Vintage Audio - Take Me Back to Dear Old Blighty
Reproduced below are the lyrics to the popular sentimental British wartime song, Take Me Back To Dear Old Blighty, written by A.J. Mills, F. Godfrey and B. Scott in 1916.
'Blighty' was a widespread term used to refer to Britain (click here for related information).
Two versions of the song are available: the first a variation of the song performed by Florrie Forde in 1917; and the second by the Jolly Old Fellows in 1930. Use the player above to listen to both versions.
Take Me Back to Dear Old Blighty
Jack Dunn, son of a gun, over in France
today,
Keeps fit doing his bit up to his eyes in clay.
Each night after a fight to pass the time along,
He's got a little gramophone that plays this song:
Take me back to dear old Blighty!
Put me on the train for London town!
Take me over there,
Drop me ANYWHERE,
Liverpool, Leeds, or Birmingham, well, I don't care!
I should love to see my best girl,
Cuddling up again we soon should be,
WHOA!!!
Tiddley iddley ighty,
Hurry me home to Blighty,
Blighty is the place for me!
Bill Spry, started to fly, up in an
aeroplane,
In France, taking a chance, wish'd he was down again.
Poor Bill, feeling so ill, yell'd out to Pilot Brown:
"Steady a bit, yer fool! we're turning upside down!"
Take me back to dear old Blighty!
Put me on the train for London town!
Take me over there,
Drop me ANYWHERE,
Liverpool, Leeds, or Birmingham, well, I don't care!
I should love to see my best girl,
Cuddling up again we soon should be,
WHOA!!!
Tiddley iddley ighty,
Hurry me home to Blighty,
Blighty is the place for me!
Jack Lee, having his tea, says to his pal
MacFayne,
"Look, chum, apple and plum! it's apple and plum again!
Same stuff, isn't it rough? fed up with it I am!
Oh! for a pot of Aunt Eliza's raspb'ry jam!"
Take me back to dear old Blighty!
Put me on the train for London town!
Take me over there,
Drop me ANYWHERE,
Liverpool, Leeds, or Birmingham, well, I don't care!
I should love to see my best girl,
Cuddling up again we soon should be,
WHOA!!!
Tiddley iddley ighty,
Hurry me home to Blighty,
Blighty is the place for me!
One day Mickey O'Shea stood in a trench
somewhere,
So brave, having a shave, and trying to part his hair.
Mick yells, dodging the shells and lumps of dynamite:
"Talk of the Crystal Palace on a Firework night!"
Take me back to dear old Blighty!
Put me on the train for London town!
Take me over there,
Drop me ANYWHERE,
Liverpool, Leeds, or Birmingham, well, I don't care!
I should love to see my best girl,
Cuddling up again we soon should be,
WHOA!!!
Tiddley iddley ighty,
Hurry me home to Blighty,
Blighty is the place for me!
'minnie' was a term used to describe the German trench mortar minnenwerfer (another such term was Moaning Minnie).
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