The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #2413   Message #242084
Posted By: GUEST,Jim I
13-Jun-00 - 06:33 PM
Thread Name: Lyr/Chords ADD Hartlepool/Boddam/etc. Monkey
Subject: Lyr Add: THE HARTLEPOOL SPY (Michael B. Williams)
A friend of mine some years ago was struggling to find this song but without success. In the end he wrote his own version.

The Hartlepool Spy (Michael B.Williams)

(to the tune of Villikins and his Dinah)^^

1. Come all ye brave fellows and listen to me
I'll tell of a castaway washed in from sea
With a jacket of blue and a face like a dog
An obvious spy, Yes, a manifest Frog

Chorus: Too-ra-loo, Too-ra-leye
Yes, this is the tale of the Hartlepool spy

2. All dripping and wet he crawls slowly ashore
The locals are waiting - a hundred or more
The men they all shudder, the women all wail
They can see he's a Frenchman, he's got a long tail

3. They question him sternly in Hartlepool-speak
The poor little wretch gives a desperate squeak
"A real Johnny Crappo" the crowd they all cry
"A Jacobin Frenchman, a Froggie - a SPY"

4. "Oh! We've got a gallows and we've got a rope
Speak up quickly Froggie, it is your last hope"
The castaway waves both his arms in the air
"He talks like a Frenchman!" the crowd they declare

5. They agree then to hang him by popular vote
Stand him under the gallows, a rope round his throat
"You've now had your trial and the verdict is fair"
And they haul on the rope, swing him up in the air

6. "Oh! That's not a Frenchman" a late comer cries
"It's a poor bloody monkey, not a Frog in disguise"
The locals explain 'twas an honest mistake
And one that they feel any Briton could make