Here it is, the last week of February, 1901 and the Wizard does not have enough money to pay the rent on the forum. Times are tough and the income is just not there. So before ML sends the enforcers around to “collect” the rent, we are going to have a Rent Party!

What is a Rent Party? In the old days, tenants would hire a musician or band to play for a party and then pass the hat to raise money to pay their rent. The rent party, also called the house party or house-rent party, played a major role in the development of jazz and blues music. The rent party featured a type of music called “Skiffle” music indicating the informality of the occasion.

Skiffle Music is a type of folk music with a jazz and blues influence, usually using homemade or improvised instruments such as the washboard, tea-chest bass, cigar-box fiddle, or a comb and paper, and so forth. Skiffle and jug band music are closely related. Skiffle first became popular in the early 1900s in the US, starting in New Orleans.

Thus, the word skiffle became associated with informal music. However, many notable jazz musicians are associated with rent parties, including pianists Speckled Red, James P Johnson and Fats Waller. The word “Boogie”, which refers to piano music came from the Rent Party!

Originally, skiffle groups were referred to as spasm bands and by the 1920’s and 30’s, a form of skiffle was being played in the bigger cities in the southern USA. The jazz bands, which came later, owed their beginnings to skiffle music.

There was Jimmy O'Bryant and his Chicago Skifflers, Dan Burley and his Skiffle Boys, Brownie and Sticks McGhee, Leadbelly, and my personal favorite “Ugly Dog”, were just some of the names associated with skiffle music.

Skiffle became extremely popular in the United Kingdom in the late 50’s. Skiffler Lonie Donegan had major international success with the Leadbelly song, "Rock Island Line" and the novelty song "Does Your Chewing Gum Lose It's [sic] Flavor on the Bedpost Over Night?" Believe it or not, the Beatles started out as the Quarymen, a skiffle group, and Mick Jagger was once a member of the Barber-Colyer Skiffle Band, but claims he didn't really like skiffle. Nonetheless, it was the popularity of simple skiffle music that opened young Britons' eyes to the idea that they could play music and have hit records. The result, several years later, was the musical explosion called the British Invasion.

But back to the Wizard’s predicament! I’m inviting everyone to the Objects R Us Rent Party and all you have to bring (besides the rent money) is a homemade instrument. So grab that washboard and tighten up that string on your washtub bass. Tune up those jugs and wrap some paper around your comb because “We’re throwing a Skiffle Music Rent Party!

Oh me oh my oh you
Whatever shall I do?
Hallelujah, the question is peculiar
I'd give a lot of dough
If only I could know
The answer to my question
Is it yes or is it no?

CHORUS:
Does your chewing gum lose its flavor on the bedpost overnight?
If your mother says don't chew it, do you swallow it in spite?
Can you catch it on your tonsils, can you heave it left & right?
Does your chewing gum lose its flavor on the bedpost overnight?

Here comes a blushing bride
The groom is by her side
Up to the altar, just as steady as Gibraltar
The groom has got the ring
& it's such a pretty thing
But as he slips it on her finger
The choir begins to sing:

(chorus)

Now the nation rise as one
To send their wanted son
Up to the White House, yes, the nation's only White House
To voice their discontent
Unto the Pres-I-dent
The bonny burning question, What has swept this continent?
(Lonnie speaks: If tin whistles are made of tin, what do they make fog horns out of?
Another man shouts: Boom boom!)

(chorus)

On the bedpost overnight
(Man: Hello there, I love you & the one who holds you tight!
Lonnie: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Sat'day night!)
On the bedpost overnight
(Man: A dollar is a dollar & a dime is a dime!
Lonnie: He'd sing another chorus but he hasn't got the time!)
On the bedpost overnight, yeah!
Words and music by Lonnie Donnegan

Allison	Annette	Boop

Cait	Cait	Candace

Cathy	Cher	Dot

Gary	John	Mary Lou

Mary Lou	Mary Lou	Patty

Ruth	Sandy	Shirley

Tom	Barlekis the Wizard