{"id":2302,"date":"2020-04-20T14:23:34","date_gmt":"2020-04-20T14:23:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/?page_id=2302"},"modified":"2024-01-15T16:18:05","modified_gmt":"2024-01-15T16:18:05","slug":"tommy-make-room-for-your-uncle","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/tommy-make-room-for-your-uncle\/","title":{"rendered":"Tommy make room for your uncle"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
First published<\/td>1876<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Lyrics<\/strong><\/td>TS Lonsdale<\/td>Music<\/strong><\/td>TS Lonsdale <\/td>Roud<\/strong><\/td>23764<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Music Hall performers<\/strong><\/td>Marie Lloyd 1880s on
WB Fair 1870s
Tony Pastor 1870s<\/td><\/tr>
Folk performances<\/strong><\/td>“Source” singers: <\/strong>
Leonard Jackson, 1890, Staffs, England
Agnes Nicol c1900, Montrose, Scotland
Miss K Diegen, c1900 Berks, England
Walter Pardon, 1979, Norfolk, England<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Fred Jones, hatter of Leicester Square\nPresents himself to you\nAnd you may guess, when he is dressed\nOf girls he knows a few\nA Widow fell in love with him\nWhile riding in a train\nShe had a blessed boy with her\nWho caused us both much pain\n\nTommy, make room for your Uncle\nThere's a little dear\nTommy, make room for your Uncle\nI want him to sit here\nYou know Mamma has got a bun\nAnd that she'll give to you\nSo don't annoy, there's a good boy\nMake room for your Uncle do<\/em>\n\nWhen first I met the firm of Green\n\u2018Twas on my journey down\nTo spend a day at Rosherville\n\u2018Just like a swell from town.'\nThe Widow loved romantic scenes\nAnd a squeeze on the sly\nBut when my arm went round her waist\nThe boy began to cry.\n\nThe mother told her loving son\nTo watch the passing train\nBut \u201cNo\u201d he said \u201cMy Uncle Fred\nWill kiss your hand again\nThe Widow blushed, a maiden blush\nAnd I was not myself\nFor who could make love on a seat\nIn front of that young elf.\n\nIn a snug retreat in Rosherville\nI went down on my knees\nAnd asked if she would fly with me\nAcross the bright blue seas\nShe sighed and said, \u201cYou wicked man\nBut how about the child?\u201d\nAnd clasped him firmly to her breast\nWhile I the agony piled.<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Found in broadsides and song books on both sides of the Atlantic,  and popular with traditional singers, going right back to the years when it was sung in the Halls. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Steve Roud in his book on English folksong, gives Flora Thompson’s description of entertainment in a Northamptonshire country pub of the 1880s, which included singing traditional ballads and “the latest music Hall successes” including Two Lovely Black Eyes<\/em>, Over the Garden Wall<\/em> and Tommy Make Room for Your Uncle<\/em>. Indeed this is probably a very good example of exactly the sort of songs that the turn-of-the-century folksong collectors ignored when they scoured the countryside for songs. It’s unclear whether they would go as far as contemporary journalist Charles McKay who described this song as <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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hydraulic pumped-up fun which is not funny<\/em>, [ and one of the]  vulgarities that seem to fascinate the sons and daughters of the lower-middle-class<\/em><\/p>\nquoted in Roud Folksong<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
The song is most often remembered from the singing of Marie Lloyd. It was sung in America by Tony Pastor, and first popularised in England by WB Fair, described somewhat dismissively by Harold Scott, the historian of early Music Hall:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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[WB Fair] is to be remembered for his creation of Tommy Make Room for Your Uncle \u2026 His work is not otherwise significant. He was a vigorous and competent comic vocalist, popular as a chairman. His connection with the last years of the Winchester led to a financial collapse, and when he died he had been for some years the doorkeeper of the London Coliseum.<\/p>\nHarold Scott: Early Doors<\/em><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Sources:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n