Song of the Week - When Father Papered the Parlour

I love silly songs.  Most of my favorites come from “Silly Songs with Larry.”  Not sure what makes a song silly as opposed to stupid but I know a silly song when I hear one.  I had a good laugh one a couple of weeks ago.

When my in-laws were in town my wife and her mom were sitting at the table talking while I was there but multitasking.  The topic was wall papering and in the middle Lois started singing a song.  It took a few minutes for me to realize what had happened.  Then I blurted out, “Did you just sing a song about wallpaper?”  Sure enough she did.  “When Father Papered the Parlour.”  Hear it for yourself.  Written in 1910

 

And here are the lyrics. 

Our parlor wanted papering,
And Pa says it was waste
To call a paperhanger in,
And so he made some paste.
He bought some rolls of paper,
Got a ladder and a brush
And with my mummy's nightgown on,
At it he made a rush.

Chorus: When Father papered the parlour
You couldn't see him for paste
Dabbing it here! dabbing it there!
Paste and paper everywhere
Mother was stuck to the ceiling
The children stuck to the floor
I never knew a blooming family
So stuck up before.

Soon dad fell down the stairs
and dropp'd his paperhanger's can
On little Henrietta sitting there
with her young man,
The paste stuck them together,
as we thought t'would be for life,
We had to fetch the parson in
to make them man and wife.

Chorus:

The pattern was 'blue roses'
with its leaves red, white, and brown;
He'd stuck it wrong way up and now,
we all walk upside down.
And when he trimm'd the edging
off the paper with the shears,
The cat got underneath it,
and dad cut off both its ears.

Chorus:

We're never going to move away
from that house any more
For Father's gone and stuck the chairs
and table to the floor,
We can't find our piano,
though it's broad and rather tall,
We think that it's behind the paper
Pa stuck on the wall.

Chorus:

Now, Father's sticking in the pub,
through treading in the paste,
And all the family's so upset,
they've all gone pasty faced.
While Pa says, now that Ma has spread
the news from north to south,
He wishes he had dropped a blob
of paste in Mother's mouth.

Chorus:

Lyrics from http://www.dmi.me.uk/music/lyrics/misc/-/when-father-papered-the-parlour/

Make it a great day.

Bruce