WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.610 align:middle line:84% Frost said once, "If you don't know 00:00:02.610 --> 00:00:08.760 align:middle line:84% how a statement to end the poem on, end it with a question." 00:00:08.760 --> 00:00:10.890 align:middle line:84% That sometimes gets you off the hook. 00:00:10.890 --> 00:00:14.160 align:middle line:90% 00:00:14.160 --> 00:00:20.520 align:middle line:84% Oh, I don't pretend to be a trained singer like Lois. 00:00:20.520 --> 00:00:22.500 align:middle line:84% The only reason I sing my own songs 00:00:22.500 --> 00:00:24.540 align:middle line:90% is, if I didn't, who would? 00:00:24.540 --> 00:00:28.200 align:middle line:90% 00:00:28.200 --> 00:00:37.620 align:middle line:84% Oh, I had a request to sing a ballad called "In a Prominent 00:00:37.620 --> 00:00:45.630 align:middle line:84% Bar in Secaucus One Day," which you can sing either 00:00:45.630 --> 00:00:49.260 align:middle line:84% to the tune of "Sweet Betsy from Pike" 00:00:49.260 --> 00:00:54.720 align:middle line:84% or the tune of the North of Ireland Protestant comic song, 00:00:54.720 --> 00:00:56.220 align:middle line:90% "The Old Orange Flute." 00:00:56.220 --> 00:00:58.500 align:middle line:90% It's about the same tune. 00:00:58.500 --> 00:01:03.870 align:middle line:84% And Secaucus, New Jersey is a place 00:01:03.870 --> 00:01:06.810 align:middle line:84% where I guess they had air pollution before anybody 00:01:06.810 --> 00:01:10.120 align:middle line:90% else heard of it. 00:01:10.120 --> 00:01:13.140 align:middle line:84% I just picked it as a likely setting 00:01:13.140 --> 00:01:17.430 align:middle line:84% for this poem, which takes place in a bar 00:01:17.430 --> 00:01:22.260 align:middle line:84% and revolves around the character of an aging woman, 00:01:22.260 --> 00:01:29.540 align:middle line:90% who has a number of bad habits. 00:01:29.540 --> 00:01:33.110 align:middle line:84% She's an alcoholic and a junkie too. 00:01:33.110 --> 00:01:36.920 align:middle line:84% And she's taken to street walking 00:01:36.920 --> 00:01:39.140 align:middle line:90% to sustain these habits. 00:01:39.140 --> 00:01:42.440 align:middle line:90% And her mind has begun to go. 00:01:42.440 --> 00:01:43.580 align:middle line:90% Poor thing. 00:01:43.580 --> 00:01:48.080 align:middle line:84% So she imagines a past more glorious 00:01:48.080 --> 00:01:51.610 align:middle line:84% than any that really could have been. 00:01:51.610 --> 00:01:57.010 align:middle line:84% And in most of this poem, she sings 00:01:57.010 --> 00:02:02.530 align:middle line:84% her memories of this glorious past she never really had. 00:02:02.530 --> 00:02:07.000 align:middle line:84% And she turns to the young women present in the bar. 00:02:07.000 --> 00:02:09.910 align:middle line:84% And in the only crude language she's got, 00:02:09.910 --> 00:02:12.970 align:middle line:84% she gives them some hard earned advice, 00:02:12.970 --> 00:02:14.810 align:middle line:90% maybe not very good advice. 00:02:14.810 --> 00:02:17.680 align:middle line:90% But anyway, she gives them that. 00:02:17.680 --> 00:02:21.430 align:middle line:84% And the first stanza and the last stanza 00:02:21.430 --> 00:02:23.560 align:middle line:90% are some other voice. 00:02:23.560 --> 00:02:28.270 align:middle line:84% And everything in between is this woman's song. 00:02:28.270 --> 00:02:32.290 align:middle line:84% "In a Prominent Bar in Secaucus One Day." 00:02:32.290 --> 00:02:39.460 align:middle line:90% 00:02:39.460 --> 00:02:45.700 align:middle line:84% (SINGING) In a prominent bar in Secaucus one day 00:02:45.700 --> 00:02:51.280 align:middle line:84% rose a lady in skunk with a top heavy sway. 00:02:51.280 --> 00:02:54.400 align:middle line:90% Raised a knobby red finger-- 00:02:54.400 --> 00:02:57.370 align:middle line:90% all turned from their beer-- 00:02:57.370 --> 00:03:05.590 align:middle line:84% while with eyes bright as snow crust, she sang high and clear. 