Origins: I'm not a Pheasant Plucker...

Subject: lyrics for "Pheasant Plucker"
From:
Date: 12 Nov 97 - 02:26 AM

There was a rather bawdy (well, innuendo-based) folk song doing rather well i the UK in the middle -> lat '80s, the choruses of which were based around the popular tongue-twister 'I'm not pheasant plucker, I'm a...', etc. Only the choruses have stayed with me -- does anyone have lyrics for the verses.

TIA

JP Brown

Subject: RE: Pheasant Plucker
From:
Date: 09 Jan 98 - 02:50 AM

The version I know of the song you are referring to is descended from the American school of blues. The CD I have it on is out on loan at the moment, so I can't look up the exact title, (or lyrics -- sorry!) but it IS taken from the first line of the chorus -- that being, "Stick out your can, here comes the garbage man."

Subject: RE: Pheasant Plucker
From: Wolfgang Hell
Date: 09 Jan 98 - 05:47 AM

JP Brown, If you enter "pheasant plucker" in the search window in the upper right hand corner you get that song.
Wolfgang

Subject: RE: Pheasant Plucker
From: Peter
Date: 09 Jan 98 - 07:36 AM

For what it's worth, the version Wolfgang refers to on the database is different from the one that a humour/folk group called The Wurzels recorded in the late 1970s. I don't remember all of it, but the chorus was

The verses were

Me daddy was a poor man, he worked hard to earn his pay;
He went out a-shooting pheasants which I sat and plucked all day.
I don't want to end up like him, plucking pheasants till I'm dead;
Got to be another way to earn me bread.

[chorus]
Birds flying overhead, most of the day
Got to find a target, just to make me way. . .

I'm not a pp, I'm a pp's son
And I'll sit here plucking ps till the pp comes

Tried to be an entertainer, be a joker or a clown;
But the folks who cam eto see me they just had to put me down;
Tried to be an undertaker, but I don't like wearing black;
Got to be another way to earn me whack.

[chorus]
Birds flying overhead, most of the day
Got to find a target, just to make me way. . .

I'm not a pp, I'm a pp's son
And I'll sit here plucking ps till the pp comes

Subject: RE: Pheasant Plucker
From: Bert
Date: 09 Jan 98 - 05:12 PM

I seem to remember a Square Dance of that name back in the late Fifties or Early Sixties.
About the time when good sound equipment was allowing callers a lot more freedom and Modern Square Dancing was evolving out of the "Fifties/Traditional" style.
One of the early dances where the dancers were allowed to feel completely lost and rely solely on the caller to get them home.
I think it went...

Dive Thru', Pass Thru',Right & Left Through , a few times in succession.

Those were the days, Happy memories.

Subject: RE: Pheasant Plucker
From: alison
Date: 09 Jan 98 - 10:19 PM

Hi

The Wurzels did some good stuff....?!!!!??

Who could forget "I've got a brand new combine harvester and I'll give you the key."

Slainte

alison

Subject: RE: Pheasant Plucker
From: MARGIE
Date: 14 Sep 98 - 06:31 PM

who could foget a song by such a Trend setting band like the WURZELS .They changed my life for good!

Subject: RE: Pheasant Plucker
From:
Date: 14 Sep 98 - 11:44 PM

I am a cider drinker . . .

Subject: RE: Pheasant Plucker
From: alison
Date: 15 Sep 98 - 02:58 AM

Hi,

there was another one about "scrumpy" too.

There's another verse to the pheasant plucker.

I'm not a pheasant plucker I'm a pheasant plucker's mate
And I'll keep on plucking pheasants 'cos the pheasant pluckers late.

slainte

alison

Subject: RE: Pheasant Plucker
From: alison
Date: 15 Sep 98 - 07:13 AM

Or what about...

I'm not a thistle scyther, I'm a thistle scyther's son
I'm sitting scything thistles 'til the thistle scyther comes.

Slainte

alison

Subject: RE: Pheasant Plucker
From: Pete M
Date: 15 Sep 98 - 04:16 PM

Ummm? "scistle thyther"? "Cecil Thighser"? Maybe my flashers raincoat index is low this morning, but I don't get that one Alison.

Pete M

Subject: RE: Pheasant Plucker
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 15 Sep 98 - 08:03 PM

Gee- We used to sing of Fig Pluckers...

Subject: RE: Pheasant Plucker
From: alison
Date: 15 Sep 98 - 08:08 PM

hi,

a scythe is a small sickle(like the thing the grim reaper has), for cutting down vegetation.

a good tongue twister, it's just a variation on the original.

slainte

alison

Subject: RE: Pheasant Plucker
From: Jack Hickman
Date: 15 Sep 98 - 08:41 PM

Alison

You've got it bass ackwards. A sickle is a small scythe. The forerunner of the weed-whacker.

Jack

Subject: RE: Pheasant Plucker
From: Pete M
Date: 15 Sep 98 - 10:59 PM

Hi Alison, yes I've used a sickle and a scythe. (Scythes are used for cutting grass for hay, sickles for harvesting grain.)

The point about the "pheasant pluckers" song is not that it is a tongue twister per se, but the rather interesting spoonerism that is normally created if you try and say it quickly. Ditto fig pluckers. Hence my confusion.

Pete M

Subject: RE: Pheasant Plucker
From: gargoyle
Date: 16 Sep 98 - 12:06 AM

A crew of Englishers that included "A Wurzel" that I took out for a two week adventure on the lakes and rivers of Maine in the late 70's sent me a tape.

