The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #129677   Message #2914941
Posted By: Steve Gardham
26-May-10 - 06:39 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Add: Granny Snow (Harry Clifton)
Subject: Lyr Add: MERRY OLD UNCLE JOE
The following text is for Artful who might want to sing it.
It is a text of Clifton's 'Uncle Joe' from the 'Prince of Wales Songster' here titled 'Merry Old Uncle Joe'. Above I conjectured that Clifton may have written GS and then adapted it to UJ but looking at the content of both I'd now say UJ more likely came first.

MERRY OLD UNCLE JOE
1
Some discontented people,
Always will complain,
One day too much sunshine,
Another too much rain;
I take the world as it comes,
Its pleasures or its woe,
And my friends they call me,
Merry Old Uncle Joe.
Chorus
For I always speak my mind,
In spite of friend or foe,
Where'er I roam I'm always known,
As merry Old Uncle Joe.
2
I'm afraid in my ideas to-night,
Many may think me wrong,
But there's nought like being candid,
And I'll not detain you long;
For I've no wife to tease,
No child to cause me woe,
I go where'er I please,
I'm merry Old Uncle Joe.
3
The best news from America,
That came across the wave,
They say the President intends
To give freedom to the slave,
Certainly he ought, and should
Have done so long ago,
They might have been fast friends
Says merry Old Uncle Joe.
4
Let those who talk of slavery,
Across the ocean's foam,
Should remember that charity
ought to begin at home;
In many an English town we've slaves,
For an existence, stitch and sew
Are they not worth relief from us,
Says merry Old Uncle Joe.