It won’t last very very long
AKA | It won’t take very very long The Cinderella |
First Published | 1902 |
Lyrics | RP Weston | Music | Frank W Carter | Roud | RN10710 |
Music Hall Performers | Harry Champion |
Folk performances | Source Singers Clifford Arbon, no date, Suffolk England Fred Cottenham, no date, Kent England Jim Copper, 1936, Sussex England unidentified male, 1960 Sussex England George Cowle, 1964/65, Suffolk England Hubert Bradley, 1972, Worcestershire England Jimmy Knights, 1974 Suffolk England Bill Smith, 1981, Shropshire England Ray Driscoll, 1993, London England |
One fine night I toddled to a dance, what the people call a 'cinderella' I wore a button-hole, and the girls upon my soul Said I was a 'pretty little feller' Soon to me came Arabella Brown, pulling up her railway sock 'Oh Mr Winkle-pip, do have a waltz, it's just on twelve o' clock. So it won't last very, very long It won't last very, very long Round we went till I said, 'Whoa! They'll be trouble in a tick, I know There's buttons on my trousers, and the pin's not over strong Run away, Miss Brown, I must go and sit down And it won't last very, very long.' Late last night - oh talk about a fright, Taking off my clobber I had just been I was dying with the pip - went to go to 'kip' Soon I heard a struggle in the dust-bin Up I shoved my window in a jiff, saw a tabby cat outside Chasing another one around the yard, 'If that's your game,' I cried. It won't last very, very long It won't last very, very long Off I went and got my gun Shot one bullet in his hot-cross-bun Tom said, 'Now you've got a bull's eye My bell goes ding-ding-dong You've done quite enough to my little bit of fluff So it won't last very, very long.' Yesterday I went and sold my horse Really ought to took him to the knacker's For to make him go I always had to sew On his tail a blooming lot of crackers I white-washed him out in the yard Put sticks in his ears somehow They looked like horns, so I sold him for A good milking cow. But, It won't last very, very long It won't last very, very long The rain came down, the white-wash dripped The old milk man a big pail gripped His old gal said, 'What a funny cow. Something must be wrong.' Then cried, 'I suppose it's an overflow of milk And it won't last very, very long.' Last week, straight, I went and won a pig Got it in a raffle for a tanner I didn't want to roam, quickly took it home And gave it to the old woman, Hannah Friday we made jelly of its feet Saturday we fried its head I made a bacca-pouch of its ears Then my old woman said, It won't last very, very long It won't last very, very long All the kids they turn quite pale When we wallop them with that pig's tail Off its waistcoat of a night time When baby starts his song We cut him off a button for an indiarubber teat So it won't last very, very long.'
Another early 20th century Music Hall song remembered by traditional singers the second half of the 20th century. Written by RP Weston and sung by Harry Champion in the Halls.
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%3A10710
- Kilgarrif Sing Us
- Lyrics: monologues.co.uk
Simon Ritchie singing in a Suffolk pub ca. 1970: