Lyr Add: Drinking on the Premises (Robin Hayes)

Subject: Lyr Add: DRINKING ON THE PREMISES (Robin Hayes)
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 03 Nov 03 - 02:01 AM

DRINKING ON THE PREMISES
© Robin Hayes 2003
TTO: Standing On The Promises


Drinking on the premises of Ben my Landlord,
Through eternal ages let his praises ring,
Glory in the highest, I will shout and sing,
Drinking on the premises of Ben.

Chorus:
Drinking on the premises, drinking on the premises,
Drinking on the premises of Ben my landlord.
Drinking on the premises, drinking on the premises,
I'm drinking on the premises of Ben.


Drinking on the premises that serves the best Ale,
When the howling storms of doubt and fear assail.
By the use of Dead Dog Scrumpy I shall prevail,
Drinking on the premises of Ben.

Drinking on the premises I now can see
Perfect present cleansing in the Gent's for me,
Nibbling on the little snacks that Ben makes free,
Drinking on the premises of Ben.

Drinking on the premises of Ben the Landord,
Bound to Love eternally by Anne's strong word,
Overcoming daily with the spirit's word,
Drinking on the premises of Ben.

Drinking on the premises, I cannot fall,
Listening every moment to the spirit's call
Trusting in my Landlord as my all and all,
Drinking on the premises of Ben.

~~~~~~~~~

Ok, before you ask - Why Ben's
I love to go drinking at Ben's

Robin

---

Also see Can you identify this tune?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Drinking On The Premises
From: Bill D
Date: 03 Nov 03 - 02:36 PM

LOL!...a fine addition to the genre'

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Drinking On The Premises
From: wysiwyg
Date: 03 Nov 03 - 03:04 PM

Bill. We need you to come over and sing it at our house. Bring Rita. It will all balance out.

~S~

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Drinking On The Premises
From: Bill D
Date: 03 Nov 03 - 05:11 PM

oh, I'll sing both versions *grin*..I just put more emphasis on one.

(It usually does balance out)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Drinking On The Premises
From: wysiwyg
Date: 03 Nov 03 - 05:19 PM

So when are you coming over?

~S~

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Drinking On The Premises
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 03 Nov 03 - 07:09 PM

What! Someone actually going to PERFORM one of my songs!

WOW!

PM me and I'll give you my address to direct the dump trucks of folding stuff to!

;-)

Robin

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Drinking On The Premises
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 10 Nov 03 - 04:15 AM

Origins: Drinking on the Premises


There is a strong Religious background to the Song "Drinking on the Premises"

The variant Gospel Song "Standing On The Promises" is definitely of recently well known documentable origin - see other relevant threads on Mudcat. It does use the same tune however, which leads one to believe that this later song is a parody of the original.

After he had nailed his thesis to the cathedral door, Martin Luther was questioned severely in various places about his beliefs. He always said "I stand on The Word of God. I can do no other."

He was often thus said to be "Standing on the Premises of God"

Martin was also fond of good company and a good drink. Many of his Hymn tunes were set to good rousing peasant drinking songs to be heard in his local Tavern. The fact that today these tunes are often played like dirges should not let us forget that Martin, when asked why he had set his hymns to such tunes, replied "Why should the Devil have all the good tunes?"

So he was also most likely often to be found Drinking On The Premises, Oh God! and after a few drinks, who can remember even the landlord's name? That should answer those critics who complain about the wide variance in names attributed to the landlord. The song is definitely a valid expression of the interior experience of Tavern Companionship, not unlike several good English Drinking Songs, some dating back to Elizabethan times.

Martin was widely known for his comments about the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church as the Anti-Christ and the Whore of Babylon. It has been claimed that contemporary enemies of Luther may have penned this song to disparage Luther's drinking habits. This song definitely seems to be a sort of religious experience for many, although not all of us grew up with that sort of religion.

Although it is known that he was indeed a robust drinker, relative to the drinking habits of the time, it has not been proved that his drinking habit was much in excess of the norm for that period. It must be remembered that water was rarely drunk as it was considered unhealthy. In that time, little was known about hygiene, but it was known that ale and other brewed drinks were safer than water: it was not realised at the time that the process of boiling the wort before fermentation sterilized it, making it safe to drink.

