I Posted this link on DP can you tell me what song the music comes from? The tune has been around for ages Maybe traditional? Definitely of UK origin because I've heard it played with many different Lyrics for comic monologues as you can hear on the link. and all I can come up with on Google is this Title which is an alternative to the link above PADDY'S LAMENT (THE BARREL SONG) But as I say the tune has been reused for other songs ...and is this the original? (Going round in circles!)
Posts: 13474 | Location: 6 miles west of Wigan UK | Registered: 06-05-02
I don't know how far this goes back? found this reference on the Snopes site
quote:
Another take on this legend comes from Why Paddy's Not at Work Today (or "The Bricklayer's Song"), a spoken version of "The Bricklayer's Lament" tale performed by Gerard Hoffnung at the Oxford Union, 4 December 1958. In both these well-known versions, the injured party is a bricklayer and his letter is to the firm he works for.
Barbara "just another brick in the fall" Mikkelson
Sightings: Look for this legend in the 1996 novel Infinite Jest. For a really old occurrence of it, hunt up a copy of the 1937 Laurel & Hardy film Way Out West. Recent sightings of the hilarious accident can be found in the 1998 film Babe: Pig in the City and is acted out in the Beta Band's 2001 video for the song "Squares."
www.snopes.com/humor/letters/bricks.asp So talking at least the mid 30's for the Lyrics Tune could be the original...and was adapted to other Monologues not the other way around (no composer found yet)
Posts: 13474 | Location: 6 miles west of Wigan UK | Registered: 06-05-02
Bingo Found it! Read this from a history of the song and Cooksey was indeed the composer. Jenny Thanks I think he's still alive?
quote:
Pat Cooksey on the History of this Song It is generally assumed that I based this song on Gerard Hoffnung's wonderful address to THE OXFORD UNION in 1958. This is not correct -- the recitation in a more simple form dates back to the English Music Hall's of the 1920's and was printed in the Readers Digest in 1937 in the form of a story. The fine Scottish singer and songwriter Dick Gaughan details some of the above on his Homepage together with comments by Sam Hinton. The song is unique in as much as it appears under such a galaxy of titles but always the same song,and it's worldwide popularity, with over 100 recordings to date,is a wonder indeed to me when I think back to it's humble beginnings in The Dyer's Arms, in Coventry. I am naturally delighted that so many wonderful artist's have recorded and performed my song over the years and I am very proud that the song has given so much pleasure to so many people,long may it continue to do so.
(Going round in circles!)
(no composer found yet)
