Lyr Req: Give 'Em an Inch (Peggy Seeger)

Subject: Lyr Req: Give 'em an Inch
From: Mrs Elf Knight
Date: 22 Feb 04 - 08:16 AM

Does anyone know the lyrics to the Peggy Seeger Song "Give 'em an Inch" (or something similar)?
I dimly remember it being about a midwife holding a newborn baby and asking if that's the reason "why this little bugger wont be scrubbing kitchen floors"
I can't seem to find it anywhere!
Any clues?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Give 'em an Inch
From: Sorcha
Date: 22 Feb 04 - 10:49 AM

Unless somebody here knows it, I think you are going to have to buy the CD or songbook. Sorry.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Give 'em an Inch
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 22 Feb 04 - 10:15 PM

The only song mentioning a midwife that is in "Folk Songs of Peggy Seeger" is a brief version of Queen Jane (Child 170). The first verse:

Queen Jane lay in labor for six weeks and some more,
Her women grew weary and the midwife give o'er.

Queen Jane asks to be cut open to save the child. The baby lives but she dies.

Doesn't sound like the one you are looking for.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Give 'em an Inch
From: Wolfgang
Date: 23 Feb 04 - 11:40 AM

I know a place where I can have a look into a big Peggy Seeger songbook. I'll be there next Monday. Come back in about ten days to have a look at this thread.

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Give 'em an Inch
From: Mrs Elf Knight
Date: 24 Feb 04 - 11:43 AM

I remember hearing her in "No Spring Chickens" guise singing it.
I don't have access (viewing or money to purchase) her songbook

Thanks Wolfgang, I'll look forward to checking back...and I'll owe you one!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Give 'em an Inch
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 26 Feb 04 - 09:45 AM

GIVE 'EM AN INCH appears on the album "Almost Commercially Viable" (published in the US by Sliced Bread, CD 71204, 2000) performed by Peggy Seeger with Irene Scott. (The duo was called No Spring Chickens.) Peggy Seeger wrote it.

I wasn't able to find any lyrics or sound files on the Internet.

I found a site that said the song was in her songbook.

Subject: Lyr Add: GIVE 'EM AN INCH (Peggy Seeger)
From: Wolfgang
Date: 01 Mar 04 - 07:09 AM

GIVE 'EM AN INCH
(Peggy Seeger)

The man waited, the woman groaned,
She was lost in labour's toil.
Forgotten for now the long nine-month,
The act of passion and joy.
Ten fingers, then toes,
Two eyes, two ears, a mouth and a nose,
And that one inch of flesh that proclaims IT'S A BOY!
The midwife inspected his belly and bum,
Counted appendages one by one.
Took his sweet willie twixt finger and thumb,
Looked at it in wonder and said:

Does this little spike of flesh define the stronger sex?
Will this little pleasure rod put this baby next to God?
Is this the thing that gets him higher wages,
That's kept him up on top throughout the ages?
Will these round thingamabobs get this child a better job?
A pilot, not a stewardess; a doctor, not a nurse;
Professor, not a teacher; a chance to get there first -
The sceptre that makes kingdoms, the key that opens doors,
The reason why this baby won't be scrubbing kitchen floors.

She laid the little dickie down and gave a weary smile:
Give 'em an inch - and they'll take a mile.

(Mrs. Elf, it was a pleasure to type this little song from the Peggy Seeger songbook)

The songbook gives 1987 as the date of origin for this song.

It is preceded in the songnook by these words:

It was a delightful cartoon. The midwife had a look of wonder on her face as she held the baby boy in one hand and pinched his tiny protuberance with the other. It is a wondrous appendage. It arrives in inches and becomes the yardstick by which so much manhood is measured.

After the song there is the following little cartoon:

A boy grinning mischievously, hands in the pockets says to a girl who walks away from him confidently and unimpressed: You're only a feminists because you're UGLY.
She responds: Actually I'm a feminist because you're a boy.

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Give 'em an Inch
From: Mrs Elf Knight
Date: 02 Mar 04 - 11:17 AM

Thank you Thank you Thank you!!!!
I was hoping it would be just like I remembered it
Perfect!!
A pleasure to type and a pleasure to read....