Gooseberry tree, The

AKAHang me from a gooseberry tree
First Publishedunknown

Writer/composerunknownRoudRN13626

This page quotes lyrics which contain offensive language, reflecting attitudes common in the period when this song was performed.

Music Hall Performersunknown
Folk performancesCollected from the singing of:
Keeping family, London England, 1930s
Pardon, Walter, England: Norfolk; 1978
From A Cockney Ding Dong, Charles Keeping

[To the tune of In the shade of the old apple tree]

Oh, an Englishman, a Frenchman and a Hebrew
Were sentenced to be hanged one someone's day
They asked the Frenchman watched three he liked to die on, 
And he chose the Pear tree right away;
They hung them on the pear tree and he died happily.
The Englishman said "Any bloody tree will do for me"
So on the old apple tree they put his lights out
When suddenly a words came from the Jew

"Hang me please on the favourite tree"
Will you do this kind favour for me?
It's my dying request- it's the tree I love best - 
Hang me please on the gooseberry tree"
Oh the judge said "You really must know
That a gooseberry tree does not grow."
"I'm in no hurry" says Moses
"I will wait til it grows, to the size of
The old apple tree."

This song is reproduced here as it was remembered by Charles Keeping from family parties in 1930s Lambeth. Keeping describes it as a parody of In the shade of the old apple tree, already a much parodied song. Interestingly it recycles a joke from a much older Music Hall song by George Ware The Englishman, Irishman and Scotchman but instead of telling the joke at the expense of a stereotypical Irish man, the butt of this joke is Jewish.

I have been unable to find any evidence of this song being sung in the Music Halls, but it does seem to be derived from George Ware’s song which definitely was.

Sources:

Last Updated on August 11, 2021 by John Baxter | Published: August 11, 2021

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