Lyr Add: Maginot Waltz (Ralph McTell)

31 May 02 - 07:08 PM (#720799)
Subject: Lyr Add: MAGINOT WALTZ (Ralph McTell)
From: The Walrus

This song has been running through my head for the last few hours (some would say there's nothing to get in its way) and this is an attempt to exorcise it, as much as anything.

I've checked the database and the forum search and come up with no hits for charabanc or Maginot and few for Brighton (none relevant), so, here goes.


MAGINOT WALTZ
(Ralph McTell)

All off to Brighton in a charabanc,
Albert played his banjo and how we sang!
The beer was expensive but the laughter was free.
Oh, how we do love to all be beside the sea!

Albert had a cousin named Marjorie,
And I had been noticin' that she had noticed me.
I quickly decided, if she didn't mind it,
I would spend the day in her gay company.

We shared a plate o' whelks, strollin' side-by-side.
I said she weren't too old to take a donkey ride,
But I didn't mind when she laughed and said no,
So we paused for a while and listened to the minstrel show.

There was a notice at the Palace Pier.
It said there was to be a dance that night and it wasn't dear.
I explained, of course, that I could only waltz,
And so we waltzed to every tune and air.

Nine o'clock come round; we had to take the charabanc,
And Albert was too drunk to play the banjo, but still we sang,
All except Marjorie; I could tell at a glance,
Because me and Albert was leavin' for France.

I said, "We'll both be home in a week or two.
Me and Albert and Lord Kitchener will teach the Hun a thing or two.
I'm sure to return; after me do not yearn,
And we will waltz together all our lives through".


The old hands probably not only know the song backwards, but it wasn't listed that I could see, so I thought to post it (I give it half an hour tops before someone posts a complete set of references and links to half a dozen sites with it on)[G]

I picked it up off the radio many years ago and, for the life of me, I can't remember who it's by. (The title, of course, is deceptive. Maginot was only a sergeant-major by the end of the Great War. The Maginot Line was very much for the Second World War.)

I hope someone finds this useful. (It certainly seems to have helped get it out of my head.)

Regards

Walrus.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDs3LP9JkEI

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01 Jun 22 - 11:51 AM (#4143106)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Maginot Waltz (Ralph McTell)
From: Brock

Thank you for posting these lyrics!
I have just been loaned a CD of Mark Dowding (Travelling Tales) which includes this lovely song. The sleeve notes say 'A song of innocence just prior to the Great War'.
Now to learn it with guitar..

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23 Aug 22 - 04:33 AM (#4150798)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Maginot Waltz (Ralph McTell)
From: Tony Rees

The Maginot line was a feature of WW2, did not exist at the period set... otherwise a lovely song.

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