The Streets of Cairo, or the Poor Little Country Maid
"The Streets of Cairo, or the Poor Little Country Maid"
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"The Streets of Cairo, or the Poor Little Country Maid", also known as "the snake charmer song", is a well-known melody in the United States. Alternate titles for children's songs using this melody include "The Girls in France" and "The Southern Part of France".[1][2]

History

1895 sheet music cover for "The Streets of Cairo"

Purportedly the original version of the song was written by Sol Bloom, a showman (and later a U.S. Congressman) who was the entertainment director of the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893. It included an attraction called "A Street in Cairo" produced by Gaston Akoun, which featured snake charmers, camel rides, and a scandalous dancer known as Little Egypt. Songwriter James Thornton penned the words and music to his own version of this melody, "Streets Of Cairo or The Poor Little Country Maid". Copyrighted in 1895, it was made popular by his wife Lizzie Cox, who used the stage name Bonnie Thornton.[1] The oldest known recording of the song is from 1895, performed by Dan Quinn (Berliner Discs 171-Z).[3]

The first five notes of the song are similar to the beginning of a French song named "Colin Prend Sa Hotte" (1719), which in turn resembles note for note an Algerian or Arabic song titled "Kradoutja".[4]

The song appears frequently in cartoons when something that is connected with deserts, Arabia, Egypt, belly dancing, or snake charming is being displayed.

The song was also recorded as "They Don't Wear Pants in the Southern Part of France" by John Bartles, the version sometimes played by radio host Dr. Demento.

Travadja La Moukère

In France, there is a popular song that immigrants from Algeria brought back in the 1960s called "Travadja La Moukère" (from: trabaja la mujer which means work woman in Spanish), which uses the same Hoochy Coochy tune. Its original tune, said to have been based on an original Arab song, was created around 1850 and subsequently adopted by the Foreign Legion.

Partial lyrics :

Travadja La Moukère
Travadja Bono
Trempe ton cul dans la soupière
Si c'est chaud c'est que ça brûle
Si ça brûle c'est que c'est chaud !

Translation:

Travaja La Moukère
Bono Travaja
Dip your ass in the tureen
If it is hot it burns
If it burns it's that it's hot!

Use in popular culture

Music

Since the piece is not copyrighted, it has been used as a basis for several songs, especially in the early 20th century:

Later popular songs that include all or part of the melody include:[5]

Cartoons


Computer games

From cartoons the song has been adapted to video games. It appears on following computer and videogames:

Television

Film

Children's culture

The tune is used for a 20th-century American children's song with – like many unpublished songs of child folk culture – countless variations as the song is passed from child to child over considerable lengths of time and geography, the one constant being that the versions are almost always smutty. One variation, for example, is:

There's a place in France
Where the ladies wear no pants
But the men don't care
'cause they don't wear underwear.[1][2]

or a similar version:

There's a place in France
Where the naked girls dance
There's a hole in the wall
Where the boys can see it all

Another World War II-era variation is as follows:

When your mind goes blank
And you're dying for a wank
And Hitler's playing snooker with your balls
In the German nick
They hang you by your dick
And put dirty pictures on the walls

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Elliot, Julie Anne (2000-02-19). "There's a Place in France: That "Snake Charmer" Song". All About Middle Eastern Dance. Retrieved 2009-09-17.
  2. 1 2 "France, Pants". Desultor. Harvard Law School. January 21, 2004. Retrieved March 6, 2015.
  3. ↑ Settlemier, Tyrone (2009-07-07). "Berliner Discs: Numerical Listing Discography". Online 78rpm Discographical Project. Retrieved 2009-09-17.
  4. ↑ Adams, Cecil (2007-02-23). "What is the origin of the song 'There's a place in France/Where the naked ladies dance?'". The Straight Dope. Creative Loafing Media, Inc. Retrieved 2009-09-17.
  5. ↑ http://www.whosampled.com/sampled/Sol%20Bloom/

External links

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