Lyr Req: Body in the Bag (sung by D. Disley)

Subject: Body in the Bag (sung by D. Disley)
From: Thomazo
Date: 31 Jan 02 - 05:47 AM

Anyone know the words?? Starts: Our old tom cat died last night, my wife said bury him out of sight etc.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Body in the Bag (sung by D. Disley)
From: Aidan Crossey
Date: 31 Jan 02 - 06:01 AM

You could try PMing McGrath of Harlow who sings a cracking version on his CD "Marmite and Other Stuff", reviewed in Pay The Reckoning (Reviews)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Body in the Bag (sung by D. Disley)
From: Susan of DT
Date: 31 Jan 02 - 06:17 AM

It is in the DT as Body in the Bag. You might also try the category @deadcat. Yes, I know the body in the bag isn't dead, but you don't know that for most of the song.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Body in the Bag (sung by D. Disley)
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 31 Jan 02 - 07:13 AM

My version's a little different - here it is (there's a RealAudio clicky button next to it.)

It's what happened to the DT version, which is where I learned it, after I'd been singing it a while.

If anyone knows anything about who Charles Hegarty who wrote it, I'd be grateful.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Body in the Bag (sung by D. Disley)
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 31 Jan 02 - 08:32 AM

Here is an amended blue clicky for my version of The Body in the Bag which should work a bit better.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Body in the Bag (sung by D. Disley)
From: InOBU
Date: 31 Jan 02 - 09:25 AM

I was gong to pop on and endorce McGraths WONDERFULL version.... Larry

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Body in the Bag (sung by D. Disley)
From: Amos
Date: 31 Jan 02 - 11:13 AM

And in related matters, you might enjoy the tale of a body in a bag which turned out to still be inhabited - a love story with a twist from an old Song Challenge.

Regards,

A.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Body in the Bag (sung by D. Disley)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 31 Jan 02 - 03:41 PM

This site says the song was written by Charles O'Hegarty. [not Charles Hegarty] (and so does DT)

And This site gives some information about a folksinger named Charles O'Hegarty - don't know if it's the same guy - but it doesn't mention "The Body in the Bag."

By the way, something about this song annoys me. It doesn't explain why the cat looked dead. As far as I know, catatonia (sorry!) isn't a symptom of pregnancy.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Body in the Bag (sung by D. Disley)
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 31 Jan 02 - 03:58 PM

Hegarty, O'Hegarty, it's the same name either way. I think this song goes a bit further back than the Charles O'Hegarty in the other link.

But maybe not. The first time I came across it was in a copy of Sing Out many years ago, where it was paired with The Cat Came Back, which is essentially the same tune, the suggestion is the one grew out of the other. There might have been more about it there - maybe if someone's got a Sing-Out archive they could check up.

I'd assumed it was music-hall from the early part of the last century maybe. Half-a-crown indicates it as being from the East side of the Atlantic. Though it maybe also indicates it might have been later than I thought - half-a-crown would have been a very fair sized tip at the start of the century.

If we can't find the truth of it through the Mudcat, noone ever will.

Subject: Lyr Add: THE BODY IN THE BAG (sung by D. Disley)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 31 Jan 02 - 04:46 PM

Here's another variation from the folk processing I've done over the last 20 years or so. (Tto line up the chords, copy and paste into Word with a Times 12 font)

Dm------------Gm-----Dm
Our old tabby cat died last night,
----------------Am
Me wife said, "Bury it out of sight."
---Dm-------------------------Gm----Dm
We haven't got a yard for we live in a flat,
------------------------------Am
What was I to do with our old tabby cat?
Dm------------------Am-------Dm
Just then a great brown paper bag I spied,
--------------------Am-------------Dm
And I stuffed our dear old cat in-side.


Chorus:

Dm-----------------Gm----------Dm
Off I went with the body in the bag,
----Gm-------Dm----Am/Dm
The body in the bag, ta-rah-rah.


I stepped into a pub and ordered a whiskey neat,
Gently laid me burden down underneath the seat;
I hadn't got but part way back to town,
When I heard a voice behind me say, "Here's your parcel, Mr. Brown."
I had to give that fool half a crown,
For bringing me the body in the bag...(CHO)

I threw the bag in the river but the hero from some play,
Jumped right in to save it crying "Hip,hip, hip, hooray!"
He said, "I don't do this kind of thing as a rule,
Now I'm soaked to the skin and feeling rather cool."
I had to take me jacket off and give it to that fool,
For saving me the body in the bag...(CHO)

I crept into a garden not feeling very brave,
Found a pick and shovel and commenced to dig a grave,
But I got an awful start when a voice behind me said,
"Are ye stealing me potatoes?" Well, you could've struck me dead;
For there I was a digging on his cauliflower bed,
So I hit him with the body in the bag...(CHO)

Then, I climbed some stairs just as quiet as a mouse,
Gently laid me burden on the doorstep of a house;
Just then the door flew open and a lady dressed in blue,
Said, "Pardonnez-moi, monsieur, but do you parlez-vous?"
"Good heavens, no!" I said. "I've got better things to do."
As I fled with the body in the bag...(CHO)

I turned toward home, me feet began to drag,
Just then I felt a stirring in the bag;
I peered inside and heard a plaintive "meow;"
"It's all right," Tabby said, "I'm feeling better now."
And there were seven little bodies in the bag.

Final Chorus:

Off I went with the bodies in the bag,
The bodies in the bag, ta-rah-rah.

Cheerily.
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Body in the Bag (sung by D. Disley)
From: Thomazo
Date: 01 Feb 02 - 02:53 PM

Thanks everyone YOU ARE GREAT!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Body in the Bag (sung by D. Disley)
From:
Date: 01 Feb 02 - 04:15 PM

Charlie O Hegarty was a fixture back in Cambridge MA in the early 70s. Often joining in at Irish sessions at the Plough & Stars to sing a few, or at the infamous Peter Johnson concerts and parties.

This song appears, sung by the author, on the CONCERTINA & SQUEEZEBOX cassette SON OF READER'S TAPE, produced by Joel Cowen in the early 90s.

Last I heard, Charlie had moved to London.

Miss him & wish him well !! riGGy

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Body in the Bag (sung by D. Disley)
From: Thomazo
Date: 01 Feb 02 - 04:23 PM

Just as a last shot and with no particular axe to grind, I always believed it to be a music hall or vaudeville song 'cos instead of "ta rar rah" I'd heard "Gor blimey"... It's fun tho... and that's the main thing. Anyone remember Surbiton FC - Sunday nights in particular...?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Body in the Bag (sung by D. Disley)
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Mar 03 - 03:57 PM

Heloo! I'm an old friend of Charlie O'Hegarty-anybody know how to get in touch with him? Will Millar

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Body in the Bag (sung by D. Disley)
From: Leadfingers
Date: 30 Mar 03 - 06:08 PM

I collected Body in the Bag from a tape loaned to me by a friend when I was in hospital after a motor cycle accident in Singapore in 1970.
On the tape it was sung by a group,all male, and I knew NOTHING of them or the song until now.I have a different penultimate verse :-

I took it down the railway line and laid it on the rail
And now to do the dirty work here here comes the midnight mail
But the Flying Sctsman tore along and gave me such a whack
Knocked me off the railway line but clear of the track
And in a dirty muddy puddle I was lying on my back
Cuddling the body in the bag.

And as a matter of interest I dont think Dis Disley has Ever sung this song,At least not in the forty years I have known him .

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Body in the Bag (sung by D. Disley)
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 30 Mar 03 - 07:05 PM

G'day all,

I reckon this old song is as indestructible as the mis-gendered tabby. There was a version collected in Australia (in the mid-'50s ...?) and published in Singabout, Journal of Australian Folk Lore ... and (I think I vaguely remember ... ) anthologised by me in Singabout - Selected Reprints, 1985!

I'll dig out that version when I get home and add it to this thread.

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Body in the Bag (sung by D. Disley)
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 18 Dec 08 - 10:53 PM

Hi, Bob

Did you ever find the Aussie vesion of "Body in the Bag"?
Paul Guppy of Lancaster sang this at a session in the Fleece, Dolphinholme last night, and I couldn't quite place whether it was original Music Hall material or something more modern. I've heard it before, sung by Kevin McGrath (links in the thread above are dead, but he sometimes has a working website). The Digitrad version indicates "sung by Jean Redpath", and a Google on Charles O'Hegarty shows that the two were booked at a venue "Jabberwok" within days of each other in 1965. Co-incidence?

Ross

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Body in the Bag (sung by D. Disley)
From: Amos
Date: 18 Dec 08 - 11:21 PM

For amusement you can compare it with The Gurgle in the Bag from the old Mudcat Songbook.


A

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Body in the Bag (sung by D. Disley)
From: GUEST,Graham Bradshaw
Date: 19 Dec 08 - 04:03 AM

Leadfinger said that "Diz Disley never sang this song".

Well I can't be sure, although he may have done. Derek Sarjeant used to sing it at Surbiton Folk Club, where Diz was a regular/almost resident, and in fact Diz first got into the folk scene by going round with Derek on his gigs, doing floor spots, and inevitably getting booked. Diz also 'acquired' quite a bit of material from Derek, so it is entirely possible that he would have picked up on this one.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Body in the Bag (sung by D. Disley)
From: GUEST,Howard Jones
Date: 19 Dec 08 - 04:20 AM

If my memory serves me correctly (which it often doesn't!) I seem to recall Sam Sherry singing this.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Body in the Bag (sung by D. Disley)
From: GUEST,Gadaffi
Date: 19 Dec 08 - 06:21 AM

It was one of the Music Hall songs that George Spicer used to sing. It's available at the British Library Sound Archive with a copy at the Vaughan Williams Library.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Body in the Bag (sung by D. Disley)
From: GUEST,Derek Sarjeant
Date: 25 Mar 10 - 03:57 AM

Leadfingers was correct Diz Disley never sang this song and Graham Bradshaw was correct. I used to sing "The Body In The Bag" and Diz sometimes joined in playing guitar and joining me in the chorus.When Diz went to America to stay with Rick Norcross in 1967/68 he asked me for the words of several songs however this was not one of them. I collected my version from a friend Kent Singer Paul Solly in 1956 and I believe that he had changed the chorus to "Off I went with the body in the bag, The body in the bag Gor Blimey".

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Body in the Bag (sung by D. Disley)
From: Rank
Date: 25 Mar 10 - 04:11 PM

I don't know where it fits into the scheme of things, but I have a 78 record of "The Body in the Bag", recorded by a Stan Davis on Parlophone R567. I haven't got my 78 player connected up at the moment, but as I recall it was very American with a broadly similar story, excepting for public house becomes bar or something and he threw it into a park etc..

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Body in the Bag (sung by D. Disley)
From: Rank
Date: 25 Mar 10 - 04:57 PM

Just browsing, but the Stan Davis recording appears to be March 1930.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Body in the Bag (sung by D. Disley)
From: GUEST,Guest David Jones
Date: 06 May 10 - 11:52 AM

I knew and sang with the late Charles O'Hegarty for a long time. It was always my impression that "Body in the Bag" was an old Music Hall song that had been reworked by Charles. Jean Redpath learnt the song from Charles and I recorded it on a CD called "Songs of Exquisite Taste"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Body in the Bag (sung by D. Disley)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 06 May 10 - 02:32 PM

Hmmm. I hadn't known about "Songs of Exquisite Taste," and there's just the kind of songs I sing. It's available at folk-legacy.com, at minstrelrecords.com, and at http://www.davidjones.ws. I always enjoy your recordings, David.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Body in the Bag (sung by D. Disley)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 06 May 10 - 03:09 PM

Now that this thread is active again, can anyone explain the plot to me?

Specifically, why did the cat appear to be dead when it was merely pregnant?

Or, to put a different interpretation on the events, how did a cat that had been dead for several hours manage to come back to life and give birth to 6 live kittens?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Body in the Bag (sung by D. Disley)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 06 May 10 - 04:18 PM

Jim-

It was a miracle!

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Body in the Bag (sung by D. Disley)
From: Leadfingers
Date: 06 May 10 - 07:06 PM

The explanation is that the guy who wrote it had a fully paid up Poetic licence , and NEVER let the facts get in the way of a good Comic Song

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Body in the Bag (sung by D. Disley)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 10 May 10 - 02:22 PM

I was hoping someone would come up with a better explanation than that, like maybe the guy somehow got his bag switched with a different one containing a pregnant cat. It would comfort me to believe there is a missing verse or two that explains how that happened, and also, what happened to the bag containing the dead cat.

There's a song challenge for you, if anyone feels inclined to take it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Body in the Bag (sung by D. Disley)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 10 May 10 - 02:38 PM

I'm more interested in whether there is an older version of this song.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Body in the Bag (sung by D. Disley)
From: GUEST,ken
Date: 03 Oct 11 - 03:04 PM

I heard this song from my mother many years ago. She left England in 1926 so the song is at least that old. i would suspect that it is a very old music hall tume.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Body in the Bag (sung by D. Disley)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 03 Oct 11 - 04:13 PM

Both the British Library and the National Library of Australia have the sheet music, unfortunately not viewable online, but described thus:

THE BODY IN THE BAG
Words and music by R. P. Weston and Bert Lee
London : Francis, Day & Hunter, ©1921.
[Sydney : J. Albert & Son, ©1921.]

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Body in the Bag (sung by D. Disley)
From: GUEST,Margaret
Date: 03 Oct 11 - 04:32 PM

It was certainly alive and well (npi) in Britain during the Revival in the early/mid-'60s, because I have a recording I made from BFN in Germany. At this remove I can't remember who the singer was. But it was "our old tom cat" who appeared to die, the filler was "tatata raaaa ra", and the ending definitely didn't involve kittens.

Our old tom cat went and died last night,
And me wife said, "Bury it out of sight."
Now we haven't got a garden for we're living in a flat,
So what was I to do wi' the body of the cat?
Just then an old brown bag I spied,
And I put the body of the cat in-side.

Now [later: So] off I went wi' the body in the bag,
The body in the bag, tatata raaaa ra.

...

He pokes out his head and gives a cheery "miaow"
Saying "that's all right, you needn't bother now"

That's all I can remember except that the man starts gibbering at the end.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Body in the Bag (sung by D. Disley)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 03 Oct 11 - 05:38 PM

npi? National Provider Identifier? National Procurement Institute?
BFN? Bye for now? Breastfeeding Network? Bundesamt für Naturschutz?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Body in the Bag (sung by D. Disley)
From: Leadfingers
Date: 04 Oct 11 - 05:39 AM

Dont know about 'npi' but B F N was British Forces Network - Radio for our guys in Germany .

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Body in the Bag (sung by D. Disley)
From: SPB-Cooperator
Date: 04 Oct 11 - 08:56 AM

I've got the sheet music somewhere in the depths of my archive.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Body in the Bag (sung by D. Disley)
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 04 Oct 11 - 09:34 AM

no pun intended

Mick

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Body in the Bag (sung by D. Disley)
From: GUEST,Margaret
Date: 04 Oct 11 - 03:25 PM

Yes, sorry: npi = no pun intended, and BFN = British Forces Network, informally aka RAR/Rhine Army Radio.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Body in the Bag (sung by D. Disley)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 04 Oct 11 - 04:30 PM

tx

Subject: RE: Lyr Re q: Body in the Bag (sung by D. Disley)
From: GUEST,eric scott
Date: 17 Jul 12 - 10:52 AM

I remember my father sitting at the upright piano, with me on his lap, singing and playing this in Liverpool, England about 1947.It was in his repetoire of witty ditties that he had been playing around the clubs for years.He said he had learned it as a young man(he was born in 1905). Later, he wrote the lysics out for me and there are some differences. He sings of trying to bury the cat in an allotment and and of hitting the man between his cauliflower and radishes!It has strong elements of English music hall and since when have they used Half Crowns as money in the USA! Diz Dizley, Charles Hegarty, authors and composers no and the like...never.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Body in the Bag (sung by D. Disley)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 18 Jul 12 - 08:50 AM

Eric-

That all makes sense to me. Would you post your father's lyrics along with his name for credit?

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Body in the Bag (sung by D. Disley)
From: GUEST,Barbara Warren
Date: 19 Oct 12 - 06:07 AM

My Grandparents, Uncle and My Mother used to sing this to us as when we were children (over 50 years ago) I can recall another verse that went

I went into the barracks
To be rid of Old Tom
But the Sentry saw me drop it
And he thought it was a bomb.
He came at me with Bayonet fixed
To stab me through the heart.
But I was very clever,
And also very smart.
And I Biffed him with
The Body in the Bag

   There was also another verse about 'going in the public park'
   and 'throwing it neath some bushes
       and a rather burly chap
       cried 'what do you mean by
       throwing this 'ere in my
       young ladies lap' and he
       Hit me with the body in the bag
                               or words to that effect

If anyone knows where I can get a copy of this recording for my grandchildren I would truly be grateful.. My email is [e-mail]

Thankyou for the memories

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Body in the Bag (sung by D. Disley)
From: kendall
Date: 19 Oct 12 - 07:28 AM

Didn't David Jones put this on his Songs of exquisite taste tape?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Body in the Bag (sung by D. Disley)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 19 Oct 12 - 07:35 AM

We're still waiting for the lyrics composed by R. P. Weston and Bert Lee, 1921, mentioned above.

That team certainly would be prime candidates for composing such a song.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Body in the Bag (sung by D. Disley)
From: GUEST,Marc Bridgham
Date: 19 Oct 12 - 08:23 AM

Doesn't add much to the substance of the thread to say this but this used to be one of our post popular songs when I played with a band called "Morrigan" in the late 70's in the Pacific Northwest. I still sing it and it's always a crowd-pleaser.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Body in the Bag (sung by D. Disley)
From: Bill D
Date: 19 Oct 12 - 02:23 PM

Jean Redpath (mentioned above) dropped this 'treasure' on us Americans in the late 70s. Several of us in the DC area sang it at times...including one time when a lady at a singaround when asked for suggestions,said,"Oh..sing anything as long as it's not about dead animals.."

I think she got 7-8 in a row... mostly about cats.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Body in the Bag (sung by D. Disley)
From: GUEST,Julie Mc
Date: 24 Feb 13 - 03:17 PM

And the song is still alive and kicking.. I've taught it to a group of 60 south London school children who will be singing it, with costumes, acting and 6 cute stuffed cats, at the South Bank this week in music festival.Thanks for all the research.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Body in the Bag (sung by D. Disley)
From: GUEST,Gordon D
Date: 04 Jan 17 - 10:04 AM

I remember my mother telling me her sister sang it in an amateur concert on Merseyside (for our American friends, that's the area near Liverpool on the west coast of England)sometime in the 1920's or 30's. I don't remember all the words she recited to me, but it did include, "So what was I to do with the body in the bag" in each chorus.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Body in the Bag (sung by D. Disley)
From: GUEST,Eric Scott
Date: 16 Feb 17 - 10:26 AM

I had forgotten all about this since mentioning it in my 'family history. It was long before Diz Disley and it was already much older when my dad would sing it and play it to me at the piano to me as a tot in 1947.He had learned it as a young man and he was born 1905! He played at the NUPO National Union of Police Officers social club in Liverpool during the war. he was a trained pianist named Wilfred Rose. *He added a little piece on the end. Reading his scrawl it goes like this:

Our old (tom) cat died last night,
Me wife said bury it out of sight.
But we didn't have a garden; we was livin' in a flat,
So what was I to do with the body of a cat?
Then a big, brown paper bag I spied,
I put our old dead kitty cat inside -
Now off I am with the body in the bag, the body in the bag ta-ra-ra

Well I crept off down the street as quiet as a mouse,
And laid my burden on the doorstep of a house.
When the door it was flung open and a lady dressed in blue
Said 'Entrez-vous, monsieur; pardonnez-moi, do you parlez-vous?'
Said I, I'm very sorry but no Ma'am, I've got something else to do,'
And skedaddled with the body in the bag.
So off I went...

