Palesteena

PALESTEENA

by J. Russel Robinson & Con Conrad
as performed by Billy Murray, Fred Whitehouse ("The Record Singer"), Frank Crumit, and by George Schmidt of the New Leviathan Oriental Foxtrot Orchestra.


In the Bronx of New York City
Lived a girl, she's not so pretty
Lena is her name.
Such a clever girl is Lena
How she played her concertina
Really, it's a shame.
She's such a good musician
She got a swell position
To go across the sea to entertain.
And so they shipped poor Lena
Way out to Palesteena
From what they tell me, she don't look the same.
They say that Lena is the Queen o' Palesteena
Just because she plays the concertina.
She only knows one song,
She plays it all day long
Sometimes she plays it wrong,
But still they love it
What more of it
I heard her play once or twice.
Oh! Murder! Still, it was nice.
All the girls, they dress like Lena
Some wear oatmeal, some Farina
Down old Palesteena way.

Lena's girlfriend Arabella
Let her meet an Arab fella
Who she thought was grand.
On a camel's back a-swaying
You could hear Miss Lena playing
Over the desert sand.
She didn't know the new ones
All she knew were blue ones
And Yusef sat and listened all day long
 (or: Till Yusef sat and listened in his tent)
And as he tried to kiss her
You heard that Arab whisper,
"Oh Lena, how I love to hear your song!"
  (or: "Oh Lena, how I love your instrument!")

They say that Lena is the Queen o' Palesteena
'Cause she shakes a wicked concertina.
She plays it day and night
She plays with all her might
She never gets it right, 
You think it's funny,
Gets her money.
There's nothin' sounds like it should.
So rotten, it's really good.
While the Arabs danced so gaily
She would practice aily-aily
Down old Palesteena way.

Lena, she's the Queen o' Palesteena
Goodness, how they love her concertina.
Each movement of her wrist
Just makes them shake and twist
They simply can't resist
How they love it
Want more of it.
When she squeeks
That squeeze-box stuff
All those sheiks
Just can't get enough.
She got fat as he got Lena
Pushing on her concertina
Down old Palesteena way.

Note: "Ailey-Ailey" (my spelling is phoenetic via Fred Whitehouse), I have been informed, is a Hebrew mourning song. The song gives no clue as to whose (if anyone's) demise is expected. The statement that Lena was practicing Ailey-Ailey seems to add a dark and mysterious note to this otherwise cheerfull lyric. That the Arabs would dance gaily while the protaganist practiced a mourning song suggests a ritual tradition not unlike the strutts of members of the "second line" at a New Orleans "jazz funeral".

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