{"id":3837,"date":"2020-06-21T16:35:02","date_gmt":"2020-06-21T16:35:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/?page_id=3837"},"modified":"2023-08-27T09:54:53","modified_gmt":"2023-08-27T09:54:53","slug":"ten-minutes-too-late","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/ten-minutes-too-late\/","title":{"rendered":"Ten minutes too late"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
AKA<\/strong><\/td>Punctuality<\/td><\/tr>
First Published<\/td> 1869<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Lyrics<\/strong><\/td>Harry Clifton<\/td>Music<\/strong><\/td>Harry Clifton<\/td>Roud<\/strong><\/td>RN6083<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Music Hall Performers<\/strong><\/td>Harry Clifton<\/td><\/tr>
Folk performances<\/strong><\/td>Source Singers<\/strong>
Miss Lizzie Crichton, no date, Scotland
Modern performances<\/strong>
Jimmy Gregory (Australia)<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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From Hopwood and Crew Sheet Music<\/strong> \nComposed and sung with great success by Harry Clifton.\n\n\nCertain fidgety folks we have, all of us met\nWho are famous for being \"too soon\"\nFor a two o'clock DEJEUNER A LA FOURCHETTE \nThey are safe to turn up about noon.\nPunctuality is all very proper, I know\nBut all hurry and worry I hate,\nFor it always occurs that wherever I go\nI'm exactly ten minutes too late\n\nPunctuality is all very proper, I know\nBut all hurry and worry I hate,\nFor it always occurs that wherever I go\nI'm exactly ten minutes too late<\/em>\n\nWhen I jump in a Hansom or climb on a Bus\nTo be nicely in time for a train\nWell I'm half in a fever and quite in a fuss\nTho' I feel that my efforts are vain.\nFor when I find myself safe at the station at last\nAnd believe it five minutes to eight\nI observe with a sigh that it's five minutes PAST\nSo I'm only<\/em> ten minutes too late.\n\nI was once on a time very deeply in love\nAnd I courted in verse and in prose.\nI obtained a big lock of her hair- and a glove;\nSo I made up my mind to propose.\nBut a cab drove away as I knocked on her door\nAnd her answer decided my fate,\nFor my rival had called their a little before,\nSo that I was ten minutes too late.\n\nI should sing for a month if I told in a song\nThe misfortunes I have to endure,\nFor this habit that's haunted me all my life long\nAnd will haunt me till death, I am sure.\nWhen this fitful career is approaching its end\nAnd I lie in a critical state,\nIts no matter what physics my doctor may send\nI shall take them them TEN MINUTES TOO LATE!\n\nDEJUNER A LA FOURCHETTE = a light lunch (literally: lunch with a fork)<\/pre>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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A song written , composed and performed by Harry Clifton<\/a>. It was collected from the singing of Miss Lizzie Crichton, by Gavin Greg in the early 2oth century. It  features in the repertoire of several revival folksingers in Ireland and Australia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The sheet music cover has a series of images surrounding a sketch of Clifton. Some of the images are related to the stories in the stanzas published – eg being late for the train<\/em>, for his own Sarah Ann<\/em>. Other images: to save his clothes; for the Slocumbury Cup<\/em> hint that Clifton may have performed other stanzas not included in the sheet music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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The earliest reference I can find suggests the song entered Clifton’s repertoire in mid 1869 and Hopwood and Crew started advertising the sheet music in November that year::<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Aug. 21, 1869; Hampshire\/Portsmouth Telegraph<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
The song featured in the repertoire of Jimmy Gregory, a fondly-remembered traditional singer active in Australia in the 1980s and 90s, originally from Scotland. Not sure where he got it from\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The song was printed in several cheap songbooks. Its regularly found in the Irish traditional repertoire and turns up on Graham Wells CD Traditional music of Newfoundland<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sources:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n