Anna In Indiana

ANNA IN INDIANA

by Billy & Eddie Gorman, Harry Rose
as sung by Billy Jones, and by Francis Hennings


I just got a letter from a Hoosier girl of mine
She said, "Sweetie dear, I wish that you were here".
Kissin' that I'm missin' makes me long for her again
So I'm going to pack my grip and hop aboard a train
To see my Anna in Indiana
She's just as playful as a baby grand piana
Not very nifty
She weighs two-fifty
But a great big fat girl now and then
Is relished by the best of men
Anna in Indiana
Will have my arms as far around her as they go
I'm all through with Broadway Sally
How I long for hills and valley
I'm going back to Indiana

Anna will be at the train to meet me with the flivver
She always brings the lambs and pigs when e'er she comes to town
Just for extra company she brings the chickens with her
I stand up going home and let the animals sit down
I'll be drinking sasperilla with her brother and her pa
The Reubens will be dancing to "The Turkey in the Straw"
They'll know I'm from the city by the color of my neck
But I don't care by heck.

I'll see my Anna from Indiana
She's just as playful as a baby grand piana
She owns one acre
I'm going to make her
Go and find a place to live up-town
She hides the farm when she sits down
Anna in Indiana
Will have my arms as far around her as they'll go
When I buy her sasperiller
She thinks I'm a Rockerfeller
I'm going back to Indiana
To wed my Anna in Indiana
She's just as playful as a baby grand piana
With all the women
She went in swimmin'
But the women started in to shake
For fear she'd overflow the lake
Anna in Indiana
Will have my arms as far around her as they go
She's not rough, she's sentimental
She's not Jewish, she is gentle
I'm going back to Indiana

Notes: The alphabetical first of our novelty songs is a fairly typical example. Set to a good tune, the lyrics contain amusing visual images, some word play, a naive but effective double entendre in line 14, stereotyping of a culture of which the songwriters are not a part...and the most attempted "fat jokes" of any song in the collection.
Indiana is noted in novelty songs almost exclusively for its farm connotations. In fairness it should be noted, however, that there is more to Indiana than a setting for rural humor. Indiana is also the birthplace of such illustrious personages as J. Russel Robinson, composer or co-composer of many tunes and songs (including "Palesteena", included in this collection) and vice-president J. Danforth Quayle, neither of whom recorded for Richmond Indiana based Gennett Records.
"Rubens" (line 21) or "Rubes", also known as "Hicks", were the standard vaudevillian stereotype of the Agrarian-American.
"The Turkey In The Straw" (line 21) is a perennial favorite said to date to early in the 1800's, and an early example of incorporation of African-American rhythmic figures into the American pop idiom. It was also known (and had orchestral arrangements published) under the title "Old Zip Coon", and provides the melody for the folk ditty "Hot Pituty, Dirty Bill". Dispite published (Rose, I Remember Jazz, p.127) testemony to the contrary, it is not the same melody as the "Chicken Reel", though the alligation that this tune was played on the most legendary of the lost recordings made in New Orleans in the 1890's by the Louisiana Phonograph Company, those of Professor Charles Bolden's Band, is not entirely implausible.
In line 22, I am unsure if the transcription should be "the color of my neck" or "the collar on my neck", but the point is made either way.
The observation on Anna's religious affiliation (penultimate line) is not suprising, as Indiana has not been known for a particularly large Jewish community..
All of this is only to make the point that the study of novelty songs is not merely rewarding in it's own right, but also has great relevance to a wide range of sociological, geographic,musicological, and historical subjects.

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