The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #136088   Message #3105698
Posted By: Jim Dixon
02-Mar-11 - 01:55 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Add: Wot Cher/Knocked 'Em in the Old Kent Road
Subject: Lyr Add: WOT CHER/KNOCKED 'EM IN THE OLD KENT ROAD
You can hear Albert Chevalier perform this song at YouTube. That recording is an abbreviated version of the following lyrics. (He sings verse 1, chorus, first half of verse 4, first half of verse 3, and chorus.)

The following text comes from Musa Pedestris: Three Centuries of Canting Songs and Slang Rhymes (1536-1896) edited by John Stephen Farmer ([London:] Privately printed for subscribers only, 1896), page 190. That book has marginal notes to translate the slang, but I didn't think it necessary to reproduce them here.


WOT CHER! (KNOCKED 'EM IN THE OLD KENT ROAD)
Words, Albert Chevalier. Music, Charles Ingle.
London : Reynolds & Co, [1892]

1. Last week down our alley come a toff,
Nice old geezer with a nasty cough,
Sees my Missus, takes 'is topper off
In a very gentlemanly way!
"Ma'am," says he, "I 'ave some news to tell,
Your rich Uncle Tom of Camberwell,
Popped off recent, which it ain't a sell,
Leaving you his little donkey shay."

CHORUS: "Wot cher!" all the neighbours cried,
"Who're yer goin' to meet, Bill?
Have yer bought the street, Bill?"
Laugh! I thought I should 'ave died,
Knock'd 'em in the Old Kent Road!

2. Some says nasty things about the moke,
One cove thinks 'is leg is really broke,
That's 'is envy, cos we're carriage folk,
Like the toffs as rides in Rotten Row!
Straight! it woke the alley up a bit,
Thought our lodger would 'ave 'ad a fit,
When my missus, who's a real wit,
Says, "I 'ates a bus, because it's low!"

3. When we starts, the blessed donkey stops.
He won't move, so out I quickly 'ops.
Pals start whackin' him, when down he drops.
Someone says he wasn't made to go.
Lor! It might 'ave been a four-in-'and.
My Old Dutch knows 'ow to do the grand.
First she bows, and then she waves 'er 'and,
Calling out, "We're goin' for a blow!"

4. Ev'ry evenin' on the stroke of five,
Me and Missus takes a little drive.
You'd say, "Wonderful they're still alive,"
If you saw that little donkey go.
I soon showed him that 'e 'd have to do,
Just whatever he was wanted to.
Still I shan't forget that rowdy crew
'Ollerin' "Whoa! steady! Neddy, whoa!

*

Rudyard Kipling quotes from this song in his story "Judson and the Empire" in his book "Many Inventions" (1893)—except that Kipling uses the spellings "geyser" for "geezer" and "What cheer" for "wot cher."

I'm guessing those slang terms were very new when the song was popular, and the spelling hadn't been standardized yet.