Egg Song, The

DESCRIPTION: "Maxwelton's braes are bonny, where stands a grand hotel," at which the singer tries to eat an egg so old that a chicken comes from it. He tries to trace the egg. His conclusion: "No matter what you've paid, Eggs are never, never, never just new-laid"
AUTHOR: Words: Greatrex Newman /(1892-1984) Music (adapted by) Wolsely Charles (1889-1962) (source: sheet music)
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (sheet music, according to Howson-SongsSunginSuffolk)
KEYWORDS: humorous derivative food | egg
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Howson-SongsSunginSuffolk, #8, "The Egg Song" (1 text)
Roud #10711
NOTES [164 words]: Published as "The Egg (A Mournful Medley)," sung by Leslie Henson. A medley it certainly is; it uses the tunes of "Annie Laurie," "The Boys of the Old Brigade," "Poor Old Joe," "For Months and Months and Months," "I Mind the Day," "Mademoiselle from Armentières," "Go In and Out the Window," "The Minstrel Boy," "They Bay of Biscay" (I'm not sure which tune of that name), "Excelsior," "The Tarpaulin Jacket," and "Rule Britannia." I find myself wondering how many of the singers could even remember them all.
Greatrex Newman (yes, that is truly the name he used) seems to have been busy as a dramatist as well as a songwriter, eventually being involved in movies, but I couldn't find any songs of his that I recognized. Wolseley Charles seems to have been an active bandleader and composer, but I don't recognize anything he wrote, either. Newman and Charles did have at least one other collaboration, "The Green-Eyed Dragon," which seems to be their most widely mentioned work. - RBW
Last updated in version 7.0
File: Hows008

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