Our little garden sub-bub
AKA | In our little garden Subbub Rubbub |
First Published | 1922 |
Lyrics | Bob Weston | Music | Bert Lee | Roud | RN5394 |
Music Hall Performers | Ernie Mayne |
Folk performances | Source Singers Ling, Ruby 1975-80 England, Suffolk Fradley, George 1984, England, Derbyshire [Swift, Tufty 1981 England, Suffolk]* *not referred to in VWML at time of writing |
I feel like a fighting man, I'm fit and fat and fine Since I've lived in a little garden sub-bub up the line Though to call it a suburb is the fashionable way But I call it a sub-bub 'cos it's easier to say If town life's too fast for you and country life too slow Don't make a bungle of your life but build a bungalow In our little garden sub-bub Far away from the noise and the hub-bub When you've tired of the pub-bub Tired of the club-bub Take a little house in the garden sub-bub There you can grow stewed rub-bub And you can bath in an old rain tub-bub So leave all the hub-bub, and the pub-bub and the club-bub And grow your own grub-bub in the sub-bub. Our hens lay our eggs and they're eggs-traordinary eggs Oh they're egg-squisite eggs oh they're egg-sceptional eggs As examples of eggs that are eggs, our eggs will eggs-cel The eggs-cellent eggs that all the best egg sellers sell. Well, I'll lay a bob that Tommy Lipton couldn't lay The sort of eggs our cocks and hens are laying every day.... We draw all our water from a well. Well, I say well Well, we call it a well, though it doesn't work so well And to judge by the smell our tabby cat that wasn't well Said all's well that ends well and got drowned down in the well But who wants a well, ay? Who the dickens wants a well? While I've a barrel full of bass the well can go to... [Final chorus] Well in our little garden sub-bub-bub-bub-bub Far away from the noise and the hub-bub-bub-bub-bub When you've tired of the pub-bub And you're tired of the club-bub-bub-bub Take a little house in the garden sub-bub-bub-bub-bub There you can grow stewed rub-bub-bub-bub-bub And you can bath in an old rain tub-bub-bub-bub So leave all the hub-bub, and the pub-bub and the club-bub And grow your own grub-bub in the sub-bub.
Ernie Mayne made this Weston and Lee song famous, and it was remembered by English source singers later in the 20th century.
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%3A5394
- Kilgarrif Sing Us
- Lyrics: monologues.co.uk (and sheet music)
- Australian sheet music: Trove
As recorded by Fred Douglas: