The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #71305 Message #1220615
Posted By: Roger the Skiffler
07-Jul-04 - 09:22 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: London Jack of All Trades
Subject: Lyr Add: STREETS OF LONDON / JACK OF ALL TRADES
I posted this a few years ago in thanks at receiving the Birmingham version from Tim Salt:
To reciprocate, here is the London version off the Critics album Sweet Thames Flow Softly (Argo ZDA47)
Confusingly they call it The Streets of London. The sleeve notes say: "Words: John Halsted, Tune: Irish Traditional Dublin Street Song 'Jack of All Trades'. John Halsted, a product of Westminster Choir School and now an outstanding atomic physicist, wrote a number of songs during the skiffle era. This is the best of them."
THE STREETS OF LONDON
(John Halsted)
1. I'm a roving blade of many a trade. I've every trade and all trades.
And if you want to know my name, then call me Jack of all trades.
I'd often heard of London town, the pride of every nation.
At twenty-one it's here I've come to try for a situation.
CHORUS: I'm a roving Jack of all trades, of every trade and all trades,
And if you want to know me name, they call me Jack of all trades.
2. In Covent Garden I began and there I was a porter.
My boss and I we soon fell out which made acquaintance shorter.
Then I drove a number 46 from Waterloo to Wembley,
Where I became an engineer on aeroplane assembly.
3. In Charlotte Street I was a chef, in Stepney Green a tailor,
But very soon they laid us off, so I became a sailor.
In Rotherhithe a stevedore, in Gray's Inn Road a grinder.
On Hampstead Heath I lost my wife, it's sad but I could never find her.
4. In Downing Street I was a lord. In Denmark Street I made songs.
In every street and all streets with my banjo I played songs.
In Harley Street I was a quack, in Turnham Green a teacher,
On Highbury Hill a half-back, and on Primrose Hill a preacher.
5. In Gower Street I'd furniture. With fleas and bugs I sold it.
In Leicester Square a big white card I often stood to hold it.
By London Bridge I'd lodging beds for all who made their way there,
For London is of high renown and Scotsmen often stay there.
6. I'm a roving blade of many a trade. I've every trade and all trades.
And if you want to know my name, then call me Jack of all trades.
I've tried my hand at everything from herringbones to hat pegs,
But I can raise my head and say I've never been a blackleg.
[For non-UK readers: no 46 is a 'bus route, Primrose Hill, like Tower Hill is a place where people go to stand on soapboxes and address the interested, the big white card is a sandwich board.]
RtS