Stop!
Bob Nolan
Original copyright: September 27, 1955
Production Still from "Idaho" (1943)
Woe [whoa] is me, my children, woe, I say.
For there’s one little word can’t never be heard - that’s “Stop!” I say.
I got a gal in the Cumberland Mountains, pretty as she can be.
Pure as streams and the bubblin’ fountain, mine she’s gonna be.
I says, “Sal, should we oughta get hitched and shall I name the day?”
But her pappy showed up with a two-hole pistol, “Stop!” he say.
Woe is me, my children, woe, I say,
For her pappy showed up with a two-hole pistol, “Stop!” he say.
Bullfrog sleep by the lily pad pond and the pollywog he comes by.
The pollywog wink and the bullfrog blink and he opens up his eye.
Said the bullfrog, “Pollywog, let’s take a swim in the lily pad pond close by”.
When the bullfrog div and the pollywog give with a, “Stop! It’s dry!”
Woe is me, my children, woe, I say,
When the bullfrog div and the pollywog give with a “Stop! It’s dry!”
I got a mule, got a mighty fine mule, boys, I got a mule for sale.
But I think that I oughta tell you why - he’s got a granny knot in his tail.
He turned his nose at my courtin’ clothes, he turned me down today
With a hee-haw hoot at my catalog suit, he stop and bray.
Woe is me, my children, woe, I say,
With a hee-haw hoot at my catalog suit, he stop and bray.
ABOUT THIS SONG
Bob Nolan was a multi-talented songwriter and he loved to play with words. The beautiful I Still Do is a classic example but there were others (My Old Pal, Sing as You Work, etc.). In Stop! the chorus plays with only two words, "whoa" and "woe".
In the recording from the soundtrack of the 1943 Republic picture Idaho "Stop" is sung by Roy Rogers, Smiley Burnette and Pat Brady in turn. The explosion is part of the film overlaying the recording.
As you might expect, this comic song suited Sons of the Pioneers' Pat Brady to a "T". Pat is featured in the transcription we hear on the Teleways programs, usually ending up with his tongue tied in knots!
The only sheet music we found was a simple, rough lead sheet from the Republic Records Library at Brigham Young University.
SHEET MUSIC
RECORDINGS
As you might expect, this comic song suited Sons of the Pioneers' Pat Brady to a "T". Pat is featured in the transcription we hear on the Teleways programs, usually ending up with his tongue tied in knots!
SONS OF THE PIONEERS TRANSCRIPTION RECORDINGS
Teleways Radio Productions transcriptions, Nos. 39, 99, and-158 (c. 1947-48)