Nat M. Wills "Saving up Coupons for Mother" 1909

[solophoneman]

I just wanted to share my favorite Nat M.Wills record with you. Here it is on you tube. It is called "Saving up Coupons for Mother". Wills was known throughout his career for his outrageous over the top singing style and comic parodies and "Mock" ballads. Be sure to read my little summary of what this song is about before you play it. Just click on the upper right for more information. I guess we might call this Will's effort the first anti Tobacco song. Enjoy !!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yucdNjt ... annel_page

[EdisonSquirrel]

This is hilarious! I'm not all that familiar with Nat Wills, with the exception of his renowned "No News or What Killed the Dog."



Rocky

[solophoneman]

There is a dark and creepy side to this song as well and here it is. In the song Wills laments that, in order to help the poor lad in his quest for coupons to buy the tombstone he'd promise that "I'd smoke myself to death", and also there is the part about the boy saying "We all learned to chew and smoke "bull Durum" too since Daddy fell under a Car". Well some 8 years after this song was released, Wills met his own demise out in his garage, working on his beloved automobile. It was a cold December day, and he had the garage doors shut tight, had the motor running and was under the car with his tools working on the vehicle when he was overcome from the exhaust smoke and fumes from the automobile. So there he was "Under the Car" as in the song, and overcome by the "Smoke or Fumes" as in the song. Really strange and eerie isn't it? Here is the actual news article from the December 1917 New York Times.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-fr ... 946696D6CF