DESCRIPTION:
"Camptown Races" sometimes referred to as "Camptown Ladies" is a comic song written by Stephen Foster (!826-1864) and published in 1850 in Foster's Plantation Melodies. Stephen Foster is known as the father of American music and was the pre-eminent songwriter in the United States of the 19th century.
The Camptown of Foster's own experience was in Pennsylvania, but a "camptown," or tent city was a temporary workingmen's accomodation familiar in many parts of the United States, especially along the rapidly expanding railroad network. The rag-tag mix of horses that are racing, and the disorder of the racing conditions at the ramshackle camptown track provide fun, with the unspoken undercurrent of superiority among the entertained hearers.


(D) Camptown ladies sing a song
(A7) Doo dah, doo Dah
(D) Camptown racetrack five miles long
(A7) Oh the doo dah (D) day

Come here with my hat caved in
(A7) Doo dah, doo dah
(D) Come back home with a pocket full of tin
(A7) Oh the doo dah (D) day

Going to run all (G) night
Going to run all (D) day
Bet my money on the bob-tailed nag
(A7) Somebody bet on the (D) bay

The long tailed filly and the big black hoss
(A7) Doo dah, doo dah
(D) They fly the track, they both cut across
(A7) Oh the doo dah (D) day

The Black hoss stickin' in a big mud hole
(A7) Doo dah, doo dah
(D) Can't touch the bottom with a ten foot pole
(A7) Oh the doo dah (D) day

Going to run all (G) night
Going to run all (D) day
Bet my money on the bob-tailed nag
(A7) Somebody bet on the (D) bay

Old mulely cow come on to the track
(A7) Doo dah, doo dah
(D) The bob-tailed throwed her over his back
(A7) Oh the doo dah (D) day

They fly along like a railroad car
(A7) Doo dah, doo dah
(D) Running a race with a shooting star
(A7) Oh the doo dah (D) day

Going to run all (G) night
Going to run all (D) day
Bet my money on the bob-tailed nag
(A7) Somebody bet on the (D) bay

See them flying on a ten mile heat
(A7) Doo dah, doo dah
(D) Round the racetrack then repeat
(A7) Oh the doo dah (D) day

I win my money on the bob-tailed nag
(A7) Doo dah, doo dah
(D) I keep my money in an old tow bag
(A7) Oh the doo dah (D) day

Going to run all (G) night
Going to run all (D) day
Bet my money on the bob-tailed nag
(A7) Somebody bet on the (D) bay