There are some claims that some of the language proves that the song is of too recent a date to support such an early proposed creation, but the phrase "Dead Dog Scrumpy" does little to disprove this, as research on the song by that name shows that this term is rather ancient - the tale long having dissolved into Folk Lore as did the dog's tail in the brew.

The word "snacks" is unarguably of fairly modern origin, but it is possible that here we are seeing the result of a relatively modern translation - this could also apply to the phrase "Dead Dog Scrumpy", as this could merely be an expression in the local vernacular added in the process of translation into English. Indeed the recently discovered Spanish Variation uses the common vernacular word "tapas".

The word "Gent's" is a modern contraction of "Gentlemen", and definitely points to modern replacement. Many terms, some a little too un-genteel to use here, refer to the area used as the French term "Pissouir", in earlier times, the back yard or even the street.

Although Luther was German, it would be a mistake to assume that the monks would have composed this rhyme in German, since the 'lingua franca' of the time was neither French, German, or even Italian, but Latin. An extensive search of all readily available extant surviving manuscripts has so far failed to unearth a reasonable Latin precedent of this song.

It is possible that it may have been passed down orally inside a sect such as the Jesuits, or that part of the Roman Catholic Church known to most people today as "the Inquisition"; an institution well known to have long memories - refer to Copernicus for an example.

Of course this line of argument presupposes that only religious scholars could have composed this, but Martin was well known and fairly well liked as a man of the common people in Germany, so a purely German peasant origin is possible, but not yet supported by any found evidence.

Perhaps Wolfgang, or some other native residents of modern Germany may be able to assist with this project, which I suspect may involve long tedious hours of arduous research in seedy Beer Halls.


Variants:

"By the use of Dead Dog Scrumpy I shall prevail"
this line has often been found replaced by lines related to
"With our Landlord's strong ale, we shall drink wassail",
which points to a possible early English Papist connection.

"Drinking on the premises of Ben"
substituted for this has been found
"Drinking on the premises at Ben's"
especially in the chorus. This is a minor variant, and does seem to scan a little better when performed after drinking all evening. Also the variant line
"Drinking on the premises of Ben our Landlord"
regularly appears.


Field Research has found a regular two part performance variation for the chorus is as follows:

(2 parts)
D R I N K I N G ,        D R I N K I N G ,
Drinking on the premises, drinking on the premises,

(Omnes)
Drinking on the premises of our Landlord.

(2 Parts)
D R I N K I N G ,        I' M D R I N K I N G ,
Drinking on the premises, drinking on the premises,

(Omnes)
I'm Drinking on the premises at Ben's.


The scatological naval variant "Stinking Out The Premises Again" which briefly appeared thanks to an anonymous Mudcat GUEST poster during the discussion of the "Ship High In Transit" theme in the "Methane Sinks Ships" thread was considered too strong to involve even Spaw. Thanks to Joe Offer, it has fortituitously been lost forever, hopefully.


Ex Libris
Robin Hayes

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Drinking On The Premises
From: Joe Offer
Date: 10 Nov 03 - 05:35 AM

Hey, hey, hey - you're going to get the anti-censorship geeks against me again, Robin. I put on my gas mask, lit a match, and throroughly examine the methane sinks ships thread. I found there had been no messages deleted from the thread at all. I found some rather ripe puns, but no "Stinking" song.
And then...

Ka-BOOM!!!!

-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Drinking On The Premises
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 25 Feb 04 - 06:41 PM

For more of my songs go to The Foolestroupe Songbook

Robin

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Drinking On The Premises
From: Charley Noble
Date: 26 Feb 04 - 09:21 AM

Nice work, Robin, and great notes!

And don't forget the traditional chorus of "Dead Dog Scrumpy" which was only recently unearthed in the sifting of a compost pile in the back of an old tavern on the coast of Maine (Charles Ipcar © 1998):

G-----------------------D7-G----C--------D7--G
Now, here's to Dead Dog Cid-er, the best there is by far;
-------------------D7-C----A-------------D7
Here's to Dead Dog Cid-er, no moaning at the bar;
--------C--------------------G--------------C-G----D7
You can search this wide world over, find many a beer or ale;
---------G-----------D7-------G—C-------G---------D7---A
But, when you've tried Dead Dog Cid-er – your search will be cur-tailed!

Copy and repaste into WORD/TIMES/12 to line up the chords.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble