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folk, roots, WWI, World War 1, The Great War, amputee, beggar - Please Monsieur

from A Carousel for Fools by The Mather Robinson Band

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about

One of my earliest childhood memories is walking with my Mum to visit Mam (Grandma) each Saturday afternoon. She lived behind a busy shopping parade and each week, at the same spot, we would come across a beggar sitting on the pavement with a tartan blanket covering the stumps where his legs used to be and wearing his service beret and medals. The old gentleman would whisper “Please Monsieur” over and over, as much to himself as anyone else. On one occasion, Mum gave me some coins to add to the sprinkling of coppers on his blanket but on my approach the beggar transformed with the speed of a cobra spitting and hissing words at me far too fast for me to understand. Terrified, I retreated smartly to the safety of my mother’s skirts to be told that he was only imploring me not to join the army when I grew up.
Fast forward half a century to this year when I came upon an old picture of a man tipping some coppers onto the blanket of a German WWI veteran and amputee. It flicked a switch and those long forgotten memories which I have just now related came flooding back. So I wrote the song Please Monsieur as an imagined retelling of what this one old soldier’s story might have been. (Pete)

lyrics

Please Monsieur a penny for mi’ keep sir
Please Monsieur a penny for the poor
I was as right as rain sir, now I’m a trifle lame
And I haven’t been the same since they packed me off to war

At nineteen years my life stretched out before me
I had no wish for to fight a foreign foe
Apprenticed engineer sir, a promising career
Aah but all that has gone queer – sir - since the blighters bid me go

Please Monsieur a penny for mi’ keep sir
Please Monsieur a penny for the poor
I was as right as rain sir, now I’m a trifle lame
And I haven’t been the same since they packed me off to war

I had a sweetheart - she doesn’t want to know me
A fulsome damsel - a galleon in full sail
Her name was Sadie Frost and she let me go because
I’m not half the man I was since I shipped for Passchendaele

So please Monsieur a penny for mi’ keep sir
Please Monsieur a penny for the poor
I was as right as rain sir, now I’m a trifle lame
And I haven’t been the same since they packed me off to war

I gained the rank of Quartermaster Sergeant
I kept mi’ books and mi’ figures trim and neat
Til a lousy mortar shell blew mi’ two fine legs to hell
I wish I was there as well – and not begging on this street

So please Monsieur a penny for mi’ keep sir
Please Monsieur a penny for the poor
I was as right as rain sir, now I’m a trifle lame
And I haven’t been the same since they packed me off to war

So don’t you dare go fight for king and country
Don’t you shoulder a bayonet and a gun
You stay safe and sound. Don’t go dodging mortar rounds
Cos mi’ legs have not been found since I went to fight the Hun

Please Monsieur a penny for my keep sir
Please Monsieur a penny for the poor
I was as right as rain sir, now I’m a trifle lame
And I haven’t been the same since they packed me off to war

credits

from A Carousel for Fools, released June 21, 2015
words & music by Mather & Robinson

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The Mather Robinson Band Salford, UK

Dave Mather and Pete Robinson grew up together in the north of England in the nineteen sixties and have been writing and performing music individually and as a team ever since. From Opera to rock to pop and now back to their roots in folk music. Mather & Robinson entertain audiences in the north west of England but if you ask them - they will hummmm. ... more

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