Lyr Add: The Grey Flannel Line (parody)

Subject: Lyr Add: THE GREY FLANNEL LINE (Robin Hayes)
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 26 May 03 - 11:03 AM

THE GREY FLANNEL LINE
(Robin Hayes)

I stack the shirts in big washing machine,
I use the finest soap to clean,
At day's end, you can hear me say,
That's ten thousand shirts, that I've washed today.
And it's one more shirt on the grey flannel line.

I place the shirts in big press that steams,
Take great care to mind the seams.
They say Bastard Tom'll see me later today,
Slip him the blade, and he'll go away.
And it's one more shirt on the grey flannel line.

Scarface Bill brought us some news,
The warden's home, having tea with the screws.
Farmer Brown, he keeps some swine,
What they won't eat, is yours and mine.
And it's one more shirt on the grey flannel line.

They've kept me here for weary years,
And now I have no need for fears.
A hour ago, I heard Jim say,
Young Johnny goes to the chair today.
And it's one more shirt on the grey flannel line.

If these stout bars could only feel,
My heart would melt right through the steel,
Surely my soul longs to fly away,
To be with my love this bright summer's day.
And there'll be no more shirts on the grey flannel line.

Words and Original Tune © Robin Hayes 2000 - All Rights Reserved

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Grey Flannel Line.
From: Harry Basnett
Date: 26 May 03 - 01:23 PM

So its not the Cyril Tawney tune, then?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Grey Flannel Line.
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 26 May 03 - 02:07 PM

Why not? It works for me.

Subject: Lyr Add: GREY FLANNEL LINE (Vikki Appleton Fielden
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 26 May 03 - 05:44 PM

But there's also Grey Flannel Line - a sewing chantey by Carol Tawney, "discovered" by Vikki Appleton Fielden. This does use Cyril's tune:

I work my shift, day after day
Sew thermal undies, all in grey
Perhaps pyjamas, now and then
But then it's back to kecks again
It's one more day on the grey flannel line

Don't mind the grain nor an open seam
A button fly never worries me
But the dullest time in a boring day
Is to watch the knickers roll away
It's one more day on the grey flannel line

No silks or satins do I sew
Them pants and vests, they come and go
Even when corsets roll on by
It's still so boring I could cry
Just one more stay on the grey flannel line

Oh Lord, if dreams were only real
I'd get my hands on some satin teal
Make racy shreds to help me score
And work the grey flannel line no more.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Grey Flannel Line.
From: Charley Noble
Date: 27 May 03 - 07:50 AM

What creative minds!

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Grey Flannel Line.
From: Harry Basnett
Date: 27 May 03 - 03:50 PM

I was referring to the 'words and original tune' by Robin Hayes bit.....

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Grey Flannel Line.
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 07 Sep 03 - 03:31 AM

Lost track of this thread

Never heard of the Sewing Shanty before.

I was at a "Medieval Faire" well over 10 years ago where the guy working the CD player kept playing a certain June Tabor (I think) CD with a lot of "Medieval Feel" Songs and it had this damn song on it about steamships! It got to be a running joke among some of us about never having heard of "Medieval Steamships"!

I wanted to do a parody along the lines of "Hang out the washing on the siegfried line", but it wouldn't happen.

About 10 years later I was doing my washing at a laundramat, and the first verse wrote itself. The next day, the rest of the song appeared in about an hour and a half.

But it got out of control and ended up as a little different and much less humourous than I had intended.

Yes. It can be done to the Cyril Tawney Tune.... same rhythm pattern you see.

Robin

Subject: Lyr Add: Launderland
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 07 Sep 03 - 04:36 AM

Speaking of washing machine songs, and parodies, there's also this one, which I wrote (with the able assistance of L.A. songwriter Sarah Lifton) at Camp Harmony.