I went inside a public house, and called for a brandy neat.
And guiltily I laid my burden - underneath the seat.
I crawled out on my hands and knees but halfway up the town,
The barman stopped me, saying, 'Here's your parcel, Mr. Brown.'
So had to thank the silly fool and give him half a crown,
For bringing me the body in the bag.
So...

I went to an allotment, though not feeling very brave,
I found a little shovel and prepared to dig a grave.
But just as I was digging it a voice behind me said:
'You're pinching my potatoes,' an' he might have killed me dead,
But just between his radishes and cauliflower bed -
I sloshed him with the body in the bag.
So ...

I dropped it in the river but a hero of a play,
Jumped in and shouted,'I've saved it, hip, hip, hip hooray.
He brought it to the bank and stood there in a pool,
He said, 'I'm feeling very wet and also very cool,'
So I had to take my trousers off and give them to the fool,
For rescuing the body in the bag.
So ...

Then out from the bag came a plaintive meow,
Said puss,'I've come to life again, you needn't trouble now.
As everybody's well aware, a pussy has nine lives,
And I'm a married tabby and one of Ginger's wives,
And usually our families come in threes or fours or fives...'
And there were seven little bodies in the bag.
*(So I took the high road and the pussies took the low road,
And they got home long before me,
And pussy and her family often boast and brag,
How she diddled me that night - she had the bodies in the bag.

ENJOY IT FOR WHAT IS.
Eric

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Body in the Bag (sung by D. Disley)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 16 Feb 17 - 05:14 PM

Thanks, Eric!

Charlie Ipcar

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Body in the Bag (sung by D. Disley)
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Mar 17 - 08:17 AM

I see that a certain fellow, Patrick O'Hegarty is accredited as the composer circa 1966. Balderdash!I don't know who the roylaties (if any) belong to, but it's not him, Disley, Donegan or any of their ilk. As I mentioned Charley, My father, Wilf Rose, was already playing it (on the piano) in the cubs of 1940's Liverpool - and to me as a toddler. I still have his hand written lyrics. It's one thing playing it, it's quite another claiming authorship in the face of evidence showing otherwise. Grrr.#
Eric

Subject: Eric Body in the Bag (sung by D. Disley)
From: GUEST,SBPartridge
Date: 15 Oct 17 - 11:11 AM

FAO Eric: Read your posts on your father with great interest. Been trying to find out about NUPO for a long time (archives etc.) but struggled to find people who remember it on Upper Canning St. Please drop me a line. [e-mail] thanks a lot. Simon Partridge

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Body in the Bag (sung by D. Disley)
From: Mo the caller
Date: 16 Oct 17 - 05:55 AM

i remember this song on the wireless in the '50s. And like Howard (some years up-thread) I heard Sam Sherry sing it, maybe in the 80s at a folk festival where he was performing and teaching clog steps (the workshop went far to fast for my eye-brain-feet linkage). He used to perform with his brothers in Music Hall

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Body in the Bag (sung by D. Disley)
From: Dave Sutherland
Date: 16 Oct 17 - 07:51 AM

I can remember getting home from work one Saturday lunchtime when Folk on Two (or what used to be Folk on Friday) had moved to a Saturday spot around 1pm; possibly around 1969/70. Having just switched it on and someone was singing "The Body in the Bag" with the Gor Blimey chorus; however I never found out who it was performing; anyone know or can help?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Body in the Bag (sung by D. Disley)
From: GUEST,Phil Revnell
Date: 04 Dec 17 - 12:16 PM

My wife Jeanne and I still sing this at Croydon Folk Club using lyrics very similar to Eric Scott's. I knew it from my old Scoutmaster Ted Ray back in the 50's and picked up Eric's version at Croydon when the Club was still at the Waddon Pub. I have always accepted that the original came from Weston and Lee