Comments on: LONNIE DONEGAN - “My Old Man’s A Dustman”

By: Pete Baran

Pete Baran — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 11:07:04 +0000

I saw this, and the associated Timeshift on BBC4 last night. It is a bit whistlestop and its timeline is a bit mixed up for incorrect narrative reasons in the nineties - but acts as a good primer (esp for the comedy / folk crossover). What the show never really gets to grips with is how “proper bands” were sometimes funny, and what being funny does to your credibility. A history of the British comedy song without any mention of the enduring success of Half Man Half Biscuit is always going to try to dodge this bullet.

On the other hand it studiously ignores every Comic Relief single post French & Saunders / Bananarama which was a blessed relief.

By: lonepilgrim

lonepilgrim — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 10:52:32 +0000

there’s a history of the comedy pop song on iplayer here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00g8t17/Comedy_Songs_The_Pop_Years/ until 29th December which features this song - warning: contains Barron Knights

By: wichita lineman

wichita lineman — Wed, 14 May 2008 20:43:54 +0000

In spite of the hysterical crowd (the applause at the end is comparable to Ravi Shankar at Monterrey), one of the gags gets tumbleweed - check the “Oi! Where’s me tiger’s head?” verse.

Dunno about anyone else, but this put my off Music Hall almost forever. American friends told me to get the Round The Town box on Bear Family, London’s version of the blues they reckoned. And they were right. Now such greats as Sam Mayo’s Things Are Worse In Russia are part of my daily life.

Lonnie is a long, long way from Max Miller. It’s a bit like dismissing Reggae because you’ve heard Typically Tropical.

By: intothefireuk

intothefireuk — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 11:34:18 +0000

Whoops - slight oversight there on my part - I should have said the one that sold the most.

By: Pete Baran

Pete Baran — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 11:29:16 +0000

And then it being covered by Nazareth…

By: Alan

Alan — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 11:08:36 +0000

Seeing a clip of Joni Mitchell doing “My Old Man” on the telly last night, we fondly imagined her changing the lyrics to this.

By: pˆnk s lord sükråt cunctør

pˆnk s lord sükråt cunctør — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 10:52:59 +0000

i first heard this song in the playground of oxon infants! we discussed what “gorblimey trousis” might be and decided they had a flap at the back like romper suits for babies

(at the weekend i met my best and most-feared primary school teacher, mrs w, who is now 93 — and UNCHANGED SINCE 1965)

By: Tom

Tom — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 10:35:47 +0000

This was his third number one! Both the others are in the related articles sidebar :)

By: intothefireuk

intothefireuk — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 10:00:13 +0000

Poor old Lonnie - credited with introducing (or more acurately popularising) skiffle in the UK his only number one would be a so so comedy cockney knees-up. This record came towards the end of the skiffle boom when he was looking for a new direction. I don’t think the phase lasted long and he moved on fairly swiftly to country. This record though, due to its huge sales, left a fairly long-lasting impression on the public consciousness and even now on occasions you can hear its title recited (well, okay only if you are discussing bin men with an older person). It was no doubt hilarious at the time and exactly like most comedy records it loses appeal rapidly. I’ve never thought comedy records should be included in the main singles chart as they seemingly have very little musical worth - that would have meant that we would have had Cliff’s ‘Fall in love with you’ to deal with instead - which, strangely isn’t a comedy record.