00:03:05.590 --> 00:03:11.050 align:middle line:84% Now who of you'd think from an eye load of me, 00:03:11.050 --> 00:03:16.540 align:middle line:84% that I once was a lady as proud as could be. 00:03:16.540 --> 00:03:22.180 align:middle line:84% Oh, I'd never sit down by a tumbled down drunk if it 00:03:22.180 --> 00:03:27.790 align:middle line:84% wasn't, m'dears, for the high cost of junk. 00:03:27.790 --> 00:03:31.930 align:middle line:84% All the gents used to swear that the white of me 00:03:31.930 --> 00:03:38.380 align:middle line:84% calf beat the down of the swan by a length and a half. 00:03:38.380 --> 00:03:44.195 align:middle line:84% In the kerchief of linen I caught to me nose, ah, 00:03:44.195 --> 00:03:50.740 align:middle line:84% there never fell snot, just a little gold rose. 00:03:50.740 --> 00:03:55.930 align:middle line:84% I had seven gold teeth and a toothpick of gold. 00:03:55.930 --> 00:04:00.730 align:middle line:84% Me Virginia cheroot was a leaf of it rolled. 00:04:00.730 --> 00:04:06.250 align:middle line:84% And I'd light it each time with a thousand in cash. 00:04:06.250 --> 00:04:12.760 align:middle line:84% Ah, the bums used to fight if I flicked them one ash. 00:04:12.760 --> 00:04:18.430 align:middle line:84% Once the toast of the Biltmore, the Belle of the Taft, 00:04:18.430 --> 00:04:21.940 align:middle line:84% I would drink bottled beer at the Drake, 00:04:21.940 --> 00:04:28.240 align:middle line:84% never draught, and dine at the Astor on Salisbury steak 00:04:28.240 --> 00:04:34.180 align:middle line:84% with the clean tablecloth for each bite I did take. 00:04:34.180 --> 00:04:39.220 align:middle line:84% In a car like the Roxy, I'd roll to the track. 00:04:39.220 --> 00:04:44.020 align:middle line:84% A steel guitar trio and a bar in the back. 00:04:44.020 --> 00:04:48.790 align:middle line:84% And the wheels made no noise, they'd turn over so fast. 00:04:48.790 --> 00:04:53.530 align:middle line:84% Still it took you 10 minutes to see me go past. 00:04:53.530 --> 00:04:59.080 align:middle line:84% And when the horses bowed down to me that I might choose, 00:04:59.080 --> 00:05:04.720 align:middle line:84% I bet on them all for I hated to lose. 00:05:04.720 --> 00:05:10.930 align:middle line:84% Now I'm saddled each night for me butter and eggs. 00:05:10.930 --> 00:05:17.200 align:middle line:84% And the broken threads race down the backs of me legs. 00:05:17.200 --> 00:05:25.570 align:middle line:84% So let you hold in mind, girls, that your beauty must pass. 00:05:25.570 --> 00:05:32.170 align:middle line:84% Like a lovely white clover that rusts with its grass. 00:05:32.170 --> 00:05:39.760 align:middle line:84% Keep your bottoms off barstools and marry you young. 00:05:39.760 --> 00:05:46.450 align:middle line:84% Or be left an old barrel with many a bun. 00:05:46.450 --> 00:05:53.350 align:middle line:84% For when time takes you out for a spin in his car, 00:05:53.350 --> 00:05:59.590 align:middle line:84% you'll be hard pressed to stop him from going too far. 00:05:59.590 --> 00:06:06.580 align:middle line:84% And be left by the roadside, for all your good deeds, 00:06:06.580 --> 00:06:14.020 align:middle line:84% to toadstools for tits and a face full of weeds. 00:06:14.020 --> 00:06:18.940 align:middle line:84% All the house raised a cheer, but the man at the bar. 00:06:18.940 --> 00:06:24.370 align:middle line:84% Made a phone call and up pulled a red patrol car. 00:06:24.370 --> 00:06:29.830 align:middle line:84% And she blew us a kiss as they copped her away 00:06:29.830 --> 00:06:36.955 align:middle line:84% from that prominent bar in Secaucus, NJ. 00:06:36.955 --> 00:06:51.000 align:middle line:90%