Please ID this song if you can . . .hump on camel

Subject: Origins: Please ID this song if you can . . .
From: Brian May
Date: 21 Jun 10 - 03:07 PM

The lines I remember are, something like

" . . accounts for the hump on the camel

And the Sphinx's inscrutable smile."

There's another line 'We're all queers together" and I think the melody is the Eton Boating Song.

It may have an Armed Services' connection.

Can anyone help?

Subject: RE: Origins: Please ID this song if you can . . .
From: SINSULL
Date: 21 Jun 10 - 03:10 PM

In the Digital Tradition:
http://sniff.numachi.com/pages/tiADMENLIS;ttBOTBAY2.html

http://mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=136

Subject: RE: Origins: Please ID this song if you can . . .
From: Acorn4
Date: 21 Jun 10 - 04:29 PM

We used to sing this on the back of the bus to a chorus of:-

Shine your buttons with Brasso,
Only three halfpence a tin!
You can but it or swipe it from Woolworth's,
It's always full up to the brim.

I think this probably originated in the army but the bit you quote seems to turn up in several Rugby type songs.

Subject: RE: Origins: Please ID this song if you can . . .
From: Leadfingers
Date: 21 Jun 10 - 05:22 PM

Brian - To the tune 'Eton Boating Song !

The sexual life of the camel
Is stranger than anyone thinks

At the height of the mating season ,
He tries to bugger the Sphinx

But the Sphinx's posterior orifice
Is blocked by the sands of the Nile

Which accounts for the hump of the Camel
And the Sphinx's inscrutable smile

Another 'Pick Up verse' that appears in several songs -

I 'collected' this in The NAAFI bar in Germany in 1961 with a number of even ruder verses tacked on .

Subject: RE: Origins: Please ID this song if you can . . .
From: Reiver 2
Date: 21 Jun 10 - 05:33 PM

The Reivers used to sing this little group of songs as a single number at college parties in Kamloops, B.C. The song you're referring to was the last one of the three. We called it "The Sphinx."

Side By Side

We got married on Friday
The vicar said it was my day.
When they were gone, we were alone,
Side by side.

We got ready for bed then,
But I nearly dropped dead when
Her false teeth and hair, she laid on the chair,
Side by side.

   Then to my amazement,
   Her little glass eye so small,
   He arms and legs beside them,
   She laid on the chair by the wall.

My baby and me, we are parted,
And we'd only just started.
Now I sleep on the chair, 'cause there's more of her there;
Side by side.

Abigail

On the bosom of young Abigail,
Was written the price of her tail.
And upon her behind,
For the use of the blind,
Was the same information in Braile.

The Sphinx

Oh, the sexual desires of the camel
Are greater than anyone thinks.
One day at the height of his passion,
He tried to make love to the Sphinx.

But that part of the Sphinx's anatomy
Was blocked by the sands of the Nile, [Spoken: Dear children!]
Which accounts for the hump on the camel,
And the Sphinx's inscrutable smile.


I have no idea where we first heard these.

Reiver 2

Subject: RE: Origins: Please ID this song if you can . . .
From: GUEST,iancarterb
Date: 21 Jun 10 - 11:38 PM

I know where I first heard the camel verses- Oscar Brand, Bawdy Songs and Backroom Ballads, late 1950s!

Subject: RE: Origins: Please ID this song if you can . . .
From: Brian May
Date: 22 Jun 10 - 01:08 PM

Thanks all, yes I think I first heard these in the back of a bus travelling to/from some sports match.

It's just that I'm learning a song (with different lyrics!) but the tune's the same and I'm getting a bit confused as I keep wanting to sing THOSE lyrics.

Anyone who has further stores of THOSE lyrics, please feel free to post them for me as honour dictates I learn what I shouldn't sing as well as what I should (hee hee).

Thanks to all those who participated.

Brian

Subject: RE: Origins: Please ID this song if you can . . .
From: Leadfingers
Date: 22 Jun 10 - 01:20 PM

Look Here

Subject: RE: Origins: Please ID this song if you can . . .
From: Brian May
Date: 22 Jun 10 - 01:59 PM

Leadfingers, personally I preferred belly, but HE never put me on to exactly what I needed. . .

Thanks, it's so frustrating when snippets are in your head and you can't shift them - I suspect there's a whole website full of them here.

Take care, appreciate the effort.

Brian

Subject: RE: Origins: Please ID this song if you can . . .
From: Joe_F
Date: 22 Jun 10 - 06:32 PM

These verses also appear attached to "Toroly Oroly Ady", which is otherwise a naval song devoted to insulting the skipper. Sometimes the Hedgehog Song also gets mixed in.

Subject: RE: Origins: Please ID this song if you can . . .
From: GUEST,kendall
Date: 22 Jun 10 - 07:25 PM

And further experimentation has inconrovertably shown comparative safety on ship board is enjoyed by the hedgehog alone.

Subject: RE: Origins: Please ID this song if you can . . .
From: GUEST
Date: 23 Jun 10 - 05:58 AM

GUEST kendall

Wow, now you're getting very droll.

Perhaps there are people who enjoy pain . . .

Subject: RE: Origins: Please ID this song if you can . . .
From: Rob Naylor
Date: 23 Jun 10 - 09:03 AM

Acorn4: We used to sing this on the back of the bus to a chorus of:-

Shine your buttons with Brasso,
Only three halfpence a tin!
You can but it or swipe it from Woolworth's,
It's always full up to the brim.

We sang that chorus (slightly modified as below) in the back of the school bus to and from "educational" trips:

Shine....
It's.....
You can buy it or nick it from Woolworths
But I doubt if they'll have any in

But that chorus was for "My Father's a Lavatory Cleaner", not for "The Sexual Life of The Camel", which was the "too-ra-lai" one:

My father's a lavatory cleaner
He cleans them by day and by night
And when he comes home in the evening
He`s covered all over in .....

Chorus:
Shine up your buttons with Brasso
It`s only three ha`pence a tin
You can buy it or nick it from Woolworths
But I doubt if they'll have any in

And when it came round to Christmas
He gave my ma a great fright
For instead of bringing her chocolates
He brought her a box full of .....

CHORUS

Some say that he died of a fever
Some say that he died of a fit
But, I know damn well what he died of
He died of the smell of the .....

CHORUS

Some say that he`s buried in a graveyard
Some say that he`s buried in a pit
But, I know damn well what he`s buried in
He`s buried in six foot of .....

CHORUS

Subject: RE: Origins: Please ID this song if you can . . .
From: GUEST,EBarnacle
Date: 23 Jun 10 - 01:31 PM

I wonder whether the origin of "Sweet Violets" was before this song. Many of the verses are clearly related and, if later, violets would be an effort to make the song socially marketable.