Lyr Req: The Winkle Song

Subject: The Winkle Song
From: GUEST
Date: 23 Apr 01 - 11:26 AM

My gran handed down a song called "The Winkle Song". I know one verse and the chorus but I wondered if there were other verses. It is a sort of music hall song and the chorus goes (in case anyone gets confused over a rather more falic song)

Picking all the big ones out
Picking all the big ones out
Talk about a fish face covered with wrinkles
When I saw my pennyworth of winkles
All the big ones gone
It made me scream and shout
But there was me wife and her seven kids,
Picking all the big ones out.

Be grateful for any replies to [e-mail] Thanks

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Winkle Song
From: IanC
Date: 23 Apr 01 - 12:15 PM

Here's the only relevant reference I could find, along with another Winkle Song

Winkle Song

Cheers
Ian

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Winkle Song
From: IanC
Date: 23 Apr 01 - 12:17 PM

Trying again

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Winkle Song
From: Naemanson
Date: 23 Apr 01 - 01:15 PM

Can we talk about the word WINKLES. I think it is a shortened version of PERIWINKLE. My grandfather was a fisherman on Long Island Sound and used to set out winkle pots to catch them.

Is winkle a local word (Long Island Sound) or does it have wide use?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Winkle Song
From: The Walrus at work
Date: 23 Apr 01 - 01:49 PM

Naemanson,

Winkle is most certainly not just local to Long Island Sound. I remember winkles (and whelks, cockles and mussels) as a kid in London.

Regards

Walrus

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Winkle Song
From: Sorcha
Date: 23 Apr 01 - 02:09 PM

I grew up in Kansas, US. We didn't of course,have any, but that's what we called the ones we didn't have....

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Winkle Song
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 23 Apr 01 - 02:18 PM

A popular snack in the South of England that doesn't seem very common nowadays; maybe pollution saw them off.  They were a bit fiddly to get out of their shells (hence the double-entendre in the song) -people often used pins.  In the 1950s, fashionable men's shoes with pointed toes were called "winklepickers".

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Winkle Song
From: Naemanson
Date: 23 Apr 01 - 03:39 PM

Sorcha, LOL, great reply!

Thanks guys!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Winkle Song
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 23 Apr 01 - 07:20 PM

Winkles didn't become unfashionable because of pollution, it's because they taste like small blobs of rubber that have been boiled in shit and covered with lemon juice!!! They are still available (worse luck) and still taste of poo....

LTS

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Winkle Song
From: Naemanson
Date: 23 Apr 01 - 08:48 PM

Oh! They taste like mussels!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Winkle Song
From: Sorcha
Date: 23 Apr 01 - 10:37 PM

or oysters!! yuck! I have to admit, I ate whelks in Mexico, pan fried with chile (of course) and they were really good. The locals called them "abalone" which they weren't..... Much "firmer" than scallops, more like escargot.......periwinkles are univalves, aren't they? More like snails?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Winkle Song
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 23 Apr 01 - 10:54 PM

Yup; a gasteropod.  Makes me quite nostalgic, though to be honest I can't really remember what they tasted like.  My mum thought they were a waste of time, having been fed them regularly throughout her childhood (especially when the house got bombed and they had to live with relations on the coast who ate such things all the time) so we only had them very occasionally, when I was small.  My dad was a bit more keen, but they were more of a novelty for him... he wasn't an Eastender.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Winkle Song
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 24 Apr 01 - 02:50 AM

Yes, but there is also a song that goes, "Why does the winkle always turn to the right?" Anybody know that one? I almost learned it from Meryle Korn in Portland in 1982 but never quite got the words written down.

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Winkle Song
From: Martin S
Date: 24 Apr 01 - 04:56 AM

Ian, Many thanks for your input. My guess is that the first two lines of your suggested lyric may be a clue as to the original. Do you know the origins of the link you supplied? There may be a contact point I can try to see if the guy knows the original? Still open to other suggestions from anyone else about the song (fasinating though the history of "the winkle" is, I'm quite desperate for the lyric! Its become a personal quest) Cheers Martin

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Winkle Song
From: alison
Date: 24 Apr 01 - 05:25 AM

we called them "willicks" (I assume a mispronounciation of "whelks") and I still rememeber my uncle going around rocks armed with a pin.... and eating them raw..... yuck!!!!!!!!!!!!

slainte

alison

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Winkle Song
From: IanC
Date: 24 Apr 01 - 05:49 AM

Martin

Sorry. I found it in a search, and nothing else. Here's his main page.

Charlie

Cheers!
Ian

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Winkle Song
From: Naemanson
Date: 24 Apr 01 - 06:52 AM

Malcolm, my father was the same way with lobster. He couldn't understand the big deal of eating them. His father was a fisherman during the depression and they ate lobster far too many times in those days.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Winkle Song
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 24 Apr 01 - 08:19 AM

It's odd how such things change.  Oysters were very much the food of the poor until relatively recently, and at one time (I'm told), "bound" apprentices would have a clause in their contract in which their "master" agreed not to make them eat salmon more than a certain number times each month...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Winkle Song
From: The Walrus at work
Date: 24 Apr 01 - 08:49 AM

Liz,

".....because they taste like small blobs of rubber that have been boiled in shit and covered with lemon juice!!! ..." LEMON JUICE???? Blimey, you must be posh, we had to settle for vinager (mind you, your not wrong about the taste).

Regards

Tom (The only walrus that can't stand seafood)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Winkle Song
From: Bernard
Date: 24 Apr 01 - 04:48 PM

Oysters? Yuck! Like licking snot off a tortoise...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Winkle Song
From: Sorcha
Date: 24 Apr 01 - 05:11 PM

You got that right, Bernard!! Especially on the half-shell. Why anyone not literally starving would eat raw meat is beyond me. Of course, eating meat at all is beyond some people. Different strokes.........

Question: Quite often, shellfish is allowed to sit in several changes of clean, fresh water before cooking/eating. Would that perhaps help the "muddy" flavor of winkles? I ask because the whelks I ate in Mexico were from a shallow, salt water tidal lagoon that had a water change twice a day.........and they were very good, not muddy or fishy at all.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Winkle Song
From: Bernard
Date: 24 Apr 01 - 05:25 PM

It's a bit like the theory that lobster tastes better if the poor creatures are gradually brought to the boil, rather than being plunged into boiling water.

Apparently they gradually become groggy as the heat rises, until they 'fall asleep' and then die, as the water reaches boiling point.

My theory is they simply suffocate, as all the oxygen is heated out of the water...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Winkle Song
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 24 Apr 01 - 06:17 PM

Friends, this is all very (urp!) appetizing, but DOES ANYBODY KNOW THAT OTHER WINKLE SONG? ("Why does the winkle always turn to the right?") There was a bit about how if it turned the other way, when you tried to pull him out with your winkle pin, you'd screw him in.... (tried a DT search, but couldn't get through--I guess the server was eating winkles, or whelks, or something)

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Winkle Song
From: Sorcha
Date: 24 Apr 01 - 06:21 PM

I'll look, Mark, but surely you know that they aren't going to be kashrat no matter where they are found? (small grin)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Winkle Song
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 24 Apr 01 - 06:43 PM

True, Sorcha, but of course it depends on whether you're talking about the periwinkle that's a snail or the periwinkle that's a flower. Trying to sort out the etymology of these terms is fascinating. Apparently in some locales the snail is called "pennywinkle", which is actually closer to the original Latin "pina", supposedly a word for a kind of mussel. The name for the flower, however, seems to come from "pervinca", which is said to be an abbreviation of the Latin "vincapervinca", a fascinating-sounding phrase which my dictionary doesn't further define. It's also been said to come from a Russian word that derives from the word for "first", since it's one of the first flowers in the spring. Sounds like we need somebody with Bruce O.'s detective skills here!

To creep some more, the flower periwinkle is the source of "vinca alkaloids", which are the basis for the anti-cancer drugs vincristine and vinblastine. Which of course gets us back to Max's virtual supercomputer to fight cancer (well, it's not really Max's but he started the Mudcat team, which all Mudcatters are cordially invited to join).

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Winkle Song
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 25 Apr 01 - 06:26 PM

Refresh....now I'm going nuts trying to get this song! I just remember bits and pieces: "Tail-first he toddles off to bed", and "Why does the winkle never turn to the left, when he comes down to breakfast in the morning"

Anybody??? Mahalo a nui loa.

