Today's song is another music hall song from the late 19th century. Written by Edgar Bateman and George Le Brunn, it was performed by Gus Elen a well known music hall performer who specialised in singing songs in an exaggerated Cockney accent.
For example, in this one, the initial 'h' is dropped from words such as houses and Hackney; very is pronounced 'werry'; violets as 'wiolets'; chimney as 'chimbley' etc.
I am not particularly familiar with the melody, but have given it a go none the less, having worked out my own interpretation from the score which I listened to using the app MuseScore. The chord progression is also of my own devising.
If It Wasn't for the 'Ouses Inbetween
Edgar Bateman / George LeBrunn
Gus Elen - 1899
Intro before each verse:
G D7 B7 Em D7 Dm G D7 G
G D7 G D7 G
If you saw my little backyard, \"Wot a pretty spot\", you'd cry
D7 G
It's a picture on a sunny summer day
D7 Bbdim G
Wiv the turnip tops and cabbages, wot people doesn't buy
D7 G
I makes it on a Sunday look all gay.
D Em A7 D
The neighbours finks I grows 'em, and you'd fancy you're in Kent
B7 Em A7 D
Or at Epsom if you gaze into the mews.
B Em A A7 D
It's a wonder as the landlord doesn't want to raise the rent
A7 D Am7 D7
Because we have such nobby distant views.
G C G Am A7 D7
Oh! it really is a wery pretty garden, and Chingford to the Eastward could be seen
B7 Em A7 D7
Wiv a ladder and some glasses, you could see to 'Ackney Marshes
G D7 G
If it wasn't for the 'ouses inbetween
We're as countrified as can be, wiv a clothes prop for a tree
The tub-stool makes a rustic little stile
Ev'ry time the blooming clock strikes, there's a cuckoo sings to me
And I've painted up \"To Leather Lane A Mile\"
Wiv tomatoes and wiv radishes wot 'adn't any sale
The backyard looks a purfick mass o' bloom
And I've made a little beehive wiv some beetles in a pail
And a pitchfork wiv the 'andle of a broom
Oh! it really is a wery pretty garden, and Rye 'Ouse from the cock-loft could be seen
Where the chickweed man undresses, to bathe 'mong the water cresses
If it wasn't for the 'ouses inbetween
There's the bunny shares his egg box wiv the cross-eyed cock and hen
Though they 'as got the pip and him the 'morf.
In a dog's 'ouse on the line-post there was pigeons, nine or ten
Till someone took a brick and knocked it off
The dust cart though it seldom comes, is just like 'Arvest 'Ome
And we mean to rig a dairy up some'ow.
Put the donkey in the wash'ouse wiv some imitation 'orns,
For we're teaching im to moo just like a kah.
Oh! it really is a wery pretty garden, and 'Endon to the westward could be seen
And by clinging to the chimbley you could see across to Wembley
If it wasn't for the 'ouses inbetween
Bbdim should be x12320, but I am playing it simply as xx2320
Though the gasworks isn’t wiolets, they improve the rural scene
For mountains they would very nearly pass.
There's the mushrooms in the dust-hole wiv the cowumbers so green
It only wants a bit 'o 'ot 'ouse glass
I wears this milkman's nightshirt, and I sits outside all day
Like the ploughboy cove what's mizzled o'er the Lea
And when I goes indoors at night. they dunno what I say
'Cause my language gets as yokel as can be
Oh! it really is a wery pretty garden, and soapworks from the 'ousetops could be seen
If I got a rope and pulley, I'd enjoy the breeze more fully
If it wasn't for the 'ouses inbetween.
