{"id":8036,"date":"2021-01-07T11:44:04","date_gmt":"2021-01-07T11:44:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/?page_id=8036"},"modified":"2025-12-18T07:08:37","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T07:08:37","slug":"my-meatless-day","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/my-meatless-day\/","title":{"rendered":"My meatless day"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
AKA<\/strong><\/td><\/td><\/tr>
First Published<\/td>1917<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Writer\/composer<\/td>Weston and Lee<\/td>Roud<\/strong><\/td>RN2413<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Music Hall Performers<\/strong><\/td>Ernie Mayne<\/td><\/tr>
Folk performances<\/strong><\/td>Source Singers<\/strong>
[Unknown singer] 1956 England : Dorset
Wratten, Bill 1960 England : Sussex
Cutmore, Charlie 1964\/5 England : Suffolk
Showers, Charlie 1970 England : Somerset
Pitman, Charlie no date England : Cornwall
Brown, Buster no date England : Essex <\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Just a day each week it's true. I help to win the war I do\nI don't sell flags around the street, I go without my bits of meat\nAnd when I pass the butcher's shop and hear 'em shout, 'bye-bye'\nI pull my belt up four more holes and sadly I reply,\n\nIt's my meatless day, my meatless day, I'm not going to eat\nAny sort of meat, meat, meat, meat, meat\nI'm thin and pale, all I've put away\nIs four quarts of mussels, five loaves of bread,\nNine pairs of kippers and a big cod's head\nFive tins of salmon and I feel half dead\n'Cos it's my meatless day.\n\nLast night I wandered through the park I met a lady after dark\nAnd feeling faint for want of food I fell into her arms (how rude)\nThen she murmured, 'Kiss me George.' Her face I chanced to see\nWell the girl was black, with negro lips so I shouted, 'Not for me'\n\nOh It's my meatless day, my meatless day, I'm not going to eat\nAny sort of meat, meat, meat, meat, meat\nI'm thin and pale, all I've put away\nIs two rolly polly's, (never left a crumb),\nThree currant puddings and a little bit of plum\nFive apple dumplings are a-rolling round my tum\n'Cos it's my meatless day.\n\nAs a farmer's boy I worked near York. The day the pig died we had pork\nNext day the old cow died and we had beef for breakfast, dinner and tea\nWe had mutton when the sheep pegged out, and we all got over fed\nNext day the farmer's missus died, so I went up and said\n\nHere, it's my meatless day, my meatless day, I'm not going to eat\nAny sort of meat, meat, meat, meat, meat\nI'm thin and pale, all I've put away\nIs five pound of taters that I had to thieve\nA vegetable marrow as long as me sleeve\nA jar of pickled onions you can tell when I breathe\nIt's my meatless day.<\/pre>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
A song from the First World War reflecting the government campaign encouraging the population to eat less meat to contribute to the war effort\u2026 remembered by several traditional singers in the later part of the century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The song was made famous in the Halls by  Ernie Mayne<\/a>,, who often sang comic songs which drew comedy from his size \u2013 he was a big man. Another song by the prolific Weston and Lee<\/a>, who seem to have written at least 50% of the songs we remember from this period! <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Ernie Mayne sings it: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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