Goodbye-ee

DESCRIPTION: "Goodbye-ee, Don't sigh-11! Wipe the tear, baby dear, From your eye-ee. Though it's hard to part I know, (Still) I'll be tickled to death to go. Don't sigh-ee! Don't cry-ee! There's a silver lining in the sky-ee.... Napoo! TOodle-oo! Goodbye-ee!"
AUTHOR: R. P. Weston (1878-1936) and Bert Lee (1880-1946)
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Mullen)
KEYWORDS: home separation
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 185, "Good-bye-ee, don't cry-ee" (1 fragment); p. 189, "Bonsoir, Old Thing" (1 fragment/parody)
Brophy/Partridge-TommiesSongsAndSlang, p. 220, "(no title)" (1 text)
Arthur-WhenThisBloodyWarIsOver, pp. 44-46, "Good-by-ee!" (2 texts, one the Weston & Lee original, one a parody by the troops)
FolkSongAndMusicHall, "Good-Bye-Ee"
ADDITIONAL: John Mullen, _The Show Must Go On! Popular Song in Britain during the First World War_, French edition 2012; English edition, Ashgate, 2015, p. 161, "(Goodbyee!)" (1 substantial excerpt)
Roud #10939
NOTES [465 words]: FolkSongAndMusicHall reports, "Good-bye-ee was a catch phrase of the popular comedian Harry Tate and the title of a revue he toured in spring 1917. The story goes that Weston and Lee heard a crowd of factory girls shouting Tate's catchphrase at a regiment of soldiers marching off to Victoria Station and this inspired them to write the song."
Although the traditional versions of this rarely show it, this begins as the story of an officer heading out to war:
Brother Bertie went away
To do his bit the other day
With a smile on his hips
And his Lieutenant's pips
Upon his shoulders bright and gay.
(He waves goodby and sings the chorus)
John Mullen, The Show Must Go On! Popular Song in Britain during the First World War, French edition 2012; English edition, Ashgate, 2015, p. 161, comments, "It is not easy to analyse this song, with the terrible repetition of a deformed 'Goodbye' (pronounced in baby talk, perhaps), the jaunty melody, jokey references to death and forced rhymes. One has the impression of a pain which cannot be described, where fate is the only option for emotional survival. The signs of his grade (lieutenant's pips) count for little in the context of his pathetic and helpless farewell. He uses upper-class slang and is being mocked, yet the audience is singing along this chorus and revisiting, in comic tone, the many Goodbyes they have had to live through."
"Nah-poo"/"Napoo" is explained as soldier's slang for "all gone, a degradation of French "il n'y en a plus."
Many singers are reported to have sung the song; one version of the sheet music lists Daisy Wood, Florrie Forde, and Charles Whittle.
R. P. Weston was responsible for a great many songs in the Index. The current list is as follows, with his co-authors:
-- With F. J. Barnes and Maurice Scott: I've Got Rings On My Fingers
-- With Frank W. Carter: It Won't Last Very Very Long
-- With Herman Darewski: Sister Susie's Sewing Shirts for Soldiers, Where Are the Lads of the Village Tonight?
-- With Bert Lee: Anne Boleyn (With Her Head Tucked Underneath Her Arm), The Body in the Bag, Goodbye-ee, The Gypsy Warned Me, Lloyd George's Beer, Paddy McGinty's Goat (with "The Two Bobs"), Rawtenstall Annual Fair, Send Him a Cheerful Letter (with Maie Ash), You Can Feel It Doing You Good (with Harris Weston)
-- With Fred Murray: I'm Henery the Eighth I Am
-- With Jack Norworth: Private Michael Cassidy
"I've Got Rings On My Fingers" was very popular, and "I'm Henery the Eighth I Am" had a big revival by Herman's Hermits. Most of the others had some popular vogue, but not many are strongly traditional. Many are indexed based on the memories of Alice Kane, who heard them played in her girlhood. Some of the others are camp songs that probably never went through a true traditional phase. - RBW
Last updated in version 7.0
File: BrPa220A

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