{"id":8763,"date":"2021-02-03T16:06:09","date_gmt":"2021-02-03T16:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/?page_id=8763"},"modified":"2023-04-30T07:06:23","modified_gmt":"2023-04-30T07:06:23","slug":"amateur-whitewasher-the","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/amateur-whitewasher-the\/","title":{"rendered":"Amateur whitewasher, The"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
AKA<\/strong><\/td>Slap dab
Handy man<\/td><\/tr>
First Published<\/td>1896<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Writer\/composer<\/td>Fred Murray, Fred Leigh<\/td>Roud<\/strong><\/td>RN1754<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Music Hall Performers<\/strong><\/td>Frank Seeley<\/td><\/tr>
Folk performances<\/strong><\/td>Source Singers<\/strong>
New Arkansas Travellers, USA; 1927
Poacher, Cyril England ; Suffolk; 1972<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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From monologues.co.uk<\/strong>\nI\u2019m a very handy man\nTo save a bit \u2018oof\u2019s my plan\nOne day last week I said to my wife\nOur yard wants a wash upon my life\nSo I\u2019ll go and do the job\nAnd I did so help me bob\nMade a pail of whitewash, set to work\nAnd the old girl helped me like a Turk.\n\nSlap-dab! Slap-dab! Up and down the brickwork\nSlap-dab! All daylong\nIn and out the corners\nRound the Johnny Horners\nWe were a pair of fair clean goners\nSlap-dab! Slap with the whitewash brush\nTalk about a fancy ball\nBut I put more whitewash on the old woman\nThan I did upon the garden wall.<\/em>\n\nThe missus, I must now confess\nShe put me in her old nightdress\nHer nightcap, too, she made me wear\nShe was dressed like me, so we looked a pair\nShe held up the pail so high\nAnd I made that whitewash fly\nEvery now and then I heard a squall\nI was taking the old girl\u2019s face for the wall.\n\nFeeling very dry just here\nWe went to get a drop of beer\nAnd the kids from the house next door, I think\nAttracted by the whitewash, came and had a drink\nThere\u2019s got to be an inquest now\nAnd I am in a dreadful row\nI have done with economical schemes\nFor every night in all my dreams.<\/pre>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
A British Music Hall song which perhaps unexpectedly turns up on an American “Hillbilly” record in the 1920s. It appears in the NEHI 3 CD Box Set  My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean<\/em> – see the entry for Tickle-ickle-um<\/a>. It was also fondly remembered on this side of the Atlantic.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Later singers may have learn it from the singing of George Lamb – it appeared on his 1962 Folkways LP of London Music Hall and Pub songs She was poor but she was honest.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The original music hall song was written by Fred Murray<\/a> and Fred Leigh<\/a> and performed by Frank Seeley, who was advertised as “causing a sensation with the song” in Halls across London in the summer of 1896 (The Era <\/em>May- Aug 1896).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Frank Seeley <\/strong>(b?-1913), performed for some time as part of a double act with Blossom Seeley as “Seeley and West<\/em>“. He performed regularly on the London stage between 1895 and 1913, often billed as an “eccentric comedian”. His best remembered songs are Clap Hands, Daddy’s Come Home<\/em> and Let Go Eliza!<\/em> More on research on Seeley is needed…<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Update<\/strong>: I have just come across this review of Seeley performing at The Bedford<\/em> in 1905 – such was Seeley’s popularity amongst the young people of Camden that they organised lookalike competitions!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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24 Jun 1905, The Era <\/em>p21<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The Harbour Lights Trio in 2019:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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