I’m going to sing a song
AKA | I’m going to sing you a song this evening |
First Published | 1906 |
Writer/composer | Worton David / FV St Clair | Roud | RN21971 |
Music Hall Performers | Sam Mayo |
Folk performances | Collected from the singing of: Gage, Rex; England : Suffolk; 1964 Jarvis, Walter; England : Essex; 1964 |
I'M GOING TO SING A SONG I'm going to sing a song to you this evening I've been a lovely singer since my birth When you hear my pretty notes a-ringing You'll say I have the finest voice on earth Before the King I once appeared When I sang he loudly cheered. He sent for me, and said, 'You are a marvel At singing you have really got the knack.' Then from his tie he took a diamond scarf-pin And smiled at me, and then he put it back. Pat at carrying bricks worked like a negro I've never seen a chap work so before Said I to him, 'Why do you work so hard, Pat? You seem to do the work of three or four.' Said he, 'My boy, you've touched the spot You think I'm working but I'm not.' Said he, 'While I keep running up this ladder With bricks upon my head, the dodge is fine The boss, the silly ass, he thinks I'm working But I'm carrying up the same bricks all the time.' The folks next door to us are fond of joking They're always trying to play some joke on me To summons them in Court was my intention If I could get some evidence, you see On our garden seat they placed a nail My wife sat on it, and turned pale. She jumped about and shouted, 'Pull it out, dear' But I said, 'Leave it there, that's simply great I'll go and get a summons in the morning We've something now to show the magistrate. My Uncle brought a donkey home last Tuesday And as a special favour said to me That if I'd pay him half of what it cost him That donkey I could share with him, you see I must have been clean off my head For when he got my oof he said, 'Of course you pay for all the food to keep him.' I said, 'Your meaning I do not comprehend As your half is the first half, you must keep him He doesn't want no feeding at my end.' Double Dimple Daisy was a widow And by her husband's grave one night she sat They told her that if she waited there till midnight Her husband would appear, the silly flat But poor dear Daisy, I declare Sat on a bunch of nettles there. And when those nettles her began a-tickling To keep a solemn face she did contrive At last she cried, 'Oh, Charlie, do give over Your're just the same as when you were alive.'
Another comic Music Hall song popular in the 1900s that was remembered by traditional singers in the pubs of southern England in the 1960s – it appears on Neil Lanham’s excellent Comic Songs of the Stour Valley, sung both by Rex Gage and Walter Jarvis.
It was written by Worton David and FV St Clair, both separately very successful songwriters. It was a hit for Sam Mayo
Sam Mayo sings a snatch of it at the beginning of this medley – a rare instance where we have a performance on film!
Sources:
- Entries in the Roud Indexes at the Vaughn Williams Memorial Library: https://archives.vwml.org/search/all:single[folksong-broadside-books]/0_50/all/score_desc/extended-roudNo_tr%3A21971
- Kilgarrif Sing Us
- Lyrics: monologues.co.uk
- Comic songs of the Stour Valley, Helions Bumpstead NLCD 8, obtainable from the Oral Traditions website