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Winkle Song
From: Kernow John
Date: 25 Apr 01 - 07:16 PM

Can't understand the problem. When I were a lad in 'ackney, cockles, shrimps, winkles and jellied eals were a treat outside the pub on a Saturday night.
And they was ate by proper royalty, Pearly Kings and Queens that is.
KJ

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Winkle Song
From: MMario
Date: 26 Apr 01 - 03:14 PM

Mark - all I can find on it is that it is a music hall song from the '20's

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Winkle Song
From: Plume
Date: 26 Apr 01 - 04:24 PM

Mark, I remember hearing Jacqui and Bridie, a duo from Liverpool, I believe, do your Winkle song in a club in the US sometime in the mid'70's. Anyone have any of their records - they recorded at least eleven by my count.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Winkle Song
From: Barbara
Date: 27 Apr 01 - 02:16 AM

Lani Hermann sings it, Mark. Ask her. Do you need her email? I thought it was Flanders and Swann, no?
Blessings,
Barbara

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Winkle Song
From: Bernard
Date: 27 Apr 01 - 02:00 PM

I've got the 'Hello Friend' album, but it's not on that.

Bridie sadly died quite a few years ago, but Jacqui is still touring, often as a duo with Hughie Jones of 'The Spinners'.

Jacqui used to be a member of 'The Spinners' before Cliff Hall replaced her.

Dunno if that's any help...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Winkle Song
From: M.Ted
Date: 27 Apr 01 - 02:53 PM

Mark: As per the kashrat question--I remember that back in Philly, at the corner of 52nd and Baltimore, there used to be fry kitchen that had a sign in the window advertising "Kosher Shellfish"--it was down the block from a place which advertised "New and Used Antiques"--

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Winkle Song
From: Sue the Borderer
Date: 15 Jan 06 - 02:25 PM

Pete Collins has recently recorded The Winkle Song on his CD Time Moves On, where he credits it to Swan and Carter (so Donald Swan and Sydney Carter, not Michael Flanders as suggested above)

This is the 'why does the winkle turn to the right' song, the words of which are on the related thread.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Winkle Song
From: lady penelope
Date: 15 Jan 06 - 03:53 PM

My dad used to make sanwiches out of them.........

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Winkle Song
From: Tradsinger
Date: 16 Jan 06 - 01:39 PM

Does anyone know the rest of "I can't get my winkle out"?

All I remember is:

I can't get my winkle out, isn't it a sin
The more I try to get it out, the more it (stays right?) in
I can't get my winkle out, isn't it ......?
............ I'll have to get a skewer.

What's all that about then?

Gwilym

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Winkle Song
From: Joybell
Date: 17 Jan 06 - 04:54 PM

Yes I've got a friend who sings it. I'll be seeing her in four weeks time. Record her and post the words. That is if no one beats me to it. Cheers, Joy

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Winkle Song
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Jan 06 - 07:06 PM

I can't get my winkle out, isn't it a sin
The more I try to get it out, the further it goes in
I can't get my winkle out, isn't it a do-er
I can't get it out with an old bent pin
Has anybody here got a skewer.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Winkle Song
From: woodsie
Date: 17 Jan 06 - 07:23 PM

One night for my tea, I fancied luxury
So I went down to old periwinkle
Bought myself a pennyworth of winkles
Put them on the table for my wife to see
Then she came down with seven young kids
And all the family

They started ...

Picking all the big ones out
Picking all the big ones out

You should have seen my pennyworth of winkles
All the big ones gone

It made me jump and shout
When I saw my wife and seven kids
Had picked all the big ones out!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Winkle Song
From: Joybell
Date: 18 Jan 06 - 04:34 PM

Well it's coming along isn't it? Great song. If my friend comes up with more I'll post it. I think there's a lot of "Oiys! and repeats, but there's more about members of the family, I think. Cheers, Joy

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Winkle Song
From: Joybell
Date: 11 May 06 - 07:48 AM

Well here it is from a friend -- after discussions with her mother, aunt and several other relations who all do Music-hall songs. There's still a 1/2 verse missing.

Verse 1. As I was goin' home to tea
         I thought I'd have a luxury
         I popped in at Old Ma Tinkle's
         Bought myself a pennyworth o' winkles
         Took them home to tea
         As happy as could be
         But when I came down the stairs
         There was all the family

Bridge: Oh! Pickin' all the big ones out
       Pickin' all the big ones out
       There was Ma and Pa and nippers tryin'
       Pickin' all the big ones out and cryin'

Chorus: I can't get my winkle out
         Isn't it a sin
         The more I try to get it out
         The further it goes in
         Oh! I can't get my winkle out
         Isn't it a do-er
         'ere! I can't get my winkle out
         Anybody 'ere got a skewer?

