Billy Barlow (1836 – Endicott)
BILLY BARLOW
(Published 1836, Geo. Endicott, NY)
Now ladies and gentlemen how do you do
I come out before you with one boot and one shoe
I don’t how ’tis, but some how ’tis so
Now isn’t it hard upon Billy Barlow
O dear, raggedy o, Now isn’t it hard upon Billy Barlow
Do show me a boarding house where I can stay
I’m so hungry and sleepy, I eat nothing today
They’ll not let me in, at Astor’s I know
But a market stall’s vacant for Billy Barlow
O dear, raggedy o,
There’s a market stall vacant for Billy Barlow
As I went down the street, the other fine day
I met two fair ladies just coming this way
says one “-now that chap, he isn’t so slow”
“I guess not” says the other, “that’s Mr. Barlow”
O dear, raggedy o,
“I guess not” says the other, “that’s Mr. Barlow”
I’m told there’s a show coming into the town
Red lions and monkeys and porcupines brown
But if they should show, I shall beat them I know
For they’ve never a varmint like Billy Barlow….
Oh dear but I’m tired of this kind of life
I wish in my soul I could find a good wife;
If there’s any young lady here, in want of a beau
Let her fly to the arms of sweet Billy Barlow….
No ladies and gemmen, I bid you good-bye
I’ll buy a new suit when clothes ain’t so high
my hat’s shocking bad, as all of you know
but looks well on the head of Billy Barlow…
IN THIS SECTION:
- The Many Songs of Billy Barlow
- Hey Ho Raggedy-O: A Study of the Billy Barlow Phenomenon(written by Joy Hildebrand)
LISTEN:
Billy Barlow sung by Warren Fahey from Australia: folk songs and bush verse – Give Me a Hut in My Own Native Land: Colonial Settlers
THE MANY SONGS OF BILLY BARLOW:
- Early Provenance
- Billy Barlow in Australia
- Billy Barlow in Sydney
- Australian Melodist circa 1880
- Original Local Song
- Don’t Go to the Bush of Australia
- The Sorrows of Billy Barlow
- Billy Barlow Clerk of the Market
- Billy Barlow’s Advice on California
- Shiloh and Barlow
- Billy Barlow Turned Butcher
- Billy Barlow at the Races
- Billy Barlow by Himself (1834)
- Billy Barlow (1836 – Endicott)
- Billy Barlow (1863 – Clifford)
- Sam Cowell’s Billy Barlow
- The Mayor’s Tea Party
- Billy Barlow (very early version)
- Old Tremone
- Fragments