[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…
