The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #6100 Message #2953250
Posted By: Jim Dixon
27-Jul-10 - 12:38 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Music Hall songs
Subject: Lyr Add: WIRELESS WORRIES
Here's my transcription from the YouTube video. There are a couple of gaps where I couldn't understand the words. I have numbered the lines to facilitate further discussion.
This tune is a pastiche of several more-or-less familiar tunes. The ones I recognize, I have linked to a Mudcat MIDI file.
WIRELESS WORRIES
[Tune: THE WEARING OF THE GREEN] 01 Now, my wife went mad on the wireless, and it really was a sin. 02 The way she nagged me made me feel I should be listening in. 03 I used to be a happy sort of fellow, it is true, 04 Until the day I bought a pole to fix the aerial to.
[Tune: ?] 05 It was some pole! You really couldn't doubt it: 06 Fifty feet long with lots of weight about it. 07 The man remarked, "We'll send it free." 08 I said, "Don't bother, for you see, 09 I've brought a handcart here with me 10 To wheel it home."
[Tune: THE GIRL I LEFT BEHIND ME] 11 So off I went. Four p'licemen blinked, but they never seemed to mind me. 12 And as I went, I left a dray in an accident behind me. 13 I turned a corner rather sharp. I should have been more wary. 14 I caught a fat old lady, plonk! right in her little Mary. 15 Her husband he was most annoyed and cried with many a splutter: 16 "You are a goat." I said, "I know. That's why I had to butt her." 17 I must admit I lost my head. I had no sense left in it. 18 I waved the pole to left, to right, and in another minute,
[Tune: ?] 19 I put it through the window. 20 I put it through a window. 21 I put it through a window, then started running home.
[Tune: HOME SWEET HOME] 22 Home, home, sweet, sweet home! 23 When you've got to pull on the handcart, there's no place like home.
[Tune: ?] 24 Then I stuck up that pole with a ... 25 That it shouldn't fall down, for my fear was intense, 26 But when I got it finished, the wife shouted, "John, 27 You've forgotten to fasten the aerial on."
[Tune: YANKEE DOODLE] 28 My thoughts were wicked, I admit, but what I said was badder. 29 To a builder's yard close by I went to fetch a ladder. 30 I found that it was far too short. The thought of murder filled me. 31 I swore that I would climb that pole yet, even if it killed me.
[Tune: THE GRAND OLD DUKE OF YORK] 32 But as I scrambled up, up, up, the ladder tumbled down. 33 As I was only halfway up, I was neither up nor down.
[Tune: THE VICAR OF BRAY] 34 "Be careful, dear!" the wife cried out, in accents most disjointed. 35 "That pole is full of rusty nails and splinters sharply pointed." 36 I heeded not her warning, for to get down I was yearning, 37 But as I slid, a splinter ran into my seat of learning.
[Tune: AULD LANG SYNE] 38 The ... may listen in. My wireless craze has gone. 39 That pole is now used by the wife to hang the washing on.
[Tune: RULE BRITANNIA] 40 Rule, Britannia! Britannia rules the waves. 41 I shall never, never rule the wireless waves.