The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #10468   Message #882135
Posted By: bradfordian
04-Feb-03 - 07:45 AM
Thread Name: ADD: Songs about Lloyd George / Lord George
Subject: Lyr Add: LORD GEORGE (F. W. Moorman)
And in the original dialect here
Brad. :o)
Lyrics copy-pasted from the link cited above.
-Joe Offer-

Lord George


These verses were written soon after the Old Age Pensions Bill came into operation.

I'd walk frae here to Skipton,
    Ten mile o' clarty lanes,
If I might see him face to face
    An' thank him for his pains.
He's ta'en me out o' t' Bastile,
    He's gi'en me life that's free:
Five shill'n a week for fuglin' Death
    Is what Lord George gives me.

He gives me leet an' firin',
    An' flour to bak i' t' yoon.
I've tea to mesh for ivery meal
    An' sup all t' afternoon.
I've nowt to do but thank him,
    An' mak' a cross wi' t' pen;
Five shillin' a week for nobbut that!
    Gow! he's the jewel o' men.

I niver mell on pol'tics,
    But I do love a lord;
He spends his savin's like a king,
    Wheer other fowks 'll hoard.
I know a vast o' widdies
    That's seen their seventieth year;
Lord George, he addles brass for all,
    Though lots on 't goes for beer.

If my owd man were livin',
    He'd say as I spak true;
He couldn't thole them yallow Rads,
    But awlus voted blue.
An' parson's wife, shoo telled me
    That we'll sooin go to t' poll;
I hope shoo's reight; I'll vote for George,
    Wi' all my heart an' soul.

I don't know wheer he springs frae,
    Happen it's down Leeds way;
But ivery neet an' mornin'
    For his lang life I pray.
He's ta'en me out o' t' Bastile,
    He's gi'en me life that's free:
Five shill'n a week for fuglin' Death
    Is what Lord George gives me.




Notes (arranged alphabetically)


Addles brass : earns money
Bastile : workhouse (M), (allusion to the French Bastille )
Clarty : muddy (M)
Five shillin' (shill'n) : five shillings (20 shillings = one pound)
Fuglin' : cheating (M)
Leet an' firin' : lighting and heating costs (coal fire)
Mell on : meddle with
Mesh : mash, brew
Thole : endure, suffer
Vast : a vast number, a lot
Widdies : widows
Yallow Rads : yellow Radicals: Liberals
Yoon : oven (M)



Explanations marked (M) are from Professor Moorman's original footnotes. Wherever possible, meanings have been checked in Dr Arnold Kellet's The Yorkshire Dictionary of Dialect, Tradition and Folklore, The Chambers Dictionary, and The Oxford English Dictionary. We have attempted at all times to be guided by context and to convey all probable intended meanings. We have not explained those words which differ only slightly in pronunciation and spelling from modern standard English.