Lyr Req: Sweeny Todd the Barber

Subject: Lyr Req: Sweeny Todd the Barber
From: Son of the Mill
Date: 30 Dec 03 - 03:44 AM

I heard this music hall song many years go. One line I remember is : And many a poor young orphan lad, The first square meal he`s ever had. A hot meat pie made out of his dad. From Sweeny Todd the barber.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sweeny Todd the Barber
From: GUEST,MCP
Date: 30 Dec 03 - 03:55 AM

It's in the DT: Sweeney Todd The Barber.

Mick

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sweeny Todd the Barber
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 30 Dec 03 - 05:19 AM

Slight amendment - my book has 'by gum he were better than the plague' rather than play. Makes more sense.

LTS

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sweeny Todd the Barber
From: Charley Noble
Date: 30 Dec 03 - 09:09 AM

I was always disappointed that this song wasn't used in the Broadway musical version of Sweeny Todd.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sweeny Todd the Barber
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 30 Dec 03 - 02:15 PM

Re plague and play - I thought it was play, because Sweeney Todd was classed as melodrama not classic theatre. Hopefully, Dave Bryant (who sings the song, (melo)dramatically) will add his twopenn'orth soon....

Kitty

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sweeny Todd the Barber
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 30 Dec 03 - 02:17 PM

I've just realised - I wonder if play got corrupted to plague by the 'gor blimey immediately following?

Kitty

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sweeny Todd the Barber
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 30 Dec 03 - 02:28 PM

Attend the tale of Sweeny todd
He served a dark and a vengeful god
He shaved the faces of gentlemen
Who never thereafter were heard from again
Did Sweeny Todd
The Demon Barber of Fleet Street!

The ONLY musical I can even stomach any more... man, I'd kill for it on DVD!

:-)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sweeny Todd the Barber
From: Joe Offer
Date: 30 Dec 03 - 02:43 PM

I'd like to have that DVD, too, Clinton. Sweet old Angela Lansbury made a perfect cook/wife in the version I saw.
Hmmm. Looks like we're missing a tune in the DT entry. If you can transcribe a tune for us, e-mail it to me. Thanks.
-Joe Offer-
[e-mail]

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sweeny Todd the Barber
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 30 Dec 03 - 02:57 PM

Unfortunaly alll I find on Amazon is a newer version, which gets great reviews, but doens have AL in it...


Link Here

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sweeny Todd the Barber
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 30 Dec 03 - 07:18 PM

Well I always assumed it was plague because, like Sweeney, it killed off a lot of the population.

My version never had any 'gor blimeys' in it.

LTS

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sweeny Todd the Barber
From: Naemanson
Date: 30 Dec 03 - 10:29 PM

If anyone finds the DVD with Lansbury in it run, do not walk, to the nearest keyboard and let us know the details so we can buy it.

I saw this done live at Bowdoin College in Maine during their summer theater series. Even without AL it was great. They started the play with two grave diggers burying a corpse. That wasn't in the AL version but it certainly set the tone.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sweeny Todd the Barber
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 30 Dec 03 - 10:52 PM

VHS Copies of the tour production with Lansbury sell for about US$60. As far as I know, it hasn't been transferred to DVD.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sweeny Todd the Barber
From: Gurney
Date: 31 Dec 03 - 04:50 AM

The version as I learned it was mostly monologue with a sung chorus, and the line in question is "My God, he was worser than the plague! Gor blimey," although I sing "By gum" and "Cor blimey" because I am a bit leery about gratituous blasphemy, and some nice people get really upset about it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sweeny Todd the Barber
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 31 Dec 03 - 05:52 PM

"Gor" is blasphemous and "Cor" isn't - I'd say they are completely equivalent to each other.

"Play" fits the melodramatic quality of the song much better. I think thta;s what Dave Bryant sings but of course "...play, Gor Blimey" and "...plague, Gor Blimey" sound indistinguishable.

"Better than a play" is a very common expression to describe some notable event in real life. "Better than the plague" is not an expression which is heard very often.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sweeny Todd the Barber
From: Charley Noble
Date: 31 Dec 03 - 10:47 PM

I heard a rendition of "Sweeny Todd" out in the midwest from Barry O'Neil back around 1970, and it had to be committed to memory. I'm sure I heard "play" originally and then changed it to "plague" because it seemed to make more sense. It was one of my favorite renditions for the annual food co-op benefit, along with "When the Vegetables had Their Spree."

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sweeny Todd the Barber
From: Gurney
Date: 01 Jan 04 - 02:31 AM

No, McGrath, "My God" is blasphemous, to those of a religeous bent, although it is in common usage as an exclamation today.
'Gor(Cor)Blimey' is, as you obviously know, a corruption of "God Blind Me," but a lawyer would have a case.....

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sweeny Todd the Barber
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 01 Jan 04 - 06:08 AM

The words in the DT version mentioned by MCP support play rather than plague - not just in that line but in the following lines which also end "ay":

Sweeney Todd the Barber, by God he were better than the play,
Sweeney Todd the Barber, "I'll polish 'em off" he used to say.

Sweeney Todd the Barber, by God he were better than the play,
Sweeney Todd the Barber, they buried him underneath the clay.

Kitty

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sweeny Todd the Barber
From: Son of the Mill
Date: 01 Jan 04 - 05:24 PM

Thanks one and all. Liz I rember it as by gum, just like you. It was a favorate for everyone to join in, like hissing when his name was mentioned, calling out Police & Hurrah.
Cheers Mal

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sweeny Todd the Barber
From: Charley Noble
Date: 02 Jan 04 - 08:54 AM

Mal-

We never shouted "hurrah"; it was always "huzah!" BG

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sweeny Todd the Barber
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 02 Jan 04 - 04:37 PM

Terry Gross replayed a 1988 interview with Stephen Sondheim today on Fresh Air and they spoke about his motivations for some of the changes in the story.

I saw Angela Lansbury in Sweeney Todd when I lived in New York, one of the few musicals I went to (couldn't afford 'em!). In 1982 I saw the full play, with Lansbury, broadcast on PBS. I suspect that is the source of the VCR mentioned above.

This audio CD looks like the one I saw, with Lansbury and Len Cariou, and only about $30. No tax and free shipping from Amazon! The broadcast version still had Lansbury, but Sweeney Todd was being played by George Hearne.

SRS

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sweeny Todd the Barber
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 03 Jan 04 - 01:21 PM

But "Gor"= "Cor". If anyone objects to one they are inconsistant if they do not have the same objection to the other. I'd have little regard to for either - though I'd be in agreement with them in finding "God Blind Me" as such objectionable. As they say, be careful what you wish for, you might get it...

All kinds of innocuous phrases are adjusted versions of things that people might quite reasonably find offensive, but it's not, in my view, at all reasonable to object to them on that ground. That kind of linguistic development is very useful - lots of rhyming slang is like that. (And more often than not people don't even think of it as rhyming slang at all - "berk" from "Berkshire hunt", for example.)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sweeny Todd the Barber
From: GUEST,Tom Denney - Austin, Texas
Date: 28 May 04 - 05:12 PM

After MUCH struggling to distinguish Holloway's words, I am convinced that it's "By gum 'e were better (th)an the plague," which fits into the whole scenario better.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sweeny Todd the Barber
From: Snuffy
Date: 28 May 04 - 07:03 PM

Brenda & Dave4Guild do this - see them at Bishops Castle Folk Weekend 11-13 June

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sweeny Todd the Barber
From: M.Ted
Date: 29 May 04 - 02:08 AM

If you liked Sweeny Todd, Clint Hammond, you'll love Sondheim's "Assassins", which features all most all of the Presidential assassins, from Charlie Guiteau on, and even features the real song that Guiteau sang on the gallows--Squeaky Fromme and Sarah Jane Moore have a duet--

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sweeny Todd the Barber
From: Flash Company
Date: 29 May 04 - 12:09 PM

I always did it as 'By gum, he were better than a play!', thought that was what Stanley H sang.

FC

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sweeny Todd the Barber
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 29 May 04 - 04:43 PM

Amazon has two DVD versions, one of the actual productin (with Lansbury) and one a concert version.

The one with Lansbury is found HERE
Price is $17.49 US, as I recall.

Happy listening.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sweeny Todd the Barber
From: Mark Clark
Date: 29 May 04 - 05:01 PM

If you buy the DVD, buy it through this link. It's set up to credit Mudcat with the purchase and it won't cost you any more.

      - Mark

Subject: ADD: Figaro Todd (John Forster)
From: GUEST,Billy
Date: 30 May 04 - 01:07 AM

Sorry for a bit of thread creep, but John Forster made an hilarious recording of "Figaro Todd" on his album "Helium". Featuring the "Barber of Seville" opera but incorporating the story of Sweeny Todd and sound effects (e.g. gunshots, explosions and the "zeet! zeet! zeet! zeet! zeet!" violins from the "Psycho" soundtrack) he mixes the two stories into one and wipes out several pretentious performers in the process. Kinda like Tom Lehrer wielding a stilletto blade.

This site has an MP3 download of the song.

FIGARO TODD
(John Forster)

This is the tale of a barber,
This barber was rather odd.
His Christian name was Figaro.
His family name was Todd.
He serviced his regular clients
With true dispatch and skill.
This is the tale of Figaro Todd,
The Demon Barber of Seville.
Count Almaviva had no life.
He tried to boink the barber's wife.
So when 'twas time to trim his mop
Figaro took a whole lot of the top.
Then Cherubino, horny youth,
Called Figaro to pull his tooth.
But Todd got in a jealous huff
And pulled a bunch of unrelated stuff.
Figaro clip, Figaro snip.
Figaro slice, Figaro dice.
Figaro chop, Figaro lop.
Figaro hack, Figaro whack,
Just unbridle all that homocidal rage.
A couple blocks from Figgie's shop
Lived Don Giovanni, famous fop.
The cad came in with two days' beard.
When Todd was done two weeks worth disappeared.
Outside a bullring down the road
Carmen caught a dasty code.
She called for leeching, which was dumb. [Figaro!]
He leeched the mezzo straight to kingdom come.
With every slash, every cut, [Figaro!]
He was getting revenge, revenge for what? [Figaro!]
Maybe a snub deep in his past. [Figaro!]
Maybe they always chose him last. [Ahhhhh!]
Nobody knew, hadn't a clue.
It's simply what Demon Barbers do.
They clip and they rip
And they slash and they bash
They sever and shatter and batter and mangle and maim.
Don Miguel, the Demon Barber of Castile,
Heard of Figaro's success and couldn't deal.
He packed his razors, shouting "Vengeance will be mine."
But by now, Todd had set off on a journey down the Rhine.
Those Rhinemaids' singing made him sick.
A depth charge shut them up real quick.
Then the high point of the week--
Eight Valkyries mit plastique.
The barber switched on A&E
And saw Three Tenors, count 'em, Three.
He did his thing and when 'twas done
He'd reduced the tenor count to less than one.
John Denver caught the barber's eye.
(Heave your cleaver high, Figgie.)
He lowered his Rocky Mountain High.
(Yanni, too, must die, Figgie.)
And Yanni at the Acropolis
(Phony phony man.)
Another one whose work we'd never miss.
Figaro biff! Figaro boom! George Winston!
Figaro bang! Figaro zoom! Zamfir!
Figaro wham! Figaro blam! Kenny G!
Figaro klonk! Figaro bonk! Michael Bolton!
Figaro mutilate, Figaro lacerate,
Figaro sever and mangle and maim.
Figaro, oh what a wonderful game,
Oh, what a wonderful wonderful game.
Figaro whack 'em and Figaro hack 'em and
Figaro stack 'em and Figaro
Slit 'em and split 'em and pit 'em and hit 'em and
Slit 'em and split 'em and pit 'em and hit 'em again.
Stab 'em and slab 'em and
Maul 'em and haul 'em and
Claw 'em and saw 'em and
Snip 'em and
Clip 'em and grip 'em and rip 'em and whip 'em and
Sever and shatter and batter and mangle and maim.
Puncture rupture sunder and kill,
Demon Barber (whht)
Barber of Seville.
Hatcheta hatcheta hatcheta hatcheta hatcheta
Butchery butchery butchery butchery
Barber of Seville.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sweeny Todd the Barber
From: Flash Company
Date: 30 May 04 - 10:39 AM

Bravo Bravissimo Billy, love that.

FC

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sweeny Todd the Barber
From: novice
Date: 30 May 04 - 11:18 AM

This is the version I know, I think it's from the musical show:

Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd
His skin was pale and his eye was odd
He shaved the faces of gentlemen
Who never therafter were heard of again

He trod a path that few have trod, did Sweeney Todd
The demon barber of Fleet Street

He kept a shop in London town
Of fancy clients and good renown
And what if none of there souls were saved
They went to their maker impeccably shaved

By Sweeney, by Sweeney Todd
The demon barber of Fleet Street

Swing your razor wide, Sweeney, hold it to the skies
Freely flows the blood of those who moralise

His needs were few, his room was bare
A lavabo and a fancy chair
A mug of suds and a leather strop
An apron, a towel, a pail and a mop

For neatness he deserves a nod, Does Sweeney Todd
The demon barber of Fleet Street

In conspicuous Sweeney was
Quick and quiet and clean 'e was
Back of his smile, under his word
Sweeney heard music that nobody heard

Sweeney pondered and Sweeney planned
Like a perfect machine 'e planned
Sweeney was smooth, Sweeney was subtle
Sweeney would blink and rats would scuttle

Sweeney, Sweeney, Sweeney, Sweeney

Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd
He served a dark and a hungry God
To seek revenge may lead to Hell,
But everyone does it, and seldom as well
As Sweeney, as Sweeney Todd
The demon barber of Fleet.....Street.