Last revision : 2002.03.03
Leland's Salvation Army SongMy brothers and I sang this as teenagers; I'm not sure where we got it. I added the "meaning Fremont" gloss and got in the habit of singing it in AA meetings as a sort of preface to "The Fremont Hymn". I usually say that this song describes my personal experience, focusing on "what I was like", the Fremont Hymn describes "what happened", and today's performance hints at "what I'm like now". (Though actually this sort of thing is only a small slice of the pie that is I.) |  I was briefly immortalized by Adam on the wall of Star's Café ! (ca. 1994) |
Leland's Salvation Army
Song
(Put a nickel on the drum)
I was lyin' in the gutter, all covered up with beer!
Pretzels in my eyebrows, I knew the end was near,
When along come the Salvation Army (meaning Fremont)
and saved me from the hearse.
Everybody come along, let's sing that second verse:Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Put a nickel on the drum, save another drunken bum!
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Put a nickel on the drum and you'll be saved!Oh, G-L-O-R-Y, to be S-A-V-E-D!
I'm so H-A-P-P-Y that I'm F-R-double-E (hee-hee!)!
F-R-double-E from the ways of S-I-N!
Glory, glory, hallelujah, tra-la-la-l'-amen!Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Put a nickel on the drum, save another drunken bum!
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Put a nickel on the drum and you'll be saved!
© 1996 Leland R. in this format
As far as I know this song text
is anonymous in authorship,
and in the public domain
Update! Shocker! Wow! Feb. 10, 2002:
Lookee what I found yesterday!
(Judy Henske performing my Salvation Army song back in the sixties!)
She reports that she learned it from her high-school music teacher in the early '50s,
which bolsters my sense of its essentially anonymous folk character.
http://www.scn.org/~lilandbr/
the website of Leland Bryant Ross
email: lilandbr@scn.org
snail mail: Leland R. / 204 N 39th St / Seattle WA 98103 USA