SPRINGTIME IN ALASKA
Sung by: Ollie Gilbert
Recorded in Mountain View, AR by George Fisher

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(Fisher: "Now then, let's see. You remember . . . um . . . 'Springtime in Alaska,' that you sang last night?" Gilbert: "Yes. Try that one?" Fisher: "All right. You don't need any accompaniment on that, do you? Let's see, we did have it . . . We did have the accompaniment to it last night, didn't we?" Gilbert: "Um hm." Fisher: "All right. Was it this?")

I must . . . through the blizzards of snow;
I’ve been prospecting for two years or more.
I fell in Fairbanks, city on the boom,
Took a little stroll to the Red Dog Saloon.

When I got there, the music was clear,
The prettiest voice I heard in two years,
And the song she was singing made a man’s blood run cold,
When it’s springtime in Alaska, it's forty below.

Red-headed Lil was singing so sweet,
I reached down and took the snow . . . from my feet.
I reached for the girl that was singing the tune,
Did the Eskimo hop all around the saloon.

With a . . . and a grizzly bear hug,
We did our dance on a coal black rug,
And the song she kept singing made a man’s blood run cold,
When it’s springtime in Alaska, it’s forty below.

I was as innocent as I could be;
I didn’t know Lil was Big Ed's wife to be.
He took out his knife, and he gave it a throw;
When it’s springtime in Alaska, I’ll be six foot below.

(Fisher: "That's a good one.")

All Songs Recorded by John Quincy Wolf, Jr., unless otherwise noted

The John Quincy Wolf Folklore Collection
Lyon College, Batesville, Arkansas
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