Collected from the singing of: Marsden, Stanley; England: Yorkshire; 1971 Baron, Jim; England: Yorkshire; 1972
This song uses discriminatory language and draws on stereotypes in a way that was commonplace at the time but no longer acceptable today.
Once on a cannibal isle there dwelt a dark-eyed maid
Lived all alone in her little log hut in the palm tree's shade
And on the Island she reigned as queen
One day a stranger appeared on the scene
Said he, 'Don't waste your time
Out in this awful clime
But come with me, my pretty southern maid
To my home across the sea'
But he went very red, when she turned up her nose and said,
I wouldn't leave my little wooden hut for you
I've got one lover, and I don't want two
What might happen there is no knowing
If he comes round, so you'd better be going
'Cos I wouldn't leave my little wooden hut for you.
Just then some cannibals came in sight with swords and spears
Longing for something for supper that night making ugly leers
That queen said, 'You'd better go
That chief in war-paint, you see, is my beau'
'Oh, is that true?' he said
As towards the stream he fled
And jumped into a boat that was floating there
He was soon clean out of sight
He won't return again, just to hear that girl explain.
A song originally performed by Daisy Dormer in 1905 (her brief biography appears below). It was Dormer’s first big hit though she had already been performing professionally for 10 years. She and others sang it in the pantomimes of the 05/06 season.
The song has been collected twice from traditional singers in Yorkshire.
Daisy Dormer (1883-1947) started her performing career in the mid-1890s and continued to appear until the 1930s. In her early years her stage persona projected a childlike innocence and she performed under the name Dainty Daisy Dimple, changing her name to Daisy Dormer in 1901. Described as a clever comedian and talented dancer, her biggest hits included Dancing beneath the Irish moon and I wouldn’t leave my wooden hut for you. In the latter part of her career she sang many American numbers including Ragtime Cowboy Joe and Down Home in Tennessee.
Collected from the singing of: Dicks, Harry; Australia, New South Wales; 1984 Briggs, Sid; Australia, New South Wales; 1985
It was Christmas Eve in London
And the snow lay on the ground.
Thro' a window of a cottage
I was passing came a sound.
Someone played an old piano.
As the hands stole o'er the keys,
I was taken back in fancy
To my home across the seas,
For he sang a song that fill'd my heart
With boyhood memories.
The singer was Irish, the song was Irish
And each note seemed to come from the sky.
The dear old refrain I heard once again
And the words brought a tear to my eye:
"Come back to Erin, mavourneen, mavourneen."
Long I lingered at the door,
For the great old song made me long
To be safe in my home once more.
Evr'y word the singer uttered.
Struck a chord within my breast.
Seemed to bring a loving message.
From the place that I loved best.
Just as one who hears glad tidings.
I was filled with ecstasy,
For I knew it was the old land.
Softly calling unto me.
Through the medium of that angel voice
And the sweet melody.
As the melody ascended,
I could see so plain once more
The dear home that I was born in,
Nestling by the Shannon's shore,
And I saw a gray-haired woman
Take my hand in fond embrace.
As she falter'd out "Acushla,
When you leave the dear old place?
May the best of luck attend you
In the world you're going to face"
A hit in the Halls of the early 2oth century for Irish comedian Michael Nolan, written for him by CW Murphy and Harry Castling. It seems to have been particularly popular amongst traditional singers in Australia and New Zealand, possibly as a result of Nolan’s extensive tours there. The tune (played as an instrumental) features in the repertoire of The Brazil Family.
An early 20th century recording by Peter Dawson:
Sources:
Entries in the Roud Indexes at the Vaughn Williams Memorial Library: https://archives.vwml.org/search/all:single[folksong-broadside-books]/0_50/all/score_desc/extended-roudNo_tr%3A38688 (awaiting update)
Kilgarrif Sing Us
Lyrics and Sheet Music: Francis and Days Old Time Favourites No 2, p10
Collected from the singing of: Keeping Family; England : London 1930s – 1950s Walton, Grace; England : Yorkshire : 1970 Belton, George; England : Sussex : 1971 Hart, Bob England : Suffolk : 1975-78 Messenger, Alice; England : Suffolk : 1975-80 Hammond, Bessie; England : Suffolk : 1975-80 Webb, Percy; England : Suffolk : 1975-76 Goodchild, James; England : Hampshire : 1976 Lavallee, Joe; Canada : Quebec : 1978 Ryder, Mr. E.C. England : Hampshire : 1982 Syrett, Gordon; England : Suffolk : 1982 Ryder, E.C. (Charlie) & Mrs. England : Hampshire : 1983 Modern performances Foster and Allan, Hugo Duncan, Shawn Cuddy, Chas and Dave, John Forman, many others..
He stood in a beautiful Mansion
Surrounded by riches untold
He gazed at a beautiful picture
That hung in a frame of gold
‘Twas a picture of a lady
So beautiful young and fair
To the beautiful life-like features
He murmured in sad despair.
If those lips could only speak
If those eyes could only see
If those beautiful golden tresses
Were there in reality
Could I only take your hand
As I did when you took my name
But it’s only a beautiful picture
In a beautiful golden frame.
With all his great power and riches
He knows he can never replace
One thing in that mansion that’s absent
His Wife’s tender smiling face
And each time he sees her picture
These same words he’ll always say
"All my wealth I would freely forfeit
And toil for you night and day".
He sat there and gazed at the painting
Then slumbered forgetting all pain
And there, in that mansion in fancy
She stood by his side again
Then his lips they softly murmured
The name of his once sweet bride
With his eyes fixed upon the picture
He awoke from his dream and cried,
A popular sentimental ballad originally co-written and performed in the Halls by Will Godwin. It has remained popular for over 100 years, a standard song for certain type of sentimental crooner. It was played on the Titanic in the hours before the ship went down and has been recorded by jazz, country, blue grass and commercial Irish ballad singers.
One early 20th century form of marketing was the use of song postcards like the ones shown below. The artwork on the postcards was also used to produce magic lantern slides which could be hired or bought, presumably the slides were used at public singing events. This combination of song postcards and magic lantern slides seem to peak between 1910 and 1920.
As regards traditional singing, according to John Howson:
[the] song became popular with several Suffolk singers, particularly in the Blaxhall area where Ginette Dunn (in her book ‘A Fellowship of Song’) mentions Alice Messenger, Bessie Hammond, Percy Webb and Bob Hart as all singing it.
Its popularity was not limited to Suffolk and it has been found in the repertoire of traditional singers throughout the English speaking world, especially in England and Ireland.
The wonderful John Foreman sings it:
A commercial Irish Ballad singer sings it (there are loads of other versions!):
Collected from the singing of: Jones, Frank; England : West Midlands; 1984
The set of boys I chum with are the best-known set down town
And in that set a noted chap is young Algernon Brown
He's just come into heaps of coin, he doesn't know what he's worth
And all the ladies say that he is the nicest boy on earth.
He's very well known is Algy, to the ladies on the stage
Such a jolly good chap is Algy, just now he's all the rage
And a jolly good favourite Algy, with the barmaids at the 'Cri'
He's very well known is Algy,
As the Piccadilly Johnny with the little glass eye.
He'll drive a girl to Richmond as some other Johnnies do
He buys perhaps a diamond ring, a watch and bracelet too
Girls say they'll never leave him, and they keep their word and don't
And while his cash holds out, you bet your Sunday hat they won't.
He goes to all the Theatres, where he knows the Coryphées
He takes them out to supper, also buys them large bouquets
They call him “Algy Darling” to his face, the usual way
But when they chat behind the scenes poor Algy's called a 'Jay.'
A big hit for the great male impersonator Vesta Tilley in the 1890s – she sang it at the Royal Command Performance of 1912, where it is said she scandalised the Queen by wearing trousers … She purchased the song from Harry Norris for the paltry sum of one guinea (just over £1, allowing for inflation around £180 today). Norris later died in poverty after being committed to a lunatic asylum in Cheadle, Greater Manchester
In 1984 the song was collected by Roy Palmer from the singing of Frank Jones, under the title A well known chap is Algy to the Ladies of the stage. The recording is held at the British Library but is not available online at the time of writing.
Collected from the singing of: Keeping Family; England : London; 1930s-50s Modern performances Endless Music Hall Revival and pub sing along recordings..
Now I won't sing of sherbet and water
For sherbet and beer will not rhyme
The workingman can't afford champagne
It's a bit more than two D's a time
So I'll sing you a song of a gargle
A gargle that I love so dear
I allude to that grand institution
That beautiful tonic called beer, beer, beer.
Beer, Beer, glorious beer
Fill yourselves right up to here
Drink a good deal of it; make a good meal of it
Stick to your old fashioned beer
Don't be afraid of it, drink till you're made of it
Now all together, a cheer
Up with the sale of it, down with a pail of it
Glorious, glorious beer.
It's the daddy of all lubricators
The best thing there is for the neck
Can be used as a gargle or lotion
By persons of every sect
Now we know who the goddess of wine was
But was there a goddess of beer?
