Lyr Req: I Wish I Were Back in Liverpool

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Wish I Were Back in Liverpool
From: Mr Happy
Date: 16 May 17 - 07:30 AM

FreddyHeadey,

Many thanks for info!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Wish I Were Back in Liverpool
From: FreddyHeadey
Date: 16 May 17 - 04:56 AM

Scouse: A Social and Cultural History
Tony Crowley
Liverpool University Press,

has it as 1960
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=M3N5AgAAQBAJ&pg=PT90&lpg=PT90&dq=I+Wish+I+Was+Back+in+Liverpool+stan+bootle+kelly+1960

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Wish I Were Back in Liverpool
From: Mr Happy
Date: 15 May 17 - 06:31 PM

Anyone know which year the song was written?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Wish I Were Back in Liverpool
From: banjoman
Date: 22 Jun 12 - 09:26 AM

never been that pissed but tried very hard in my younger days. Sadly no longer allowed to dring due to medical condition - Still wish I was back in Liverpool

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Wish I Were Back in Liverpool
From: Charley Noble
Date: 22 Jun 12 - 08:46 AM

"Should never be sung unless you've got the right accent"

Or unless you're pissed as a newt!

Singers have been known to expire belting out the last part of the chorus for lack of breath. Let that be fair warning before attempting this song.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Wish I Were Back in Liverpool
From: GUEST,kenny
Date: 21 Jun 12 - 02:00 PM

It's "orange and green" - at least when Luke Kelly sings it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Wish I Were Back in Liverpool
From: GUEST,Fred McCormick
Date: 21 Jun 12 - 05:24 AM

Here's a bit of an old mondegreen.

When I was very young and started going to folkclubs. I Wish I Was Back in Liverpool was sung frequently and often. Despite regularly imbibing the text, I always heard, and still do hear, the line "Where there ain't no trees, no scented breeze" as "there ain't no trees, no centipedes".

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Wish I Were Back in Liverpool
From: banjoman
Date: 21 Jun 12 - 05:11 AM

Should never be sung unless you've got the right accent,
(from a scouser born & bred who at times really whishes I WAS back in Liverpool even though its changed a lot since I was there.) I first heard this from the man himself (Stan) before he left the then centre of the universe and moved to London

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Wish I Were Back in Liverpool
From: Charley Noble
Date: 20 Jun 12 - 10:46 PM

I don't think I've ever heard it as "I wish I were back in Liverpool" although that is grammatically correct. It's always been "I wish I was back in Liverpool."

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Wish I Were Back in Liverpool
From: GUEST,Paper Lanterns
Date: 20 Jun 12 - 04:17 PM

That works better than my 'Mourne', Rog.

I put Mourne, because it was the closest to a proper name I knew.

The closest I could make out when listening, was something like;

"I've even seen the Maar-nin'green".

But that made no sense.
So to me, just from how I heard (and still do) the line without knowledge of the proper lyrics, Margins Green, sounds more like what I hear, than Orange and Green.

Pete

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Wish I Were Back in Liverpool
From: Rog Peek
Date: 12 Jun 12 - 12:49 PM

I've always thought it was:

"I've even seen the margins green".

"Margins" being what they refer to in Ireland as the grass on the edge of the road.

Rog

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Wish I Were Back in Liverpool
From: GUEST,kenny
Date: 12 Jun 12 - 04:55 AM

For me, one of the best songs ever sung and recorded by the late Luke Kelly. Always did love the "pigeons" line.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Wish I Were Back in Liverpool
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 12 Jun 12 - 04:15 AM

I seem to remember Stan actually singing ' but the pigeons on the pierhead, they shit on you just the same '

Dave H

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Wish I Were Back in Liverpool
From: GUEST,Paper Lanterns
Date: 11 Jun 12 - 07:44 PM

Firstly, I just did a lyrics search and it said "no scent of grease" on every lyric site I found. This confused me because I was convinced it was "no scented breeze" and they also have "Take a walk up upon Parlament Street".
Glad I am not losing my marbles on both counts. lol

Secondly, I always sing centipedes just for a laugh.

And lastly, I thought it was, "And I've also seen the Mourne Green"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Wish I Were Back in Liverpool
From: Leadfingers
Date: 16 Jul 09 - 05:15 AM

Lady Mondegreen Rules !

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Wish I Were Back in Liverpool
From: GUEST,k
Date: 16 Jul 09 - 05:07 AM

also known as the insect song. I have seen player's songbooks which have ..

Where there aint no trees, no centipedes ...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Wish I Were Back in Liverpool
From: bill\sables
Date: 16 Jul 09 - 04:21 AM

David Dickinson is Orange and quite a few people getting off the Dublin / Liverpool boat are Green when there is a choppy sea

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Wish I Were Back in Liverpool
From: goatfell
Date: 16 Jul 09 - 03:37 AM

I didn't know you can get green or orange skin colour people, but then the PC crowd always mention NON WHITE people, may this is what they are talking about.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Wish I Were Back in Liverpool
From: Jon Bartlett
Date: 16 Jul 09 - 12:38 AM

Yes.

