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Lyr Req: Red Velvet Steering Wheel Cover Driver

30 Mar 97 - 03:42 PM (#3680)
Subject: Red Velvet steering wheel cover driver
From: Pete clansfolk@msn.com

Hi,

yet another quest....

Has anyone got the words to the red velvet steering wheel cover driver.

I remember the time I was driving along on the Liverpool highway singing this song. And the day it was good as the road it was long. I was on my way

or something like!!!!!!!

also who wrote it? I seem to remember it being sung by Jeremy Taylor sometime back in the late 60's early 70's.

cheers Pete.

31 Mar 97 - 06:09 PM (#3701)
Subject: RE: Red Velvet steering wheel cover driver
From: Susan of DT

I could have sworn I had entered that several years ago. I will have to find it again

01 Apr 97 - 02:39 AM (#3712)
Subject: Lyr Add: RED VELVET STEERING WHEEL COVER DRIVER
From: Moira Cameron, moirakc@internorth.com

I've got the lyrics, but not the author. My father used to sing it and I have no idea where he got it from. However, I heard a rendition of it recently on our National radio station, CBC (Canada)--I believe it was Tommy Makem singing it. Of course that doesn't mean he wrote it.

RED VELVET STEERING WHEEL COVER DRIVER
As recorded by Jeremy Taylor on “Piece of Ground” (2013)

I remember the time I was driving along
On the Liverpool Highway, singing a song,
And the day was as good as the road it was long.
I was on my way,
And then up ahead a black speck appeared,
And as I drew nearer, ‘twas just what I feared,
Doing 25 miles an hour in top gear
In the outside lane:
Oh, dear me! Glory be!
One of them, I could see:
It was a red velvet steering-wheel cover driver.

He and his wife, they sat side by side.
In their safety belts they were safely tied,
And together they drove through the green countryside,
Which they did not see.
They had two dingle-dangles which hung by a string
From the mirror, and on the back seat was a thing
Which wobbled its head up and down with a sing-
Ular stare at me,
Up and down, side to side.
Keep your eyes open wide
For the red velvet steering-wheel cover driver.

He's got three china ducks on his sitting-room wall,
And a bowl of pink plastic flowers in the hall,
And a souvenir ashtray he bought in Porthcawl
On his holiday;
And when he gets home, he'll go straight to his chair,
Switch on the telly and all night he'll stare
At the girls and the gunfights and wish he was there,
But he's here to stay.
When he regrets what he didn't see,
Then he’ll switch to ITV,
‘Cause he's a red velvet steering-wheel cover driver.

Each Monday morning he takes his basket
To town; he goes to the supermarket.
He walks up and down, thinks, “Oh, what a task! It
'S so hard to choose,
‘Cause there’s apple sponge pudding all topped with Tastee-Freez,
All of those fifty-seven varieties,
Fresh today,
Hermetically sealed, untouched by human hands, so easy, just heat the tin.”
Think of those gifts you might win
If you're a red velvet steering-wheel cover driver.

Well, it's Saturday night; it’s the night for a fling,
So let’s on with our glad rags, ring-a-ding-ding;
Go down to the hall for a good game of bing-
O and cups of tea.
Then we’re back home to bed switch out the light,
Hug our hot water bottle, sweet dreams and sleep tight,
And God keep us from things that go "bump" in the night,
And especially
All those dreams of the day
When our own children will say:
"My dad's a red velvet steering-wheel cover driver."

Corrections made based on later comments. --Mudelf, 02-Oct-18.

06 Apr 97 - 06:02 PM (#3916)
Subject: RE: Red Velvet steering wheel cover driver
From: Pete clansfolk@msn.com

many thanks for the words - if anyone else can come up with the writer it would be great...

take care & sing well

23 Sep 18 - 04:35 PM (#3952367)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Red Velvet Steering Wheel Cover Driver
From: GUEST,Roger Whiteway

Had the pleasure of a front row seat when Jeremy Taylor came to Oxford in the 1970s, and I requested this song to be his encore. I'm pretty sure it was written by Jeremy himself, though I have seen it claimed as "Irish" (presumably because it appeared on an album by the Makem Brothers).

23 Sep 18 - 05:29 PM (#3952374)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Red Velvet Steering Wheel Cover Driver
From: FreddyHeadey

Makem singing it,
lyrics credited to Jeremy Taylor
https://youtu.be/XIoxdFqPdfs

23 Sep 18 - 06:06 PM (#3952378)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Red Velvet Steering Wheel Cover Driver
From: Tony Rees

Written by Jeremy Taylor, first released on "His Songs", 1968... see https://www.discogs.com/release/7958336

I used to sing this in the early 70s, words are still lodged in the brain somewhere...

Regards - Tony

24 Sep 18 - 03:41 AM (#3952419)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Red Velvet Steering Wheel Cover Driver
From: GUEST,Ray

21 years late but I think you'll find that it's "three" china ducks, he bought the ashtray in "Porthcall" and he switched to "ITV".

24 Sep 18 - 03:57 AM (#3952425)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Red Velvet Steering Wheel Cover Driver
From: Leadfingers

Another fine song I have not song for far too long , and it's a nice chord run

24 Sep 18 - 04:54 AM (#3952440)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Red Velvet Steering Wheel Cover Driver
From: GUEST,Mark Bluemel

Roger Whiteway said " I'm pretty sure it was written by Jeremy himself, though I have seen it claimed as "Irish" (presumably because it appeared on an album by the Makem Brothers)."

Any song ever sung by an Irishman is automatically thenceforth and in perpertuity Irish, it's written in to international law.

24 Sep 18 - 06:27 AM (#3952455)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Red Velvet Steering Wheel Cover Driver
From: GUEST,Ray

Definitely Jeremy Taylor - who was born in the UK and not South Africa as many people seem to think.

Our paths haven't crossed for many years.

24 Sep 18 - 04:09 PM (#3952564)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Red Velvet Steering Wheel Cover Driver
From: Noreen

It's Porthcawl, which is a seaside resort on the coast of south Wales.
And definitely switch to ITV- it has to be that way round :)

Not heard this for many a long year.

25 Sep 18 - 03:35 AM (#3952642)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Red Velvet Steering Wheel Cover Driver
From: GUEST,Jerry

This song appears in a book I have called Festival Folk, and it is copyrighted in 1968 with words and music by Jeremy Taylor.
The disputed lines are:
“He’s got three China ducks on his sitting room wall”
that’s China as in porcelain, and a popular source of ridicule back in the day to imply people were old fashioned)
“And a silver ashtray he bought in Porthcawl”
(a popular seaside resort in South Wales, close enough for day trips, rather than exotic holidays)
“When he regrets what he didn’t see, then he’ll switch to ITV”
(at that time we only had two TV channels to watch in the UK, BBC and ITV, which was probably why many of us took to learning a musical instrument).

25 Sep 18 - 03:50 AM (#3952646)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Red Velvet Steering Wheel Cover Driver
From: Leadfingers

I sing 'A SOUVENIR' ashtray

25 Sep 18 - 03:54 AM (#3952647)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Red Velvet Steering Wheel Cover Driver
From: GUEST,Jerry

Sorry, my mistake, it is “souvenir”. Can I blame the auto correct device I wonder?

25 Sep 18 - 04:41 AM (#3952659)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Red Velvet Steering Wheel Cover Driver
From: Steve Shaw

I've got five china ducks on my sitting room wall.

25 Sep 18 - 04:50 AM (#3952663)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Red Velvet Steering Wheel Cover Driver
From: GUEST,Jerry

Yes, I think they’re retro chic now. Hopefully, our avocado bathroom suite, Artex ceilings and red flock wallpaper will be back in vogue soon. So glad I hung on to all my vinyl records though; I always thought CDs were inferior overall.

25 Sep 18 - 05:01 AM (#3952667)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Red Velvet Steering Wheel Cover Driver
From: Steve Shaw

I'm thinking of having a Hilda Ogden muriel on my sitting room wall. It'll look very nice above the mantelpiece with the Napoleon clock and revolving ashtray that I won in a raffle in 1968.

25 Sep 18 - 10:11 AM (#3952730)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Red Velvet Steering Wheel Cover Driver
From: Effsee

Did Hilda have a daughter Steve? Or did you mean a mural? :))

25 Sep 18 - 11:26 AM (#3952750)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Red Velvet Steering Wheel Cover Driver
From: FreddyHeadey

Effsee ... Steve probably meant murial ;-)


Flying Ducks

"For many years Hilda Ogden had three plaster flying ducks hanging on her 'murial' in 13 Coronation Street.

Now considered an icon of the show (they are used as a landmark in Coronation Street Monopoly), as well as being a popular kitsch/retro interior design accessory, the ducks were once a common decoration in homes across England. Three ducks appear in the 'bumper' sponsorship advertisements for Harveys, the Furniture Store.

As early as 1960 the set of ducks was part of the street design, appearing in Elsie Tanner's home, 11 Coronation Street. Those were the ducks that Hilda later got."

http://coronationstreet.wikia.com/wiki/Flying_Ducks 
[other websites are available for alternative spellings]

25 Sep 18 - 11:35 AM (#3952756)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Red Velvet Steering Wheel Cover Driver
From: Steve Shaw

Yikes, I didn't bother to look up Hilda's spelling, just remembered the word! Now MY five ducks, proudly flying across my chimney breast, are genuine Beswick jobs! I often admire them as I sit there eating my prawn cocktail followed by my chicken Kiev, washed down, naturally, with a bottle of sweet white Hirondelle...

25 Sep 18 - 02:51 PM (#3952784)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Red Velvet Steering Wheel Cover Driver
From: Effsee

My apologies Steve, not being a soap fan I missed that aspect of the word! :((