Aloha,
Mark

LAUNDERLAND
      lyrics (c) 1988 Mark Cohen and Sarah Lifton
      tune: Aragon Mill by Si Kahn

      At the north end of town
      Half a block west of Grand
      There's a faded old sign
      And it says "Launderland"

      But there's no steam at all
      Coming out of the vents
      For the washers all broke down
      One just stole my ninety cents

      CHO:
      And my closet is bare
      And my hamper's full again
      Tell me what will I wear
      Rinse and spin, rinse and spin

      Well my Maytag is broke
      It just burped, coughed, and died
      Now I'm scrounging for change
      For a three-ounce box of Tide

      CHO

      There's a row of plastic chairs
      Some are orange, some are green
      There's a puddle on the floor
      Something's wrong with each machine

      One is filled up with suds
      One is fouled up with dirt
      One just stole all my change
      One just ate my last shirt

      CHO

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Grey Flannel Line.
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 07 Sep 03 - 06:25 AM

I am curious about the Robin Hayes lyrics.
It would have to be American with the reference to going to the chair, but the use of 'screw' for prison officer I thought uniquely British.
And who was Farmer Brown?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Grey Flannel Line.
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 07 Sep 03 - 09:23 AM

Hey!

It's a Song!

I made it up as I went along! The Muse had me by the throat... or the ear...

Who cares about facts anyway...

Aussies are partly British in origin, but we really do have some Citizens here who want to insist on their 5th Amendment Rights. Too many damn US TV Shows...

Which is hysterically funny, for us as the default 51st US state,
:-)
because the 5th Amendment to the AUSTRALIAN Constitution, was passed in about 1969, declared that Aboriginals and Torres Straight Islanders were now citizens and had all right of other citizens, including, voting, consumption of alcohol, wages, etc...

That should probably be noted for completeness in the "Ozstrine Dreamtime" thread, BTW... :-)

Pleased to see that US citizens (according to a ruling about some part of Cuba I never heard of before!) now can expect to not be dealt with under US law outside the US...

"And who was Farmer Brown?"
What?! You never heard of "Brown's Cows"?!!
Usage: 'Who do you think you are straggling in late like that?
       A mob of Browns' Cows?'
It was a small market garden holding, you see. A cream Dairy farm, which fed the skim milk and garbage and resturant waste to the pigs...
That's now illegal in oz btw...

Oh, BTW, if you make real money out of singing it, tell me and I'll let you know where to send the dump trucks full of cash... :-)

BTW, I love Launderland. I want to work that up and sing it.

Fits well to Belfast Mill (which i suppose is a pinch of Aragon Mill). Great tune, especially my harmonising part on the Low whistle - every line the same, 4 sets of - note, note, step up, step down, then jump down a tone and repeat... basically... :-) they just kick me in the shins on the last line.... :-)

Robin

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Grey Flannel Line.
From: Charley Noble
Date: 07 Sep 03 - 09:38 AM

Robin-

You do great work and soon will be flooded with millions in royalties, as will, no doubt, Mark Cohen.

And, Mark, where's your laundrymat verse about the machine where everything within is turning a delicate chartreuse?

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Grey Flannel Line.
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 07 Sep 03 - 09:44 AM

Ah, that was a Noble thing of you to say, Charley!

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Grey Flannel Line.
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 16 Sep 03 - 11:26 PM

Mahalo a nui loa, Charley!

I've recently been in touch with the aforementioned Sarah Lifton, who gently reminded me that the idea of changing Si Kahn's line "weave and spin" to "rinse and spin" was actually hers. So, to set the record straight: Sarah wrote the song, assisted by me.

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Grey Flannel Line.
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 16 Sep 03 - 11:45 PM

A bit of Aussie Folklore relevant to

Launderland

above

In Australia now, as far as I can tell, they don't seem to want to give you little cardboard boxes of soap powder any more for a coin. The coin machine just gives you a "chunder" of powder which hopefully you can catch in one of the little recycled margarine or yoghurt plastic tubs that are usually lying around somewhere in the place...

And the latest money saving idea?

No tap or tub, so if you get soap powder all over your hands, you just have to lick it off... :-)

Robin

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Grey Flannel Line.
From: open mike
Date: 17 Sep 03 - 12:57 AM

isnt the original the grey funnel line?
brings interesting imgaes to mind, too.
funnels floating on the briney foam....

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Grey Flannel Line.
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 17 Sep 03 - 04:24 AM

open mike   - I had heard it first...

In terms of washing/machine songs

I Want My Money Back - Saffire is kinda cute...

Robin

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Grey Flannel Line.
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 17 Sep 03 - 04:26 AM

Chunder! The last time I heard that word was at our medical school talent show, must have been 1974, and Dr. Jeff Maisels (who, it should be noted, is a Kiwi) sang a song whose chorus ended with "And we'll chunder in the old Pacific sea!" There was also a line like, "Crack another tube of beer and prawns with me"...do you know the song I'm talking about, Robin? (If you imagine drinking lots and lots of beer on board a rolling boat--or even on shore--you might figure out what "chunder" means!)

Yes, openmike, Cyril Tawney wrote "The Grey Funnel Line", referring to the Royal Navy, whose ships, like the US Navy's, are painted grey (well, the US Navy's are painted gray, but who's counting?), including the funnels. The title is a nod to the Black Ball Line and other shipping companies made famous in earlier songs. No doubt after the clipper ships gave way to steam there was a Red Funnel Line, etc. (By way of demystification, if needed, a ship's funnels are what the uninitiated would probably call smokestacks.)

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Grey Flannel Line.
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Sep 03 - 07:14 AM

So whats you're original tune then?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Grey Flannel Line.
From: JennyO
Date: 17 Sep 03 - 10:53 AM

Speaking of interesting images, I recall a time I was singing the original, the Grey Funnel Line, and I came to the line -

"there was a time when my heart was free,
Like a floating spar on the open sea"

I must have been in a silly frame of mind at the time, because an unbidden image came into my mind of a floating SPA bath bobbing about on the sea, and ever since then, I've had trouble maintaining my composure through that bit.

Then there's a parody done by the Shiny Bum Singers, which goes-

"....and it's one more byte, on the old IBM." Where are you Canberra Chris? (he's a Shiny Bum)

Jenny

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Grey Flannel Line.
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 17 Sep 03 - 02:10 PM

Dadadada Dah, Dadadada Dah,
Dadadada Dah, Dah Dah Dah Dah,
Dadadada Dah, Dadadada Dah,
Dadadada Dah, Dah Dah Dah Dah.

with a little more melody than that... :-0

Robin

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Grey Flannel Line.
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 17 Sep 03 - 02:16 PM

Chunder is a good Aussie term, as is "technicolour yawn"... the way the powder pours out brings that word to mind...

There is a recent thread where somone is looking for the Moreton bay Parody on "And we'll chunder in the old Pacific sea!" (the original you mention is supposedly in the DT), but I don't think the parody has turned up yet. (If you know it, take it to that thread there please!) :-)


Robin

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Grey Flannel Line.
From: GUEST,Melani
Date: 30 Apr 04 - 07:01 PM

I guess I missed this thread the first time around. I seem to remember hearing somewhere that there is a US National Park Service version called "The Green Olive Line." I'd love to hear it...

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Grey Flannel Line.
From: rich-joy
Date: 30 Apr 04 - 07:40 PM

Me Significant Other, Poor Misery, writ a parody to Cyril's chune called "The Maleny Washing Line" - which we perform every Wet Season (we're in the sub-tropics) at our Folk Club, here in Queensland.
I'll post the lyrics one day when I'm less pressed for time ...

Cheers! R-J

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Grey Flannel Line.
From: Paul from Hull
Date: 01 May 04 - 03:26 PM

*LOL*

Heard OF this parody, but never seen or heard any of the words!

I have been known to sing Grey Funnel Line, so glad to finally see this!

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Grey Flannel Line.
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 01 May 04 - 09:05 PM

Clearly, Grey Funnel Line is a song that lends itself to parody. To my mind, the best is one Les Barker wrote, which appears on his CD "Tubular Dogs"--The Grey Tunnel Line, concerning the Chunnel. Brilliantly sung by some chap named Tawney.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Grey Flannel Line.
From: GUEST,Wotcha in Napoli
Date: 02 May 04 - 02:04 PM

Well recently, "somewhere" in the landlocked Former Yugoslav(e) Republic of Macedonia, I managed to find some Royal Naval CPOs who appreciated a few verses of the orginal Grey Funnel Line ... but they had a hard time remembering that 2005 is the 200th anniversay of Trafalgar; go figure.

Cheers,

Brian