Lyr Req: my rhubarb refuses to rise

Subject: lyrics request - my rhubarb refuses to rise
From: Sean MacRuaraidh
Date: 30 Mar 99 - 09:28 AM

I've searched and not found - anyone know the rest ..

Manyana, Manyana is good enough for me 1, 2, 3, My rhubarb refuses to rise to its natural size...

Sean MacR.

Subject: RE: lyrics request - my rhubarb refuses to rise
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 30 Mar 99 - 10:17 AM

Are you collecting rugby songs? There used to be several books and one or two lp records (the Jock Strapp Ensemble, if memory serves) - if they're not still in print, there must be a lot going at second hand.

From our "Fancy that!" department: writer and researcher Dan Farson reckons that prime Jack the Ripper suspect James K Stephen was the Stephen in

Mary from the Mountain Glen
Seducesd herself with a fountain pen.
The pen it broke, the ink ran wild,
And she gave birth to a blue-black child!
They called the bastard Stephen [shout: Stephen!] [x3]
'Cause that was the name of the ink [shout: Not Quink!!]

Interestingly, this is one of the (relatively!) more poetic rather than merely obsecene examples. Some were obviously written by "genuine" poets - Dylan Thomas used to turn a good rude rhyme in the pub, for example. And "Eskimo Nell has been attributed to Robert Service. A verse like

Oh, have you seen the pistons
On the mighty CPR,
With the pounding force of a thousand horse? -
Well, you know what pistons are!

is what George Orwell would have called "good bad poetry" (or maybe the other way about!). It's humorous and well put together; the whole piece could have been written very effectively using euphemism rather than obscenity; but maybe the mores of the times (1900-1920?) meant that anything that risqu‚ would have no circulation except in the circles where obscenity was commonplace.

We could go on for hours, couldn't we?! I'll let somenone else have the floor, though.

Steve (Queen Mary's Grammar School RFC (League, not Union!) 3rd 11, 1962-1965)

Subject: RE: lyrics request - my rhubarb refuses to rise
From: AlistairUK
Date: 30 Mar 99 - 11:03 AM

I didn't realise league players new Dylan Thomas :o)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: my rhubarb refuses to rise
From: GUEST
Date: 20 Dec 19 - 11:17 AM

From the Brother album: Pipe Dreams

My Rhubarb

My rhubard refuses to rise
Refuses to rise to its natural size
My rhubard refuses to rise
'cause my baby don't love me (Hey!)
my baby don't love me (Hey!)
my baby don't love me know more
(Somebody make my rhubard rise)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: my rhubarb refuses to rise
From: GUEST,Starship
Date: 22 Dec 19 - 01:44 PM

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