Lyr Req: See a Toad across the Road (Ed Pickford)

Subject: Lyr Req: See a toad across the road
From: TheBigPinkLad
Date: 30 Jul 04 - 03:55 PM

Does anyone remember this UK song from the 1970s when a campaign was launched to save toads from getting squished as they crossed roads to get back to their mating ponds?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: See a toad across the road
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Jul 04 - 04:06 PM

I see a toad across the road
Fie man, fie!
I see a toad across the road
Who's the fool now!
I see a toad across the road
He's been squished by a lorry load
thou hast well drunken man,
Who's the fool now!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: See a toad across the road
From: nutty
Date: 30 Jul 04 - 05:10 PM

The song was written by ED PICKFORD ..... see his website HERE

It really is worth buying his songbook

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: See a toad across the road
From: TheBigPinkLad
Date: 30 Jul 04 - 05:27 PM

Thanks GUEST, but that's not the one. Who'd thought there'd be two! This one began:

See a toad across the road
And save him all that strife.
See a toad across the road
And make a friend for life.

Where is Ed Pickford from?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: See a toad across the road
From: nutty
Date: 30 Jul 04 - 06:59 PM

Ed Pickford is from the North of England .....

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: See a toad across the road
From: Leadfingers
Date: 30 Jul 04 - 07:16 PM

Specifically from the North East - Sunderland I Think - The song book looks well worth the pennies .

Subject: Lyr Add: SEE A TOAD
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 12 Dec 09 - 12:51 AM

Lyrics copied from http://www.kateda.org/Kateda.org/Home_files/THESONGS.doc

SEE A TOAD

1. It's not much of a life at all
When you can only hop.
People in their great big cars
They never swerve or stop.
Now we help our little feathered friends
With mouldy crusts and old fag ends,
So to toads let's make amends
And do this little thing for me:

CHORUS: See a toad across the road
And make yourself a friend.
See a toad across the road.
It'll help you in the end.
I know how ugly a toad can be,
But it's got parents like you and me,
So see a toad across the road
And make yourself a friend.

2. The Boy Scouts help old ladies
And the lollipop man your child.
What protection is there
For that creature green and wild?
He may be stupid as they say
But there's plenty more down Westminster way.
Why should he be the one to pay?
So do this little thing for me: CHORUS

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: See a Toad across the Road
From: GUEST,mackem
Date: 12 Dec 09 - 07:58 AM

Ed Pickford still lives in Sunderland and is still writing new songs. You can see him at Birtley folk club on Wednesday 16 December. Not to be missed!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: See a Toad across the Road
From: peregrina
Date: 12 Dec 09 - 08:44 AM

Here's a youtube of Ed Pickford's See a Toad song: here

and yes, the song book highly recommended

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: See a Toad across the Road
From: Howard Kaplan
Date: 13 Dec 09 - 12:18 PM

The Welsh herpetologist Paul Gittins was profiled in the now-defunct Out Of Town magazine in August 1983, and he had some concerns about the effectiveness of campaigns to help toads across the roads, campaigns which he considered a distraction from the real issues:

All of which is one reason why [he] isn't that impressed by the preservationists who carry the creatures across the road in buckets -- particularly as these would-be do-gooders don't even bother to check which way the toads want to go... "This focus on road deaths", he maintains, "diverts interest from the destruction of breeding sites, the real danger to their future well-being."

Inspired by that article, I researched and wrote the song "The Toads and the Truck", a highly-selective history of the alterations which humans have caused to the landscape of Great Britain, as seen from the viewpoint of the toads sharing the land with them. It opens with these four lines:

Come sit for a while as a tale I unravel,
Concerning the toads that sit out on the gravel
Or concrete or asphalt where vehicles travel
And sometimes get struck by a lorry.

If you'd like to hear the whole song, there's a freely-downloadable .mp3 available here, on my web site. Be warned: I tend to write long songs when necessary, and the arrangement I recorded takes about 6 minutes.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: See a Toad across the Road
From: Jack Campin
Date: 13 Dec 09 - 01:42 PM

What about the one to the tune of "The Red Flag"/"O Tannenbaum" that starts

Oh Mister Toad, oh Mister Toad,
Why are you lying in the road?...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: See a Toad across the Road (Ed Pickford)
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 14 Dec 09 - 02:35 AM

Jack - the words of Tom the Toad were posted on this thread . As sung by Idris Roker, it was the winner of the Sidmouth Doom, Gloom and Despondency award a few years ago!

Kitty