A 1919 popular song.
Words and music by Sam Mayo and Frank Leo.
Song suggested by Ross Boyle.
The sheet music:
Accompaniment by James Pitt-Payne:
Lyrics
- A school master was standing
In the school room with his scholars
Like a school master has often stood before
His scholars stood before him
Just like scholars always will stand
And like scholars used to stand in days of yore
A fly flew in the schoolroom, like a fly will often fly in
And it settled on the school master’s bald head
He flick’d it off, it came back, then he flick’d it off again
And then the schoolmaster to all his scholars said
Chorus
“Where do flies go in the Winter time?
Do they go to gay Paree?
When they’ve finished buzzing round our beef and ham
When they’ve finished jazzing round our raspb’ry jam
Do they clear like swallows ev’ry year
To a distant foreign clime?
Tell me, tell me, where do flies go in the Winter time?”
- An express train was running, once
Expressly for the people who’d express’d a wish to go by the express
And in one first class carriage there were two old fellows gassing
And the subject of their gas you’d never guess
It led up to an argument and then they started fighting
And when one took his revolver out to shoot
The other pulled the cord, that stopp’d the train
And when the guard walk’d up he said
“Oh, guard can you end this dispute?” - When parliament was sitting, once
Well, when I say was sitting, some were standing up
But you know what I mean
The members well remember
How Lloyd George got quite excited
And the ‘house’ has never yet seen such a scene
Bottomley, he shouted, “Where does Britain’s money go to?
And then Lloyd George in a temper quickly rose
And said, “There’s your four hundred each
And other things to pay for, Gentlemen
We all know where the money goes, But
Sung here by Fred Feild: