The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #41438   Message #598366
Posted By: Gervase
27-Nov-01 - 06:46 AM
Thread Name: Origins: Down at the Old Bull and Bush / Anheuser
Subject: RE: query: bull and bush
It's said that the Music Hall Bull and Bush was written either by Harry Tilzer (1872-1946) or his younger brother Albert (1878-1956) - which I find hard to believe, given that it makes a specific reference to a Hampstead pub and had already been recorded and passed into the popular repertoire when the Tilzers were composing prolifically and in very American style in New York.
Others credit the song to Marie Lloyd, a sometime rival of Forde's. Anyway, here are the words:

Talk about the shade of a sheltering palm.
Praise about a tree with its wide spreading charms.
There's a little nook down our old Hampstead town,
You know the place, it has won great renown.

Often with my sweetheart on a bright summers day,
To the little pub there my footsteps will stray.
If she hesitates when she looks at the sign,
"Lovely" I whisper, "no do not decline".

Chorus:
Come, come, come and make eyes at me
Down at the old "Bull and Bush".
Come, come, drink some port wine with me
Down at the old "Bull and Bush".
Hear the little German band,
"Fol-de-riddle-i-doh",
Do let me hold your hand, dear.
Come, come, come and have a drink or two
Down at the old "Bull and Bush".