I mean to get Jolly Well Drunk

Undated Broadside from Kidson collection

I MEAN TO GET JOLLY WELL DRUNK
Written and composed by Mr H Dale, also by George Lingforth

Some people will tell you that drinking's a curse, 
And others will say that its quite the reverse, 
Some drink when in trouble and some drink for joy,
Some drink when in haste, some their time to employ.
Some drink when your christened and some when you're wed 
And some drink you jolly good health when you're dead; 
And some drink on these occasions like I.
For I drunk at my birth and I'll drink till I die.

I mean to get jolly well drunk, "ah hoo," 
I mean to get jolly well drunk,
As long as I'm here, I'll stick to my beer,
For I mean to get jolly well drunk. 

I'll drink till its safe on our railways to ride,
And 'till third class arrangements have comfort inside, 
And till masters and men on an equal are placed,
For this law of conspiracy our law has disgraced. 
I'll drink till our soldiers receive better pay,
And a pension at last when they've seen their best day; 
I'll drink till I hear stinking fish being cried,
And I'll drink till the colliers are all satisfied.

I'll drink till the magistrates who keep us in awe,
Are men of sound sense and can understand law; 
I'll drink till our badly used paupers so pale,
Are treated as kindly as prisoners in jail;
I'll drink till Disraeli. in fact, till the whole
Of the members of parliament have to dig coal,
And till lords and dukes have to sweep streets clean from dirt,
And the great Prince of Wales has to wash his own shirt.

I'll drink till the high price of coal becomes small,
And till roast beef and ale costs nothing at all; 
I'll drink till we never have reasons for strikes 
Till a man for his work has as much as he likes. 
I'll drink till the law gives a man no denial
To having his wife for a month upon trial;
I'll drink till those men are forgiven their sins; 
Who are unlikely enough to he father of twins.

I'll drink till our servants and cooks are not puzzled, 
So I'll have to keep drinking till bobbies are muzzled, 
And till sovereigns are well worth the crown they put on 
And till we find out where Peabody's money has gone; 
I'll drink till the game laws are made just and fair, 
Which imprison. a poor man for killing a hare,
I'll drink till all wealth is shared fair amongst men,
Then I'll drink mine, then drink till its shared out again

A song collected by Ewan MacColl from Delph resident Beckett Whitehead in 1947 – it was an extremely popular song in the folk revival, with versions by Harry Boardman, Cyril Tawney and many others.

The song has been found just once in print, on an undated broadside in the Kidson Collection. The broadside credits it as “Written and composed by Mr H Dale, also by George Lingford.” Mr H Dale almost certainly refers to Harry Dale, a successful songwriter and performer whose brief biography appears below. I have not been successful at finding George Lingford either as another performer or writer, though there is a fictional character called George Lingford in the late 19th century play For life and liberty

Both Harry Dale and George Lingford are credited on another, similarly styled, undated broadside which appears in the Kidson collection – for the song Bendigo a song which can be more confidently credited to Dale.

The radical tinge shown in the lyrics of the song, including criticism of the Royal Family,is also reflected in some other songs credited to Dale, for example The Echo I Heard on the Hills (RNV16194) which has a similar structure in that it has a series of stanzas linked together by a common refrain, where each verse makes comment on events of the day. This style of song was common in the Music Hall of the 1870s and its likely that these songs were designed to be modified to reflect changing events and concerns of the audience. Here’s a stanza from The Echo I heard…

The great Prince of Wales is now on a grand tour
Through India where much wealth abounds
You cannot help hearing comments from the poor,
On it’s cost, which is thousands of pounds.
I am not disloyal – still I think he ought,
Like other men, pay his own bills:
It’s a shame that the country should pay for his support
Said the Echo I heard on the hills

The Echo I heard on the Hills, words and music by Mr Harry Dale, from the Kidson Broadside Collection at the VWML

[The Prince of Wales visited India in late 1875, so it’s likely that The Echo I Heard on the Hills was written around that time]

Even though the only direct evidence we have that Harry Dale wrote Jolly Well Drunk is a single attribution on an anonymous broadside- the fact that a number of his other songs were printed in this way, and were written with a similar style themes does strengthen the case .

Whilst we can be reasonably confident that Harry Dale wrote the song , we unfortunately have no direct evidence that he actually sang it. It seems that he may well have sold it to Arthur Clifton, a rising star in the Provinces, who advertised it as part of his repertoire in a series of notices posted in the northern Music Hall newspaper The Magnet in August and September 1875:

Despite extensive searches I have found no descriptions of Clifton singing the song – the many contemporary reviews of his act published don’t go much further than “Arthur Clifton is a fine comic singer”

A year later the song was being performed at the Royal Music Hall in London by the veteran comic  JH Stead:

Here’s a short biography of Harry Dale:

Harry Dale (1844-1914) was a successful Music Hall comedian, songwriter and circus performer. The information provided in this short biography comes in part from the book The Last Edwardian Jester by a descendant of Harry, Colin Dale. Harry Dale was born and raised in the West Midlands and in his early life was apprenticed as a “file-cutter”. It seems almost certain that like many performers he started as an amateur or semi-amateur part-time performer. By 1869 he appears to have been working full-time as a baritone singer and comic. 

Dale toured the Halls extensively between 1869 and 1880, appearing occasionally in London but more often in provincial music halls (which means everywhere else including Ireland and Scotland!). In his early years he occasionally performed in blackface. In this period he seems to have maintained two wives and families, something which occurred more often than might be expected amongst itinerant music Hall performers. At various times he lived in Glasgow, Oldham and Sunderland.

From 1880 Dale was more often billed as a musical jester and increasingly appeared in circuses rather than the Halls – for the rest of his career he would be best known as a circus performer. During the 1880s he appeared to have lived mainly in Manchester, but his circus appearances occurred all over the “provinces” mainly in Scotland and the North of England. In 1893 and again in 1899 he undertook major circus tours of the Far East, South Africa and Australia, often acting as a manager and ringmaster. He continued to appear in circuses until his death in 1914, dying of “pneumonia and pleurisy”.

From 1869 until his death in 1914, Dale placed regular adverts in The Era promoting himself as a performer and songwriter, this was the first of many:

These notices give the titles of over a hundred songs that Dale wrote, many of which were performed by other artistes. Unfortunately, these adverts do not include reference to I mean to get jolly well drunk, though it is possible that he referred to it under a different title.

Two other songs of Dale’s have currently been identified in the Roud Folk Song Index: Does thy heart beat true to me (RN12961) and Silver Bells of Memory (RN15367).

Harry Boardman sings Jolly Well Drunk:

John Knight sings it:

Sources:

• VWML entry
• Ballad Index
• Mudcat Thread https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=65936
• Kilgarrif Sing Us
• Lyrics:
• Sheet Music:
• https://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/folk-song-lyrics/Jolly_Well_Drunk.htm

Last Updated on April 22, 2024 by John Baxter | Published: April 5, 2024