Lyr Req: Good English Ale

Subject: Good English Ale
From: artbrooks
Date: 04 Apr 02 - 07:04 PM

Looking for lyrics to a song that might be called "Ale" or "Good English Ale". the last two lines in the chorus are:
A lump of fatty bacon
And a pint of good ale

I've had no luck in the usual places.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Good English Ale
From: greg stephens
Date: 04 Apr 02 - 07:11 PM

Ale ale glorious ale/served up in pewter it tells its own tale/some folks like radishes and some curly kale/but give i boiled parsnips and a gurt dish of taties/ and a lump of fatty bacon and a pint of good ale. Well,that's the chorus.I hope some computery person will provide you with a blue clicky for the rest, but if not I'll type out the verses for you tomorrow.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Good English Ale
From: greg stephens
Date: 04 Apr 02 - 07:16 PM

PS I'm feeling a bit lethargic because I've just come in from The Black's Head in Stoke where i've been supping some.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Good English Ale
From: masato sakurai
Date: 04 Apr 02 - 07:36 PM

Glorious Ale in the DT.

~Masato

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Good English Ale
From: greg stephens
Date: 04 Apr 02 - 07:39 PM

Thanks, Masato, I knew I could rely on you to save me the trouble.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Good English Ale
From: artbrooks
Date: 04 Apr 02 - 08:01 PM

Thanks...the version I had heard didn't have "Glorious" in the title.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Good English Ale
From: Snuffy
Date: 04 Apr 02 - 08:14 PM

Whenever I'm singing the chorus, I have to concentrate really hard to avoid slipping into "Mud, glorious mud"

Ale, ale, glorious ale
Nothing quite like it for cooling the blood.

WassaiL! V

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Good English Ale
From: greg stephens
Date: 04 Apr 02 - 08:20 PM

"mud mud glorious mud" is a parody of "beer beer glorious beer". "Ale ale glorious ale" is a different song. Confusing: theres probably a connection somewhere.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Good English Ale
From: masato sakurai
Date: 04 Apr 02 - 08:25 PM

"Beer, beer, glorious beer" (a bit of it) was sung by Alfred Doolittle in the musical My Fair Lady.

~Masato

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Good English Ale
From: GUEST,Tony
Date: 05 Apr 02 - 12:38 AM

I have it on a compilation album called "Tale of Ale" by a number of British artists. It was also popular in Morris circles when I was in England.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Good English Ale
From: GUEST,CraigS
Date: 05 Apr 02 - 06:31 PM

Horticultural significance, on behalf of my friend Steve Wagstaffe, who always makes the distinction - not curly, but CURLE-EYE kale!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Good English Ale
From: Lucius
Date: 06 Apr 02 - 02:08 AM

If only I could do a blue clickie.....

Look up GOOD ALE in the DT. Similar to Glorious Ale, and often sung in the same circles.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Good English Ale
From: Sky
Date: 06 Apr 02 - 04:50 AM

I looked at the clicky thing - coz I really like this song - but it was missing my favourite verse

"God rest all tea-totallers they drinks water neat - which must rot they gutses and give they damp feet. But give I boiled parsnips…. etc There is definitely more but I can't find my tape to refresh my memory... ho hum, ought to tidy up more I guess

Subject: Lyr Add: GLORIOUS AILE
From: Franky
Date: 06 Apr 02 - 02:33 PM

Hello my friend Please find appended the lyrics you require

GLORIOUS ALE

CHO: Ale, Ale, Glorious Ale
Served up in pewter it tells its own tale,
Some folks like radishes
Some curleye kale
But give I boiled parsnips
And a great dish of taters
And a lump of fatty bacon
And a pint of good ale

When I was a young man my father did say,
Summer is coming and it's time to make hay.
Now when hay is carted don't you never fail.
To drink gaffer's health in a pint of good ale.

Now our MP's in parliament, our safety to keep
Now we hope now we put him there, he won't sit and sleep
But they'll all have my vote if they never fail
To keep down the price of a pint of good ale

Kind regards

Franky

Gosport, Hampshire, England, United Kingdom

HTML line breaks added. --JoeClone, 8-Apr-02.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Good English Ale
From: greg stephens
Date: 06 Apr 02 - 02:39 PM

Subject: Lyr Add: GLORIOUS ALE
From: Franky
Date: 06 Apr 02 - 02:42 PM

Another version

When I was a young man my father did say
The Summer is comin' 'tis time to make hay
And when hay's been carted don't you ever fail
to drink gaffer's health in a pint of good ale

CHORUS: Ale, Ale, Glorious Ale
Served up in pewter, it tells its own tale
Some folks like radishes, some cur-lie kale
But give I boiled parsnips and a gert dish of taters
and a lump of fatty bacon, and a pint of good ale

Our MP's in parliament our faith for to keep
And I hope now we've put 'im there he won't sit and sleep
He'll always get my vote if he doesn't fail
To bring down the price of our good English ale. CHORUS

Some folks is teetotalers, they drink water neat
It must rot their gutses and give 'em damp feet
But as for my part I know I'll not fail
On boiled beef and bacon and Good English Ale. CHORUS

Enjoy

Kind regards

Franky

HTML line breaks added. --JoeClone, 8-Apr-02.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Good English Ale
From: alanww
Date: 10 Sep 13 - 06:57 AM

Earliest origins of Ale, Ale, Glorious Ale?
Thanks.
Alan

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Good English Ale
From: Joe_F
Date: 10 Sep 13 - 11:02 PM

Will Whitely used to sing it "...and give them *webbed* feet". I'm not sure which is funnier.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Good English Ale
From: GUEST,Guest
Date: 11 Sep 13 - 09:44 AM

Suffolk accapella band 'Triangle' sing this with extra verses still.
Check 'em out

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Good English Ale
From: GUEST,SteveG
Date: 11 Sep 13 - 04:08 PM

Cookieless again!

Like Alan I'd also like some thoughts on origins. In my own index I only have the one version collected by Mike Yates from the Cantwell family, Oxon in 1964, and this version has quite a few minor differences from the one I used to sing in the folk clubs in the 60s. I haven't seen any broadside copies though I have a vague recollection of recording a fragment locally. I remember being surprised at finding it in Yorkshire in oral tradition when all the versions I had hitherto heard had a definite west-country feel to them. At the time that suggested a possible origin in a country bumpkin Music Hall song such as those being put out on 78s in the 20s with exaggerated accents.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Good English Ale
From: GUEST,SteveG
Date: 11 Sep 13 - 04:17 PM

Just checked Roud. 6 versions some duplicated. Earliest version there was collected by Francis Collinson in 1945 in Gloucestershire. 1920s Music Hall is looking ever more likely.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Good English Ale
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 20 Sep 13 - 01:36 PM

Information from WorldCat.org:

ALE ALE GLORIOUS ALE appears on an LP called "A Wench, a Whale and a Pint of Good Ale" (Score, [1966]). The album is attributed to Martyn Wyndham-Read, Danny Spooner, Gordon MacIntyre, and Peter Dickie, but it isn't clear whether they all sang on each cut.

ALE GLORIOUS ALE was sung by Denis Manners on a various-artists LP called "Festival at Towersey" (Oxford, UK : Zeus Records, 1968).