Lyr Req: A song about builders

Subject: Lyr Req: A song about builders
From: GUEST,divilthebit
Date: 01 Oct 04 - 09:07 AM

As I'm in the middle of building a new house I was reminded of a song I heard once. The gist was that the house owner was waiting for the plumber but the plumber was waiting for the spark and he was waiting for the carpenter and so on. I was wondering had any of you heard of it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A song about builders
From: webfolk
Date: 01 Oct 04 - 09:26 AM

I have a mate who sings it. I'll ask him for it
It begins,
'it was on a monday morning when the 'plumber' came to call..'

Cheers

www.webfolk.net

Subject: Lyr Add: THE GAS MAN COMETH (Michael Flanders)
From: GUEST,Flash Company
Date: 01 Oct 04 - 09:50 AM

It's called THE GAS MAN COMETH and was written by Michael Flanders:

'Twas on a Monday morning the gas-man came to call.
The gas-tap wouldn't turn. I wasn't getting gas at all.
He tore out all the skirting boards to try and find the main,
And I had to call a carpenter to put them back again!

REF: Oh, it all makes work for the working man to do!

'Twas on a Tuesday morning the carpenter came round.
He hammered and he chiselled, then he said, "Look what I've found.
Your joists are full of dry rot, but I'll put them all to rights."
Then he nailed right through a cable and out went all the lights.

REF

'Twas on a Wednesday morning the electrician came.
He called me Mr Sanderson, which isn't quite my name.
He couldn't reach the fuse box without standing on the bin,
And his foot went through a window so I called the glazier in.

REF

'Twas on a Thursday morning the glazier came along,
With his blowtorch and his putty and his merry glazier's song.
He put another pane in. It took no time at all,
But I had to get a painter in to come and paint the wall!

REF

'Twas on a Friday morning the painter made a start.
With undercoats and overcoats, he painted every part,
Every nook and every cranny, but I found when he was gone,
He'd painted over the gas-tap and I couldn't turn it on!

REF

On Saturday and Sunday, they do no work at all,
So 'twas on a Monday morning that the gas-man came to call!

FC

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A song about builders
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 01 Oct 04 - 09:53 AM

By Flanders & Swan

'Twas on a Monday Morning

'Twas on a Monday a Monday morning the gasman came to call.
I couldn't turn the tap on, I wasn't getting gas at all.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A song about builders
From: webfolk
Date: 01 Oct 04 - 11:47 AM

saved me a job, 'cos he never passes his songs on - lol
cheers all

webfolk.net

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A song about builders
From: breezy
Date: 01 Oct 04 - 11:51 AM

how about 'Builders Bums'?

by Lynne Heraud and Pat Turner

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A song about builders
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Oct 04 - 12:52 PM

This song is nothing but a pathetic, patronising and condescending sneer at the working class, and anybody who even contemplates singing it ought to re-examine their political conscience pretty damn quick.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A song about builders
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 01 Oct 04 - 11:20 PM

Balderdash!

It expresses in a Comical Form the Eternal Frustration of the Working Class who have to take unpaid time off work to wait for the Self Employed Tradesman Class to turn up on time & do a Proper Job in the first place!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A song about builders
From: Leadfingers
Date: 02 Oct 04 - 06:49 AM

There was a parody WAY back then of 'Fourpence a Day' about the UK building industry titled 'Four Pounds a Day' - If it was updated it would have to be 'Forty Pounds a Day' now I think

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A song about builders
From: Tannywheeler
Date: 02 Oct 04 - 12:21 PM

Tear 'em up, Fooles. I'll hold yer coat.
While we're on the subject of builders -- does anyone remember "Why Paddy's Not At Work Today"? How about "The House That Jack Built"?   Tw

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A song about builders
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 02 Oct 04 - 12:47 PM

"Why Paddy's Not At Work Today" (also known by lots of other names) is in the DT.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A song about builders
From: Gorgeous Gary
Date: 02 Oct 04 - 04:30 PM

The contractors that just built a store I designed bear an unfortunate striking resemblance to the builders in that song!!!

-- Gary

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A song about builders
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 02 Oct 04 - 06:56 PM

Just for the record, both "The Gasman Cometh" and "Four Pounds a Day" are in DigiTrad

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A song about builders
From: Charley Noble
Date: 03 Oct 04 - 02:59 PM

There's a long tradition of complaints against builders, that can be traced back for thousands of years, at least as far back as the Babylonian Empire. Sometime between 1792 and 1750 B.C. one Hammurabi, the 6th and best known king of the first Amorite Dynasty, issued a model building code. Unlike more contemporary codes, representing some compromise between social priorities and technical requirements, the Hammurabi Code is clear and to the point. Especially so for those who transgressed it:

228          If a builder builds a house for a man and completes it, that man shall pay him two shekels of silver per sar (approximately 12 square feet) of house as his wage.

229        If a builder has built a house for a man and his work is not strong, and if the house he has built falls in and kills the householder, that builder shall be slain.

230        If the child of the householder be killed, the child of that builder shall be slain.

231        If the slave of the householder be killed, he shall give slave for slave to the householder.

232        If goods have been destroyed, he shall replace all that has been destroyed; and because the house that he built was not made strong, and it has fallen in, he shall restore the fallen house out of his own material.

233        If a builder has built a house for a man, and his work is not done properly and a wall shifts, then that builder shall make that wall good with his own silver.

This is excerpted from my introduction to the draft Housing and Neighborhood Song Book.

Warm regards,
Landlady's Daughter

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A song about builders
From: open mike
Date: 03 Oct 04 - 08:01 PM

then there is john prine's "Grandpa was a carpenter."
..."he was level on the level"

Charley? a daughter?? how so>?