Lyr Req: 'The English Are Best ?od All The Rest

Subject: Lyr Req: 'The English Are Best ?od All The Rest
From: GUEST,noddy
Date: 20 Nov 03 - 09:19 PM

Heard this one years ago, now I can't recall the words.

Please help - we need it for the Chrismas after dinner talk.

Thanks

Wanderly Wagon somewhere between Main and Fleet Street

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'The English Are Best ?od All The Re
From: Anglo
Date: 20 Nov 03 - 09:26 PM

From Flanders & Swann, isn't it?

"The English, the English, the English are best,
I wouldn't give tuppence for all of the rest."

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'The English Are Best ?od All The Rest
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 20 Nov 03 - 09:30 PM

Michael Flanders and Donald Swann. It's in the DT, under the wrong title, and without the tune: The English.

Properly, of course, it's called A Song of Patriotic Prejudice. Never search here for a song title, because people often get them wrong; always look instead for an identifiable phrase.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'The English Are Best ?od All The Re
From: GUEST,noddy
Date: 20 Nov 03 - 09:34 PM

Thanks - but that is not quite the same thing. The one I recall has some slightly stronger words in it, so it is fannier. When I think of Christmas now I always remeber bits of this 'bawdy' version and laugh and laugh and then fall over.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'The English Are Best ?od All The Rest
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 20 Nov 03 - 11:23 PM

In that case, you should probably hold your breath until the hiccups stop, and then quote a phrase or two from the song you're looking for, and give us a hint as to where you might have heard it. I expect there are "bawdy" parodies, but such things are often local and not widely known.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'The English Are Best ?od All The Rest
From: alanabit
Date: 21 Nov 03 - 02:08 AM

Fred Wedlock did a version in the seventies, which included (then) topical verses about the Common Market and everyone beating England at cricket. It's remarkable how little has changed really, isn't it? I assume that a song like this one will always have topical verses to make any sense at all.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'The English Are Best ?od All The Rest
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 21 Nov 03 - 08:30 PM

You wouldn't by any chance be thinking about Derek Brimstone's magnificent oeuvre ? I have taken the liberty of copying and pasting my initial posting from an earlier Mudcat thread.

Since the thread on alternative American anthems created such a response, let's see if we can do something similar for the British Isles. I have long been of the opinion that Andy M Stewart's "Rambling Rover" should be the National Anthem of Scotland, but in the (unlikely) event of total independence for the Celtic countries, England is going to need a new National Anthem as well. I propose Derek Brimstone's stirring song should be adopted

I'm a fine young Englishman,
And I do the best I can
I try to be a credit to the nation
I don't ask for much at all
Just to piss my wages up a wall
And win the Duke of Edinburgh Award for fornication


Now the English are the best
An example to the rest
They all should get down on their knees and thank us
The Irish are a pest
Al except for Georgie Best
And the Scots and the Welsh are a bunch of wankers.

These are Derek's omly two verses. Some years ago I took the liberty, with his permission, of composing a middle verse which goes like this:


You can see me on the street
In Benidorm or in Lloret
As out of the pub at 5 a.m. I stagger
I may act the randy pup
But I can never get it up
After drinking sixteen pints of Carlsberg lager


I feel this song encapsulates the spirit of the modern Englishman in a way which "God Save the Queen" somehow fails to do ...................

Murray