Help me ID this song emulated in other songs

[Subway_Prophet]

The Dead Milkmen song “Life is Shit”, and the Butthole Surfers song “Jingle of a Dog’s Collar”, both begin with a similar lyrical structure, which I’m sure imitates an older song. It’s almost conversational in style, and harkens back to when the narrarator was telling some other person something.

By way of example, the first stanza of “Life is Shit”:

@Dead Milkmen

I ran into a friend of mine
Said he was gonna take some words and make them rhyme;
I said “You can fool some of them some of the time,
But you can only fool half them all of the time”

And the first stanza of “Jingle of a Dog’s Collar”:

@Butthole Surfers

I was lookin’ for the main line when I was
Workin’ through a friend of mine but I
Couldn’t seem to find the time -
What do they know about love?

Ya see, the “friend of mine” bit is in both songs, and they share a common (and simple) rhyming structure. This has to reference another song, I’m sure of it.

[ZipperJJ]

I’m no Milkmen historian but this appears in the lyrics of one of their songs (The Fez):

There’s a time for taking
And a time for giving
But ripping off the Butthole Surfers
Is how we make our living

So perhaps the Milkmen just ripped off that part of that song and were accused of doing so. Or it inadvertently happened.

They have played with the Surfers, though, and Gibby did make an appearance on one of their albums.

[Subway_Prophet]

That wouldn’t surprise me. The DM steal an opening sequence from “Ballroom Blitz” by the Sweet, for use in their song “The Pit.” The very same sequence I plan to rip off once my garage band goes platinum.