The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #52605   Message #806268
Posted By: GUEST,Matthew Edwards
18-Oct-02 - 02:35 PM
Thread Name: Origins: I wish there were no prisons
Subject: Lyr Add: I WISH THERE WAS NO PRISONS
Hi Chris,
This is the text of the song given in the notes to the Topic CD referred to by Malcolm above:-

I WISH THERE WAS NO PRISONS
(as sung by George Spicer 1973)

I wish there was no prisons. I do. Don't you?
For the old treadmill makes me feel ill.
I only steal my belly to fill
With my hands, with my mits, with my maulers.

Oakum picking gives me a licking.
Still I'm very fond of a little bit of nicking.
I only steal my belly to fill
With my hands, with my mits, with my mauler.

I saw a girl with a perambulator
She got twins, and each had a tater
In its hands, in its fists, in its mauler.

I kissed one kid and collared t'other's tater
With my hands, with my mits, with my mauler.

I wish there was no prisons. I do. Don't you?
For the old treadmill makes me feel ill.
I only steal my belly to fill
With my hands, with my dukes, with my mauler.

As sung by George Spicer; recorded by Mike Yates in the singer's home at West Hoathly, Sussex 26 May 1973. This originally appeared on the Topic LP Blackberry Fold: Songs of George Spicer 12T235.
The notes by Mike Yates and Rod Stradling to the songs on The Voice of The People say that this is only a fragment of a longer song, but George Spicer had never been able to learn the rest of it to his regret. It appears to be a parody of an old minstrel song I wish I was in Dixie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RZY0ZRtg9Q