"I Don't Want To Get Thin" by Sophie Tucker

[Guest billow]

A lovely song from around 1910, give or take a few years.  I've transcribed the lyrics below.  My favorite part of the song is at the end: after so many verses building up how fat she is, Sophie admits to weighing 163 lbs.  That must have been pretty heavy around the start of the 20th century!  A hundred years later, though, and it's now a bit less than the average American woman's weight!  

 

 

 

Almost everyday, I hear some kind friend say

Sophie, dear, I think you’re much too stout.

Right away they suggest the diet they think best.

They make me sick, I wish they’d cut it out.

 

I don’t want to get thin.

I don’t want to get thin.

Why should I when I’m alright as I am?

 

Those slender-waisted mamas, they make me laugh.

My goodness, men like to see a little fore and aft.

I don’t want to reduce.

Furthermore, what’s the use?

When the men follow me around like Mary’s lamb.

The girls who talk of dieting, gee, they get on my nerves.

If you want to keep your husband straight, show him a lot of curves.

 

I don’t want to get thin.

You can laugh and you can grin, but I’m doing very well the way I am.

 

Man: “Hey Tucker, I think you could do with a pound less or two.”

 

Look what’s talking.  If he closed one eye, he’d look like a needle.

Mind your own business, Teddy.  I’m satisfied to be the way I am.

 

I’ve got a lot of what I’ve got, and my friends love it.

Mind you, they’re no vegetarians.  They like their meat and plenty of it.

 

Man: “Well, I think you could spare a pound here or there.”

 

No one is asking you, young man.

Keep your mind on your music.

 

Man: “I can’t when you’re around.”

 

Look where I am not.

 

Man: “I can’t see that far.”

 

Alright, I’ll buy you some pier glasses.

I’m fat and I know it, and I intend to stay fat.

 

Man: “Ms. Tucker, you shouldn’t say fat.  In the best places, they say one is stout.”

 

*Laughs*  In the best places, I’m fat.

As I was saying folks, I’ll eat anything.

 

Man: “Anything?”

 

Anything!

 

Man: “You won’t eat ham.”

 

Well, we’ll leave politics and religion out of this.

 

I’ve noticed one thing girls, you can store this in your (dole?)

All the married men who run after me have skinny wives at home.

 

Man: “You’ll have to be much thinner to attract the young sheikhs.”

 

Don’t worry, I’m doing all right with the Spaniards and the Greeks.

I don’t want to lose weight.

The boys tell me I’m great, and my sweetheart loves me just the way I am.

I have no fear that he’ll go chasing round with other mamas.

He may find one who will fill my shoes but not my pajamas.

I don’t care what I weigh.  I eat pie everyday.

I hate pineapples and I don’t care for lamb.

I’ll tell you very frankly, I weigh one-sixty-three,

But many a sonny boy has tried to climb upon my knee.

 

And I don’t want to get thin.

You can laugh and you can grin, but I’m doing very well the way I am.

[Ronaldost]

Tight for the content of these articles is that we want to read it yet.

 

 

[finallyfat]

^^^ BOT  ^^^