The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #150768   Message #3514292
Posted By: Steve Gardham
12-May-13 - 03:38 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: We're off! We're off in a stolen car!
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: We're off! We're off in a stolen car!
The tune I know to it is a variant of a large family of tunes that started out as almost a chant, 'The Queen's Old Courtier' from the 1660s and used by 'Fine Old English Gentleman' in the early 19thc. More recent relatives of the tune, 'Rumpsy Bumpsy Ay', The NE song 'Titty Fa La Titty Fa Lay' and Lonnie Donnegan's 'My Old Man's a Dustman'.

Hull version

We're off, we're off, we're off in a motor car
Fifty coppers are after us and they don't know where we are,
Went around the corner eating apple pie,
A copper he came after us so I hit him in the eye.

It's a children's chant and I don't know of any further verses but there are lots of ditties to this tune.

Another Liverpool version uses the N word instead of coppers.

Here's a Durham version

We're off, we're off, we're off in a motor car
Sixty cops are chasing us and we don't know where we are.
We're coming round the corner now, eating apple pie,
And along came a copper and sloshed us in the eye.

I have a very vague recollection of a music hall piece that has similar words and tune