Billy Williams & Fred Godfrey, 1911; Harry Carlton also a co-author,
according to Godfrey letter assigning rights to Billy Williams dated Jan.
31, 1911; manuscripts of music and lyrics in author’s collection.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
|
|
A Canadian reissue
of Billy Williams’s Zonophone
recording. The song may
have had particular
resonance
in Canada,
since
Robert Bordens Conservatives, on the
strength of
the votes of
hundreds of thousands
of newly arrived immigrants
from
Britain, won the 1911
federal election on an
antifree trade
platform:No truck nor trade
with the Yankees! |
|
Like It’s The Only Bit Of English That We’ve Got,
from 1907, this song decries what was seen as the pernicious inpouring
of foreign goods and people into the UK. Billy Williams calls the attention
of “Free Traders and Tariff Reformers” to the following admonition:
(Chorus)
Wake up, John Bull,
What’s the matter with you?
Why don’t you close your open door,
The same as they do on the foreign shore?
Don’t leave it too late, John,
Till you find out their worth,
Or some day you’ll find yourself
Pushed right off the Earth!
(Verses)
You’ve got a crowded house, John
You’re hospitable, it’s true.
You welcome every stranger
With a cheery “How d’ye do?”
It doesn’t matter who they are,
Or nationality;
They make themselves at home, John,
For your house is always free!
You let them do just as they like and use your open doors,
You look after them much better, John, than you look after yours.
You’ve got a loving wife, John,
And she’s got a lot of sons;
They’ve always been quite ready, John,
To stand behind your guns!
But when their duty’s over,
And for work they’re forced to roam,
Why do they leave their own fireside,
The place they call their home?
You say you’ve got no work for them to do, John, over here,
Well, why do other nation’s sons find work here ev’ry year?
Recordings
Billy Williams recorded six versions of this song: 21 April 1911
for Zonophone, ca. April 1911 for Edison Standard Cylinder, ca. April
1911 for Columbia-Rena, ca. April 1911 for Homophon, ca. April 1911 for
Pathé, 2 August 1911 for Favorite. Reissues appeared on several
other labels.1
__________________
Note
1 For comprehensive discographies of recordings by Billy Williams, see Brian Rust, British Music Hall on Record (Harrow, UK:
Gramophone, 1979); and Frank Andrews and Ernie Bayly, Billy Williams’ Records: A Study in Discography (Bournemouth, UK:
Talking Machine Review, 1982). |