I am heading into another Break Week and have given myself 15 minutes to research and complete this post.  A cursory inspection has determined that, at the moment, there ain’t no bugs on me.  Having completed that research, I have chosen “There Ain’t No Bugs on Me” as the Song of the Week.

When most of us think of songs recorded for children we consider Sesame Street and Raffi and the late Jerry Garcia.  Back in 1993 Uncle Jerry was taking his own break from the Grateful Dead and got together with fellow musician extraordinaire David Grisman to produce an album called Not For Kids Only.  The songs, which Garcia and Grisman described as “our answer to Barney,” were all well known, acoustic and found in the Old Time-String Band Songbook (which was formerly called The New Lost City Ramblers Songbook).

The record has the feel of two old friends sitting on the porch singing to the neighborhood children – though occasionally they would have to bring percussion, trombones, violins and cellos, a piano and other instruments onto their imaginary porch.  It is a well-produced collection of songs, but it evokes the flavor of Woody Guthrie’s Songs To Grow on for Mother and Child, which was recorded in 1947 and released in 1956.  That record was, I believe, simply Woody and his guitar in a very low-key recording session.

Woody did not record well-known songs as Garcia and Grisman did.  In fact, it seems that he probably made several of them up as he was singing.  Here are some sample lyrics:

“I’m a little baby one day old,
I’m a little sweet thing two days old,
I’m a little doodlebug three3 days old,
I’m a little cutie pie four days old.”
(From “One Day Old”)

“Grass, grass, grass,
Tree, tree, tree,
Leafy, leafy leaf,
1-2-3.”
(From “Grassy Grass Grass”)

Coming back to Uncle Jerry and Uncle Dave, in 1999 those two “wrote” a 40-page children’s book called There Ain’t No Bugs on Me, which consisted of a cassette recording of the song accompanied by illustrations by Bruce Whatley, who is one of Australia’s most highly regarded writers and illustrators of children’s books.

Now my 15 minutes is up, so here is the song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TY8vLI4buo

There Ain’t No Bugs on Me
Traditional

Chorus 1
Oh there ain’t no bugs on me
There ain’t no bugs on me
There may be bugs on some of you mugs
But there ain’t no bugs on me

Well, the Juney bug comes in the month of June
The lightning bug comes in May
Bed bug comes just any old time
But, they’re not going to stay

Chorus 2
Oh there ain’t no bugs on me
There ain’t no bugs on me
There may be bugs on the rest of you mugs
But there ain’t no bugs on me

Well, a bull frog sittin’ on a lily pad
Looking up at the sky
The lily pad broke and the frog fell in
He got water all in his eye…ball

[chorus 1]

[Spoken: “Get away from me you horse fly”]

Mosquito he fly high
Mosquito he fly low
If old mosquito lands on me
He ain’t a gonna fly no mo’

[chorus 2]

A peanut sittin’ on a railroad track
His heart was all a flutter
Along come a choo-choo on the track
Toot! Toot! Peanut butter!

[chorus 1]

Well little bugs have littler bugs
Up on their backs to bite ’em
And the littler bugs have still littler bugs
And so ad infinitum

[chorus 2]

As I went walking through the woods
Humming a tune so gaily
The wind come whistling through the trees
And froze my ukelele

[chorus 1]

Oh there ain’t no flies on me
There ain’t no flies on me
There may be flies on some of you guys
But there ain’t no flies on me

Oh there ain’t no lobsters on me
There, ain’t no lobsters on me
There may be lobsters on some of you mobsters
But there ain’t no lobsters on me

Oh it ain’t gonna rain no more no more
It ain’t gonna rain no more
How in the heck can I wash my neck
When it ain’t gonna rain no more?

Oh it ain’t gonna rain no more, no more
It ain’t gonna rain no more
How in the hell can the old folks tell
If it ain’t gonna rain no more?

[chorus 1]