BELL BOTTOM GEORGE
Written by Phil Park & Harry Parr Davies,
As sung by George Formby in the film "Bell-Bottom George" (1944) – see YouTube.

Now I can guess that some of you
Are wond'rin' at my navy blue.
Or how I came to be,
Oh, a sailor on the sea.
You may think that I'm too daft
To know what's for'ard or which is aft,
But when I've sung my song,
Oh, you'll all agree you're wrong.

A happy-go-lucky A. B.
On the land or the sea,
I know a few nautical games
And me name's Bell Bottom George.

A girl in each port may be true
Of the boys dressed in blue.
A sailor I know has got three,
And it's me, Bell Bottom George.

It's the same to me if we sail to Tripoli,
Or we roll back home to Dover.
I can go ashore and have one or two more
Till I'm feelin' half-seas over.

Adventures I've had by the score.
What a life! What a war!
If ever you get in a scrap,
I'm your chap, Bell Bottom George.

§ There isn't a chap in the fleet
Who doesn't shout when we meet:
"What have you been up to today?
On your way, Bell Bottom George!"

When commodores chat in the mess,
What's the drift? Can't you guess?
"Old George has been at it again.
What a brain! Bell Bottom George!"

At the admiralty, when they have a jug o' tea,
They discuss my wild career.
And the First Sea Lord says that how I got aboard,
Well, he'd really no idea.

So if I'm in blue by a fluke,
Say to me and my uke:
"The Navy would like you to stay.
You're OK, Bell Bottom George."

§§ When others are up to their necks
Pullin' ropes, scrubbin' decks,
Who slips on the soap and goes whiz
Down on his Bell Bottom George?

The admiral's not a bad guy.
We get on, he and I.
He speaks when we meet on the stairs:
"Gangway there, Bell Bottom George!"

And the chief is grand, so I always lend a hand
With a grin and a smart "Aye-aye, sir!"
And it's fun, by gum, when I've had a tot of rum.
I'm the champion main-brace splicer.

I've sailed the Dead Sea and the Med
And the Black and the Red.
There's only the ... Sea*
Left for me, Bell Bottom George.


Verses between § and §§ are sung in the film, but are omitted from the recording.

* Several online lyrics sites have "There's only the suck it and see" but I refuse to believe that's what he's singing. But what is it? Sorkiton Sea? Sulkiton Sea?