TAKE IT AWAY

The bandleader’s wife and their little boy
Listening to the wireless set in the lounge, when she says ‘Son...
You’re six years old and your Father and I
Think it’s time you learned music like him. Won’t that be fun.’
But when the child sees the new piano
He turns round and he starts to run. (He says...)

Take it away. Take it away. Take it away.
Mummy no. Mummy please, Mummy, take it away.
Take it away. Take it away. Take it away.
Mummy no. Mummy please, Mummy, take it away.

Twelve years hard work later he’s in music college,
And he’s got a strange look behind his eyes.
But in the big competition,
He play that Second Tchaikovsky Concerto so well, he win the prize.
But as they’re handing him the silver trophy,
He jumps up and suddenly cries...

‘Take it away. Take it away. Take it away.
I can’t stand any more, won’t you take it away.
Take it away. Take it away. Take it away.
Mummy no. Mummy please, Mummy, take it away.’

So they send him down to the Tavistock Clinic
Where they try to find out the cause of his attack.
And his friends all tell him ‘You’ve been given a wonderful gift,
And if you think about that, things won’t seem so black’.
But he says ‘It’s not much of a gift
If they won’t let you send the thing back.

‘Take it away. Take it away. Take it away.
I can’t stand any more, won’t you take it away.
Take it away. Take it away. Take it away.
Mummy no. Mummy please, Mummy, take it away.’

‘If a man were permitted to make all the ballads of a nation, he need not care who should make the laws’. Andrew Fletcher, 1703

‘It is the best of all trades to make songs, and the second best to sing them.’
Hilaire Belloc, 1909.

‘Rock’n’roll you wrecked my life. You’re a beautiful mistress, but a pig of a wife.’ Judge Smith, 1978.

You should see him now, he’s got a contract with Sony
And a Garage album in the charts. He’s really grand.
He’s got a six piece group and an Entourage,
But his girlfriend says he’s really hard to understand.
She should listen to the words he whispers
Each time he strikes up the band.

‘Take it away. Take it away. Take it away.
I can’t stand any more, won’t you take it away.
Take it away. Take it away. Take it away.
Mummy no. Mummy please, Mummy, take it away.’