[Video: the credit line from the YouTube uploader says, “From the LP More Do-Re-Mi: The Songs Children Love to Sing, Kapp Records, 1963.”]
[Don’t know what this is? See the series introduction here.]
The first statement I ever heard of the “Poverty can be fun!” theme came from a 33-1/3 RPM record album my parents bought when I was a kid. The album (first described here) was one of a set — probably twelve — designed to introduce children to music of various kinds; the disc in question, I think, was called “Songs of Work” or some such.The version in the video above is not from the album I remember. I don’t remember kids’ voices singing this song, although it has supposedly been a traditional summer-camp favorite for decades. No, my version featured a men’s chorus, strong and hearty, and you could almost imagine them marching home from the mines as they sang. It sounded more like this truncated, one-verse version, from Mitch Miller and “The Gang” (as he styled them):
Either way, whether you listen to the full-length cover or the foreshortened, you get hit with the message right there in the first two lines:
I’ve got sixpence,
Jolly, jolly sixpence…
Even if we can’t think of a single item which now can be obtained for a mere six cents, we get the point: the guy carries a mere handful of change in his sweaty workingman’s palm… and is happy about it. How can this be? We look to the rest of the first verse:
…I’ve got tuppence to spend,
and tuppence to lend,
and tuppence to send up to my wife (poor wife).
So not only does he start out with mere pennies; he looks forward to divvying his fortune up even further. A third for pleasure! a third to share! and a third, presumably, for expenses (managed by a loving — albeit poor — wife)! And if we’re still skeptical, he continues:
No cares have I to grieve me,
No pretty little girls to deceive me.
I’m happy as a king — believe me —
As [I/we] go rolling home!
The one-verse version of the song misses the finely sharpened knifepoint of the entire song, though. For with each succeeding verse, the amount of cash on hand dwindles, and he must adjust his choices accordingly:
…I’ve got fourpence
To last me all my life.I’ve a penny to spend
And a penny to lend
And tuppence to take home to my wife, poor wife……I’ve got tuppence
To last me all my life.I’ve got no pence to spend
And no pence to lend
And tuppence to take home to my wife, poor wife……I’ve got no pence
To last me all my life.I’ve got no pence to spend
And no pence to lend
And no pence to take home to my wife, poor wife…
The origins of the song (like those of most non-commercial music) are a bit mysterious. It’s been reworked and re-popularized in various ways over the decades. Sometimes the coin in question isn’t a sixpence but a shilling; the proportion and amount set aside for spending, lending, and taking (or sending) home vary as well.
We can find one clue to its age, and its purpose (or target audience) in each era, in the words of a sort of follow-on chorus which doesn’t always appear with the rest of the lyrics. This follows the “…as I [or we] go rolling home” line:
…No cares have I to grieve me
No pretty little girls to deceive me
I’m happy as a lark believe me
As we go rolling, rolling homeRolling home (rolling home)
Rolling home (rolling home)
By the light of the silvery moo-oo-oon…!
Happy is the day when the [worker] gets his pay
As [I/we] go rolling (rolling) home!
In various versions I’ve encountered, the [worker] sometimes becomes soldier (in wartime, especially the two World Wars). This would certainly would have been the case with the lyrics illustrated by lantern slide (dated “1920s-30s”) shown at the left, apparently from the collection of an Australian stage performer named Jack Hayward. (Details here.)
The earliest version of the song I’ve found, though, appeared in an 1810 edition of a book called Gammer Gurton’s Garland: Or, the Nursery Parnassus (“A choice collection of pretty songs and verses, for the amusement of all little good children who can neither read nor run”); there, although the “Rolling home” chorus doesn’t appear, the song’s title is recorded as “The Jolly Tester.”
The image at right illustrates approximately the same lyrics in a 1907 drawing (pen and black ink, watercolor and graphite) entitled “The Jolly Tester” by one Paul Vincent Woodroffe. (It’s in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.) The operative word, of course, is tester. I’ve not yet uncovered the nature of a “tester’s” work, but perhaps another clue — both to the word’s meaning, and to the song’s age — lies in the “Rolling home…” lyric I learned from that old record album:
Happy is the day when the staffman gets his pay…
“Staffman” — another odd word — seems to be associated with two industries: surveying, and fabric (specifically silk) manufacturing. “Staffman” is almost universally defined, for the latter, only as “a workman employed in silk throwing.” (The printed lyrics accompanying my old children’s album included a footnote which described it in pretty much the same general terms.) One page I found, devoted to the genealogy one family in particular, narrows it down to an unspecified involvement in the twisting of silk.
In any case, the association of staffman with the fabric industry, and the appearance of the “jolly tester” in the 1907 drawing — that loooong sash the character seems to be twirling (almost Isadora Duncan-style) — do seem to associate the song with the fabric industry. Of course, this is the industry most often identified with the first Industrial Revolution, going back to the 1700s, as well as the principal target of one of the earliest labor movements — Luddism, in the early 19th century.
It’s interesting, in any case, that the song is sometimes held up as a paean to the appeal of a pleasant, loving home life… no matter how little one is compensated for one’s work. (Note that the “Jolly Tester” version illustrated by the drawing above makes this point explicit in its closing lines: “I have nothing, I spend nothing; I love nothing better than my wife.”)
Yet I do wonder, at least, how much the song might subtly but really be aimed at convincing dissatisfied laborers to continue working, and damn the pittance wages!
_______
A note on sources: Researching folk songs can lead to much dissatisfaction for the researcher, as well as some pleasant surprises. I found more of the latter than the former at this discussion on the “Mudcat Cafe” forum for discussing traditional and folk music. For information on the British coin of the title, you can (as is often the case) profitably start with Wikipedia.
Carol Mast says
This was part of my Dad’s harmonica repertoire, sung at summer camp in Michigan’s UP with kerosene lamps lit after dark. We kids presumed that it was something from his paratrooper days in WWII, learned from his seniors who had been in the Great War. One of his other Greatest Hits was “The Caissons Go Rolling Along” so we thought it followed.
Never heard the Mitch Miller version, and in fact, it cheapens my little girl memory of my heroic father. Get over it! Love the narrative and image so it’s still a sentimental favorite that I have taught to my granddaughters…phonetically, because there is no way I can explain these terms to girls age 6-7-9. They sing it lustilly, still, rolling home.
David Walmsley says
A tester was a one shilling (12 pence) silver coin in Henry VIII’s time, 1509-1547. Henry had a penchant for debasing his coinage, so that the tester, by Elizabeth’s time, 1558-1603, became sixpence, and apparently remained through the centuries as a nickname alongside tanner. This makes me wonder if the original of tanner was a reference to Henry’s penchant, in which tin (changed to tan in the Great Vowel Shift?) might have been the thinner-out. Solve one and cause another puzzle. Such is life.
John says
Hello David — thanks for stopping by, and thanks for the comment and the wonderful etymological insight!
Elaine Chubb says
Thank you for this interesting history lesson! This song popped into my mind recently, and so I researched it on the Web. I am nearly eighty (and English-born) and remember it being sung during World War II–but I think my parents sang it during the 20s and 30s. We thought of it as an army marching song; certainly the beat is of a quick march. The sort of song for heading back to the railroad station or boarding house after an afternoon walk or hike on summer vacation. The lyrics I remember are:
I love sixpence, jolly, jolly sixpence,
I love sixpence better than my life.
I have tuppence to spend, and tuppence to lend,
And tuppence to take home to my wife.
No cares have I to grieve me,
No pretty little girl to deceive me,
I’m as happy as a king, believe me,
As I go rolling home.
Rolling home (rolling home), rolling home (rolling home),
By the light of the silvery moon,
I’m as happy as a king, believe me,
As I go rolling home.
I note that “better than my life” fits the music better, and that the versions posted on the Web don’t have the “silvery moon” wording, which also fits the music. I think the latter may be a reference to men rolling home from the pub late in the evening!
Interesting that the words, at least, may go back to the 16th century. The music, however, sounds much later. I could imagine it being converted to a marching song at some point in the 19th century (or even the 18th???). I think it was used by the boy scouts and girl guides on hikes in the 20s and 30s, which is undoubtedly when my parents learned it.
Regarding the debasement of the coinage: very interesting comment. Re tinner/tanner: vowels shift around a lot in English, but the Great Vowel Shift took place mainly in the 15th century, from Middle English (e.g., Chaucer) to modern (Tudor and later) and affected only “long” vowels, which used to have the same quality as in, e.g., Italian or German, and ended up as diphthongs. “Time” was pronounced like “teem.” “Name” was pronounced like “nahm.” But the vowels in “tinner” and “tanner” are short, so any switch from one to the other would have some other linguistic cause.
David Walmsley says
I don’t know where you got those first two lines from, but I can guess: a neo-liberal economist.
The original words, dating back to the turn of the 20th century, were:
“I’ve got sixpense, jolly jolly sixpence,
I’ve got sixpence to last me all my life.”
The ending of the last verse, “I’ve got nopence to take/send home to my wife” expressly indicates that the singer has spent the entire sixpence on booze on his way home on payday. One of my grandfathers used to do this on occasion. This is a bad enough without starting it off with loving money more than life.
I grew up with pounds, shillings and pence, and emigrated before the switch-over to metric. The one thing it had over metric was the ease of dividing it by three. When the change too place, the price of everything under a pound doubled overnight.
David Walmsley says
PS Oops. One typo.
Tanner, the other name for sixpence, is explained by Wikipaedia as follows: “During the reign of George II [reigned 1727-1760] a number of issues were designed by John Sigismund Tanner, one time Chief Engraver of the Royal Mint, and it has been suggested that this is the origin of the nickname “tanner”, which was a popular name for the coin until decimalisation.
Barbara Osborn says
Thanks so much for your research. I grew up in New Jersey in the US in the 1960s. This song was part of the musical repertoire we all learned and I’m stunned now by the misogyny in it. All of us girls lifting our voices in song about poor wives and deceptive pretty girls. As so often happened with these narratives I think I and other young women magically shape shifted and identified with the working bloke who was happy as a lark.
John says
Hi Barbara — thanks for stopping by!
I have SOOOO many songs from that era lodged in my head, and — like you — the tacit (sometimes overt!) misogyny and/or racism strikes me anew whenever I dig into their lyrics. Do you know the song that starts out something like “There is a tavern in the town/And there my true love sits him down…”? Aieeee — that one is a killer!
Barbara Osborn says
Fortunately that little ditty was not part of my childhood. But like you, plenty of other just astonishingly racist/misogynist songs were.