Lyr Add: Trousers on the Door

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Lyr Add: Trousers on the Door

22 Jun 00 - 05:51 PM (#246084)
Subject: Lyr/Tune Add: TROUSERS ON THE DOOR
From: Snuffy

This song is on a tape of field recordings made in Mid-Suffolk between 1959 and 1982. I've looked all over for the missing verse, or any information on author or original performer. Are there any commercial recordings? It sounds Victorian to me, and the tune is obiously related to that used by Lonnie Donegan for "My Old Man's a Dustman."

TROUSERS ON THE DOOR

Now me Ma she had a lodger, a nice young man was he.
He courted my sister, Julia: they were as happy as could be.
Then all of a sudden he left us, we really don't know why.
All we know that he is gone and he's made poor sister cry.

CHO:
For all he left was a pair of trousers, hanging on the bedroom door.
When we looked at them they seemed to say "You'll never see the lodger any more"
All day long poor sister Julia cried [and cried and cried]
She said "What's the use of a pair of trousers if you haven't got a man inside?"

Ma used to treat him as a son, he had just what he chose.
He used to borrow money and he wore all father's clothes.
Now the reason why he left us, we really can't explain.
All we know that he is gone with father's watch and chain.

CHO:

At the end of the song Mr Syrett says "There's one more verse but I forgetten 'im"

X: 1
T:Trousers on the Door, The
M:4/4
L:1/8
S:Gordon Syrett
A:Suffolk
N:Collected/recorded at Mendlesham Green 1982
D:Many a Good Horseman VTVS01/0
K:D

  A4|
  F2F2 F2F2|F2F4    F2|F2F2   G2F2|E6   E2 |
  E2EE E2D2|C2E2  A2AA|B2A2  ^G2A2|F6   A,2|
  F2FF FFF2|F2F4    F2|D2D2   E2F2|G6   z2 |
  A2A2 A2A2|A2A2  A2AA|A2G2   F2E2|D4     ||
  A4|
  F2F2 F2FF|F2F2  F2F2|A,A,FF G2F2|E6   ED |
  C2E2 A2A2|B2A2 ^G2A2|BBAA  ^GGAA|F6   z2 |
  F2F2 F2F2|F2F2  F2F2|D2D2   E2F2|G4 F2G2 |
  A2A2 A2AA|A2A2  AAAA|AAGG   F2E2|D4     ||

Wassail! V

24 Jun 00 - 05:52 AM (#246913)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Trousers on the Door
From: Snuffy

Does anybody know anything about this song?

Wassail! V

26 Jun 00 - 11:31 AM (#247026)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Trousers on the Door
From: MMario

it has that Music Hall "feel" to it...

22 Mar 05 - 02:58 AM (#1440290)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Trousers on the Door
From: GUEST,Sallycat

Did you ever find the missing verse? I think there's half a line missing from the chorus, too.

22 Mar 05 - 08:25 AM (#1440435)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Trousers on the Door
From: Snuffy

Not a peep. But maybe there's more out there on the web than there was 5 years ago. I'll have another look.

I take it you're refeering to the tape, Sallycat. Mr Syrett actually sang a truncated 3rd line in the chorus: "All day long poor sister Julia cried". In the Lyr Add: above I have put back the "and cried and cried" which I felt was missing

22 Mar 05 - 09:19 AM (#1440484)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Trousers on the Door
From: Billy Weeks

Michael Kilgarriff's monumental reference book - always the first place to look for anything with the smell of music hall about it - gives 'All he left was a pair of trousers' as having been sung by Ada Cerito (1877-1944) but no authorship attribution or date.

22 Mar 05 - 09:24 AM (#1440490)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Trousers on the Door
From: Billy Weeks

And the British library gives 'All he Left was a Pair of Trousers' as written and composed by Murray & Leigh,1898.

22 Mar 05 - 09:28 AM (#1440492)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Trousers on the Door
From: Billy Weeks

And it was published in London by Francis Day and Hunter.

22 Mar 05 - 09:31 AM (#1440493)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Trousers on the Door
From: Snuffy

Thanks for that, Billy. But it still doesn't help with the missing verse(s).

22 Mar 05 - 09:40 AM (#1440503)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Trousers on the Door
From: IanC

Snuffy

If it was published by Francis Day and Hunter on or after 1898, then there's a very good chance of finding it in print. Their songbooks regularly appear on EBAY (i.e. daily).

Just for the record, your original source is (on the Veteran label) VTVS01/02 'Many a Good Horseman'. Recorded from Gordon Syrett at Mendlesham Green in 1982.

:-)
Ian

22 Mar 05 - 12:37 PM (#1440668)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Trousers on the Door
From: Billy Weeks

Or you could ask the British Library to send you a photocopy. I think they'll do that with out-of-copyright material, but I don't know what they'd charge.

31 Dec 13 - 06:22 AM (#3587753)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Trousers on the Door
From: GUEST

I am so delighted that my daughter has found this. My Mum, who died this year, aged 100, has always sung this song to us. She said the first time she remembered singing it was when her maiden Aunt had taken her to the Vicar's tea party, and being the only child there, they asked her to sing, expecting a nursery rhyme. They got "Trousers on the Door" instead! Mum was about two and a half and the year would have been 1914. She is not sure who taught it to her, but probably her Mum, my Nan, who loved a good laugh and joke!

31 Dec 13 - 06:26 AM (#3587758)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Trousers on the Door
From: GUEST,Anne Keys

My Mum, who died this year aged 100, sang this at the vicar's tea party when she was aged about two and a half, so that would have been in 1914. I can't remember all the words, but she always sang "Poor sister Julia, all day long she cried, What's the use of a pair of old trousers if they haven't got a man inside". I think the vicar nearly had a fit, expecting a nursery rhyme!

31 Dec 13 - 12:47 PM (#3587882)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Trousers on the Door
From: Jim Dixon

The University of Oxford has the sheet music, described thus:

ALL HE LEFT WAS A PAIR OF TROUSERS
Words and music by Fred Murray & Fred W Leigh ; sung by Miss Ada Cerito.
London : Francis, Day & Hunter, ©1898.

First line: My poor big sister Julia.
First line of chorus: All he left was a pair of trousers.

[The British Library also has it, but the Oxford library catalog gives more details.]

[Since we don't have a verse that begins "My poor big sister Julia," there does indeed seem to be a verse missing—the first verse.]

31 Dec 13 - 06:30 PM (#3587954)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Trousers on the Door
From: GUEST

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.natlib.ihas.100008031/enlarge.html?page=3

Jim, I got lucky. The lyrics with that missing stanza are there.

31 Dec 13 - 06:32 PM (#3587955)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Trousers on the Door
From: GUEST

Damn. I'll go find it again. It's in the LoC.

31 Dec 13 - 06:39 PM (#3587959)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Trousers on the Door
From: GUEST

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.natlib.ihas.100008031/enlarge.html?page=3&from=pageturner

There it is. That is p 3

At the bottom is a way to get to p 4, etc.

31 Dec 13 - 11:18 PM (#3588011)
Subject: Lyr Add: ALL HE LEFT WAS A PAIR OF TROUSERS
From: Jim Dixon

From the sheet music at the Library of Congress:

ALL HE LEFT WAS A PAIR OF TROUSERS
Words and music by Fred Murray & Fred W Leigh, ©1898.

1. My poor big sister Julia! I've just left her in tears.
She's crying over Mister Brown, who lodged with us for years.
Their wedding day was almost fixed, and all seemed safe and sound,
But Mister Brown went off last week and yesterday we found: That—

CHORUS: All he left was a pair of trousers hanging on the bedroom door.
When we look at 'em they seem to say, "You'll never see the lodger any more."
Poor sister Julia! All day long she cried:
"What is the use of a pair of trousers, if they haven't got a man inside?"

2. I can't make out why he should go; I'm bothered if I can.
Ma did her best to please him, being Julia's young man.
She tried to make him feel at home, and let his rent run on,
And he's not even left a note to tell us where he's gone.

3. Ma used to treat him like a son; he had just what he chose.
He used to borrow money, and he wore all father's clothes.
Why he should leave so suddenly, I really can't explain.
Another thing that's disappeared is sister's watch and chain.