10, 20, 30.....years ago

Subject: 10, 20, 30.....years ago
From: GUEST,Len Kennington
Date: 10 Nov 20 - 07:47 AM

I spotted a thread from a few years back for a comic song called "The Egg" - one of the lines is '...10, 20, 30, 40 years ago..' it's a gag inspired by a line in a patriotic ballad - thought it might be 'Drakes Drum' - but it isn't. Anyone tell me what the original song is that includes that line?

Subject: RE: 10, 20, 30.....years ago
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 10 Nov 20 - 08:15 AM

Does this thread help? :-
Tune Req/Lyr Add: The Egg

DC

Subject: RE: 10, 20, 30.....years ago
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 10 Nov 20 - 09:40 AM

The song title in the sheet music is 'Months and months and months'.

Subject: RE: 10, 20, 30.....years ago
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 10 Nov 20 - 09:44 AM

I can't find anything in Kilgarriff that might be the song.

Here's the whole text to that tune in The Egg.

I don't suppose this egg has been laid for months and months and months.
Its calling-up papers have been delayed for months and months and months.
I think perhaps it was laid by some extinct dodo
Ten! Twenty! Thirty! Forty! Fifty years ago!

Subject: RE: 10, 20, 30.....years ago
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Nov 20 - 10:53 AM

Thanks for suggestions - but it's not 'The Egg' I'm looking for.
It's the original ballad from which the phrase "10, 20, 30, 40 years ago" is lifted. It's almost certainly an Edwardian parlour song, and it's likely some of the great balladeers like Peter Dawson would have sung it.

Subject: RE: 10, 20, 30.....years ago
From: GUEST,Len Kennington
Date: 10 Nov 20 - 11:06 AM

O.K. got it - My Old Shako!

Subject: RE: 10, 20, 30.....years ago
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Nov 20 - 01:25 PM

My Old Shako - as close as I come to finding the song is a reference to a source for it.

Subject: RE: 10, 20, 30.....years ago
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 10 Nov 20 - 03:40 PM

Well done, Len. The last line is definitely from My Old Shako. Plenty of recordings online. I can't quite get the rest of the tune in that verse to fit but it is a medley adaptation.

Subject: RE: 10, 20, 30.....years ago
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Nov 20 - 05:09 PM

Link to a very early production of the song.

https://www.alexandria.ucsb.edu/lib/ark:/48907/f38051k6

The 10, 20 30 . . . stanza is there shortly after two minutes in.

Subject: RE: 10, 20, 30.....years ago
From: Mrrzy
Date: 10 Nov 20 - 05:10 PM

I wanna be sedated