{"id":6693,"date":"2020-11-10T19:39:17","date_gmt":"2020-11-10T19:39:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/?page_id=6693"},"modified":"2025-04-01T09:02:25","modified_gmt":"2025-04-01T09:02:25","slug":"theres-bound-to-be-a-row","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/theres-bound-to-be-a-row\/","title":{"rendered":"There’s bound to be a row"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
AKA<\/strong><\/td>There’s sure to be a row<\/td><\/tr>
First Published<\/td>c1870<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Writer\/composer<\/td>Samuel Watson<\/td>Roud<\/strong><\/td>RN1616<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Music Hall Performers<\/strong><\/td>JW Rowley
Georgina Smithson
(Jennie Engel)<\/td><\/tr>
Folk performances<\/strong><\/td>Selected <\/strong>source Singers<\/strong>
Scott, Willie 1962 Scotland : Roxburghshire
Cox, Harry 1965 England : Norfolk
Scott, Willie 1967 Scotland
McBeath, Jimmy 1971 Scotland : Morayshire
Nash, Frankie 1975 Canada : Newfoundland<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Taken from Poets Box (Glasgow) broadside dated Dec 1871

I'm a poor unlucky married man, I've such an awful wife, 
To please her I do all I can, but still she plagues my life; 
If I do everything that's right, she'll find a fault somehow, 
And if I but stay out all night, there's bound to be a row.

There's bound to be a row, there's bound to be a row, 
Do all in life to please my wife, there's bound to be a row.<\/em>

She wakes me in the morning in an awful cruel way.
She kicks me on the floor, and not a cross word do I say; 
And I have to wash my stockings, and my shirts and fronts, I vow,
And if I don't, wash hers as well there's bound to be a row,

She's taken in a lodger, and he's single by-the-by,
She says I must make room for him, and on the sofa lie; 
They eat the meat, give me the bones, that don't seem right somehow,
But if I dared say half as much, there's bound to be a row.

Sometimes she gives a party to some friends, they dine at eight,
And I've to hurry home from work, to be in time to wait; 
And when they bustle me about, if I doesn't scrape and bow, 
And say, yes sir, and thank you please, there's bound to be a row

When I've earned my wages, after working all the week,
I turn every ha'penny in, and then she has the cheek 
To give me two pence for myself, and for that I have to bow;
But if I spend it all at once, there's bound to be a row<\/pre>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
A song well-known in both sides of the Atlantic, sung by Irish, Scottish and  English traditional singers. It was widely published in 19th-century songbooks and broadsides and appears to be a song written for our old friend JW Rowley,<\/a> a Yorkshire comedian who was active in the halls in the 1870s and 80s. Rowley was responsible for popularising several songs well-known in traditional music including The Birds upon the Trees<\/em>, and Eggs For Your Breakfast in the Morning.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite the song’s association with Rowley, first published evidence of the song being sung in the halls was in 1871, when , Georgina Smithson  sang what was likely to be the “ladies version” which reversed the gender roles. This review comes from 1873:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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The Era Oct 26 1873<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Given the contemporary quotation of Smithson’s Song, I suspect it had a chorus along the lines of There’s bound to be a row, there’s bound to be a row, Do all you can to please some men, there’s bound to be a row”<\/em>. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
The earliest reference I can find to JW Rowley singing it is in 1872:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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The Era June 16 1872<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Sheet music held in the British Library suggests the song was written and composed by Samuel Watson – a bit of a mystery who appears only to have written this song. [Samuel Watson was the name of an equestrian gymnast active in the 1870s, but I have no evidence that he was a singer or songwriter.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The version of the lyrics provided here appears to be a reasonably early version, with just five verses. However, like so many songs from the Halls, it’s designed to make it easy to add new material: the version in <\/em>volume 4 of Mercier’s Old Irish Street Ballads <\/em>has a total of eight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Harry Cox sings a five verse version:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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