Justice in the Court of Song
By admin / September 16, 2025 / No Comments / Three Tune Tuesday
This week on Three Tune Tuesday, we step into the witness box for “Justice in the Court of Song.” From Vernon Dalhart’s mournful The Prisoner’s Song to Billy Murray’s cheeky Prohibition jab How Are You Goin’ to Wet Your Whistle?, and Fred Hillebrand’s sly social satire Ain’t We Got Fun, these records remind us that music has always doubled as testimony, protest, and cross-examination. Join Boneapart and Yulia as they explore how early 1920s hits laughed at the law, mourned its judgments, and poked holes in society’s supposed order.
Lyrics
The Prisoner’s Song
Oh, I wish I had someone to love me
Someone to call me their own
Oh, I wish I had someone to live with
‘Cause I’m tired of livin’ alone[Verse 2]
Oh, please meet me tonight in the moonlight
Please meet me tonight all alone
For I have a sad story to tell you
It’s a story that’s never been told[Instrumental Break][Verse 3]
I’ll be carried to the new jail tomorrow
Leavin’ my poor darlin’ alone
With the cold prison bars all around me
And my head on a pillow of stone[Verse 4]
Now I have a grand ship on the ocean
All mounted with silver and gold
And before my poor darlin’ would suffer
Oh, that ship would be anchored and sold
Over these prison walls I would fly
And I’d fly to the arms of my poor darlin’
And there I’d be willin’ to die
How Are You Going to Wet Your Whistle
[chorus 1] How are you goin’ to wet your whistle, When the whole darn world goes dry? What are you goin’ to do in the morning, When you need a nip to open up your eye? Now what of the wedding and the christening, And the wake when your dear friends die, Oh, How are you goin’ to wet your whistle When the whole darn world goes dry?
[verse 2] Ne’er again will any man be late for dinner, They’ll never miss the train at five fifteen, All the fleshy boys will fade and grow much thinner, And ev’ryone will be a candy fiend If they pack the soda fountains to the doors, And turn the bars all into dry goods stores.
[chorus 2] How are you goin’ to wet your whistle, When the whole darn world goes dry? What are you goin’ to do in the morning, When you need a nip to open up your eye? We took this country from the Indians, They can have it back again in July, Oh, How are you goin’ to wet your whistle, when the whole darn world goes dry.