Lyr Add: Songs by Bill Oddie

Subject: Lyr Add: Songs by Bill Oddie
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 31 Jul 26 - 10:59 AM

Please see also the related obituary thread.

  Song: STUFF THAT GIBBON
  Lyrics/Tune: Bill Oddie
  Group: The Sittingbourne Folk and Madrigal Society
  
  Take that gibbon by the hand
  Listen to the rhythm of the band
      Slap him up and down upon the floor
  Tickle his feet and hear him giggle
  Then unzip him down the middle
      Give that gibbon what he's hollerin' for
  
  (CHORUS)
  
  Ohh, stuff that gibbon, ohh, stuff that gibbon
  Ohh, stuff that gibbon now!  (*)
  Ohh, stuff that gibbon , ohh, stuff that gibbon
  Ohh, stuff that gibbon now!  (*)
  
  (* several different phrases - "Hey nonny no", "Fa-la-la-la" and
  "What for, riddle me" on the episode version and "Yeehaa",
  "Right on baby" and "Stuff it" on the album version)
    

Promenade the gibbon round the hall
  Bounce him up and down like a rubber ball
      Drop him on the floor and trample on his toes
  Swing him by the tail from the chandelier
  Happy with a hamster in his ear
      All he needs is a ferret up his nose
  
  (REPEAT CHORUS)
  
  (Gibbon noises & INSTRUMENTAL BREAK)
  
  Excuse me, can we stuff this one together?
  Why surely sir, I'd be obliged
  I think you probably will, yes!
  
  (REPEAT SECOND VERSE)
  
  (REPEAT CHORUS)
  
  This was first aired in the BBC radio programme I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again,
and popped up later as background in a chase scene in the BBC TV series The Goodies. 
Corrections, elucidations and elaborations humbly invited.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Songs by Bill Oddie
From: Helen
Date: 31 Jul 26 - 04:24 PM

Starting with this playlist:

Bill Oddie Songs

---

Includes:
Ilkley Moor Bahat At
On a Traffic Island
The Knitting Song
I Can't Get Through
I'm in love with a lion
SAS Band - Wild Thing
Asiavision Song Contest
for a few at the top of the list. ---mudelf

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Songs by Bill Oddie
From: Joe Offer
Date: 03 Aug 26 - 02:44 PM

Martin, did I post your song right?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Songs by Bill Oddie
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 04 Aug 26 - 11:12 AM

Bingo (for suitably embarrassing values of Bing). Thanks, Joe.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Songs by Bill Oddie
From: MoorleyMan
Date: 04 Aug 26 - 05:52 PM

Helen's selection is drawn from the YouTube channel, which contains some gems but be warned, many of the songs aren't Bill Oddie originals.

However, the playlist does contain Harry Krishna, so I'll repeat my request from the Obit thread: I once tried to transcribe the lyrics to Harry Krishna but failed on three or four lines / names / words that I still can't quite make out... Does anyone out there have the complete text? (Harryeally would like to get it right!)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Songs by Bill Oddie
From: Helen
Date: 04 Aug 26 - 06:47 PM

MoorleyMan, could you post the lyrics you do have so that we can try to fill in the gaps please.

I just tried listening to the video from the page/link I posted but the captions were off. Not being from the UK I might not get who the different people called Harry would be, as referred to in the song.

I did get Harry Secombe, Harry Worth(?), Harry Lauder(?) but I didn't understand the line after each name and I stopped there.

I know the first verse is a direct quote from the Hare Krishnas who used to roam around the streets in various towns chanting it endlessly:

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare


I also remember being at a music festival in Oz about 50 years ago where everyone was camping in tents and at dawn the Hare Krishnas would walk around singing ad nauseum. Very soon a bunch of fun-guys decided to take the mickey and started walking around singing a song which started with the line "Hairy gumboot" etc etc. LOL (Well, it was funny at the time.)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Songs by Bill Oddie
From: The Sandman
Date: 05 Aug 26 - 03:12 AM

many of the songs aren't Bill Oddie originals.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Songs by Bill Oddie
From: Helen
Date: 05 Aug 26 - 03:22 PM

Yes, The Sandman, as MoorleyMan already mentioned. Bill Oddie either wrote, co-wrote or performed the songs.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Songs by Bill Oddie
From: The Sandman
Date: 05 Aug 26 - 04:38 PM

Indeed, a very talented person

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Songs by Bill Oddie
From: GUEST,Good Baddie!
Date: 07 Aug 26 - 11:23 AM

What's the significance of Hamster in Ear/Ferret up Nose? O)r is it just to rhyme?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Songs by Bill Oddie
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 09 Aug 26 - 01:48 PM

Not sure about the hamster, but methinks the ferret may have escaped from The Ferret Song^†, which John Cleese, a fellow cast member on I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again, had (also?) performed on At Last The 1948 Show.

