Lyr Req: All for the Want of a Nail (climbers song

Subject: Lyr Req: All for the want of a nail - climbers
From: Old Roger
Date: 19 Oct 11 - 04:46 AM

Can anyone supply the words for a song popular years ago among rock climbers and hill walkers. It began with a verse like this

If it's climbing you'ld go,
There's a tale you should know,
Which will make you both quiver and quail.
Dah di Dah etc.....
All for the want of a nail.

It would be a shame if it has become totally forgotten.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: All for the want of a nail - climbers
From: banjoman
Date: 19 Oct 11 - 05:28 AM

Sounds a bit like the old rhyme my dad used to recite:

For the want of a nail a horseshoe was lost
for the want of a shoe a horse was lost
for the want of a horse a knight was lost
for the want of a knight a battle was lost
for the want of a battle a kingdom was lost
and all for the want of a nail.

Does this help - sorry if it does not

Subject: ADD: All for the Want of a Nail
From: Joe Offer
Date: 19 Oct 11 - 06:11 AM

Well, I found this:

ALL FOR THE WANT OF NAIL

If it's climbing you'll go, there's a tale you should know
That will make you both quiver and quail
Of a hole in your toe where a clinker should go
And it's all for the want of a nail …

You're a thousand feet high and you're nearing the sky
You can't get a grip on the shale.
Only ten feet away, there's a perfect belay
And it's all for the want of a nail …

There's scarcely a grip for a small finger tip,
And a thousand foot if you fail.
There's a pumping machine where your heart should have been
And it's all for the want of a nail …

Well, the good Lord looked down, and he laughed like a clown,
"There will soon be a ruc-sac for sale !
If these boots don't deceive us, this guy's going to leave us …
And it's all for the want of a nail …"

They scraped his remains off the sharp rocks below
And gathered them up in a pail.
And the toast that they drank to the body that stank,
Was ' it's all for the want of a nail …'

They buried him high, where the cliffs meet the sky
And round him-set a white wooden rail.
And if you examine it, there you will find,
It was all for the want of a nail …

Now this is the end of my sad little song,
This is the end of my tale.
Don't ever go with a hole in your toe,
Use VIBRAMS …. They never will fail !

Source:
http://www.rafmra.com/rafmraarticles/The%20Royal%20Air%20Force%20Mountain%20Rescue%20Association%20Song%20Book.pdf
THE ROYAL AIR FORCE MOUNTAIN RESCUE ASSOCIATION SONG BOOK

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: All for the want of a nail - climbers
From: Old Roger
Date: 19 Oct 11 - 09:50 AM

Hey Joe, well done - that's it exactly. Still made me laugh after all those years. Many thanks.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: All for the want of a nail - climbers
From: BanjoRay
Date: 19 Oct 11 - 12:31 PM

Joe - who was that written by? Sounds a bit like the late Dr Tom Patey, who wrote a few amusing climbing ditties.

Ray

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: All for the want of a nail - climbers
From: Joe Offer
Date: 19 Oct 11 - 02:12 PM

Hi, Ray -
No idea who wrote it. Google led me to the source, and the source offered no attribution. Sounds like something one would find in one of the Song Fest books, but it didn't come up when I searched for nail in the indexes of the three Song Fest editions.
What I remember from my youth is the ditty that Banjoman posted. I wonder if that's the complete thing, or if there's more. There's a Wikipedia entry on that one.

-Joe-