I had forgotten all about this since mentioning it in my 'family history. It was long before Diz Disley and it was already much older when my dad would sing it and play it to me at the piano to me as a tot in 1947.He had learned it as a young man and he was born 1905! He played at the NUPO National Union of Police Officers social club in Liverpool during the war. he was a trained pianist named Wilfred Rose. *He added a little piece on the end. Reading his scrawl it goes like this:

Our old (tom) cat died last night,
Me wife said bury it out of sight.
But we didn't have a garden; we was livin' in a flat,
So what was I to do with the body of a cat?
Then a big, brown paper bag I spied,
I put our old dead kitty cat inside -
Now off I am with the body in the bag, the body in the bag ta-ra-ra

Well I crept off down the street as quiet as a mouse,
And laid my burden on the doorstep of a house.
When the door it was flung open and a lady dressed in blue
Said 'Entrez-vous, monsieur; pardonnez-moi, do you parlez-vous?'
Said I, I'm very sorry but no Ma'am, I've got something else to do,'
And skedaddled with the body in the bag.
So off I went...

I went inside a public house, and called for a brandy neat.
And guiltily I laid my burden - underneath the seat.
I crawled out on my hands and knees but halfway up the town,
The barman stopped me, saying, 'Here's your parcel, Mr. Brown.'
So had to thank the silly fool and give him half a crown,
For bringing me the body in the bag.
So...

I went to an allotment, though not feeling very brave,
I found a little shovel and prepared to dig a grave.
But just as I was digging it a voice behind me said:
'You're pinching my potatoes,' an' he might have killed me dead,
But just between his radishes and cauliflower bed -
I sloshed him with the body in the bag.
So ...

I dropped it in the river but a hero of a play,
Jumped in and shouted,'I've saved it, hip, hip, hip hooray.
He brought it to the bank and stood there in a pool,
He said, 'I'm feeling very wet and also very cool,'
So I had to take my trousers off and give them to the fool,
For rescuing the body in the bag.
So ...

Then out from the bag came a plaintive meow,
Said puss,'I've come to life again, you needn't trouble now.
As everybody's well aware, a pussy has nine lives,
And I'm a married tabby and one of Ginger's wives,
And usually our families come in threes or fours or fives...'
And there were seven little bodies in the bag.
*(So I took the high road and the pussies took the low road,
And they got home long before me,
And pussy and her family often boast and brag,
How she diddled me that night - she had the bodies in the bag.

ENJOY IT FOR WHAT IS.
Eric