http://www.firstworldwar.com/audio/howyagonna.htm

An uptempo novelty tune w/o much staying power beyond the great lyric in the refrain (”How you gonna keep em down on the farm after they’ve seen Paris?”). Bird’s version slows it down, completely retools both melody and rhythm, and transforms the country bumpkins Ma & Pa Reuben (Reuben is where we get the word “rube”) into real people. Without changing a word of the lyric, Bird rescues the song from its Tin Pan Alley writers, his delivery transforming their jokes and winks into wistful sadness.

Good thing too, since the farms are all empty now, and not (just) because the boys got too sophisticated for them.