Lyr Req: comic song about Hanging a Monkey

Subject: Lyr Req: comic song about Hanging a Monkey
From: GUEST,sciencegeek
Date: 27 Feb 17 - 01:21 PM

years ago a friends group would perform a British? song about a monkey that survived a ship wreak only to be hung as French? spy by the naive locals... oh, how I hate "oldtimers"... aka can't remember sh*t... any help appreciated

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: comic song about Hanging a Monkey
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 27 Feb 17 - 01:39 PM

Famously this was well-known and about Hartlepool in the UK. There are postcards with the words. I have one somewhere. The usual title is 'The Fishermen hung the Monkey'. However I have a vague memory that the song was earlier than the Hartlepool connection and had been applied in some form to other places. Like the song Brian O'Lynn which was first a skit on Scots (Tom-a-Lin) and then switched to an Irishman about 1800, this story was a skit on several other places/races.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: comic song about Hanging a Monkey
From: StephenH
Date: 27 Feb 17 - 01:39 PM

I thought I'd replied to this but I guess not. Perhaps you're thinking of "The Hartlepool Monkey" I first heard it when Vin Garbutt did it but it was written by Alan Wilkinson of the Teeside Fettlers.
Here's one link I found:
http://www.stanlaundon.com/monkey.html

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: comic song about Hanging a Monkey
From: GUEST,sciencegeek
Date: 27 Feb 17 - 01:49 PM

YES! that's the one... many thanks for the help... mudcatters are such a treasure trove of arcane info, lol

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: comic song about Hanging a Monkey
From: Jacob B
Date: 27 Feb 17 - 02:01 PM

Here's a link to the song in the Mudcat database:

http://mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=9730

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: comic song about Hanging a Monkey
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 27 Feb 17 - 02:10 PM

Okay, here's another one.
1865 'Fishermen and Monkey' FL In Greenock Town I've heard it said'
printed in Glasgow and in Dundee. I wonder when it was first applied to Hartlepool. The postcard I have is about 1910 so it predates that.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: comic song about Hanging a Monkey
From: StephenH
Date: 27 Feb 17 - 02:54 PM

Jacob B - yes, I should have looked there first. It's a long and interesting thread on the subject.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: comic song about Hanging a Monkey
From: StephenH
Date: 27 Feb 17 - 02:59 PM

Sorry, should have said there is also a long and interesting thread containing other songs on the subject - http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=2413.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: comic song about Hanging a Monkey
From: ketchdana
Date: 27 Feb 17 - 08:18 PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQwQ_nPhx-o

where Jez Lowe performs his song Simian Son (or the Hartlepool Monkey Revenge song). Lots of fun!
(That hairylittlebastard.com referenced in the song doesn't exist any more. It usta, pointing back, I think, to Jez's site www.jezlowe.com)

..Bob

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: comic song about Hanging a Monkey
From: GUEST,kenny
Date: 28 Feb 17 - 04:56 AM

There's a North-East of Scotland version of this called "The Boddamers Hinged The Monkey", recorded by Aberdeen trio "The Gaugers". I'll try to post the lyrics later.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: comic song about Hanging a Monkey
From: GUEST,Guest - Rabee
Date: 28 Feb 17 - 07:11 AM

Here is the Gaugers singing this song Arthur Watson sings the verses Other two members of the trio are the late Peter Hall and Tom Speirs.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/pvi7f3ffq1chdi5/06_Gaugers%2C_The_-_The_Boddamers_Hinged_the_Monkey.mp3

Boddam is a wee village just south of Peterhead in Aberdeenshire. I used to live there in the late 50s As can be expected the Boddamers denied any truth in the story

Boddamers

BB

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: comic song about Hanging a Monkey
From: Mo the caller
Date: 28 Feb 17 - 03:33 PM

Are you telling me that it didn't happen in Hartlepool?
I know it's true - someone who lived in West told me when I worked on Teesside 50 years ago.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: comic song about Hanging a Monkey
From: GUEST,kenny
Date: 28 Feb 17 - 04:46 PM

No, I never stated any such thing. I'm merely telling you that there is a song in the NE of Scotland which tells very nearly the same story. Here is the background to the song from the sleeve notes from "Awa' Wi' A Rovin' Sailor", recorded by the "Gaugers" in 1994 :

"Boddam is a small coastal village just south of Peterhead. The story goes that during the Napoleonic wars, a strange ship was wrecked off the coast there, and that the only survivor was the ship's pet monkey, who climbed up and clung on to the main mast.The animal had been dressed in a sailor's outfit, and the "Bodammers", having never seen a Frenchman, took it that the monkey was of that nationality, perhaps even Napoleon himself. The villagers tried to hang this enemy of their country, a difficult task, since the monkey hung on to the rope with its' tail.
The story is related by the people of Peterhead to stigmatise their country cousins from Boddam and the version here is a collation of verses from Isobel Baird and Jake Mitchell of Peterhead. There are a number of similar pieces from around the coast ; one collected by Gavin Grieg placing the incident at Cullen, and an English version from Hartlepool more elaborately written by a music hall performer Ned Corvan".
The notes were written by the late Peter Hall.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: comic song about Hanging a Monkey
From: Bugsy
Date: 28 Feb 17 - 11:49 PM

Just goes to show that Urban Myths are not a new phenomenon

Cheers

Bugsy

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: comic song about Hanging a Monkey
From: GUEST,Some bloke
Date: 01 Mar 17 - 02:50 AM

At the maritime museum in Hartlepool, a poster mentions the story. It also reckons the event took place further north in Sunderland.

Towns and rivalry eh?

Hartlepool is just as famous as the home of the newspaper cartoon Andy Capp, as the late MGM and I used to point out as we quoted him here on Mudcat.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: comic song about Hanging a Monkey
From: Effsee
Date: 01 Mar 17 - 07:58 AM

And then there's H'Angus the Mayor of Hartlepool!    https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjKsJGIrLXSAhUIAsAKHemCAckQFggaMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.bbc.co.uk%2F2%2Fhi%2Fuk_news%2Fpolitics%2F1965569.stm&usg=AFQjCNFnqtDBfTGtzctYSx9Bp1D6c-Vc_Q&bvm=bv.148441817,d.d24