Ginger, You’re Balmy

AKA
First Published 1910
Writer/composer Fred Murray Roud RN37282

Music Hall Performers Harry Champion
Folk performances Collected from the singing of:
Kane, Alice; Ulster; no date

GINGER, YOU'RE BALMY
from "Music Hall Memories No 2"

I’m always in the fashion, I’m a noted chap for that
So lately I’ve been walking about the streets without a hat
I do without a cady and it saves me half a quid
I’m like a blooming saucepan on the fire without a lid
I go you know strolling round the town
And wag my little cane about
Girls they all say “Old Ginger’s on the mash”
Then dig me in the ribs and loudly shout


“Don’t walk about without your cady on, Ginger you’re balmy!
Get your hair cut” they all begin to cry
“With nothing on your napper, oh, you are a pie
Pies must have a little bit of crust
Why don’t you join the army?
If you want to look a don you want a bit of something on
Ginger you’re balmy

One day I went into the Zoo with such a smiling face
But oh! there was a hullabaloo when I got in the place
The keeper started chasing me, though I was in a rage
They put a chain around my neck and bunged me in a cage
I cried, “I’m not a monkey, on my word”
Then I had to buy them all some beer
When they let me out they told me this
“If you want to keep away from here”

My missus took me in a pub, the guv’nor, Mister Hogg
He stroked my head, then gave me a cake, he took me for a dog
A p’liceman stopped the traffic, shouted out with all his might
“Look out! here comes the North Pole with the top part all alight”
My wife said, “Your napper’s like a sieve
It’s full of little holes I bet
When it rains ’twill let the water in
And then your feet will both of ’em get wet”

Another early 20th century hit for Harry Champion written and composed for him by Fred Murray. The song was popular with troops in World War I – and apparently evolved into an annoying ditty often shouted at someone not wearing a hat:

Ginger, you’re barmy,
You’ll never join the Army,
You’ll never be a scout,
With your shirt hanging out,
Ginger, you’re barmy.

David Lodge used Ginger, you’re barmy as the title for his comic novel about National Service.

The Harry Champion song was recalled by Alice Kane in her Songs and Sayings of an Ulster Childhood (1993)

Sources:

  • VWML entry
  • Kilgarrif Sing Us
  • Lyrics and Sheet Music: “Music Hall Memories No 2” (personal collection)