If so, let us drink to her health, boys
And wish that we'd just got her here, here, here.
So up, up with the brandies and sodas
But down, down and down with the beer
It's good for you when you are hungry
You can eat it without any fear
So mop up the beer while you're able
Of four-half lets all have our fill
And I know you'll all join me in wishing
Good luck to my dear Uncle Bill, Bill, Bill.
A hit song throughout the English-speaking world in the 1890s, remembered by Charles Keeping’s family in the mid 20th century, but otherwise not formally collected from traditional singers. The popularity of the song may explain why it was not collected – its just a song “everyone” knows. The chorus persisted as a popular drinking song throughout the 2oth century, sung by students and servicemen, in pubs and at sports fixtures.
It was originally performed by Harry Anderson (1857-1918) one of a number of comics popular in the 1890s who sang in praise of booze. Glorious beer was his most successful song, and its popularity was and is such that it has been described as an unofficial English national anthem… H Chance Newton described him as a favourite chirruper, rough but always rollicking, who carried the ballad called Beer Glorious Beer throughout the country like some conquering hero. His other hits included: Jolly Good Company, Drink Up Boys! and It’s nice to have a home of your own.
Collected from the singing of: Wheat, Maurice; England : Derbyshire; 1970
There are many kinds of love, as everybody knows,
Most men love to smoke and drink and girls love pretty clothes.
Misers love their money bags far better than their lives;
Some wives love their husbands and some husbands love their wives.
I love kids, I love kids, I love kids, I do!
Baby boys, baby girls,twins and triplets too.
I'd be glad if I had Just a million quid's;
I'd have scores and scores and scores and scores and scores of kids!
How I envy married folk with families of four
Those with eight or ten or twelve I envy even more.
They're married people who are leading happy lives
Hear them shout out "Welcome!" when another kid arrives.
A song written by the eccentric Bournemouth-based versifier Cumberland Clark, I love Kids was a big hit in the Halls and in various pantomimes in the 1924/25 season. It seems to have been widely sung around that time but was not particularly associated with one performer. It was recorded separately by Tom Barrasford, George Berry, and Arthur Leslie – though I have not yet found a freely available commercially recorded version to share.
The song was remembered in 1970 when Maurice Wheat sang it to collector Ruairidh Greig who has once again provided a rather wonderful recording:
Collected from the singing of: Smith, Elizabeth; England : Sussex; 1967
At our house not long ago a lodger came to stay
At first I felt as if I'd like to drive him right away
But soon he proved himself to be so good and kind
That, like my dear Mamma, I'd quite made up my little mind.
Our lodger's such a nice young man
Such a good young man is he
So good, so kind, to all the family
He's never going to leave us - oh dear no
He's such a good, goody, goody man, Mamma told me so.
He'd made himself at home before he'd been with us a day
He kissed Mamma and all of us, cos Papa was away
Before he goes to work he lights the fires and scrubs the floor
And puts a nice strong cup of tea outside Ma's bedroom door.
At night he makes the beds and does the other little jobs
And if the baby hurts itself he really cries and sobs
On Sunday when Ma's cooking and Papa is at the club
He takes the kids and baths us all inside the washing tub.
We usually go to Margate, in the sea to have a splash
This year Pa said “I'm busy” but I think he had no cash
The lodger took us down instead - Mamma and baby too
And never charged Pa anything - now there's a pal for you.
A hit for Vesta Victoria at the turn-of-the-century remembered by at least one traditional singer 70 years later. It was written for her by Fred Murray and Lawrence Barclay (Barclay was the performer’s uncle).
A recording collected by Ken Stubbs from the singing of Mrs Elizabeth Smith
Collected from the singing of: Copper, Jim; England : Sussex; 1936 Keeping Family; England : London; 1930s-50s Modern performances Cosmotheka
Me and old Bill Smiff's bin dust-'oys
Allus worked the same old rahnd
Strange to say we've struck a Klondyke
And we've shared the welf we fahnd
'Ow it 'appened, there's a miser
'Ud never let us shift 'is dust
A Toosday night 'e died, and Wensday
Like two burglars in we bust
Gets to work and blest yer eye-sight
Oh, such a welf yer never saw
'Apeneys, fardens, lor, in fousands
And to fink that last week I was poor.
But nah I'm goin' to be a regular toff
A ridin' in a carriage and a pair
A top 'at on my 'ead, and fevvers in my bed
And call meself a dook o' Barnet Fair
As-terry-my-can rahnd the bottom o' my coat
A Piccadilly winder in my eye
Ah, fancy all the dustmen a-shoutin' in my yer
'Leave us in yer will before yer die'.
Stuck inside a rusty saucepan
Wot looked a worn out mat
Close in-spec-shun, 'twas a stocking
Full o' nuggets - big as that
Down we flops upon our kneeses
See my scoopin' up the welf
When up I jumps, oh! oh! so happy
'Ardly could believe meself
The Guvnor just nah sez 'Come, 'Iggins,
'Ere get to work, yer looks 'arf tight'
'Get to work, 'ere who yer kiddin'?
Yer can dine wiv me next Sunday night.'
In the Summer I'll go yachting
With the dooks and the Em-per-ors
In the autumn spot yer 'umble
Shooting grouses on the moors
What price me drivin' tandem
Wiv a cahntess at me side?
If she likes to pop the question
Well, I'll consent to be 'er bride
As for low in-sin-u-a-tions
As regards my style and sich
Well, I'll soon teach 'em ettiketty
If I slaps this 'cross their snitch.
A hit song from the late 1890s sung by cockney comedian Gus Ellen. It has been collected from the singing of Jim Copper and recalled from a Cockney family’s singing habits, both in the 1930s.
“The Golden Dustman” had previously been used as a nickname for two Victorian characters who rose from rags to riches, one real and one fictional. The real character was William Henry Dodd (d1881), a wealthy ship owner who rose from being a ploughboy in Hackney, making his fortune by removing London’s waste via barges on the River Thames. The fictional one was Nicodemus Boffin, a nouveaux riche character in the Dickens novel Our Mutual Friend (1865).
Other songs of Elen sung by traditional singers have included:
Oh ye'll never, never, never thrive lying in yer bed.
Early rising makes us wise I've often heard it said
I believe in that myself but as far as I can see
If early rising makes us wise, ye'll say the same as me.
Oh it's nice to get up in the morning
When the sun begins to shine
Or four or five or six o clock
In the good old summer time.
When the snow is snowin'
And it's murky overhead
Oh it's nice to get up in the morning
But it's nicer to lie in bed.
Oh there's lots of folks that never work they hate the very name
And others would be idle if it wasn't just for shame
They say we should rise with the lark, well I believe that when
The lark that we should rise wi' doesn't get up till ten.
Oh my brither Jock's a baker and he sleeps a long wi' me
In the winter morn Jock has to rise and start his work at three
Before he gets his troosers on his legs are nearly numb
So while he's standing shiverin' I lie in bed and hum.
A song written, performed and recorded by Harry Lauder in 1913/14. It was enthusiastically adopted and widely sung by soldiers of the English speaking countries during World War 1- perhaps reflecting the feelings of young conscripts forced to rise at dawn every day!
Its popularity and probably it sentiments led to it being adopted by a number of traditional singers in Ireland, Canada and England.
Collected from the singing of: Smith, Bill; England : Shropshire; 1980 Butcher, Grace; Ireland : Co. Derry; 1966
I've been married just a year, you see
And last night when I got home to tea
I heard news that made me jump for joy
I was the father of a bouncing boy.
There were visitors about a score
I looked round the room and then I saw.
Ten little fingers, ten little toes
Two little eyes and one little nose
The visitors said, 'Ain't he like his Dad'
But his mother said he'll soon grow out of that, poor lad.
One fine day I had a rare old spree
I went bathing in the deep blue sea
How it happened only goodness knows
Some rude person came and pinched my clothes
I had nothing on to cover me
And everybody on the beach could see.
Ten little fingers, ten little toes
Two little eyes and one little nose
The cinematograph would have had some views
If I hadn't had a copy of the Evening News.
In the garden of Eden, so the wise folks tell
Eve met Adam in a flowery dell
Their existence must have been all gay
They had fruit for dinner every day
But with their clothes they were dissatisfied
For you can't expect a leaf to hide,
Ten little fingers, ten little toes
Two little eyes and one little nose
And they couldn't have had any clothes at all
In the Autumn winds the leaves began to fall.
Ten little fingers can earn a quid.
Do the washing and spank the kid
Ten little fingers can quickly trace
The ten commandments on father's face
Ten little fingers can help a pal, they can take him by the hand
And if he's down upon his luck, they can make him understand
But whether his luck is in or out, he's the same old pal to you
That's only a few of the wonderful things that ten little fingers can do
The Era, 22 February 1923
A comic song from the 1910s, made famous in the Halls by Ernie Mayne, who more often sang songs which drew comedy from his large size.
Snatches of the song have been collected from traditional singers in England and Ireland
