The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #31139   Message #2185611
Posted By: GUEST,Philip Axe, Gothenburg, Sweden
03-Nov-07 - 10:05 AM
Thread Name: Origins: who wrote the Woad Song?
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: who wrote the Woad Song?
The version I learnt in the 7th Royal Tunbridge Wells (Skinners') scouts during the 1980s had the first verse:

What's the use of wearing braces
Shirts with cuffs and boots with laces
Hats and spats you buy in places
Down on Brompton Road

I remember some other differences too, but they may be due to the passage of 20 years:

Boil it to a brilliant hue
and rub it on your back and your abdomen (domen)

Ancient Britain never hit on
Anything as good as woad to fit on
Neck or knees or where you sit on
Tailors, you'll be blowed.

Romans came across the channel
All wrapped up in tin and flannel:
Half a pint of Woad per man'll
Dress us more than these.

Saxons you can waste your stitches
Building beds for bugs in breeches
We have woad to clothe us witches
Not a bed for fleas.

Romans keep your armour;
Saxons your Pyjamas etc...

The text we learnt came from the Hackney Scout songbook, which was a small green pocket book. If anyone knows where I could find a copy nowadays...