Lyr Req: What Was the Matter with Rachmaninov?

Subject: Lyr Req: What Was The Matter With Rachmaninov
From: GUEST,highlandman at work
Date: 23 Oct 09 - 04:38 PM

Not folk, sorry, but I have an absolutely burning need to know this and you all are my best hope!
Long ago my high school glee club sang an arrangement of a comic song that was more or less a parody of Rachmaninov's Prelude in C Sharp Minor. It started off with the words
"What was the matter with Rachmaninov
When he wrote his prelude?
Surely of trouble he began enough
With his ta-ra-ra..."
I have found on the internet that it was written and recorded by a British duo called "Flotsam and Jetsam" but I can't find any trace of the words or sheet music.
Anybody got any help?
Thanks in advance (I will be off line all weekend so if anyone comes through, my thanks will be forthcoming but belated.)
-Glenn

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: What Was The Matter With Rachmaninov
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 23 Oct 09 - 06:15 PM

Here is a record of Flotsam and Jetson including the song - and it says it's available as MP3 downloads as well.

Recorded in 1927. There's a modern trash band called Flotsam and Jetsom, so don't get confused with that.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: What Was The Matter With Rachmaninov
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 23 Oct 09 - 06:19 PM

Flotsam and Jetsam that is.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: What Was The Matter With Rachmaninov
From: GUEST,highlandman at work
Date: 26 Oct 09 - 09:49 AM

Thanks McG.
I am astonished and disappointed that the mighty 'Net doesn't have more on this.
I'll try to follow up on your lead.
-Glenn

Subject: Lyr Add: WHAT WAS THE MATTER WITH RACHMANINOV
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Sep 11 - 09:43 AM

Here is one version of the lyrics. There is a recording of F&J's version available from a British publlisher of old music hall songs.

Sam Corl
Falls Church, VA USA

Prelude in C-sharp Minor
        (Flotsam and Jetsam)

What was the matter with Rachmaninov (if I may be so rude)
When he wrote his prelude?
Boom, boom boom
Ah --------------------
Boom, boom, boom.

Surely of troubles he began enough
With his "Tra lah, lah, lah.

There is a lady across the way
Who practices every single day
In a hundred years perhaps she might
Be playing a part of it nearly right

There's another one down the street
Who must be trying it with her feet.
She's the one who gives you fits
Whenever she comes to the difficult bits

Then there's the guy with the flowing locks
Who pounds it 'til the Steinway rocks
Player piano and gramophone and even a man with a slide trombone
Can't leave the unfortunate piece alone.

Here and there, again and again
You stumble across the great refrain
Everywhere there's sure to be
Some fellow who plays it better than me.

When you're asleep your every dream
Is haunted by the famous theme
A man who plays what genius wrote
Should not abuse the mighty notes.

When we take this mortal coil
And they bury us deep beneath the soil
We meet Saint Peter at the gate
We know that it will be our fate
To find him there with a big bassoon
Ready to greet us with the tune:

Boom! Boom! Boom!
Ah------------------------
Boom! Boom! . . .
What was the matter with Rachmaninov
When he wrote his prelude?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: What Was the Matter with Rachmaninov
From: GUEST,highlandman at work
Date: 01 Sep 11 - 11:48 AM

Wow -- nothing is ever dead on the Mudcat.
That was the song....
Thanks, guest, whoever you are!
-G

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: What Was the Matter with Rachmaninov
From: GUEST,highlandman at work
Date: 01 Sep 11 - 12:51 PM

whoops... I should read more carefully... thanks, SAM.