Tooraloo / Man All Tattered and Torn / Holly Ho

[ Roud 1407 ; Ballad Index Gard014 ; Mudcat 28075 ; trad.]

John Howson: Songs Sung in Suffolk Roy Palmer: Songs of the Midlands

Bob Scarce sang Tooraloo to Neil Langham in 1964/65 at The Ship Inn in Blaxhall, Suffolk. This recording was included in ca 2000 on the Helions Bumpstead Gramophone CD Songs From the Idiom of the People of Blaxhall.

Jumbo Brightwell sang Tooraloo Tooralay to Neil Lanham in the winter of 1967/68 at The Oyster Inn in Butley, Suffolk. This recording was included in ca 1999 on the Helions Bumpstead Gramophone CD Songs From the Company of the Butley Oyster.

Mike Harding sang the medley The Hattersley Lament including Tooraloo on his 1972 live Trailer album A Lancashire Lad.

Percy Ling sang All Tattered and Torn to Keith Summers in Snape, Suffolk in 1975. This recording was released in 1977 on the Ling family’s Topic album Singing Traditions of a Suffolk Family and in 2007 on the Musical Traditions anthology of Keith Summers’ Suffolk recordings, A Story to Tell. Rod Stradling noted:

This fairly rare song was also sung in Suffolk by Geoff Ling, Jumbo Brightwell and Arther Drewery. The other five named singers are scattered all over England, from Co Durham to Oxfordshire.

Freda Palmer sang As I Was A-Going Down One of Our Streets to Steve Roud in 1978. This recording was included in 2018 on her Musical Traditions anthology Leafield Lass. Rod Stradling noted:

This fairly rare song—only 30 Roud entries—was also sung in Suffolk by both Geoff and Percy Ling, Jumbo Brightwell and Arthur Drewery, usually with the titles like All Tattered and Torn or The Boy With No Shoes. Actually, it’s not so much a song as a collection of those simple jokes that occur all over the English lower classes’ cultures.

The other named singers are scattered all over England, from Co Durham to Sussex, and there are a couple of entries each from Scotland, Ireland, Australia and the USA. Recordings by Percy Ling (MTCD339-0), Jumbo Brightwell (Neil Lanham NLCD3) are available on CD.

Geoff Ling sang Man All Tattered and Torn on the 1991 Veteran Tapes cassette More Comic Songs and Parodies. This track was also included in 2000 on the Veteran CD Comic Songs Sung in Suffolk. John Howson noted:

Geoff’s gregarious cousin, Percy Ling, was well-known for singing this one and he can be heard on Singing Traditions of a Suffolk Family (Topic 12TS292). The verses are not always sung in the same order and not all the verses are necessarily sung at one time; they are sometimes improvised, depending on the occasion. It is therefore not surprising that this song does not have a printed history.

Jon Wilks sang Holly Ho on his 2019 digital EP The Trial of Bill Burn Under Martin’s Act. He noted:

The second of the Midlands songs included here is Holly Ho, which I’ve been singing at gigs since January this year. It’s a great example of an organic folk song. All that we know about it is that it was collected from a chap called Joe Mallen at the Cross Guns pub in Halesowen in 1958. The notes left by the collector, Elizabeth Thomson, suggest that the regulars would add new verses each week. It seems to have grown from nowhere and developed according to the whim of the people singing it. I have the wonderful Pam Bishop, also a Midlands folk collector, to thank for her help with my research on this song. I’ll be publishing everything I’ve learnt about it on my blog in the coming weeks.

Holly Ho is the only song on the EP that features musicians other than myself. For the recording, I asked my friends Nick Hart (melodeon) and Mikey Kenney (fiddle). I loved the patchwork nature of the song’s origins, so I asked them to record bits and pieces in their own studio setups. Then they sent me what they had come up with and I knitted it all together into what you hear on the EP. Interestingly, Nick told me he’d heard a similar song with other verses collected down South. I think I may have learnt the final verse that I sing here via Nick. He’s a good man to know.

Lyrics

Percy Ling sings All Tattered and Torn

Now as I was a walking up fair London Street
I met a poor boy who’d no shoes to his feet.
Being as I had money and plenty to spare
I popped in a fruit shop and I bought him a pear.
Toodle-loo Toodle-lay
You ought to have seen him eat it.

Now I once knew a man he was tattered and torn
He was mowing the grass on a gentleman’s lawn
When the door opened wide and a lady so fair
Said, “Come round the back
O it’s much longer there.”
Toodle-loo Toodle-lay
You ought to have seen him run round.

Now I once had a dream and to Heaven did go
Where did you come from they wanted to know.
“I came from Snape”, Old Peter did stare.
Said, “Come round the back,
You’re the first bugger from there!”
Toodle-loo Toodle-lay
You ought to have seen me run round.

Now I called on my sweetheart,
Her name was Miss Brown.
She was having a bath and she could not come down.
I said, “Slip on somethingCome down half-a-tick.”
She slipped on the soap and she did come down quick.
Toodle-loo Toodle-lay
You ought to have seen her come down.

Now a nasty black eye had my Uncle Jim
He said, “Someone threw a tomato at him.”
“Tomatoes don’t hurt.” I said with a grin.
O yes they do when they come in a tin.
Toodle-loo Toodle-lay
And a nasty black eye had he got.

Now put four young ladies round four cups of tea.
They’ll talk of more scandal than ever you see.
But put four young men round a barrel of beer
They’ll talk of more work they can do in a year.
Toodle-loo Toodle-lay
I’ve proved it so I ought to know.

Freda Palmer sings As I Was A-Going Down One of Our Streets

As I was a-going down one of our streets
I met a poor boy with no shoes on his feet
I’d plenty of money but little to spare
So I took him to a fruit shop and bought him a pear

Chorus:
Toodle-ay, toodle-ay
The chorus is bland I could sing it all day
Toodle-ay, toodle-ay
God bless the poor working man

Two lovely black eyes had poor old Uncle Jim
The boys had been throwing tomatoes at him
“Tomatoes don’t hurt you,” I said with a grin
O don’t they, by Christ, they were stuffed in a tin

(Chorus)

I once met two beggars all tattered and torn
They were eating the grass off of our front lawn
I said, “If you’re hungry just step round the back
Where the grass is much longer and thicker than that”

I once took a note to poor old Mrs Brown,
She was having a bath and she couldn’t come down.
I said, “O by golly, just slip on a tick”
And she slipped on the soap and, by Christ, she came quick

I once bought a hen in town yesterday
And thought on the morrow an egg it would lay
But when I awoke, oh I had such a shock
The hen said, “You can’t have an egg, I’m a cock.”

I dreamt I did die and to Heaven did go
“Where do you come from?” they wanted to know
I said, “I’m from Witney.” St Peter did stare.
He said, “Step in quick, you’re the first one from there.”