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4. POOR AUNT LISA
The words to this song came to me while I was driving to court one day. I wrote them down on the outside of an envelope before getting out of my car, once I had found a place to park near the courthouse. In my mind’s eye, I pictured them as a text for an Edward Gorey picture book. It’s an adult story, told here as though it were a jaunty children’s song, much as Gorey’s tiny illustrated adult books so resembled children’s picture books. The sung melody is loosely based on my memory of a partial banjo tune that was made up by someone who called herself “Aunt Lisa”, from Chatham NY, that she posted on a banjo website some years ago, soliciting suggestions about how to finish the tune. At least, I had that tune in mind when I made up the lyrics in my car. I don’t know how far I may have strayed from it in the intervening years.

lyrics

4. POOR AUNT LISA
By Marc Nerenberg
Poor Aunt Lisa ate a piece a’ poisoned pie meant for rich Uncle Jim.
Undertaker came to take her: pie killed her - instead of killing him.

She had no money. It wasn’t funny that I killed poor Lisa by mistake.
Rich Jim’s still living so I’m giving him a pet - a darling venomous snake!

Uncle Jerry ate a cherry I left for him in his dining room.
Coat of strychnine, deadly, unseen - choke cherry - sent Jerry to his tomb.

For Uncle Neil, a Chinese meal, with Hoisin sauce, for dipping on the side.
A touch of poison in the Hoisin - Uncle Neil - took his last rickshaw ride.

Well, though Aunt Suzie was a floozy, why kill her? All she did was misbehave.
Just can’t resist, so I persist in sending rich relations to their grave.

So Uncle Ted, of course he’s dead. A poisoned pill – in his coffee I slipped that!
Oh, read his will: what a bitter pill. He left his whole estate to feed his cat.

Oopsy daisy! I got lazy with the snake cage – I left an open latch.
It’s open wide: no snake inside. I hope that snake is an easy one to catch!

Ah, poor Aunt Lisa ate that piece a’ poisoned pie that was meant for Uncle Jim.
So I got that snake, Jim’s life to take: but now that snake wants a piece a’ me, not him

credits

from DELIA'S GONE: Murder Ballads & Other Songs of Love & Death, released July 15, 2019
Words and music by Marc Nerenberg

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Marc Nerenberg Montreal, Québec

Marc Nerenberg is a veteran Montreal folksinger who plays old time banjo styles and blues harmonica. He has a narrative- centric repertoire, recounting stories in song and wrapping stories around songs. You may “be drawn in by a combination of Marc’s mastery of traditional banjo styles, his idiosyncratic singing, and [his] richly detailed ballads.” (Mike Regenstreif – Folk Roots/Folk Branches 2019) ... more

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