Mum Re-Writes Some Song Lyrics

Mum Re-Writes Some Song Lyrics

I'm sure that most people who know us, are aware that Mum has a very good voice. Although she is now well over 99, she can still sing, and she remembers a lot of the songs from the war years, and from various variety shows, and Flanagan and Allen numbers.

I play piano and Mum joins in - but she sometimes sings words that mean more to her than those printed on the sheet music!

One favourite is "We're going to hang out the washing on the Siegfried Line...." which is very often is changed to: "We're going to hang out the washing on the Sidcup Line..."!

We have worked this one out, because it must refer to the time when she lived in Sidcup for a while and, of course, it still scans perfectly.

Another great song is "Kiss Me Goodnight Sergeant Major..." which usually she remembers perfectly well. When I reach the part that begins, "We all love you, Sergeant Major, 'specially when you're bawling......" at that juncture, I usually pause, hands in the air above the piano keys, for Mum to come in with her solo, "....Show a leg!"  However, it does not always work like that, and if she is tired, Mum has a way of personalising the song to the way she is feeling at that moment:

Alex (playing and singing): "We all love you, Sergeant Major, 'specially when you're bawling ..."

I pause for Mum to follow her cue, but if she doesn't join in after a few seconds, I have been known to carry on, singing the line myself: "..... show a leg..."

This is now often followed by Mum adding, "I'm tired and I want to go to bed!"

Well, she couldn't be more explicit that that, describing what she wants to do; and this line comes from another song my Grandma used to sing to me - and presumably my Mum as well:

"Show me the way to go home; I'm tired and I want to go to bed!
I had a little drink about an hour ago, and it's gone right to my head.....
Wherever I may roam - on land or sea or foam -
You'll always hear me singing this song,
Show me the way to go home!"

"There'll Bluebirds Over The White Cliffs of Dover" usually starts off correctly, but then instead of singing, "Tomorrow, just you wait and see," Mum might sing, "Tomorrow.... is just another day." Yes, well, maybe it is, but that line doesn't carry the poignancy of the original!

I love playing that song - it's in Eb major, with a beautiful line in chords: Eb major, C minor, F minor, Bb7, and back to Eb - to my ears, that's a perfect arrangement.

It's the same with "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square" - you really do need to play it in Eb major, it just doesn't sound "right" if it's transposed into another key - much to my annoyance, in fact, because I find Eb major takes the vocals a bit high in places! I shall have to try harder to reach those upper notes.

Another song I play is Heart and Soul, which I first heard Floyd Cramer playing, during a show in Durban back in 1962, when he was on tour with Jim Reeves and Chet Atkins. It's an old Hoagy Carmichael song, and I have an idea I've seen sheet music showing the key of D major, but I play it in Eb and still use the same four chord intro.

We've also introduced an old childhood nursery rhyme, for when Mum washes and dries her hands:

Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker's man,
Bake me a cake as fast as you can;
Pat it and prick it and mark it with "P,"
And put it in the over for Phyllis and me.

By the time she has done this a couple of times, Mum has concentrated on what she is doing, and her hands are properly dry.

I remember Mum patting my hands with a towel, and reciting this rhyme - I'd be about 3 or 4, so it's a happy memory from that time, too.