The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #155153   Message #3647178
Posted By: Jim Dixon
31-Jul-14 - 08:41 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Add: Songs about barbers
Subject: Lyr Add: WHO SHAVED THE PIG (from Bodleian)
From the Bodleian collection, Firth b.28(5a/b), page 4:

WHO SHAVED THE PIG?
Words by J. Pinder, music by J. Dodsworth, sung by John Wynne.

1. The name I bear is Sammy Strop.
I've just began a barber's shop.
My custom is already made,
For my old dad was in the trade;
But more than customers will pop
Their heads into my little shop,
For urchins from the street look in
And with this question raise a din:

CHORUS: Where did you steal the soap for your father?
Who cut the hair of the man with the wig?
What were you at, when you shampooed the cat?
Was it you or your father who shaved the pig?

2. I made sorties out every day
To drive those horrid lads away,
But all in vain, for still they come
And in my ears that ditty hum.
I like to tell my customer
The latest news that is astir,
But while the tale I'm spinning out,
Those wretches through the keyhole shout: CHORUS

3. Of course you know, at least I hope,
You don't believe I crib my soap,
And when a cranium is bare,
I never think of cutting hair.
No cat or dog belongs to us,
So how could I shampoo a puss?
To shave a pig is such a task!
So now I wonder why they ask: CHORUS

4. To top the pile of all my woes,
Unto a girl I did propose.
I loved her well, but then you see,
She hadn't got a smack for me,
For when down on my knees I went,
To see if she would give consent,
I thought she would and answer "yes,"
Instead of which she warbled this: CHORUS