Lyr Req: On the Road to Mandalay (Kipling)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: On the Road to Mandalay (Kipling)
From: Artful Codger
Date: 14 Feb 12 - 12:40 PM

Idealizing the exotic gave us another classic: "Lydia, oh Lydia, say, have you met Lydia? Lydia the tattooed lady..."

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: On the Road to Mandalay (Kipling)
From: Lighter
Date: 14 Feb 12 - 01:24 PM

Tattooed ladies are far less exotic today.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: On the Road to Mandalay (Kipling)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 14 Feb 12 - 02:08 PM

Charley, put together from the refuse in my brain. Open to all for revision, additions, etc.
I remember some parodied lines my father used to sing, so others may have "done the foul deed" multiple times.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: On the Road to Mandalay (Kipling)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 14 Feb 12 - 02:25 PM

British Army soldiers parodied the poem in their song relating to actions in the Sudan.

On the road to Dongolay
Where the dying camels lay
And the sun comes down like hell-fire
And grows hotter day by day.

Excerpt given in introduction to a chapter in Roy McLaren, 1978, Canadians on the Nile, 1882-1898, Univ. British Columbia Press.

I could not find the whole, but I have a couple of British Army songbooks to look at yet.

Subject: Lyr. Add: ON THE ROAD TO DONGOLAY
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 14 Feb 12 - 02:56 PM

Lyr. Add: ON THE ROAD TO DONGOLAY

In a little town called London,
Far away, and o'er the sea,
There's my own best girl a' waiting,
And I know she waits for me.
How I'd like to spend an evening
In the same old cheery way,
But there ain't no songs nor suppers
On the road to Dongolay

On the road to Dongolay
Where the ancient railway lay,
How they toiled, and moiled and sweated,
Just to make one mile a day.
Chorus:
On the road to Dongolay
Where the dying camels lay,
And the sun struck down like hell-fire
And gfrew hotter day by day.
2
Shif me somewhere south of Sarrass,
Where the medal roll begins,
And aman wipes out his sins,
And there ain't no wine nor women,
And a man wipes out his sins.
I begin to think it's gospel
What I've often heard them say,
That when once you tast Nile water
You won't never go away.

On the road to Dongolay, etc.

Literary Notes, Star, Putange 5699, 19 Whiringa-a-nuki 1896, page 2.
"Correspondent, "Canterbury Times," London, August 21.
From another issue:

Here's a health and best of luck, boys,
To you all in the ExA., [?]
From Sirdar down to Drummer,
May we get to Dongolay!
With a little help from England,
And no one to say us nay,
We'll spend a merry Xmas
Further south than Dongolay!

On the road to Dongolay,
Where the ancient railway lay,
As we toiled, moiled and sweated-
Just to make one mile a day-
Chorus- On the road to Dongolay, etc.

Seems to me that these rhymes have been altered for a gentile readership.

A fragment from a different parody-
There's a chance for Tommy Atkins
And the Sikh to have some fun
We take the work and finish
What the Gippy's well begun,
For there's still a bit of country
Lies stretching south, away
From Dongola to Dafur,
On the road to UGAN-DAY.

Evening Post vol. LII, 28 Nov. 1896, p. 2. Rhodesian Rhymes.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: On the Road to Mandalay (Kipling)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 14 Feb 12 - 03:34 PM

...genteel..., that is.

There seems to be a parody, On the road to Mandeville (location of the asylum for the insane in Louisiana.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: On the Road to Mandalay (Kipling)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 14 Feb 12 - 04:28 PM

Outrageous!

Obviously "The Road to Paroday" was not paved with good intentions.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: On the Road to Mandalay (Kipling)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 14 Feb 12 - 06:02 PM

Billie Bennett parody of Mandalay:
http://www.epicure.demon.co.uk/mandalay.html

The chorus-
On the road to Mandalay
Where you see the fried fishes play.
They bring their own chips with them
When it's early-closing day.

I can't bring myself to post this parody. One verse:

There's a farm on the horizon Looking eastward to Siam
We could have some ham and eggs there, if they had some eggs and ham
They've only got one hen, they call her "Mandy" by the way
They found out she's a cock- That's why they can't make Mandy lay.

Subject: Lyr. Add: On the Road Amanda Lay
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 14 Feb 12 - 06:23 PM

ON THE ROAD AMANDA LAY
Airfarcewon, sung by Frank Sinatra

She kinda looked like Abe Vigoda
Had a nose like Jimmy "D"
But that busty broad from Burma
Was a body, Yessiree!

I was cruisin' past some palm trees
On my happy Honda way
When I almost dropped my slurpee
On the Road Amanda Lay
On the Road Amanda Lay

On the Road Amanda Lay-ay
Asked, "Could we?" She said "Okay."
Thunder struck with awe and wonder,
As her love she tossed my way..

On the Road Amanda Lay
Yes, it was my lucky day
So I fooled around and funned her
She was Gothic in her way.

It was someplace east of L. A.
Where our passion was dispersed.
Disobeyed all ten commandments,
But I think that chick was cursed
Cause across the road a'runnin'
Came a big dude packin' heat
He was yellin' and a shootin'
Bullets flyin' at my feet.

On the Road Amanda Lay-ay
Guess her luck ran out that day
Quickly hopped back in my Honda
And like Nascar zoomed away..

On the Road Amanda Lay-ay
It's too bad but what's to say?
Just glad I'm not six feet under
Where soon will Amanda Lay..

On the Road Amanda Lay.. ...


http://www.amiright.com/parody/60s/franksinatra55.shtml

This site has parodies and misheard lyrics.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: On the Road to Mandalay (Kipling)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 14 Feb 12 - 06:37 PM

"That's why they can't make Mandy lay."

Eggs-actly!

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: On the Road to Mandalay (Kipling)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 14 Feb 12 - 06:41 PM

Charley, that's roadkill.