The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #16801   Message #159448
Posted By: Roger the skiffler
07-Jan-00 - 04:12 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Jack of All Trades
Subject: Lyr Add: THE STREETS OF LONDON (John Halsted)
Thanks, Tim, now all I have to do is learn it!
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 evry 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