Origin: Dick Darby the Cobbler

Subject: Lyr Add: DICK HEUSTON THE COBBLER
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 23 Sep 08 - 03:00 PM

If you want some of the history of the 'Spare Parts' theme in song form try my article at

www.mustrad.org.uk/articles/dungheap.htm

Dick Heuston, The Cobbler.

My name is Dick heuston, the Cobbler,
The people of London do tell--
They say I'm a very good workman,
And that I do know very well,
   With my too re diddle, lol de lol
   da, whack fol de diddle, fol de dol da.

When I was a 'prentice in London,
I lived at the Royal Exchange;
The girls all fell in love with me--
You might think it was very strange.

When I was a 'prentice in London,
I lived at the sign of the boot;
I earned ten guineas one morning,
A fitting Queen Charlotte's neat foot.

When I was a 'prentice in London,
I lived at the sign of the last;
My true love gave me a gold ring,
To remember the days that were past.

With my pegs, hammers, nails and lasts,
I set at the fire and sing
When i think of the girls in London,
Where my first shoemaking began;

My name is Dick Heuston the cobbler,
(Hic) the people (hic) of London (hic) do tell (hic)
they say (hic) I'm a very good (hic) workman,
And that (hic) I do know (hic) very well;
For I can (hic) work as well (hic) drunk as sober.

printed and sold Wholesale at
George harris'
CARD & JOB PRINTING OFFICE
S.E. Corner of Fourth and Vine Sts.,
Philadelphia. 296

from the American Memory 19thc Street Songs Collection, online.

Queen Charlotte reference would surely help to date this version. Didn't one of the Stuarts have a Charlotte or am I getting mixed up with Charlotte the harlot.

Subject: RE: Origin: Dick Darby the Cobbler
From: pavane
Date: 23 Sep 08 - 08:09 AM

I don't know how far back "Hewson the cobbler" really goes, but there is a reference to him in a verse of this song from around 1670

"She lookt with one eye just like Hewson Ye Cobbler"


Newes from Hide-Parke

A later and more legible copy is here:

News from Hide-Park


Also interesting is the story, in which a man hires what he thinks is a young lady, but by the time she takes off her wig, takes out her glass eye, removes her false teeth and her makeup, he has lost interest.

"She drew out her handkerchief as I suppose
To wipe her high forehead, and off dropt her nose"




I seem to recall versions of this story much more recently!

Subject: RE: Help with 'Dick Darby the Cobbler'
From: gnu
Date: 12 Mar 08 - 06:03 AM

The camp at Dolla, Tipperary? That's the way my old man sang it.

Subject: RE: Help with 'Dick Darby the Cobbler'
From: GUEST
Date: 12 Mar 08 - 01:49 AM

There's a great version on "Isn't It Grand Boys" by Tommy Makem. The whole album is one of my favorites by The Clancy Bros. and Tommy Makem.

Subject: RE: Help with 'Dick Darby the Cobbler'
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Mar 08 - 02:59 PM

Yes Rog

I got thatun too

Dave

And when I get my new turntable USB connected into my network I may make a CD out of it too!!

Subject: RE: Help with 'Dick Darby the Cobbler'
From: Rog Peek
Date: 11 Mar 08 - 02:32 PM

I have just put an old LP onto cd called The Clancy Bros. & Tommy Makem with their families, on which Tommy and his mother Sarah sing this song. It is listed simply as 'The Cobbler'.

Rog

Subject: RE: Help with 'Dick Darby the Cobbler'
From: Connacht Rambler
Date: 11 Mar 08 - 12:04 PM

Me again. There are a few Camp Roads in Ireland. There's one in Oughterard. When I enquired if it was used by squatters in Famine times, I was told it was named after a British army campsite.

Subject: RE: Help with 'Dick Darby the Cobbler'
From: Peace
Date: 11 Mar 08 - 11:34 AM

Song and Story.: Song and Story: An Anthology of Irish Folk Songs - Google Books Result

Google the above.

I went to a site that gave the lyrics to a version of "Dick German, the Cobbler" but the lyrics are quite different.

From the Max Hunter Collection

Subject: RE: Help with 'Dick Darby the Cobbler'
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 11 Mar 08 - 04:56 AM

I bet much of it's recent life is connected to Tommy.

Subject: RE: Help with 'Dick Darby the Cobbler'
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 11 Mar 08 - 04:28 AM

Hmm. That's making it look as if it's Irish then. Oh well, another one bites the dust.

Subject: RE: Help with 'Dick Darby the Cobbler'
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 11 Mar 08 - 03:46 AM

Number 872 in the Roud Folk Song Index. It has many names and can incorporate all sorts of stuff. See the DT file Dick Darby the Cobbler for a text (no source acknowledged) and links to further material; some of it relevant. See also

Max Hunter Collection:   Dick German, The Cobbler

Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads:   Dick Darling the cobbler

America Singing:   Dick Heuston, the cobbler   and   Dick darlin' the cobbler

None of this will tell you what was meant by 'camp', but in the circumstances the chances are that it didn't mean anything in particular. It may just have been a corruption of the earlier 'Kent'.

How far 'My Name is Old Hewson the Cobbler', cited by Chappell (PMOT II, 450-1) is ancestral to the numerous later songs (many of them parodies of each other) is hard to say, as we don't have the original words.

Subject: RE: Help with 'Dick Darby the Cobbler'
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 11 Mar 08 - 01:19 AM

It was one of Tommy Makem's great bits, where he pantomimed a cobbler repairing a shoe, complete with spitting on his hands while singing the song. In fact, it's on YouTube somewhere.

Seamus

Subject: RE: Help with 'Dick Darby the Cobbler'
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 10 Mar 08 - 09:16 PM

The similarity of the tune to "Botany Bay" had led me to assume it was English.

Subject: RE: Help with 'Dick Darby the Cobbler'
From: Arkie
Date: 10 Mar 08 - 09:10 PM

I wish I could help with this. I have it on an LP somewhere in my garage and it was among my favorite tracks on the record. I am looking forward to seeing more information.

Subject: RE: Help with 'Dick Darby the Cobbler'
From: Peace
Date: 10 Mar 08 - 08:42 PM

Martin: I have no idea how closely the songs are connected--that is, how much one is like the other. Ah, the folk process . . . .

Subject: RE: Help with 'Dick Darby the Cobbler'
From: MartinRyan
Date: 10 Mar 08 - 08:37 PM

Verrrry interesting.... as they used to say on the Rowan and Martin Laugh-in . My understanding was that this was essentially a 19C. American vaudeville song - which is not to say it didn't have broadsheet antecedents.

Regards

Subject: RE: Help with 'Dick Darby the Cobbler'
From: Peace
Date: 10 Mar 08 - 07:33 PM

CR: I just sent you a site to google. It seems the song is also called "Dick German the Cobbler". It is the story of John Hewson, a shoemaker who aided Cromwell in the Irish campaign of 1649-50. I think from that that it might be a reference to one of the camps he was in at some point. I'd post a link directly to the site but it's pdf of Google books and I don't understand how to link it.

Subject: Help with 'Dick Darby the Cobbler'
From: Connacht Rambler
Date: 10 Mar 08 - 07:26 PM

In the opening lines:
"Oh me name is Dick Darby, I'm a cobbler
I served me time at the old camp"

What does "old camp" mean?