Lyr Req: A Mother's Lament / Dahn the Plug'ole

Subject: a mothers lament
From: Ritchie
Date: 22 May 00 - 11:21 AM

I know I should know better but..recently I'm sure I read on a thread about a song that was on a Cream LP which was about a mother who was washing her baby but when she turned round for the soap on the rack the baby was gorn..

I've tried searching in the data base but...

There is this theory about men not asking for help but just persevering on in the hope that they will stumble upon the answer...not this boy! Help.Can anyone give me the lyrics or point me in the right direction ?

Thanks Ritchie.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: a mothers lament
From: GUEST,Roger the skiffler
Date: 22 May 00 - 11:28 AM

Old music hall song. In the DT under "Dahn the plug'ole".
RtS (have I beaten Joebro?)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: a mothers lament
From: MMario
Date: 22 May 00 - 11:38 AM

this one here? DAHN THE PLUG'OLE

url=http://www.mudcat.org/thread.CFM?threadID=12617

with lyrics in the DT here

url =http://www.mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=1433

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: a mothers lament
From: wysiwyg
Date: 22 May 00 - 02:15 PM

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: a mothers lament
From: Ritchie
Date: 23 May 00 - 06:10 AM

Praise indeed . Well done boys

Thanks Ritchie

ps Roger you are now in pole position !

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Mother's Lament / Dahn the Plug'ole
From:
Date: 13 Jan 06 - 11:32 AM

My baby has gone down the plughole, My baby has gone down the plug. The poor little thing, Was so skinny and thin, That it oughta been washed i na jug, (harmony) In a jug! my baby is perfectly happy, He wont need a bath any more, My baby thats gone down the plughole's, Not lost , Just down below, Just down below.....
Hope this helps, yo prbably have it by now, just found this site, Diana

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Mother's Lament / Dahn the Plug'ole
From: TheBigPinkLad
Date: 13 Jan 06 - 11:48 AM

Ginger Baker's last verse in the Cream version is:

Your baby is perfickly 'appy
Ee won't need to barf anymore
Ee's a-mucking abaht
Wiv' the angels above
Not lost ... but gone ... before!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Mother's Lament / Dahn the Plug'ole
From: Compton
Date: 13 Jan 06 - 07:55 PM

...and I always thought it was called "Your Baby Has Gone Down The Plughole"!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Mother's Lament / Dahn the Plug'ole
From: Ritchie
Date: 22 Jan 06 - 02:43 PM

Why and how I revisted this thead is anybody's guess but that's the marvel of the 'mudcat'.

Diana, thank you, hope you enjoy this site I'm sure you will.

The Big Pink lad, it was the last verse that always 'buggered me up'
so thank you.

The angel's bit I could never quite fathom....and so as I retire to the drawing room, after watching the 'antiques road show' to listen to my newly required recordings of Tiny Tim, I do so with a contented smile on my face.....oh how I do like Sundays.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Mother's Lament / Dahn the Plug'ole
From: Dave Sutherland
Date: 22 Jan 06 - 03:43 PM

If you can unearth an LP on EMI from around 1962 called "Hootenanny in London" or something similar then you'll actually find Martin Carthy performing it.
Die hard Cream fans were horrified at them recording it as London Music Hall certainly wasn't rock n'roll.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Mother's Lament / Dahn the Plug'ole
From: GUEST,citizen frank
Date: 26 Jul 10 - 04:27 PM

This piece of cockney trad humour was recorded by Ian Whitcomb, then, I think, a student in Trinity College, Dublin, and made it to the lower reaches of the UK top twenty. Its a wonderful ditty for drunken sing-a-long and the like. I understand Ian went on to become the first professor of pop music or some such at an august establishment of book-learning in England. He is fondly remembered in Dublin as an inventive musician (among other things).

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Mother's Lament / Dahn the Plug'ole
From: GUEST,damian
Date: 20 Jan 11 - 05:23 AM

Just fort I'd put me two penneff worth in.

The song may be late Victorian and alludes to the fact that the infant bodies of the poor were often put into the sewers in East London. The song probably came off the streets and worked it's way into the Music Hall. The Oxford Complete should give the earliest recorded use of the song although the phrase itself is much older (a MOTHER'S LAMENT.

I have yet to see an 'authentic' Lyric and there seem to be several popular versions. There is a version that is gender neutral in that "He" becomes "It". This may not seem so perverse as attitudes to child deaths amongst Victorians were very different because of the very high frequency they occured and particularly within the poorest communities.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Mother's Lament / Dahn the Plug'ole
From: BrooklynJay
Date: 20 Jan 11 - 06:13 AM

The group Clam Chowder recorded "A Mother's Lament" many years ago, but I seem to remember their refrain went "Your baby has gone down the gutter." Not 100% sure of this, so I may make an attempt to find the old cassette tape if I can. But I'm certainly glad to find lyrics that are a little bit more "authentic."

Jay

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Mother's Lament / Dahn the Plug'ole
From: clueless don
Date: 20 Jan 11 - 08:15 AM

I have heard a version (by John and Tony, I think, though I'm not 100% sure) that ended not with "... muckin' about, wif the angels above ...", but rather with "... he's workin' his way through the sewer ...".

Don

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Mother's Lament / Dahn the Plug'ole
From: GUEST,Roy
Date: 24 Mar 13 - 01:28 PM

Morey Amsterdam recorded this in the 1940's. As I remember it went :

A mother was washing her baby one day
Dear little mite, so slim and so slight.
The mother turned round for the soap on the rack.
She was only a moment, but when she turned back:
Oh where Oh where is me baby, she cried.
Oh where is me baby, and the angels replied:
Your baby has gone down the drainpipe.
Your baby has gone down the flood.
Dear little mite, so slim and so slight.
He should have been washed in a jug.
Don't worry your head, just be happy,
and remember he suffered no pain.
He drifted away down the plug hole.
Let's hope he don't stop up the drain!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Mother's Lament / Dahn the Plug'ole
From: GUEST,JTT
Date: 25 Mar 13 - 12:52 PM

I once heard Cream performing this in the Roundhouse in London during a set, after which Eric Clapton smashed up his ukelele, Who-style.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Mother's Lament / Dahn the Plug'ole
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 29 May 13 - 03:23 AM

Baby in toilet

My baby gas gone down the toilet
My baby's gone clean out of sight.
He went when I went to the toilet.
I only was having a ...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Mother's Lament / Dahn the Plug'ole
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 29 May 13 - 03:33 AM

You just get two babies in China.
A third child just isn't a right.
And this babe got stuck in the 'china' (or vitreous enamel, or ironwork but they wouldn't rhyme)
So pity the poor little mite!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Mother's Lament / Dahn the Plug'ole
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 04 Dec 14 - 03:49 AM

There's not many songs that have been performed both by Cream and Martin Carthy!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Mother's Lament / Dahn the Plug'ole
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Nov 15 - 11:31 AM

any tune or parts known?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Mother's Lament / Dahn the Plug'ole
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 06 Nov 15 - 04:00 AM

There's another thread on it, where someone has posted the ABC file. If you put this into one of the tune converters it comes up OK.