Lyr Req: Woolly Hole Lad? / Willy 'Ole Lad

Subject: Lyr Req: Woolly Hole Lad
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Jul 13 - 12:22 PM

I'd like to request anything anyone knows about a song called Woolly Hole Lad. It's a song about West Riding Mill workers told from the perspective of a father advising his daughter that a woolly hole lad, the lowest job in the mill, wasn't good enough for her.

Subject: Lyr Add: WILLY 'OLE LAD (Keith Marsden)
From: gnomad
Date: 16 Jul 13 - 12:33 PM

Willy 'ole Lad                          Keith Marsden


Oh Mary lass, what's this you're doing,
And what's this you're getting into?
We're respectable folk, and we're chapel,
So yon City lad will not do,
Your Mother was always a mender,
Your Grandma before her was too,
I started off low, but I'm head spinner now,
So a willy 'ole lad's not for you.

And I dare say he's young now, and handsome,
And his eyes are a fine smiling blue,
But he's clogs, and he'll always be clogs, Lass,
Yon willy 'ole lad's not for you.

He'll never have seat to his trousers,
He'll never have jam for your bread,
No five pound a week house like ours is,
But a back-to-back midden instead,
And one kid a year 'til you're thirty,
Then a worn out old woman, you'll rue,
That you shook your soft head,
When your old father said,
"Yon willy 'ole lad's not for you."

When he's forty and fat with the boozing,
And the women he's had turn away,
When his money on horses he's losing,
While you've still the rent man to pay,
When it's always your fault with your nagging,
When the beer makes him nasty and bad,
When you lie there and dread
That he'll want you in bed,
Will you still love your willy 'ole lad?

So if you want my consent to wed him lass
I fear you'll be wanting a while,
If it's him that you meet at the altar,
Then it won't be my arm down the aisle,
Just cherish your grace for a while lass,
And dream silly dreams while you can,
When you've spent all your youth,
You'll have long years for truth,
With your lad still a willy 'ole man.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Woolly Hole Lad
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Jul 13 - 01:48 PM

Thanks gnomad. Explains why I couldn't find a link to it, spelled it wrong.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Woolly Hole Lad
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 16 Jul 13 - 04:57 PM

There have been a couple of threads on the song:

Lyr Req: Willy 'Ole Lad (Keith Marsden)" has lyrics and Keith Marsden's intro from Picking Sooty Blackberries.

Also Lyr Req: Willy 'Ole Lad

(There's also one short closed thread and a thread on a parody)

Mick

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Woolly Hole Lad
From: gnomad
Date: 16 Jul 13 - 05:08 PM

Funny that. I was sure this wasn't new on here, but found nowt when searching. It seems our guest wasn't the only one to stumble.