My favorite was in regard to a local bus-stop.

What do we want with a light?
In the dark we can handle alright
If they had one when
All our dad's were young men
Some of us wouldn't be here tonight

Subject: RE: Pheasant Plucker
From: bob marley
Date: 18 Nov 98 - 08:15 AM

come back ye got me tankard

Subject: RE: Pheasant Plucker
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 18 Nov 98 - 06:21 PM

Just think--if the weed ahacker had been invented in 1915 or so, the Soviet Union might have had an entirely different flag...

Subject: RE: Pheasant Plucker
From: DonMeixner
Date: 19 Nov 98 - 12:10 AM

I'm not th Iceman, I'm the Iceman's son, But I'll keep you cool 'till the Iceman comes.

Subject: RE: Pheasant Plucker
From: Adge
Date: 23 Dec 98 - 09:51 AM

If thee's like the Wurzaws thee's wanna look at the Wurzelmania zite.

Oh Ar

Adge

Subject: RE: Pheasant Plucker
From: Vicki
Date: 23 Dec 98 - 11:40 AM

Is this song a relative of Ol' Dick Potter, the chicken plucker, plucked them chickens night and day, Ol Dick Potter, the chicken plucker, plucked his life away...????

Vic

Subject: Pheasant Plucker
From: GUEST,Susie
Date: 14 Dec 14 - 05:15 PM

I know that the "Pheasant Plucker" song[s] have a music hall history - I found one reference to the 1840s. Can anyone throw any light on the song, variations in lyrics, tune [that'd be quite handy!] and who wrote it, where it was first recorded as being performed - and when?
Awaiting responses with interest!

Subject: RE: Pheasant Plucker
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 14 Dec 14 - 05:54 PM

Use the box above to search the DT library and the Forum.

Subject: RE: Pheasant Plucker
From: GUEST,Frank
Date: 14 Dec 14 - 09:28 PM

As such, I cannot help with your query.
However, as a Tongue Twister, the following may be of interest.

I am not a Pheasant Plucker, nor am I a Pheasant Plucker's Son,
But I'll pluck Pheasants 'till the Pheasant Pluckers come.

Be careful, and slow.

Subject: RE: Pheasant Plucker
From: bubblyrat
Date: 15 Dec 14 - 08:59 AM

Yes ! Slightly different ;
I am a Pheasant Plucker , I'm a Pheasant Plucker's son,

And I'll be plucking pheasants , ' til the pheasant plucking's done .

Meanwhile ; There's an old Cock Pheasant , and he ain't too pleasant,

Up the Clump,Up the Clump ,Up the Clump! ( etc ).

Subject: RE: Pheasant Plucker
From: Lighter
Date: 15 Dec 14 - 12:32 PM

1840s?

Subject: RE: Pheasant Plucker
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 15 Dec 14 - 02:22 PM

For the record, the version I know goes

I'm not a pheasant plucker
I'm a pheasant plucker's son,
And I'm only plucking pheasants
Till the pheasant plucker comes.

Learned long ago from David Weeks, originally of Bexley, Kent, but presumably learned while a drama teacher at Forest Hill School, London.

≈M≈

Subject: RE: Pheasant Plucker
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 15 Dec 14 - 03:52 PM

Only know it as a recitation, BTW; but I find, when I think of it, that it 'sings itself in my head' to the tune of Annie Laurie.

Subject: RE: Pheasant Plucker
From: GUEST,Dave Hunt
Date: 15 Dec 14 - 11:46 PM

I'm not the pheasant plucker, I'm the pheasant pluckers mate
I'm only plucking pheasants 'coz the pheasant pluckers late


How about.. 'Peggy Babcock, Peggy Babcock etc....' , getting faster, looks simple but just try it!

Subject: RE: Pheasant Plucker
From: Louie Roy
Date: 16 Dec 14 - 12:50 AM

This kinda reminds me of the Peter pepper

Subject: RE: Origins: I'm not a Pheasant Plucker...
From: Musket
Date: 16 Dec 14 - 03:39 AM

As a teenager I was in a band that inflicted a version on our local folk clubs from time to time.

The end of verse not mentioned on this thread yet is, as I recall

I'm not a pheasant plucker I'm a pheasant plucker's wife
And when you're plucking pheasants it's a pheasant plucking life.

Mate, son etc. They're all there too!

Lovely reading about "Up the Clump.". One of my favourite Adge Cutler comedy songs. I still have a live recording somewhere where during the middle 8 he shouted to Reg Quantrill "this'n nothing but hedgehog! Get off moi brown suede gaitors!"

Subject: RE: Origins: I'm not a Pheasant Plucker...
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Sep 21 - 03:00 AM

I`m not the pheasant plucker I`m the pheasant pluckers friend,
and I`m only plucking pheasants as a means unto an end.

Subject: RE: Origins: I'm not a Pheasant Plucker...
From: GUEST,jugmws
Date: 19 Sep 21 - 08:25 AM

This version is the best I have heard. It is now on YT. Copy this link to hear it there
       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m09eEgy2Zhk
They broke up in the early 2000's
m

Subject: RE: Origins: I'm not a Pheasant Plucker...
From: The Og
Date: 19 Sep 21 - 09:23 AM

I, too, recall a fig plucker...