Note: I am obsessed with old songs from the 40s and earlier, and when lyrics for some of the more obscure songs are not available anywhere else I will be providing them on my blog here. This one is a favourite of mine which I can often be heard singing down at the Golden Eagle in Marylebone. Geoff
Cady : Hat, slang
Napper : Head, slang
Mash, on the : Engaged in flirtation slang*
Ginger you’re barmy!
VERSE
I’m always in the fashion, I’m a noted chap for that
So lately I’ve been walking about the streets without a hat
I do without a cady, why, it saves me half a quid
I’m like a bloomin’ saucepan on the fire without a lid
I go, you know, strolling round the town
Waves me little cane about
Girls all say ‘Look, Ginger’s on the mash’
Dig me in the ribs and shout:
CHORUS
Don’t walk about without yer cady on
Ginger you’re barmy
“Get your hair cut,” they all begin to cry
With nothing on your napper oh you are a pie
Pie must have a little bit of crust
Why don’t you wear a cady?
If you want to be a don
You want a bit of something on
To take off to a lady
VERSE
Once I went into the zoo with such a smiling face
But, oh, there was a hullabaloo when I got in the place
The keepers started chasing me, then I got in a rage
They put a chain around me neck and they bunged me in a cage
I cried: ‘I’m not a monkey, on me word!”
I had to buy them all some beer
When they let me out they told me this:
‘If you want to keep away from here
CHORUS
Don’t walk about without yer cady on
Ginger you’re barmy
“Get your hair cut,” they all begin to cry
With nothing on your napper oh you are a pie
Pie must have a little bit of crust
Why don’t you wear a cady?
If you want to be a don
You want a bit of something on
To take off to a lady
VERSE
The missis took me in a pub, the governor mister hogg
He stroked me ears, he giv’ me a cake, he took me for a dog
A policeman stopped the traffic shouted out with all his might
Look out here comes the North Pole with the top half all alight
My wife said that me napper’s like a sieve
It’s full of little holes I’ll bet
When it rains it will let the water in
And then your feet will both get wet
CHORUS
Don’t walk about without yer cady on
Ginger you’re barmy
“Get your hair cut,” they all begin to cry
With nothing on your napper oh you are a pie
Pie must have a little bit of crust
Why don’t you wear a cady?
If you want to be a don
You want a bit of something on
To take off to a lady
CHORUS
Don’t walk about without yer cady on
Ginger you’re barmy
“Get your hair cut,” they all begin to cry
With nothing on your napper oh you are a pie
Pie must have a little bit of crust
Why don’t you join the army
If you want to be a don
You want a bit of something on
Ginger you’re barmy!
*With kind thanks to Steve Parkes for pointing out that ‘on the mash’ does not mean ‘out drinking’