Muss I Denn (If I Must) by mousethief


The Mudcat Forum	The Mudcat Resource Pages	The Mudcat Midi Page	The Digital Tradition Folk Song Server
Back to The Mudcat Songbook		Back to The Song Challenge Winners!
Anyone is welcome to perform these songs in public without royalties; however, if any of them are recorded or published for profit, the writers/composers expect the usual royalties.

The Song Challenge: Crocked Conventioneers Canvassing for Can Confront Comrades in Confusion -- FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Two drunken Germans, apparently looking for a toilet during a conference at Frankfurt airport, got on a plane by mistake and flew to Moscow. The 20-year-old men were wandering round the airport when they found themselves on the tarmac and boarded a shuttle bus, which drove to an aircraft bound for the Russian capital. "They got in and sat in the back of the airplane which then flew to Moscow," said Frankfurt State Prosecutor Job Tilmann. "They weren't even at the airport to fly anywhere. They were at a convention and had been walking around, evidently in a drunken stupor," he told Reuters on Wednesday. On arrival in Moscow, they noticed it was cold and realized they had no passports, let alone entry visas. Russian police put them on a flight back to Frankfurt where they were met by Federal Border Police who have charged them with joy-riding.

Muss I Denn by mousethief
(Tune: Muss I Denn)

mousethief's Comments: This is based on an old German folk song, "Muss I Denn" in which a man is saying that he has to go away to do business in other towns, but when he returns he will (essentially) roll in his sweet baby's arms. Elvis Presley recorded a song with the same tune, but English lyrics (quite unrelated to the German lyrics) called "I Don't Have a Wooden Heart."

Muss i' denn, muss i' denn, zum W.C. geh'n,
W.C. geh'n, und i' find nit das W.C.,
Steig i' ein, steig i' ein, ins Flugzeug 'nein,
Flugzeug 'nein, und i' flieg' nach Russland. Weh!

Als i' wache auf, i' finde mi'
Auf Moskau's Polizei

Flieg i' heim, flieg i' heim, flieg i' wiederum heim,
wiederum heim, man mi' wirft ins G'fängnis 'nein.

©2001 Alex E. Riggle. All Rights Reserved

If I Must by mousethief
(Tune: Muss I Denn)

If I must, if I must go to the men's room
To the men's room, and I can't find it anywhere,
I'll get in, I'll get in, into an airplane
To an airplane, fly to Russia, and find one there.

When I woke, I woke to find myself
In the arms of the Moscow police

I'll fly home, I'll fly home, once again I'll fly home
Again I'll fly home, to a jail cell, no more to roam.

©2001 Alex E. Riggle. All Rights Reserved