{"id":25888,"date":"2025-01-05T14:23:38","date_gmt":"2025-01-05T14:23:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/?page_id=25888"},"modified":"2025-12-11T07:23:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T07:23:16","slug":"good-bye-ee","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/good-bye-ee\/","title":{"rendered":"Good-Bye-Ee"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
AKA<\/strong><\/td><\/td><\/tr>
First Published<\/td>1917<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Writer\/composer<\/td>RP Weston and Bert Lee<\/td>Roud<\/strong><\/td>RN10939<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Music Hall Performers<\/strong><\/td>Florrie Forde , Charles R Whittle , Daisy Wood<\/td><\/tr>
Folk performances<\/strong><\/td>Collected from the singing of:<\/strong>
British Soldiers, 1920s
Kane, Alice N. Ireland : Belfast \/ Canada : Ontario : Toronto; no date
Modern performances<\/strong>:Various stage productions of Joan Littlewood\u2019s Oh! What a lovely war! <\/em>and the 1969 film;
The Humblebums (featuring Billy Connolly)<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Sheet Music at Australian War Memorial<\/a>:

GOOD-BYE-EE
Written and Composed by RP Weston and Bert Lee

Brother Bertie went away
To do his bit the other day.
With a smile on his lips
And his lieutenant pips
Upon his shoulder, bright and gay.
As the train moved out he said,
\"Remember me to all the birds\",
Then he wagged his paw
And went off to war,
Shouting out these pathetic words:

Goodbye-ee!  Goodbye-ee!
Wipe the tear, baby dear, from your eye-ee.
Though it's hard to part I know, 
I'll be tickled to death to go!
Don't cry-ee, don't sigh-ee,
There's a silver lining in the sky-ee!
Bonsoir old thing, cheerio, chin-chin,
Nah-poo, toodle-oo, goodbye-ee!<\/em>

Marmaduke Horatio Flynn,
Although he'd whiskers round his chin,
In a play took a part,
And he touch'd ev'ry heart
As little Willie in \"East Lynne\".
As the little dying child
Upon his snow white bed he lay
And amid their tears the people gave three cheers
When he said as he pass'd away:

At the concert down at Kew,
The convalescents dressed in blue,
Had to hear Lady Lee,
Who had turned eighty three,
Sing the old old songs she knew.
Then she made a speech and said,
\"I look upon you boys with pride,
And for what you've done
I'm going to kiss each one!\"
They they all grabb'd their sticks and cried:

Little Private Patrick Shaw,
He was a prisoner of war,
Till the Hun with a gun
Called him \"pig dog\" for fun,
Then Paddy punched him on the jaw!
Right across the barbed wire fence,
The German dropped, then, dear oh dear!
All the wire gave way
And Paddy yelled \"hooray!\",
As he ran for the Dutch frontier!
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Good-bye-ee <\/em> was a  catch phrase of the popular  comedian Harry Tate and  the title of a revue he toured in spring 1917. The story goes that Weston and Lee<\/a> heard a crowd of factory girls shouting Tate’s catchphrase at a regiment of soldiers marching off to Victoria Station and this inspired them to write the song.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It featured in the repertoire of a number of Music Hall performers, most notably \u00a0Florrie Forde<\/a>, \u00a0Charles R Whittle<\/a> and Daisy Wood. A recording or download of this song can be purchased from Windyridge CD<\/a>s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A 1917 recording by Florrie Forde:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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