Jon Bartlett

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Wish I Were Back in Liverpool
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Jul 09 - 10:29 PM

"And I've also seen them orange and green" - is this a reference to Irish Nationalist and Ulster Unionists or simply skin colour?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Wish I Were Back in Liverpool
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Mar 08 - 02:13 PM

If you type in 'Stan Jardine and his Lyrics' you will find a wealth of songs including that which you have searched for. Hope this can help as well. Psychomorris

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Wish I Were Back in Liverpool
From: GUEST
Date: 03 Mar 08 - 11:16 AM

The were/was question is probably answered best by the man
himself right here:

http://www.feniks.com/skb/music/lull6.html

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Wish I Were Back in Liverpool
From: MartinRyan
Date: 03 Mar 08 - 09:22 AM

Jon

"I would I were" but "I wish I was"!

Regards

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Wish I Were Back in Liverpool
From: GUEST,Chalkie - Guest
Date: 03 Mar 08 - 07:56 AM

I've always sung this song with a last verse of:-

I've lodged in old Lord Nelson Street
I've stayed awake till dawn
On a Saturday night, for love or a fight
There's always something on
You can count your sheep, but you just can't sleep
When excitements to be found
It's in the air, I wish I was there
In dear old Liverpool town.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Wish I Were Back in Liverpool
From: Jon Bartlett
Date: 03 Mar 08 - 03:48 AM

I wish I knew whether "I wish I were..." or "I wish I was...." is a) what Stan wrote and b) the more correct usage).

Jon Bartlett

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Wish I Were Back in Liverpool
From: Charley Noble
Date: 02 Mar 08 - 09:48 PM

Thanks for the extra verse.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Wish I Were Back in Liverpool
From: Greg B
Date: 02 Mar 08 - 06:30 PM

Stan also penned a tome called 'The Devil's DP Dictionary' which though a bit dated technology-wise, is still bloody hilarious.

Brilliant fellow and all around good chap.

I'd owned and read the book decades before I ever heard "Liverpool
Town" and loved it. It was a good decade or more before I found out
that it was written by none other than the same guy who wrote the
book.

Some people just manage to get seconds and thirds on talent...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Wish I Were Back in Liverpool
From: Rog Peek
Date: 02 Mar 08 - 05:43 PM

There is another verse on Stan Kelly-Bootle web site: http://www.feniks.com/skb/words/words.html


Me judy's down in London, she's werkin' dur fer me;
But her lousy beat on Jermyn Street can't keep the kids and me;
I'm told her time and time again, "Now don't you be a fool,
"You'ld have more LUCK with half the FUSS, in dear ould Liverpool Town."

Rog

Subject: RE: I wish I was back in Liverpool - lyrics req
From: ADeane
Date: 20 Apr 99 - 03:33 PM

Thanks Bobby Bob Lyrics much appreciated! Adeane

Subject: Lyr Add: I WISH I WERE BACK IN LIVERPOOL
From: Bobby Bob, Ellan Vannin
Date: 20 Apr 99 - 01:49 PM

The song was written by a computer programmer called Stan Bootle
(under his pseudonym, Stan Kelly) and Leon Rosselson.

Stan Kelly made an extended play 45 rpm record for Topic many
years ago, and he was accompanied on accordion by Rosselson, who
is better known for his political and satirical songs.

These are the words as sung by Luke Kelly and the Dubliners -

Chorus:- I wish I were back in Liverpool
Liverpool town, where I was born
Where there ain't no trees, no scented breeze
No fields of waving corn
But there's lots of girls with peroxide curls
And the black and tan flows free
There's six in a bed by the old Pier Head
And it's Liverpool town for me.

'Tis seven long years since I wandered away
To sail the wide world o'er
Me very first trip on an oul steamship
That was bound for Baltimore
I was seven days sick, and I just couldn't stick
That bobbin' up and down
So I told them, Jack, you'd better turn back
For dear old Liverpool town.

We dug the Mersey Tunnel, boys
Way back in '33
Dug a hole in the ground until we found
An 'ole called Wallasey
Then the foreman cried, "Come on outside,
The roof has fallen down."
Well I'm telling you, Jack, we all swam back
To dear old Liverpool town.

There's every race and colour of face
There's every kind of name
But the pigeons on the Pier Head
They treat you all the same
And if you walk up Upper Parliament Street
You'll get faces black and brown
And I've also seen them orange and green
In dear old Liverpool town.

Subject: RE: I wish I was back in Liverpool - lyrics req
From: Doctor John
Date: 20 Apr 99 - 01:22 PM

....nor fields of waving corns. But there's plenty of girls with peroxide curls and the black and tan flows three. It's three in a bed at the old Pier Head and it's Liverpool town for me.

Sorry that's all I can remember from a Liverpool childhood. Dr John

Subject: I wish I was back in Liverpool - lyrics req
From: ADeane
Date: 19 Apr 99 - 03:28 PM

This song was sung by the Dubliners a long time ago! I wish I was back in Liverpool Liverpool town where I was born Where there aint no trees no scented breeze

Any body have the rest? Many thanks Adeane PS Come to the Hood Arms Kilve, Somerset for a good Friday night folk session!