It’s The Only Bit Of English That We’ve Got
  (Poor Old England)

 

Poor Old England, Edison cylinder

Fred Godfrey & Harry Castling [EMI also credits Billy Williams], composed 1906; published London: Francis, Day & Hunter, 1907.

 

* * * * * * * * * * * *

This nationalistic, anti–free trade effort was the first of scores of songs that Fred Godfrey provided Billy Williams, whose recording for Edison cylinders was among the earliest he ever made. Ironically, among Billy’s recordings of the song was one for Homophon, a label of German manufacture.

Listen to a
clip of a 1909
Zonophone recording
by Billy Williams;
the reference to the
Lusitania adds a
note of poignancy.
With thanks to
J.P. Myerscough,
Billy Williams: All the Songs
 (Lowestoft, UK:
Music Masters, 2001).

Here’s the chorus:

Poor old England isn’t in the picture
Everything is foreign, you’ll agree.
The table and the chairs, the carpet on the stairs,
Are made in Germany.
But when I go out in the garden,
Growing in a tiny plot,
Is a pretty English rose
That in the garden grows.
It’s the only bit of English that we’ve got!

 

Gramophone Concert GC-3-2920Recordings

Billy Williams recorded three versions of this song: ca. October 1906 for Edison Standard, 26 June 1907 for Homophon, and 3 October 1909 for Zonophone. Reissues appeared on several other labels.1

Arthur Gilbert (Gramophone Concert GC-3-2920, 1907)

Will Terry (Columbia D-126, 1908)

__________________

Note

1  For comprehensive discographies of recordings by Billy Williams, see Brian Rust,
     British Music Hall on Record (Harrow, UK: Gramophone, 1979); and Frank
     Andrews and Ernie Bayly, Billy Williams’ Records: A Study in Discography
     (Bournemouth, UK: Talking Machine Review, 1982). For a collection of recordings of
     all the Billy Williams songs, see J.P. Myerscough, Billy Williams: All the Songs
     [8-CD set and accompanying notes] (Lowestoft, UK: Music Hall Masters, 2001).