also made him brother
To the widow's grown-up daughter who of course was my step-mother

Father's wife then had a son who kept him on the run
He became my grandchild 'cause he was my daughter's son
My wife is now my mother's mother and it makes me blue
Although she is my wife she is my grandmother, too

Now if my wife is my grandmother then I'm her grandchild
Every time I think about it nearly drives me wild
'Cause now I have become the strangest case you ever saw
As husband of my grandmother, I am my own grandpa

(as sung by Iain MacKintosh)

 [1975:] Back in the early days of radio in the thirties, I had a very successful group called The Jesters performing three nights a week on NBC. Our specialty was novelty songs and bits of spoken humor. In reading a book of anecdotes and sayings by Mark Twain, I came across a paragraph wherein he proved it was possible for a man to become his own grandpa by a certain succession of events beginning with the premise that if the man married a widow with a grown-up daughter and his father married the daughter, etc., etc., he would eventually become his own grandpa. The idea seemed funny enough to repeat on the air, and sure enough, the response was very good. Later Moe Jaffe and I decided to expand the basic idea and set it as a song. (Dwight Latham, quoted in Dorothy Horstman, Sing Your Heart Out, Country Boy)

 [1979:] Authors Lonzo & Oscar (acc. to notes Iain MacKintosh, 'Live in Glasgow')

 [1992:] Original by Moe Jaffe, Dwight Latham, written 1947, acc. to BR, UWP Archive, www.leo.org/

 [1995:] I sat down one night and worked this all out on paper. And it really does work - it's not legal, but it works. (Intro Iain MacKintosh)

 [2003] Praktische Anwendung eines Literaturkenners mit Durchblick
(Dieser Brief soll tatsächlich so geschrieben worden sein ... wenn nicht, müßte er so geschrieben werden ... )

Verfasser leider unbekannt .... auch unbekannt ... frag mal Roman

 See also http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=119: DTStudy: I'm My Own Grandpa