Lyr Req: Dear Old Uncle Joe

Subject: Lyr Req: Dear Old Uncle Joe
From: IanC
Date: 27 Mar 03 - 08:19 AM

I've been looking for what could be a local Cambridgeshire (England) or a Music Hall song for some time. The chorus (I think) goes something like this.

Good old Uncle Joe, Dear old Uncle Joe,
Uncle Joe's a regular gent,
He buys the beer and he pays the rent.
We'd all be lost if it wasn't for him, you know,
We all love - we have to love - dear old Uncle Joe

The history of the song from my perspective is this. I had a great uncle who died about 1968 who sang this song to us once in the early sixties when one of my family first bought a tape recorder (reel to reel). We all sat around thinking of things to say or sing and playing them back, and he sang this song. Afterwards, the tape got wiped much to my dismay.

The uncle spent most of his working life as a servant (butler I think) in one of the Cambridge colleges and lived mainly in Cambridge, though he had been in France during the first World War.

Has anyone heard anything like this?

Thanks
Ian

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dear Old Uncle Joe
From: Snuffy
Date: 27 Mar 03 - 09:37 AM

nothing to do with Uncle Joe Stalin then?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dear Old Uncle Joe
From: IanC
Date: 27 Mar 03 - 09:47 AM

Could be, but it seemed more sentimental than satirical really.

:-)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dear Old Uncle Joe
From: songs2play
Date: 27 Mar 03 - 09:55 AM

I've heard of Uncle Joe's Mint Balls, if that's any help.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dear Old Uncle Joe
From: Gareth
Date: 28 Mar 03 - 07:51 AM

Just a thought - does the Music Hall song provide a reason for Joseph Stalin being refered to as "Uncle Joe" ???

Gareth

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dear Old Uncle Joe
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 29 Mar 03 - 07:45 AM

Could be Gareth, if it was widespread enough to be picked up by a newspaper or a government publicist.

When did people start calling him that though? If it was after the Americans came into the war it could have been from an American song, of which there are a number using the name, such as this one in the DT:

I'm a-comin' ninety-two and I'll have you know
That the young folks calls me Uncle Joe.
My God damn' hair has all turn' gray,
Don't make no difference for I still feel gay.

Or it might just be that with his big moustache and all he looked a bit like a jolly old uncle...if you didn't look too close. And of course in the circumstances it's easy to see why people preferred to think of him that way.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dear Old Uncle Joe
From: Troll
Date: 29 Mar 03 - 07:50 PM

There was a Korean war vintage song, that had as its last line "Your Uncle Sams a better man than dear old Uncle Joe." I don't remember where I heard it and I only recall that one line. The tune was "A Ramblin' Wreck From Georgia Tech."

troll