The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #26442 Message #1658948
Posted By: GUEST
01-Feb-06 - 08:15 AM
Thread Name: Lyr ADD: Rawtenstall Annual Fair
Subject: Lyr Add: AT RAWTENSTALL FAIR (Weston & Lee)
I've just recorded the Randolph Sutton version on my new CD "Travelling Tales". I was going to do the "popular" version but found that Bernard Wrigley had just done it on his new CD - "God's Own County" so I had a look on th' internet for Randolph Sutton's version and found a website that puts old 78's onto CD after a bit of a clean up - Randolph Sutton has a CD of his own including a song called - "At Rawtestall Fair" The tune is different and so are the words but it's the same song. There is also a song by Weston and Lee called "At Zummerset Fair" (1917) which I haven't tracked down yet apart from finding that the British Library have a copy of the sheet music but they want a small fortune for sending me a copy! I'll have to send someone in there to have a look.
Here are the words to "At Rawtenstall Fair"
"At Rawtenstall Fair" by R.P. Weston and Bert Lee
(written sometime before 1932 - recorded by Randolph Sutton in 1932)
Just behind the gasworks down in Rawtenstall
That's a little town in Lancashire
They'd some fun up there, ee they did an all
Last Friday week they had a fair up theer
They had coconuts swings and figure eights
Switchback robots and a roundabout
Eeh and everyone said what gradely fun
When the lads and lasses heard the showman shout
Walk up walk up come and see the fat girl
Forty stone of loveliness and every bit her own
Oh what a picture with the accent on the pig
Farmers with their walking sticks were giving her a dig
But the gradely lassie didn't say that her chassis
Had been blown up with gas I do declare
She really looked lovely until a silly clown
Stuck a pin in her said the showman with a frown
All hands to the pump lass, the vessel's going down
At the Rawtenstall Annual Fair
Walk up walk up see the house of mystery
Ladies pay a tanner and be tickled in the dark
In went the women saying ee but this is cheap
Showman pulled the lever and they all fell in a heap
Through a hole they shot and when they got to the bottom
There were frills and flounces everywhere
The girls started screaming it caused a lot of strife
I never saw so many legs and stockings in my life
I saw some funny things I'd only seen upon the wife
At the Rawtenstall Annual Fair
Walk up walk up come and see the mermaid
All her life alive and half a woman half a fish
In went the fellers just to see it wasn't swank
Little Johnny Higgins poured some whiskey in the tank
Well she got so frisky when she swam in the whiskey
The first time that she came up for air
She bumped in the audience and gave her tail a swish
Her tail tumbled off and she really looked delish
She shouted what do you fancy a bit of meat or a bit of fish
At the Rawtenstall Annual Fair
Walk up walk up come and get your money's worth
See the tattooed lady with the pictures on her skin
In went the fellows and they all began to cheer
For on her skin were painted all the towns of Lancashire
On her form so pretty she had Manchester City
With the town hall stuck up in the square
She'd Bolton and Bacup and Ashton-under-Lyne
The coalpits at Wigan I thought were very fine
But they all started singing 'Daddy, Don't go down the mine'
At the Rawtenstall Annual Fair
The last verse can be heard here http://www.musichallcds.com/var1_page.htm
Click on the Gramophone to open the wav file
Now here's the mystery - when did this turn into the song we've known as a collective since 1968?
Cheers
Mark
www.markdowding.co.uk