I’m Saving Up the Means To Get To New Orleans

A popular song from 1916.
Words by Howard Johnson.
Music by Harry De Costa.


The sheet music:


Accompaniment by James Pitt-Payne:


Lyrics

  1. I’ve been around your town and seen the sights
    But now I’m through, I’m telling you
    That I’ve made up my mind to stay home nights
    There’s lots to do, I mean it, too
    Because my old friend bankroll was getting thinner
    And before it got to late
    I hired a furnished room, goodbye to gloom
    And now I’m mighty glad to state

Chorus
“I’m saving up the means, to get to New Orleans
I’ll buy a trunk and pack it, leave this racket
I’ll be happy when I’m bound
Back to those childhood scenes
And mother’s home-made beans, I’m thirsty
Gee whiz! I want a silver fizz
Like they make in my home town
Down there in New Orleans
I’ll wear my old blue jeans
I’ll find the girl I left behind me in her teens
I know a train that goes a mile a minute
You bet your life I’m goin’ to be right in it
On my way back home to New Orleans”

  1. Now you can have your great big northern town
    Your city ways, and problem plays
    They’re just a bunch of worries, cares and frowns
    In cabarets the nights are days
    I’d rather be in Dixie, where I can rough it
    In the good old country style
    And when I get back there I’ll breathe that air
    And change my wrinkles to a smile

Sung here by Vancha March: