I'll sing you a song, a peculiar song,
And if you will listen it won't take we long.
The rhyme's very pretty, I'm sure you'll agree,
And no doubt you'll all sing this chorus with me.
Hol-ly ho, hol-ly ho, Fol the whack dol the doo-dle da day

I said to my sweetheart the other day,
"What do you want for your birthday?"
She answered "Diamonds", and straight there and then,
I gave her the Ace, the King, Queen, Jack and ten.

The lady chainmakers have all gone on strike;
The gaffers they think they can pay what they like;
They work 'em so hard both by nigt and by day,
And for it they all get such terrible pay.

I dreamt that I died and to heaven did go;
"Where do you come from?" they wanted to know.
When I said, "From Cradly", well, how they did stare;
They said, "Come right in, lad, you're the first chap from there."

My brother bought a cow, but then poorly it fell,
So we fed it on run, just to make it get well;
And just like the silk-worm that gives us the silk,
That cow gives my brother hot run and milk.

Now me and [insert name], we're all right, you see,
And when we go out, we go out on the spree;
And whether we win or whther we lose,
We're always ready for a drop of good booze.

I brought me a chicken from town yesterday,
I thought that for me a nice egg it would lay.
Well early this morning I had a grat shock,
The fowl says, "I can't lay an egg, I'm a cock."

 

 



abc | midi | pdf

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Source: Palmer, Roy, Povery Knock, 1974, Cambridge University Press

Notes:
Sung by Joe Mallen of Kinver, Worcestershire (born 1891); collected by ROy Palmer, 2 April 1072; slightly adapted.

Roud: 1407 (Search Roud index at VWML)
Laws:
Child: