The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #118208   Message #2554800
Posted By: Barbara
01-Feb-09 - 05:39 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: The Gay Gondolier (Flanders and Swann)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Gay Gondolier - Flanders and Swann
Here's what I got from the Utube link.

La la la la la la la la la la la la la laro
Gondolier, he he he he, ha ha ha ha

A gondola owner in Venice
I had been since the age of discretion, thirteen
But today gondoliering in Venice
Is a most overcrowded profession
You can't swing a cat sir around the piazza
The Palace of Dodes is full of old fogies
And by the San Marco there's nowhere to park-o
It wasn't for me
So I went out to sea
And caused a commotion by crossing the ocean
Becoming the only original gondolier, gondolier
On the Manchester Ship Canal

On board my gondola I sell Coca-Cola
In flagons which once held Chianti
And for five bob a night I would sing or recite
From a bowdlerised version of Dante
The Transport Commission gave me their permission,
One gondola, canal a tempsis
And when I had reservations they threw in a licence
For vino consumed on the premises
When I sing unsoberly La donna è mobile
People in houseboats complain
Of my gay baccarole
So I stick in my pole
And sing it again and again

CHORUS
La la la la la la la la la la la la la laro
Gondolier, he he he he ha ha ha


A gay gondolier as I shoot every weir
And I shout as I sit in Vanicia
O who wants to fondle again in my gondola
Up come the river policia
O why not be seen-a inside the cabina
The Englishman travels in style
With a young senorita
My gondolin meter
Is clicking up three-pence a mile
So to tied to a jetty I eat my spaghetti
And drink 'til I'm properly plastered
Shouting "bog off on starches". to bargees on barges
Who shouting reply "you're a …..>"
It's a lie
For it's ever so much fun you will find
On my anglo-venician blind.

I'm guessing that last line is a set up for a pun that the entire song is build on,
His gondola is a blind for trysting or prostitution and the pun is that there is a kind of window blind called Anglo-venetian. (or something like that.

weir rhymes with [gondo-]lier.
I think the second verse is that he gets a temporary permit and the phrase is latin.

Blessings,
Barbara