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Lyr Req: I Shan't Mend Your Waistcoat Any More

11 Feb 11 - 05:26 PM (#3093498)
Subject: Lyr Req: I SHAN'T MEND YOUR WAISTCOAT ANY MORE
From: Jim Dixon

You can hear this song at YouTube. There are a couple of holes in my transcription, plus a few lines that don't make sense, so I figure there must be mistakes somewhere. I would appreciate your help in correcting them:


I SHAN'T MEND YOUR WAISTCOAT ANY MORE (1912)
As recorded by Harry Champion

1. I'm very partial to this old red vest,
Like an old cock robin with his old red breast.
My mother made it from her funny furry coat,
Said I wouldn't change it for a five-pound note,
But ev'ry time I go to put it on, I'm bound to tear it somewhere.
At last my shirt front started coming out,
So the missus got the needle and began to shout:

CHORUS: I shan't mend your waistcoat any more.
I shan't mend your waistcoat any more.
I've patched it here. I've patched it there.
In fact, I've patched it ev'rywhere.
If you go out on Sunday, you'll catch a cold, I'm sure,
But you'll have to walk about with your dickey sticking out
'Cause I shan't mend your waistcoat any more.

2. I know this lady in a week ago,
When our Bertha took her to a picture show.
We had a game at holding hands in the dark.
Someone must have spotted us and had a lark,
For all at once I heard a funny voice.
Said I, "That's my old woman."
She shouted out, "You fascinating brute!"
As she hit me on the trumpet with her hobnailed boot. CHORUS

3. Once she went and joined the suffragettes
On the platform set among the frog-faced set.
One night she got up on her feet to have a say.
They were 'bout to get all that we want someday.
So I jumped up and pointed to my front.
I said my vest wants mending.
She said you'll wait until I get a vote.
She did the switch and shouted in a shrill top note: CHORUS

4. We had a lodger and his name was Gumm.
Used to wonder where the dickens he came from.
One day walking to the kitchen unawares,
Paid a bob and fourpence on the room upstairs.
When I got home from work the other night,
My wife and him made off ...
She pinned a note on a mouldy loaf of bread,
But the only part I counted was the part that read: CHORUS


06 Oct 12 - 07:22 PM (#3415651)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Shan't Mend Your Waistcoat Any More
From: GUEST,joolz

I think the lodger is probably Tom, to rhyme with 'from' and I think the lodger paid a deposit. 'Hopped it' is a common term for scarpered or ran away.

We had a lodger and his name was Tom.
Used to wonder where the dickens he came from.
One day he walked into the kitchen unawares,
Paid a bob deposit on the room upstairs.
When I got home from work the other night,
My wife and him had hopped it.

joolz