To Thread - Forum Home

The Mudcat Café TM
https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=50885
6 messages

Lyr Add: Woking Man Blues (Mike Atterbury)

28 Aug 02 - 10:39 AM (#772920)
Subject: Lyr Add: WOKING MAN BLUES (Mike Atterbury)
From: Roger the Skiffler

WOKING MAN BLUES


(Mike Atterbury)


Now some folks sing of Chicago
New Orleans and Fargo and other places far across the sea
Can it be so wrong to dedicate this song
To a little place that's very dear to me?
You may think I'm joking when I sing of Woking
Despite its truly ancient pedigree
For where'er I roam there's no place like home
And Woking , why, it's home to me

So now I've told you of Woking and you know that I'm not joking
A welcome waits for all to come to see
By car, 'bus or train, in sunshine, snow or rain
You're bound to find a lovely cup of tea
For there's rugby, bowls and cricket
And if you can get a ticket
The greatest football team there'll ever be
So now you know what Woking has in store
Don't waste a moment more

(I don't mean Guildford, not even Ascot)
Woking: a place for you and me

28 Aug 02 - 10:44 AM (#772924)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Woking Man Blues
From: Roger the Skiffler

...and of course I ballsed up the html, forgot to centre it and left out a line in the last verse: before brackets the line is:
Come to Woking: a place for you and me
Additional notes:
I don't do tunes but it is similar to the old jazz standard "Ace in the Hole". It was written by Mike Atterbury, one-time reeds player with the excellent local jazz band Denise Lawrence and Storeyville Tickle and can be heard on their CD Hangin' around 1997 Raymer Sound RSCD 665
Woking, for those outside this area, is a town in Surrey , home to many bank and other financial workers who commute to the City (of London) each day.
I introduce it thus: "You are all familiar with the urban blues and the country blues, but many of you may not be familiar with the suburban blues. Yes, in the towns around London, every evening you can see them, in their pin-striped dungarees, sitting on their IKEA rocking chairs on their B & Q decks, playing their Esquire guitars from Argos and singing about the tragedies in their lives: their golf handicaps and the price of school fees. Legendary figures like Merrow Jones,Wey Navigation Fred Smith, Bifocal Bob and Weightwatcher Cribbage. This is a typical example of the genre",br>RtS

28 Aug 02 - 10:50 AM (#772932)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Woking Man Blues
From: mooman

I had the great displeasure to live there for a year during a university "sandwich year" and what a dump it was!

mooman

28 Aug 02 - 01:25 PM (#773022)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Woking Man Blues
From: Amergin

so does it take a woking man to sing a woking song?

28 Aug 02 - 02:51 PM (#773088)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Woking Man Blues
From: Liz the Squeak

Is this about Chinese chefs or a place in Surrey??

LTS

29 Aug 02 - 07:15 AM (#773494)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Woking Man Blues
From: Lanfranc

For the benefit of the geographically disadvantaged (ie non-British!) Woking is pronounced Woe-king, with the emphasis on the Woe!

I have been there three times, two weddings and a christening, and survived - just!

Alan

(from Harlow, where the H and the T are usually silent)