{"id":13528,"date":"2021-12-02T07:10:02","date_gmt":"2021-12-02T07:10:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/?page_id=13528"},"modified":"2021-12-02T07:10:05","modified_gmt":"2021-12-02T07:10:05","slug":"thats-how-you-get-served-when-youre-old","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/thats-how-you-get-served-when-youre-old\/","title":{"rendered":"That’s how you get served when you’re old"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
AKA<\/strong><\/td>The Cold Shoulder<\/td><\/tr>
First Published<\/td>1879<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Writer\/composer<\/td>John Read<\/td>Roud<\/strong><\/td>RN12893<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Music Hall Performers<\/strong><\/td>John Read<\/td><\/tr>
Folk performances<\/strong><\/td>Collected from the singing of:<\/strong>
unknown singer; England; 1914-18
Adams, Harry; England : Somerset; 1976
Bridger, Charlie; England : Kent ; 1983
Pardon, Walter England : Norfolk; 1987<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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THAT'S HOW YOU GET SERVED WHEN YOU'RE OLD\n\nOne day in the street, I just happened to meet\nAn old friend whom I'd not seen for years;\nThe old man looked sad, tho' to meet me was glad.\nAnd his eyes, as we spoke, filled with tears.\nI said, \"John, be brief, what's the cause of your grief,\nTo me your misfortunes unfold.\"\nSaid he, \" In poor me. you a sample may see\nOf how a man's serv'd when he's old.\"\n\nEach day growing older, I get the cold shoulder,\nBy youngsters thrust out in the cold,\nWho jeeringly say that I'm in the Way,\nThat's how you get served when you're old.<\/em>\n\nI began as a lad, and a hard place I had,\nWhich I held for some forty-five years;\nI've worked like a slave, yet no money could save,\nAnd now I may starve, it appears.\nWhat I've had to endure is hard I am sure,\nNow, by the young master I'm told\nI must no longer stay, but for others make way.\nThat's how you get served when you're old.\n\nWhen young, I was praised and my wages were raised,\nNo labor I'd ever then shirk,\nAnd master would then point me out to the men\nAs the one who best stuck to his work.\nNow I'm feeble and weak, he'll to me hardly speak.\nUnless it's to grumble or scold;\nThey simply make fun of what I have done,\nThat's how you get served when you're old.\n\nMy wife, poor soul! she is near seventy-three,\nHow to keep her from want I don't know,\nIf I beg, I intrude, and by p'lice are pursued,\nAnd if to the work-house we go\nTo seek for relief, they but add to our grief,\n\"You must come in the house,\" we are told,\nPart husband from wife, to to be paupers for life,\nThat's how you get served when you're old.<\/pre>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
A song composed, written and performed by John Read and first published by Charles Sheard in 1879 (6023d in the Musical Bouquet<\/em> series). It very quickly became popular amongst amateur singers and there are regular reports of it being sung from 1880 on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was republished in UK street literature and cheap song collections in America –  in deMarsan’s Singers’s Journal <\/em>it states it was sung by “Frak Lum”- probably meaning Frank Lum a comic vaudeville singer described as “The Great Sensation”<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the UK it seems to have been collected by Alfred Williams<\/a> from an unknown singer around the time of the First World War. It was later performed by several prominent traditional English performers. You can hear a fragment of Harry Adams singing it at the British Library Sounds archive<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Sources:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n