{"id":19985,"date":"2023-04-28T14:04:23","date_gmt":"2023-04-28T14:04:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/?page_id=19985"},"modified":"2023-04-28T14:23:52","modified_gmt":"2023-04-28T14:23:52","slug":"body-in-the-bag-the","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/body-in-the-bag-the\/","title":{"rendered":"Body in the bag, The"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
First Published<\/td>1921<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Writer\/composer<\/td>Weston and Lee<\/td>Roud<\/strong><\/td>RN24557<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Music Hall Performers<\/strong><\/td>Stanley Kirkby and Harry Hudson<\/td><\/tr>
Folk performances<\/strong><\/td>Collected from the singing of:<\/strong>
Spicer, George; England: Sussex; 1977
Modern performances<\/strong>
Sam Sherry, Charlie O’Hegarty , Jean Redpath<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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From sheet music<\/strong>\n\nOur old Thomas Cat died last night,\nThe wife said, \"Bury it out of sight.\"\nWe haven't got no garden we're living in a flat,\nSo what was I to do with the body of the cat?\nThen a big brown paper bag I spied,\nAnd I put the old Tom Cat in-side.\n\nThen off I went with the body in the bag,\nThe body in the bag, ta-rah-rah.<\/em>\n[9 times or ad lib]\n\nI sneaked along the street as quiet as any little mouse \nAnd laid it very gently on the doorstep of a house. \nThe door flew open suddenly, a lady dressed in blue \nSaid, \"Ong tray-voo, Mos-soo, par-don-y, do you par-ley voo\"\nSaid I \" Good heavens no ma'am I've something else to do\nAnd skedaddled with the body in the bag\n\nI stepped into a public bar and had brandy neat,\nThen guiltily I hit my burden underneath the seat;\nI crawled out on my hands and knees but halfway up the town,\nThe Barman stopped me saying, \"Here's your parcel, Mr. Brown.\"\nI had to thank that silly ass and give him half a crown,\nFor handing me the body in the bag\n\nI crept into the park and while I shivered at the knees \nI dropped the darn thing over all among some little trees. \nA female screamed \"Oh heavens!\" and a navvy sort of chap, \nRan up and shouted out to me \"Do you want to have a scrap??\nHere, what you mean by dropping this in my young woman's lap?\" \nAnd he biffed me with the body in the bag\n\nI thought new Whitehall Barracks that I might get rid of Tom\nBut a sentry was on guard and thought he saw me drop a bomb;\nHe rushed up with his bayonet to stab me in the heart,\nBut I'd my back towards him then and very very smart\nI placed a kind of bustle on my very tender part\nAnd he bayoneted the body in the bag...\n\nI got on some allotment and not feeling very brave,\nI found a little shovel and prepared to dig a grave,\nBut just as I was digging it, a voice behind me said,\n\"You're stealing me potatoes!\"\" And he might have killed me dead;\nBut just between his radishes and cauliflower bed,\nI sloshed him with the body in the bag...\n\nI threw the bag in the river but the hero from some play,\nJumped in and shouted \"I have saved it! Hip,hip, hip, hooray!\"\nHe brought it to the shore, and while he stood there in a pool,\nHe said to me \"I'm sopping wet and feeling rather cool.\"\nI had to take me trousers off and change them with that fool,\nFor rescuing the body in the bag...\n\nThen up the street I met a fellow in his shirt and pants, \nSaid he \"Are you the doctor?\" And I thought, now here's my chance! \nI said \"Yes I'm the doctor and I've brought your family, \nYou might take home your baby, for it's in the bag you see\" \nBut he'd had kids before and so new too much for me, \nAnd he wouldn't have the body in the bag...\n\nI crept down to the railway and I laid it on the rail,\nI said \"Now for the dirty work. Here comes the Midnight Mail\nThe Flying Scotsman came along and with a mighty smack\nIn knocked the bundle of the line and caught me such a whack\nAnd in a dirty marquee paddle, lying on my back\nI was cuddling the body in the bag\n\nThen suddenly inside the back I heard a plaintive meow'\nSaid Puss \"I've come back to life again, you needn't trouble now\nFor everybody is well aware pussy has nine lives , \nAnd I'm a married tabby and I'm one of Ginger's wives \nI usually have families in threes or fours or fives \nBut there's seven little bodies in the bag!\"\n\nThen I took the high road, and she took the low road\nShe got back home long before me\nAnd Puss and her family for ever boast and brag\nHow they diddled me the night I had body in the bag\n\nOff I went with the bodies in the bag,\nThe bodies in the bag, ta-rah-rah.<\/em>\n\n\n<\/pre>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
A song from the early 1920s which has entered the repertoire of a number of revival folksingers including Charlie O’Hegarty and Sam Sherry, and which has been sung both in England and Australia. It was also collected from the singing of George Spicer by Mike Yates in 1977 – it’s been speculated that Spicer learnt the songs as a result of its performance in village concerts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was originally written by the prolific songwriting partnership Weston and Lee<\/a>, first published in 1921 and performed  by  Stanley Kirkby & Harry Hudson, a popular Music Hall act during the war and in the 1920s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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