† "I've got a ferret sticking up my nose", to the tune of Rose of England.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Songs by Bill Oddie
From: Joe Offer
Date: 09 Aug 26 - 07:32 PM

Here's Bill Oddie's take on "Ilkley Moor Baht 'At":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMaB0cqwcvI
Sounds like a MoTown interpretation of the song. As a Detroiter, I approve.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Songs by Bill Oddie
From: MoorleyMan
Date: 10 Aug 26 - 02:26 PM

Ok Helen, here's what I can decipher of Harry Krishna. The question marks denote my guesses...
(But you can "decipher" yourself whether the names are correct or not! -??)

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

Harry Secombe, Harry Secombe, Secombe Secombe, Harry Worth

Harry Laurie, Harry Goyn? Hari Kari? Harry Rabinowitz

Harry Lauder, Harry Langdon, Harry Champion, Harry Chest

Hari Kiri, Harry Cortin?, Harry Along Now, Harryvederci Roma

Harrystotle, Harry Cargus?, Harry Corbett, Sweep & Sooty

Sooty Sooty, Sweepy Car Soot, Sooty Corbett, Have a Corby? (Corgi?)

Sooty Harry, Harry Sweep Soot, Sooty Sweep Hair, Hari Hari

Harreally Must Go! (Baby it's cold outside)


Harryreally would appreciate any amendments and corrections...

Cheers,
MM

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Songs by Bill Oddie
From: MoorleyMan
Date: 10 Aug 26 - 02:35 PM

Joe, sorry but although abundantly soulful it's not Motown. Instead it's a deliberate dead ringer for the UK-chart-topping arrangement that Joe Cocker made for his cover of the Beatles' With A Little Help From My Friends. Bill proudly used the very same musicians (Joe Cocker's Grease Band, featuring the stellar Henry McCullough on lead guitar) to back him for the session, and the resulting 45 was released on John Peel's Dandelion label - backed by Harry Krishna (see thread above)..

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Songs by Bill Oddie
From: Helen
Date: 10 Aug 26 - 06:35 PM

MM, very impressive that you could pick up all those lyrics.

I am really not sure what some of the names or words are but...

Harry Goyn? Maybe: Harry Gone?

Harry Cortin sounds like Gorveen or Korveen or something similar

Harry Cargus sounds like Sarkus maybe

I think it is Corgi.

Sooty Sweep Hair sounds like Sooty Sweeper maybe.

I like the bit near the end where someone who I assume is Bill Oddie starts cracking up laughing.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Songs by Bill Oddie
From: Helen
Date: 10 Aug 26 - 07:18 PM

I'm also wondering whether the last Hare Rama in the first verse might be Hairy Llama.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Songs by Bill Oddie
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 11 Aug 26 - 09:16 AM

My favourite 'Sick Man Blues' (I thought it was Throwing Up blues) is on Youtube.
RtS

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Songs by Bill Oddie
From: GUEST,Liz The Squeak
Date: 12 Aug 26 - 12:45 PM

I rather liked his take on Tom Lehrer's 'Poisoning pigeons in the Park', which Bill turned into 'Persecuting pigeons in Trafalgar Square', famous for its myriad pigeon inhabitants attracted by the high buildings that mirrored their original cliff-side nesting spots, and the food that tourists bought for extortionate prices to feed them with - a practice that is now banned.

LTS

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Songs by Bill Oddie
From: MoorleyMan
Date: 13 Aug 26 - 03:55 AM

Liz The Squeak - I sang Persecuting Pigeons at the Mudcat Worldwide Singaround last month. A clever song on both levels.

Lyrics don't appear to have been posted yet, so here goes:

Persecuting Pigeons In Trafalgar Square (Bill Oddie, 1968)

Whenever I feel glum, I take my bag of crumbs
And on Sunday I go out to take the air,
With a crust of Mother’s Pride and a pinch of cyanide –
Persecuting pigeons in Trafalgar Square.

In the early morning hush, with my bottle and my brush,
Coating Nelson’s Column with great care;
With some stuff that looks like paint, but I promise you it ain’t –
Persecuting pigeons in Trafalgar Square.


Oh I can’t agree with crucifying crickets,
And I wouldn’t wish a wombat any harm;
And I’d never flagellate a defenceless alligator,
And I’d seldom irritate an arm – a – dillo…

But on Sunday after tea, just my grandmamma and me,
How we love it, and the people all declare;
Though she’s nearly 91, she still gets a lot of fun
From persecuting pigeons in Trafalgar Square.

Promenading in St. James, I play lots of little games,
Any dark and stormy night you’ll see me there;
When I’m digging up the weeds, and planting hemlock seeds –
Persecuting pigeons in Trafalgar Square.


Oh I don’t approve of mutilating muskrats,
It’s appalling when impalas are impaled;
And I’m never much elated when a bat is being baited,
And I’ve never castigated whales… or Scotland !

Oh it’s naughty I agree but   I inoculate a peanut
With a powder that would paralyse a bear;
So a bird that takes the bait’ll find it absolutely fatal:
Persecuting pigeons in Trafalgar Square.

I have built a vacant perch like a little model church,
And before each bird alights it says a prayer;
’Cos where the altar should been I have fixed a guillotine,
For persecuting pigeons in Trafalgar Square.