Popping em into me

AKAShovin’ em into me
First Published1901

Writer/composerTW ConnorRoudRN23636

Music Hall PerformersAlf Gibson
Folk performancesCollected from the singing of:
Knights, Jimmy; England : Suffolk : 1960s
Saunders, Joe; England : Kent : 1966
Brien, Jack; Ireland : Co. Wicklow : 1968
Cooper, John; Ireland : Co. Wexford : 1971
Hoare, Edmund; Ireland : Co. Wexford : 1975
From scan of songsheet supplied by Bodlleian Library

I like	to have	my share of all	the good things here below;
But lots of things I don't want I've been having, you must know.
I've got a lodger in my house who goes with  with fighting men,
He's learnt some scientific hits, and ev'ry now	and then,

He's a-popping 'em in to me, 
Popping 'em in to me!
He's shifted my jaw and broke my snout, 
He's dotted my eyes and knocked me out.	
Used to practise on his wife, 
Until recently;	
Now she's popped away, and so ev'ry day 
He's a-popping 'em into me!

My wife's a reg'lar doctor in her own partikler way,
She got some soap and glue and made some pills the other day; 
She says there's nothing like 'em at the chemists' round about, 
And every time I go to sleep she gets her pill-box out, and starts...

A-popping 'em into me!
Popping 'em into me!
S'help my Jimmy, I'm stuffed with pills;
She's always a-shoving 'em down my gills. 
Never chews one up herself,
Frightened, I can see!
Ain't it prime? Yet ten at a time
She's a-popping 'em into me !
	
To get up in the morning is an awful job for me;
If my wife didn't wake me, I don't know where I should be. 
Each night she takes to bed with her two lovely long hat-pins; 
And if I don't get up when called, she playfully begins ...

A-popping 'em into me!
Popping 'em into me!
As soon as she hears it striking six,
She starts a-playing her saucy tricks;
Makes a reg'lar pin-cushion 
Of my anatomee.
I get no sleep, for she will keep 
A-popping 'em into me!

A song from the early 1900s written by the prolific TW Connor and featuring in the repertoire of British comedian Alf Gibson.

Popping em into me has been collected from the singing of five different traditional singers based in England and Ireland. It also pops up in the evidence given to the Cumbria Speaks Oral History Project by Frederick Haney, who recalled his father singing it.

At the moment I am unable to access any publicly available recordings.

Sources:

  • VWML entry
  • Kilgarrif Sing Us
  • Lyrics and Sheet Music: Connor, T. W., and Alf Gibson. “Popping ’em into Me.” 1901: OLO Scan
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