Worse you are the more the ladies love you, The
| AKA | |
| First Published | 1918 |
| Writer/composer | RP Weston and Bert Lee | Roud | RN25400 |
| Music Hall Performers | Fred Barnes |
| Folk performances | Collected from Kane, Alice ; N. Ireland : Belfast / Canada : Ontario : Toronto; no date |
Gilbert was once a goody goody sort of fellow
Just as meek and mild as a little child
But when he met a girl he thought he could adore
Somehow she never seemed to want to meet him anymore
But now he's as bad as he can be
They flutter round in thousands, so you see:
The worse you are the more the ladies love you
The more they want to hang around
Never mind the most precise girls
It's the bad lads get the nice girls,
Squeeze them all and don't forget to tell them
All the horrible things you do
And just like the ivy that clings to the ruin
All the girls will cling to you!
Brag to your girls how you used to keep a harem
Led the worst of lives, kept a score of wives
She'll scream "Good Heavens!" then she'll murmur pale with fright
"Goodbye, goodbye for ever! Meet me here tomorrow night!"
But don't say you've been lying when you part
Unless you want to break her loving heart
Gilbert has a motto, which has always proved successful
Tho' your mother's boy, mother's pride and joy
Swank you're a regular little devil - you may laugh
But you can bet it's the Prodigal gets the fatted calf
For what do girls write home when they've eloped
"Dear ma, he's not so wicked as I hoped"
Another song by the prolific Weston and Lee, sung most famously by The prince of light comics Fred Barnes.
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%3A25400
- Ballad Index
- Kilgarrif Sing Us
- Lyrics and Sheet Music “retrieved from Roy Hudd archive” see also RP Weston and Bert Lee Songs, CW Hyles musesscore