The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #123592 Message #2723777
Posted By: GUEST,Dave MacKenzie
14-Sep-09 - 08:32 PM
Thread Name: Who was he Football Crazy about?
Subject: RE: Who was he Football Crazy about?
I thought there was something on Mudcat giving the history of the song and identifying the original author, but it was probably the EFDSS Journal. If I remember right, it was a 19th century Dublin broadside, apart from the last verse, which is about a London Irish RU player. It's easy enough to sing it about any code of football though I don't remember ever singing about Aussie Rules (or Combined Rules for that matter), though nowadays in Gaelic it's a forty-five rather than a fifty.
This is the set of words I learned:
FOOTBALL CRAZY
You all know my big brother and his Christian name is Paul,
He's lately joined a football club for he's mad about football,
And he has two black eyes already and teeth out feom his gob
Since Paul became a member of this terrible football club.
For he's football crazy, he's football mad,
And the football it has taken away the little bit of sense he had,
And it would take a dozen servants to wash his clothes and scrub,
Since Paul became a m,ember of this terrible football club.
Well the first match that he played at, I was there myself and saw
Two turf sods for goalposts and a tin can for a ball,
The Lord Mayor he was there himself and the lords and ladies grand,
And Paul got an orange box and made a whole grand stand.
The middle of field one afternoon, the captain said to Paul,
Would you kindly take this place-kick since you're mad about football,
And he took fifty paces backward, shot off from the mark,
And the ball went sailing over the bar and landed in New York.
His wife says she'll leave him if Paul he doesn't keep
Away from football kicking every night time in his sleep.
He call's out "That's a Fifty!" and other things so droll,
Last night he shot her out of bed and swore it was a goal.
As sung by Seamus Ennis on EMI LP XLP500003 "The Jug of Punch ".