The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #36629   Message #507146
Posted By: toadfrog
15-Jul-01 - 03:31 PM
Thread Name: Back of Bus Songs
Subject: Lyr Add: HAVE YOU EVER BEEN TO WALES
Jude L. Pete Seeger used to sing a song very like that:

HAVE YOU EVER BEEN TO WALES

(Traditional)

Have you ever been to Wales,
Where they brew the finest ales,
If you want to drink on Sunday,
You have got to wait 'till Monday.

Did you ever see, did you ever see, did you ever see such a funny thing before?

Crawshay Bailey's brother Norwich,
He was fond of oatmeal porrige,
But was sent to Cardiff College,
For to get a bit of knowledge.

Oh, I have an auntie Anna, and she plays the grand piano,
She goes hammer, hammer, hammer,
But the neighbors say, God bless her.

Tony Eden ..........................
But we'll get much nearer heaven,
With our own Aneurin Bevin!

When I was in England in the 1960's, I tried that on a bunch of young archaeologists, who assured me I had it all wrong; I had left out the 'F' words, and it wasn't "have you ever seen," it was "have you ever saw." Whatever.

When I was in high school, we had some 3 and 4 hour bus rides, and you could hear the girls on the back singing all kinds of stuff, e.g.

They call her flamin' Mamie, she's a - real hot baby,
la de de da, the hottest baby in town!
She's a corker, a real New Yorker,
The way she burns them down!
And when the firemen grow old, and they have to retire,
They say that she's the hottest thing since the - Chicago fire!
They call her flamin' Mamie, she's a - real hot baby,
la de de da, the hottest baby in East Saint Louis,The hottest baby in town!

And other stuff in the same vein, and yet more which must have been pretty wild, for they sang under their breath so you couldn't make out the words. Regrettably I was too naive, and too shy, to figure out what all that meant.

For our European members, East Saint Louis, Ill. is known today primarily for its bitter poverty, corruption and poor santitation; then, it was known as the wildest and toughest wide-open town there was.