Verse 2: Next time I took them home to tea
          I kept them under lock and key
          Bought myself a bell that tinkles
          Tied it to my pennyworth of winkles
   (Missing 4 lines)


Bridge and chorus again.

Cheers, Joy

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Winkle Song
From: Flash Company
Date: 11 May 06 - 11:41 AM

I think it was Johnny Silvo sang it as:-

I can't get my winkle out no matter how I try,
The more I try to get it out, the more it slips inside,
I can't get my winkle out, isn't it a cure,
I can't get it out with an old bent pin, as anybody got a skewer?

It had some verses which , as I recall, were full of innuendo.(That's spanish for suppository.)

FC

Subject: Lyr Add: THE WINKLE SONG
From: vectis
Date: 11 May 06 - 06:30 PM

Here's my version which I nicked from someone about 30 years ago

THE WINKLE SONG

As I was coming home to tea
I thought I'd take some company
Went into Old Mother Winkle's
Bought myself a pennyworth of winkles
Went on home to tea as happy as could be
Went upstairs met all the family

They was picking all the big ones out
Picking all the big ones out
You should have seen my face full of wrinkles
When I saw my pennyworth of winkles
All the big ones gorn It made me rave and shout
'Cos there sat the wife and 7 kids
Picking all the big ones out.

Singing,
I can't get my winkle out with an old bent pin
The more I tries to get it out the further it goes in
I can't get my winkle out isn't it a do'er
If I can't get it out with an old bent pin
Has anyone here got a skewer?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Winkle Song
From: Joybell
Date: 12 May 06 - 04:36 AM

We still don't know what happened after the "bell that tinkles" bit do we?
We've got singable bits now though don't we.
Cheers, Joy

Subject: Lyr Add: THE WINKLE SONG
From: GUEST,Ejogzmum
Date: 09 Dec 07 - 09:04 PM

Why does the winkle have to turn to the right,
Turn to the right, turn to the right,
Why does the winkle going upstairs at night
Have to put his little nightshirt on and turn to the right?
Tail first, he toddles up to bed
With his door shut tight on his little flat head.
Why does the winkle have to turn to the left
When he comes down to breakfast in the morning?

The answer to this question is quite simple, oh
If winkles turned left, as sure as sin.
Although you'd poke that winkle with your winkle-pin
You'd never get him out, you'd screw him in!
So Nature, what put whiskers on the walruses
Made one-way streets for winkles, and the chorus is -

Why does the winkle have to turn to the right,
Turn to the right, turn to the right,
Why does the winkle going upstairs at night
Have to put his little nightshirt on and turn to the right?
Tail first, he toddles up to bed
With his door shut tight on his little flat head.
Why does the winkle have to turn to the left
When he comes down to breakfast in the morning?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Winkle Song
From: Effsee
Date: 09 Dec 07 - 09:26 PM

John Foreman!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Winkle Song
From: Leadfingers
Date: 10 Dec 07 - 06:43 AM

John Foreman indeed - I 'collected' this from John thirty years or so back at Bracknell ! There is a First verse that goes :-

The lion builds a den out in the Jungle - Oh
The Cuckoo steals a nest up in a tree
The Festive Winkle builds his little bungalow
In a puddle at the bottom of the sea
But here's a thing that scientists could never tell
For when the winkle crawls in side his winkle shell .

Why does the winkle etc etc

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Winkle Song
From: GUEST,amazing_mark
Date: 04 May 08 - 09:30 AM

all I can remember from the song is...

I can't get my winkle out isn't it a sin.
The more I try to get it out, the further it goes in.
I can't get my winkle out isn't it a ......
I can't get it out with an old bent pin, has anyone got a skewer.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Winkle Song
From: GUEST,John from Elsie`s Band
Date: 04 May 08 - 10:56 AM

Vectis,
         "Organic John", one of the fine singers at "Elsie`s" does a super rendition, close to the one you detailed.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Winkle Song
From: GUEST,Jim Knowledge
Date: 04 May 08 - 12:20 PM

I `ad that John Foreman in my cab once. I picked `im up at N.W.5 and `e said, "London Bridge please". It was after 5 o`clock, right in the middle of going `ome time. We were getting nowhere fast, the old meter was going round ten to the dozen and the radio was playing "Tommy". `e said to me, "Oi Jim, this is Madness!"
I said "No John, that`s your son`s group. this is "The`oo!!"
What am I Like??

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Winkle Song
From: Mr Happy
Date: 05 May 08 - 11:52 AM

Another classic winkles song here:http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=tOa-afoxp3g !!