{"id":11151,"date":"2021-06-03T14:40:03","date_gmt":"2021-06-03T14:40:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/?page_id=11151"},"modified":"2023-11-15T10:28:44","modified_gmt":"2023-11-15T10:28:44","slug":"i-cant-forget-the-days-when-i-was-young","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/i-cant-forget-the-days-when-i-was-young\/","title":{"rendered":"I can\u2019t forget the days"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
AKA<\/strong><\/td>I can\u2019t forget the days when I was young<\/td><\/tr>
First Published<\/td>1919<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Writer\/composer<\/td>Sam Mayo \/ Worton David<\/td>Roud<\/strong><\/td>RN24513<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Music Hall Performers<\/strong><\/td>Marie Lloyd, Ada Reeve<\/td><\/tr>
Folk performances<\/strong><\/td>Collected from the singing of:<\/strong>
Submitted as words to \u201cold song\u201d for \u201cSprite\u2019s Article\u201d, Eastern Evening News (12 Feb 1930), Norfolk England
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I'm not so young as I used to be, when I was in my prime,\nBut you can have a bit on 'Mouldy Martha' every time;\nI've had my share of married life\nAnd kind of settled down,\nAnd when ever I get the gladeye from the pot-man at the 'Crown'\n\nOh, I can't forget the days when I was young,\nAnd it don't seem so very long ago;\nI was happy, blythe and gay,\nI could drive dull care away,\nOh, I can't forget the days when I was young.<\/em>\n\nI've had my share of married lor lummy, not 'arf, what, oh!\nBut my poor Bill went up aloft, a couple of years ago,\nAnd when I scrub the bedroom out,\nAnd gaze beneath the bed,\nAt the lavender trousers that he wore the morning we got wed;\n\nOh, I can't forget the days when I was young,\nAnd it don't seem so very long ago;\nWhen I sit for hours and stare,\nAt those trousers on the chair,\nOh, I can't forget the days when I was young<\/em>.\n\nOf course you know I'm not the flapper now that I used to be,\nBut you all understand me and I think you'll agree with me,\nIt's not the youngest fruit that makes the sweetest jam.\nAnd there's many a bit of frozen mutton tastes as good as lamb,\n\nOh, I can't forget the days when I was young,\nAnd it don't seem so very long ago;\nWhen I was twenty two,\nWell, that's nothing to do with you,\nOh, I can't forget the days when I was young<\/em>.\n<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
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A song written by Worton David <\/a>and \u00a0\u00a0Sam Mayo<\/a>, performed in the Halls both by Marie Lloyd<\/a> and Ada Reeve. It was remembered by a local newspaper correspondent in 1930 as an “old song” – 11 years after it was first published. Perhaps the subject matter made it feel like an older song than it actually was?<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Ada Reeve (1874-1966) <\/strong>was a comic in the halls and an actor in musical comedies. Born in London to parents of Dutch and French Jewish origins, she began her professional career as a child actress in pantomime at the age of four, making her Music Hall debut as a solo performer 10 years later in 1888. In the 1890s and 1900s she played leading roles in  musical comedies in South Africa, Britain, Australia and America. During World War I she entertained the troops in UK and abroad and was particularly associated with  her wartime hit The long, long trail<\/a><\/em>. Between 1917 and 1936 she lived and worked in Australia, regularly appearing in the Tivoli Music Hall Melbourne, though she still occasionally toured. She returned to England in 1936 and continued to appear in variety theatre and television. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Sources:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n