Lyr Req: Several Music Hall and WWI Songs

10 Aug 06 - 10:03 PM (#1806867)
Subject: Lyr Req: Several Music Hall and WWI Songs
From: DerMann

I've been quite interested in Music Hall for several years now, but one of the most frustrating things is finding the correct lyrics.

I'm going to throw out a bunch of songs and see if anyone can supply me with the appropriate lyrics.

They are as followed:

-Songs by Harry Champion-

-Boiled Beef and Carrots (I'm missing one verse)
-Cockney Bill of London Town
-Cover it Over Quick Jemima
-Doctor Shelley
-Ginger You're Barmy
-Hey Diddle Diddle (might be "Hi")
-Home Made Sausages
-I Enjoyed It
-I'm Getting Ready for My Mother-in-Law
-I'm Proud of My Old Bald Head
-Let's Have a Basin of Soup
-Standard Bread
-The End of My Old Cigar (latter verse)
-You Can't Help Lauging Can Yer?
-You Don't Want to Keep on Showing It

-Various Songs from WWI-
(Note - All these songs can be found on www.firstworldwar.com)

-Mademoiselle From Armentieres (I'm in need of the ANZAC version I have 2/3 verses, and most of the chorus. Sung by Jack Charman)
-Tow the Row, Row (has nothing to do with British Grenadiers, made by Whit Cunliffe)
-Are We Downhearted (sung by Arthur Boyton)

I'm not hoping for all the lyrics to all the songs, just trying to increase my odds.

Thanks for helping.

-DerMann

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10 Aug 06 - 10:37 PM (#1806877)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Several Music Hall and WWI Songs
From: The Fooles Troupe

Some of this stuff is at http://www.monologues.co.uk/

some of the rest is here - try the search facilities, or the Digitrad.

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10 Aug 06 - 10:41 PM (#1806880)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Several Music Hall and WWI Songs
From: Peace

First World War.com - Vintage Audio - 1915

Google that. There are none there that you are searching for in that list, but you may want some of them anyway. (Good site, BTW.)

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10 Aug 06 - 10:44 PM (#1806883)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Several Music Hall and WWI Songs
From: Peace

Also

www.londonbobby.ca/lblyric.htm

It contains a few you seek.

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10 Aug 06 - 10:46 PM (#1806886)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Several Music Hall and WWI Songs
From: Malcolm Douglas

See also various past discussions here. Use the onsite search engine, which you will find at the top of every page.

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10 Aug 06 - 10:53 PM (#1806891)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Several Music Hall and WWI Songs
From: DerMann

I've just finished looking through monologues.co.uk, and I haven't found anything.

I spend most of last night and a few hours today looking through this website, but I still have a majority of songs without lyrics.

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11 Aug 06 - 08:53 AM (#1807134)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Several Music Hall and WWI Songs
From: John on the Sunset Coast

I suggest that anyone interested in old English Music Hall songs should google Ian Whitcomb. He has written books on that music (and Tin Pan Alley) and even has familial connection to it, I believe. Additionally, he had a radio program wherein he often play George Formby, Stanley Holloway qnd the other greats of Music Hall. Whitycomb pergorms these songs, mostly around the Los Angeles area. Lastly, it was he who chose the music for "Titanic", "Cat's Meow" and some other movies.
Damn, I should be his press agent!

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11 Aug 06 - 09:55 AM (#1807176)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Several Music Hall and WWI Songs
From: Charley Noble

DerMann-

Your inquiry is the kind of specialized one that may turn up a helpful hint or two on this website, but you've really got to soldier through on your own.

Thanks for sharing your most recent results.

I don't suppose you ever ran across a favorite but obscure music hall song that I've queried about titled "The Pearl Diver"? It may be composed by Bob Weston and Bert Lee who did write "The Rich Man Rides By" which shares a chorus. You can find more of my notes on my personal website if you search for this song: click here for website

Good luck in your search!
Charley Noble

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11 Aug 06 - 03:45 PM (#1807484)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Several Music Hall and WWI Songs
From: DerMann

It's been a personal crusade of mine for a few years now. I've found quite a few lyrics on this website, and I'd just like to say that my hat's off to you guys.

Many thanks for the links and hints.

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12 Aug 06 - 05:43 AM (#1807970)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Several Music Hall and WWI Songs
From: Peace

Ginger, You're Barmy!

Don't walk about wivout yer cady on, Ginger, you're barmy!
Get yer 'air cut, they all begin to cry
Wiv nuffin' on your napper oh, you are pie!
Pies must 'ave a little bit o' crust
Why don't yer join the army?
If you want to look a don you want a bit of somefing on, Ginger, you're barmy!

from

www.londonbobby.ca/lblyric.htm

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12 Aug 06 - 05:48 AM (#1807974)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Several Music Hall and WWI Songs
From: Peace

DerMann:

I would think you have seen this site, but here it is again in the event you haven't:

http://www.musichallcds.com/music_hall_songs_database.htm

http://www.musichallcds.com/music_hall_songs_database.htm

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13 Aug 06 - 11:15 PM (#1809234)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Several Music Hall and WWI Songs
From: DerMann

Could someone please tell me the meaning of the phrase "tanner down the Cut," as it appears in "Ev'rybody Knows me in my Old Brown Hat"?

Ev'rybody knows me in my old brown hat
That I've got upon my pim-pim-pimple.
It only cost me a tanner down the Cut,
But it looks all right on my little wooden nut.
Oh I say!
What d'yer think of that?
When I'm in the sea,
If the girls look at me,
They'll be looking at my old brown hat.

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13 Aug 06 - 11:25 PM (#1809237)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Several Music Hall and WWI Songs
From: Peace

Tanner is sixpence in old money, and

'cut' = Noun. A canal. [Midlands/North use]

May mean that a market was held at the canal.

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13 Aug 06 - 11:27 PM (#1809238)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Several Music Hall and WWI Songs
From: Peace

Dictionary of English slang and colloquialisms of the UK

Google that.

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13 Aug 06 - 11:38 PM (#1809239)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Several Music Hall and WWI Songs
From: DerMann

I have a couple more that need translation:

"Jay"

Example:
I shall never forget, on the day I got wed
Well, there's only yer 'umble to blame!
Matilda insisted on washing me shirt and I've only one shirt to me name.
She sent it along and when I put it on I discovered that I was a Jay,
She'd starched it all over from bottom to top
So I wrote 'er a letter to say . . .

"raging Main"

Example:
Ah, don't do it again, Matilda,
Never you do it again!
You've done it now twice an' number three
You'll find it unlucky - just take it from me!
Don't throw that under your nose,
But swallow the raging Main!
Drink up all the lot,
When you get to the bot'
Then never come up again!


Many thanks for the quick responses.

As a note, I have looked on a Colloquialism website and a Cockne dictionary, but I haven't found either.

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13 Aug 06 - 11:42 PM (#1809241)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Several Music Hall and WWI Songs
From: Peace

"raging Main" is the sea/ocean.

Jay: --beats me; sorry, DM. I have no idea.

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14 Aug 06 - 12:06 AM (#1809247)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Several Music Hall and WWI Songs
From: The Fooles Troupe

http://www.epicure.demon.co.uk/index.html

mentions a song...

They're all nobbly, nobbly, nobbly, And full weight!






They don't write 'em like that any more...

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14 Aug 06 - 06:27 AM (#1809379)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Several Music Hall and WWI Songs
From: Billy Weeks

DerMann: 'The Cut'is a street market in Lower Marsh, Lambeth, still very active. You may not find many brown hats for sale there today, but it would have been very familiar to a London music hall audience as a source of cheap goods. Incidentally, the southward continuation of this street is known as Upper Marsh and is where Charles Morton opened his first Canterbury (music) Hall in 1852.

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14 Aug 06 - 06:30 AM (#1809381)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Several Music Hall and WWI Songs
From: Billy Weeks

I forgot to say that you can find a full list and a complete discography of Harry Champion's songs in Tony Barker's 'Music Hall' magazine. I can't do the blue clicky, but you can Google his site easily.

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12 Oct 06 - 02:44 PM (#1857095)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Several Music Hall and WWI Songs
From: NH Dave

Verses to the ANZAC version of Mademoiselle From Armentieres

Mademoiselle From Armentieres, parlez-vous
Sang the Diggers between their beers, parlez-vous
And the solder's chorus and ballad gay,
Rang through the old estaminet,
Inky pinky parlez-vous

Men from Wagga and Gundagai, parlez-vous
From Perth and Towers, and Boggabri, parlez-vous
From Sidney City and Dandenong,
Sinking their sorrows in wine and song,
Inky pinky parlez-vous

Mademoiselle enjoyed the din, parlez-vous
She tripped around with the bock and vin, parlez-vous
And Mademoiselle, in an innocent way,
Trolled a stave of the ribald lay,
Inky pinky, parlez-vous

One young Digger, tanned and lean, parlez-vous
From Darling Downs, or the Riverine, parlez-vous
Set her heart in a rapturous whirl
When he vowed that she was his dinkum girl,
Inky pinky, parlez-vous

They laughed and loved in the old French town, parlez-vous
And her heart spoke out of those eyes of brown, parlez-vous
But the time fled by, and there came the day
When he and his cobbers all marched away,
Inky pinky, , parlez-vous

Maybe on a field of France he fell, parlez-vous
No word came back to Mademoiselle, parlez-vous
But a little French girl, with eyes of brown,
Prayed for him still in that war-swept town,
Inky pinky, parlez-vous

Now quiet the old estaminet, parlez-vous
No more Diggers will come this way, parlez-vous
May your heart grow lighter with the passing years,
Oh, Mademoiselle from Armentieres,
Inky pinky, parlez-vous

From, When This Bloody War is Over, Soldiers' Songs of the First World War, Max Arthur, ISN 0-7499-2354-7, £ 9.99 - I found my copy on Amazon. Amazon.co.uk has as cheap as £ 1.94, while Amazon.com has it from $ 14.37

Dave

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24 Oct 06 - 07:19 PM (#1867689)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Several Music Hall and WWI Songs
From: GUEST,Tanyer

Der Mann -- I have sheet music for some of the songs you listed including Ginger You're Barmy & End of My Old Cigar (probably for more than that but those I'm certain about) would you like me to send you copies?

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26 Jan 09 - 09:49 AM (#2549386)
Subject: Lyr Add: HEY DIDDLE DIDDLE (Harry Champion)
From: GUEST,Patter

I have only just seen your request for Harry Champion lyrics. O have tried to transcribe some from old recordings. If they are useful I should be happy to share them. Here is one (for what it's worth:

Hey Diddle Diddle                Harry Champion

We've got a lodger, 'e's a funny old dodger,
'E's gone music mad.
Last week the nanny goat went and had a kid,
And I 'ad the toothache bad.
'E starts to play at the break of day,
And 'e's orf in the middle o' the night.
'E'll play so sweet that it tickles me feet
And the ol' gal wants to fight.

With 'is heigh diddle diddle on the middle of 'is fiddle
'E can fiddle diddle diddle all day.
Root toot toot on 'is little bit o' flute,
'E'll sit for hours and play
'Ome sweet 'ome on a paper and a comb—
'Is wife's gonna leave 'im all alone.
For all night long 'e's singin' 'er a song
And windin' up the gramophone.

Heigh diddle diddle on the middle of 'is fiddle
'E can fiddle diddle diddle all day.
Root toot toot on 'is little bit o' flute,
'E'll sit for hours and play
'Ome sweet 'ome on a paper and a comb—
'Is wife's gonna leave 'im all alone.
For all night long 'e's singin' 'er a song
And windin' up the gramophone.

Last Sunday night 'e 'ad a birthday and a fight
And around came all 'is crew.
'E played 'em ragtime, dinnertime, teatime,
Suppertime and bedtime too.
'E blew so 'ard in 'is old bombard
The ceiling in the middle 'ad a crack.
On top o' me and my old gal in bed
They all came through with a whackity, whack, whack.


Heigh diddle diddle on the middle of 'is fiddle
'E can fiddle diddle diddle all day.
Root tootie toot on 'is little bit o' flute,
'E'll sit for hours and play
'Ome sweet 'ome on a paper and a comb—
'Is wife's gonna leave 'im all alone.
For all night long 'e's singin' 'er a song
And windin' up the gramophone. pom pom pom

Heigh diddle diddle on the middle of 'is fiddle
'E can fiddle diddle diddle all day.
Root tootie toot on 'is little bit o' flute,
'E'll sit for hours and play, play, play, play.
'Ome sweet 'ome on a paper and a comb—
'Is wife's gonna leave 'im all alone.
For all night long 'e's singin' 'er a song
And windin' up the gramophone.

Our new twins now as soon as 'e begins
Start doin' the kangaroo 'op.
I 'ad to double upstairs, undress them
And bob 'im on the nose with a crop.
'E says: "Old sport, I reckon you ought
To let me live rent-free."
I said with a groan: "Take your old trombone
And go to Bermondsey."

Heigh diddle diddle on the middle of 'is fiddle
'E can fiddle diddle diddle all day.
Root tootie toot on 'is little bit o' flute,
'E'll sit for hours and play,
'Ome sweet 'ome on a paper and a comb—
'Is wife's gonna leave 'im all alone.
For all night long 'e's singin' 'er a song
And windin' up the gramophone.

Heigh diddle diddle on the middle of 'is fiddle
'E can fiddle diddle diddle all day.
Root tootie toot on 'is little bit o' flute,
'E'll sit for hours and play,
'Ome sweet 'ome on a paper and a comb—
'Is wife's gonna leave 'im all alone.
For all night long 'e's singin' 'er a song
And windin' up the gramophone.                (Repeat chorus even faster.)

If this is useful please let me know and I'll try and post others. If this lyric has already been supplied I shall be happy for this message to be deleted.

Patter

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27 Jan 09 - 10:22 PM (#2550688)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Several Music Hall and WWI Songs
From: Jim Dixon

YouTube has these videos:

BOILED BEEF AND CARROTS sung by Harry Champion.

A medley that includes COVER IT OVER QUICK, JEMIMA sung by Chas 'n' Dave.

I'M GETTING READY FOR MY MOTHER-IN-LAW sung by someone named Meeker, apparently.

THE END OF MY OLD CIGAR sung by The Wurzels & Adge Cutler.


The Internet Archive has these sound files:

BOILED BEEF AND CARROTS sung by Harry Champion.

DOCTOR SHELLEY sung by Harry Champion.

I'M GETTING READY FOR MY MOTHER-IN-LAW sung by Harry Champion.

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28 Jan 09 - 07:33 PM (#2551508)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Several Music Hall and WWI Songs
From: GUEST,Bill the sound

Another old music hall song
I'M MY OWN GRANDPA
      (Shel Silverstein )

            
It was many many years ago when I was twenty-three
                                                            
I was married to a widow, she's as pretty as can be
                                          
This widow had a grow up daughter who had hair of red
         
My father fell in love with her, and soon these two were wed.

                               Chorus
                     
I'm my own grandpa, I'm my own grandpa

It sounds silly I know, but it really is so, oh

I'm my own grandpa.

         
This made my dad my son-in –law and changed my very life
                                                                  
My daughter was my mother 'cause she was my father's wife
                                                   
And then to complicate the matter, though it brought me joy
                           
I soon became the father of a bouncing baby boy
                                                         
This bouncing baby then became a brother-in-law to dad
                                                            
And so became my uncle, though it made me very sad
                                                
For if he was my uncle then he also was the brother
                                                                                                            
Of the widow's grown up daughter, who, of coarse, was my step mother.

                                     Chorus

Father's wife then had a son who kept them on the run
And he became my grandchild, for he was my daughter's son
My wife is now my mother's mother, and it make me blue
Because although she is my wife, she's my grandmother, too
Now if my wife is my grandmother, then I am her grandchild
And every time I think of it, it nearly drives me wild
For now I have become the strangest case you ever saw
Husband of my grandmother, I am my own grandpa.

                         Chorus

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28 Jan 09 - 08:46 PM (#2551555)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Several Music Hall and WWI Songs
From: Lighter

The late Shel Silverstein (composer of "The Unicorn" and "A Boy Named Sue") came long after the "old music halls" were gone.

He wrote many songs in the 1960s and '70s.

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29 Jan 09 - 12:46 AM (#2551638)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Several Music Hall and WWI Songs
From: Jim Dixon

Also, I'm quite sure Shel Silverstein didn't write I'M MY OWN GRANDPA, although he wrote lots of other funny songs.

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29 Jan 09 - 07:00 PM (#2552390)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Several Music Hall and WWI Songs
From: GUEST,Bill the sound

Thanks for the information
I looked this song up on the net and he was credited with it I don't know if its right.

Thanks Jim & Lighter

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29 Jan 09 - 07:48 PM (#2552427)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Several Music Hall and WWI Songs
From: SINSULL

Jay - a fop?

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30 Jan 09 - 04:35 AM (#2552650)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Several Music Hall and WWI Songs
From: Nigel Parsons

Sins:
I'd agree with that, compare with 'Popinjay'

In context:
"Matilda insisted on washing me shirt and I've only one shirt to me name.
She sent it along and when I put it on I discovered that I was a Jay,
She'd starched it all over from bottom to top"

As he only had one shirt he was surprised how good he looked when 'spruced up'. The jay is a particularly sleek looking bird.

Cheers
Nigel

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30 Jan 09 - 04:43 AM (#2552655)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Several Music Hall and WWI Songs
From: Weasel

Just spotting the "Ginger, you're barmy" reference earlier - I remember my grandmother used to sing slightly different words:-

Oh I wouldn't go to bed with a fire on my head
Ginger, you're barmy.

Cheers.

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30 Jan 09 - 10:24 PM (#2553401)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Several Music Hall and WWI Songs
From: Gurney

Cosmotheka recorded some of the stuff that you want, and probably lots of stuff you would like.

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09 Jan 11 - 06:11 AM (#3070424)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Several Music Hall and WWI Songs
From: GUEST,Geoff

I sing 'Ginger You're barmy' as a turn down the old rub-a-dub, and I have transcribed the full lyrics off the Harry Champion record here:
Ginger You're Barmy full lyrics

The pianist there has a treasure trove of old sheet music, so I hope to transcribe more of the of the rare stuff over time.

Geoff

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09 Jan 11 - 10:39 AM (#3070565)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Several Music Hall and WWI Songs
From: Charley Noble

Some of the best war ditties of this genre were collected by Roy Palmer and published in his songbook "What a Lovely War!" British Soldiers' Songs, published by Michael Joseph, London, © 1990. The book covers songs from the Boer War through the 1980's.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

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10 Dec 12 - 05:06 AM (#3450038)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Several Music Hall and WWI Songs
From: GUEST,Frederick Denny

I grew up knowing a verse of Ginger Your Barmy.

Ginger, your barmy, went to join the army,
Got knocked out with a bottle of stout,
Ginger, your barmy.

When I saw the 'official' version many years later I could not see where it could be part of that.

Frederick

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10 Dec 12 - 09:29 AM (#3450102)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Several Music Hall and WWI Songs
From: GUEST,999

"I'm My Own Grandpa" by Dwight Latham and Moe Jaffe.

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11 Dec 13 - 03:09 PM (#3583349)
Subject: Lyr Add: WHO WERE YOU WITH LAST NIGHT? (Sheridan)
From: Jim Dixon

These lyrics come from a publication called The Kipling Journal, December, 1963, page 32. The editor doesn't say where he got them, but I'm willing to guess it was from the sheet music. YouTube has some recordings for comparison: early ones by Mark Sheridan, Arthur Leslie, and Bert Courtney; and a good recent performance by Maurice Peckman:


WHO WERE YOU WITH LAST NIGHT?
Words and music by Fred Godfrey and Mark Sheridan, ©1912.

1. In an office up the West,
Obadiah, smartly dressed,
Wandered in one Friday morn in a brand new fancy vest.
His pals all rose and said, 'My word, you're a naughty naughty boy.
Last night we saw you making eyes at a nice little lump of joy.
You kissed her twice on the same place twice, and gave her waist a squeeze,
So we'd like you to inform us, Mister Obadiah, please—

CHORUS: 'Who were you with last night?
Who were you with last night?
It wasn't your sister; it wasn't your Ma,
Ah! ah! ah! ah! ah! ah! ah! ah!
Who were you with last night,
Out in the pale moonlight?
Are you going to tell your Missus when you get home,
Who you were with last night?'

2. Like a rosy apple red,
Obadiah blushed and said,
'You're mistaken, boys, because I was out with Uncle Fred.'
His pals looked round and winked, then said, as they gave a knowing grin,
'Do you always squeeze your Uncle's waist, and tickle his bristly chin?
Does your Uncle too, wear a high heeled shoe, and a dainty powdered face?
Does he sport a hobble skirt and bits of furbelows and lace? CHORUS

3. Obadiah said, 'I'm sure,
My brother, pr'aps you fellows saw.'
They said 'Wow-wow, Obadiah, you can tell that tale to Noah.
We knew you by your sprightly walk, and the tale you told was grand.
Last night we saw you in the park there listening to the band.
Your darling wife, she would have your life, and put your hair in curl,
If she knew you'd been out walking with some other little girl! CHORUS

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