Goat of the WRI, The

The Goat of the WRI
Kerr’s Cornkisters (Bothy Ballads)(1930) : words and melody attributed  to  Willie Kemp.

I'm a poor Married man, and wretched's my life
Since I went and married a charming young wife;
And now night and day I do nothing but sigh,
Since ever my wife joined the W.R.I.
She thinks it was me who gave baby croup
Three bones of a rabbit makes finest hare soup;
That I am to blame when baby should cry,
And the cause of it all is the W.R.I

Hush-a-bye, don't you cry,
Mama's off to the WRI
here am I, what a guy,
Oh for the wings of a dove to fly
Off she goes, powdered nose
All dressed up in her Sunday clothes;
Left alone all on my own
I'm the goat of the Rural!

She came home last week with a new recipe,
That polished linoleum, and cured housemaid's knee;
It also cooked tripe, darned holes in a sock,
Stopped thunder and lightning, and wound up the clock;
At supper last night we had shepherd's pie,
Inside was my dickie ad part of a tie ;
To milk our old cow takes one ofthe brave,
For 1'm sure that it's tail's had a permanent wave.

Hush-a-bye, W. R. I.
Men take heed when you hear this cry;
W. R. I.-  W. R. I.
Whatever men do must be on the sly;
Hearts ofoak, ladies smoke,
Dorft you think it's beyond a joke?
Weaker sex! men now wrecks!
We are the goats of the Rural

An example of a”cornkister” a rollicking type of rural Scottish folk song. A corn kist was a chest for storing grain in a stable. The term “corn kister” seems to have been introduced in around 193o by companies selling gramophone recordings of such songs . “Cornkisters”are also often comic songs which show the influence of the Music Hall.

This particular corn-kister appears to be a parody of a Music Hall song of the late 1870s called Cod liver oil which has been widely collected from traditional singers in Scotland and Ireland. Cod Liver Oil tells the story of a husband whose wife will not perform her expected domestic duties due to her addiction to Cod Liver Oil.

The underlying theme of The Goat of the WRI is a similar in that it expresses comic concern that the role of men was being undermined by ideas his wife is bringing home from the WRI, the (Scottish) Women’s Rural Institute. An organisation, also known as“the Rural,” founded in 1917 by suffragette Catherine Blair to improve the lives of rural women through education, traditional crafts and social events. Here is the first stanza and chorus of Cod Liver Oil for comparison:

I'm a poor married man, wretched's my life;
Six years I've been married to a sickly young wife;
And all the day long she does nothing but sigh,
Till folks they all thought she was going to die.
When a friend of mine passing the house one fine  day.
And saw that my wife was pining away;
He very soon told her how she would get strong
By drinking the oil made by Doctor De Jongh

 Oh! Doctor De Jongh! oh! Doctor De Jongh!
 Your cod liver oil is so pure and so strong;
 I can feel very soon I'll be under the soil,
 If my wife she keeps drinking your coil liver oil

You can hear Frank McNally sing it on The Bothy Songs and Ballads of North East Scotland – Volume Three available from common streaming services. Here is Willie Kemp singing it: