Lyr Add: House that Jerry Built

Subject: Lyr Add: THIS IS THE HOUSE THAT JERRY BUILT
From: Charley Noble
Date: 25 Apr 04 - 05:45 PM

Here's a British music hall song from the 1890's that is one of the earliest protest songs about moving to the suburbs. The notes are from my working draft of THE HOUSING AND NEIGHBORHOOD ORGANIZING SONGBOOK:

This is the House that Jerry Built

This late 19th century song dramatizes "the trials and tribulations" experienced by the aspiring middle class as they sought escape from the working class neighborhoods of London to the new suburbs. Like many themes in the housing song literature, we will find this one repeating itself in every age and to paraphrase Malvina Reynolds "they all sound just the same." This song was composed by T.S. Lonsdale in 1885 and performed in the British music hall by artists such as James Fawn.

Words by T.S. Lonsdale, © 1885
Music by W.G. Eaton

THIS IS THE HOUSE THAT JERRY BUILT

My wife is a woman and like all the rest,
Bound to be scheming something for the best,
She had a desire a few months ago,
To live in the suburbs of London you know;
She went out in search and very soon found,
An Agent who showed her the houses all around,
They settled on one, after a good hunt,
In the gothic style ? and a garden in front.

Spoken: And also in pond in front, I should have said, for the road was nothing better, when the men brought the furniture, they were up to here in mud and it took them a day and a half to dig the Van out of the road, and the mould in the garden is mould, I put in some seeds a few months ago, all that came up were half bricks and clay ?

Chorus:

And there's the cat that ate the rat,
And the servant girl's not fat,
And there's the children with the cramp,
Because the place is always damp;
And there's the workman always nigh,
And the Plumber's always dry,
And through the roof, you see the sky,
In the house that Jerry built.

Red bricks and church windows look very nice,
And the place some might think is a paradise,
Other sweet things in the gothic style but,
The doors like the windows will never quite shut;
If the wind's the wrong way it's really no joke,
We're smothered to death by volumes of smoke,
But there we all sit and shiver with cold,
Or up in some shawls or blankets we've rolled.

Spoken: Don't have a fire in the place because the chimney smokes, oh it's a nice place to live in, the nearest pub's a mile off, when the girl goes for the supper beer we bid her good-bye, just the same as if she was off to America, and perhaps I'm dying of thirst, or the Missus or children got the wind or spasm bad, and want a drop of short to keep us warm you know. (CHO)

It's nice don't you know, at night when in bed,
For the rain to come through and drop on your head,
And the wife of your buzzum (sic) to sit up and jaw,
While you rush about, and wipe up the floor;
Another nice thing that worries your brains,
Is the whistle that's from a few passing trains,
An old cock that crows will give you delight,
And also a dog that howls all the night.

Spoken: They say that when you hear a dog howl it's a sign of death, the next morning to the dog, oh it is a nice place to live in, we can never get a girl to stay longer than a month, because the place is so dull, and no soldiers about, Policemen you see once a week, and Burglars every night, it's a good place for Doctors and Dentists, someone's always got the toothache, whooping cough or measles ? (CHO)

Through the walls you can hear what your neighbors say,
And when they commence the piano to play,
The five finger exercise and other sweet things,
A Cornet sometimes a friend of theirs brings;
You feel just as if you could tear out your hair,
Or at your dear wife you could say a sweet prayer,
For she, yes, the woman's the cause of it all,
When the water taps froze and the children squall.

Spoken: The wife says, oh yes it's all my fault, you blame me for everything, I'm the cause of it all, you strike me, now do, or say I'm mad, and have me put away, because I took this beastly house and think a Donkey's got a soul, one husband's done it to his wife, but he's been well done since ? (CHO)

Cordially,
Landlady's Daughter

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: House that Jerry Built
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 25 Apr 04 - 09:04 PM

Worth noting the standard English meaning of the phrase Jerry Built = built shoddily,flimsily & cheaply


Nigel

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: House that Jerry Built
From: Charley Noble
Date: 26 Apr 04 - 08:51 AM

Nigel-

Can you find an earlier reference to "Jerry built" than 1885, the date of the song I posted? The links you provide don't really shed much light on that question, nor do the dictionaries that I have ready access to. I was initially surprised that the term went back that far.

I assume "buzzum" is colloquial for bosom.

Cordially,
Landlady's Daughter

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: House that Jerry Built
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 26 Apr 04 - 09:45 AM

G'day Charlie,

My Shorter Oxford Dictionary gives 1881 for "Jerry-builder" ... refers to "Jerry", short for "jerry-builder as 1882: "Said to have arisen in Liverpool, recorded in Lancashire, Yorkshire and Cheshire glossaries."

It looks as if this song was cashing in on a newly popular / useful phrase.

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: House that Jerry Built
From: Charley Noble
Date: 26 Apr 04 - 04:35 PM

Bob-

Thanks, for nailing the phrase down to 1882. That date seems to track nicely with the date of the song's composition.

I'm going to have to borrow my mother's two volumes of the Shorter Oxford Dicionary but I'm not sure where I'll find space to shelve them.

Landlady's Daughter

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: House that Jerry Built
From: Gareth
Date: 26 Apr 04 - 07:01 PM

Hmmm ! It would be nice to attribute the Phrase "Jerry-Built" to this ballad.

But consider the earlier use "Jury-built/rigged" ie a hodge-podge, or built out of what materials were avaiable.

Not that I is being pedantic, just a stone tossed into the pond to see what ripples form !!!

Gareth

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: House that Jerry Built
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 26 Apr 04 - 07:19 PM

G'day Gareth,

I think the dates favour the idea that this song was taking up a newly fashionable phrase that had just trickled down to London from northern parts ... in time to describe the cheap and nasty work of property speculators. A writer of popular songs would be more likely to utilise a newly popular term than invent a new one from scratch.

However, I have always entertained the suspicion that "jerry-built" owes a lot to "jury-rigged", particularly now I see that "jerry" and "jerry-built" have their earliest records in the seaport of Liverpool.

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: House that Jerry Built
From: Charley Noble
Date: 26 Apr 04 - 10:46 PM

Bob-

You may be on to something with "jury-rigged." How far back does that phrase go? Surely back to the 18th century.

But I'd like to think there was a proto-surburban developer in the early 1880's whose name was Jerry that we could hang the whole concept on.

Cordially,
Landlady's Daughtr

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: House that Jerry Built
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 26 Apr 04 - 11:55 PM

G'day Charley/Landlady's Daught(e)r,

The 1997 3rd Edition Australian Concise Oxford Dictionary on my work desk doesn't date "jury-", as in 'jury-rig(ged)' &c ... but it presumably goes back to the beginnings of written English, since they guess at the source being "[perhaps ultimately from Old French ajurie 'aid']".

The lack of early citations seems to suggest that the phrase is already present in the earliest English documents.

Of(f) course, there's nothing to prevent the long known "jury-rigged" from resonating with a name like "Jerry" possessed by a proto-cowboy builder ... the subtle shift and resultant pun would bring some wry comfort to the Scousers dodging roof leaks!

Regards,

Bob

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: House that Jerry Built
From: Charley Noble
Date: 27 Apr 04 - 08:24 AM

And from another not so old song "Landlord's Lullaby":

I know the roof is rather leaky,
And paper?s peeling off the wall,
And there?s plaster on your bedspread,
Be thankful there?s a wall at all.

Warm regards,
Landlady's Daughter

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: House that Jerry Built
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 27 Apr 04 - 08:47 AM

G'day aagin Charley / Landlady's Daughter,

With my Shorter Oxford English Dictionary I can see that "jury-mast" appears as early as 1616 and "jury-rig" in 1666. That's pretty early in the wide use of printed material, so my earlier conjecture still holds water (if appropriately jury-rigged!).

Regards,

Bob

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: House that Jerry Built
From: GUEST
Date: 27 Apr 04 - 09:03 AM

I'd always thought that Jerry-built meant built like the walls of Jericho.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: House that Jerry Built
From: Charley Noble
Date: 28 Apr 04 - 08:14 AM

Bob-

I do agree that your theory holds water. However, the concern about shoddy builders goes back in time much further asis evidenced in the working draft of the Housing Song Book:

"Sometime between 1792 and 1750 B.C. one Hammurabi, the 6th and best known king of the first Amorite Dynasty, issued a model building code. Unlike more contemporary codes, representing some compromise between social priorities and technical requirements, the Hammurabi Code is clear and to the point. Especially so for those who transgressed it:

228-If a builder builds a house for a man and completes it,
that man shall pay him two shekels of silver per sar
(approximately 12 square feet) of house as his wage.

229-If a builder has built a house for a man and his work is
not strong, and if the house he has built falls in and kills
the householder, that builder shall be slain.

230-If the child of the householder be killed, the child of that
builder shall be slain.

231-If the slave of the householder be killed, he shall give
slave for slave to the householder.

232-If goods have been destroyed, he shall replace all that
has been destroyed; and because the house that he built
was not made strong, and it has fallen in, he shall
restore the fallen house out of his own material.

233-If a builder has built a house for a man, and his work is
not done properly and a wall shifts, then that builder
shall make that wall good with his own silver."

Warm regards,
Landlady's Daughter