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User Name Thread Name Subject Posted
Jim Dixon Lyr Req: songs about health (33) Lyr Add: LONG AS YOU GOT YOUR HEALTH (Harburg/...) 26 Apr 23


I ran across this while searching for the previous song. It’s not so much about health as about the lack of money, but the point is: don’t worry about the lack of money in these depression times, “as long as you’ve got your health.” This is my transcription from the recording at the Internet Archive, and there are a few awkward turns of phrase that might be my mishearing. Where I was doubtful, I marked them with “[?].”


LONG AS YOU GOT YOUR HEALTH
From the musical revue “The Show Is On.”
Words by E. Y. Harburg and Norman Zeno. Music by Will Irwin. ©1936.
As recorded by Ramona [Davies] and her Grand Piano on Liberty Music Shop L210, 1937

VERSE: Ever since the last depression,
This country has been one long procession
Of gloomy faces tucked in collars of overcoats,
Counting pennies, watching meters,
Forgetting to be breast-beaters.
What chance has romance when each heart only ticks to economics?

CHORUS 1: So you’re down on your luck,
And you haven’t got easy pickin’.
Listen, neighbor: there’s no use kickin’
Long as you got your health.

So you’re down in the dumps
With your bookie and with your broker.
No use cryin’; you got the joker
Long as you got your health.

Though you haven’t got the fare to Paris or to Berlin,
Be glad you’ve got a healthy pair of arms to hold your girl in.

So you can’t buy the ring
Or a honeymoon to Jamaica,
But as broke as you are, she’ll take ya,
Long as you got your health.

CHORUS 2: Father Time marches on.
So the movies have movie censors,
But your kids’ll know all the answers,
Long as they got their health.

So you’d dive[?] for a prize.
So the best you can do is couplets.
So your wife hasn’t got quintuplets,
Long as you got your health.

Save[?] the old-age pension; you uphold the constitution.
You reach the age of sixty-five, then comes the revolution!

So you can’t pay the rent
With a landlord you got no lookin’[?].
So you ain’t got a pot to cook in,
Long as you got your health.

[piano interlude]

CHORUS 3: So you can’t buy her furs
When the blizzard wind starts to breeze up.
Listen, mister: she’ll never freeze up
Long as you got your health.

So you can’t take a trip
To the North Sea or to the Black Sea,
But there’s lots of fun in a taxi,
Long as you got your health.

So you cant afford to wine and dine the dukes and princes.
Be glad that you …[?] for ham and eggs and blintzes.

So you married a guy,
And the bed hasn’t got gold panels.
It’s just as good in red flannels,
Long as you got your health.

- - -
Also recorded by:
Ozzie Nelson and His Orchestra, 1937.
Ray Noble and his Orchestra, with vocal refrain by The Merry Macs, on Victor 25504-B, 1937.
(But these recordings only have the first chorus.)


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