Anne Boleyn (w Her Head Tucked Underneath Her Arm) - lyrics - Genie

ANNE BOLEYN (With Her Head Tucked Underneath Her Arm)
(M: Weston / L: R.L. Weston and Bert Lee.)

In the Tower of London, large as life,
The ghost of Anne Boleyn walks, they declare.
Oh, Anne Boleyn was once King 'enry's wife,
Until 'e 'ad the 'eadsman bob 'er 'air.
Oh, yes, he done her wrong long years ago,
And she comes back at night to tell him so.

Chorus:
With her 'ead tucked underneath 'er arm,
She walks the bloody Tower,
With her 'ead tucked underneath 'er arm,
At the midnight hour.

She's going to find King 'enry, she means giving 'im what-for
Gadzooks, she's going to tell im off, for 'aving spilled 'er gore,
And just in case the axeman wants to give her an encore,
She's goe 'er 'ead tucked underneath er arm.

Along the drafty corridors for miles and miles she goes,
She's going to catch a cold, poor thing, it's cold there when it blows,
And it's awfully, awfully awkward for the queen when she 'as to blow her nose,
With her 'ead tucked underneath 'er arm.

(Chorus)

Now sometimes old King 'enry gives a spread
For all 'is pals and gals, a ghostly crew.
The 'eadsman carves the joint and cuts the bread,
Then in comes Anne Boleyn to queer the do.
She 'olds 'er ead up with a wild war 'oop,
And 'enry cries, "don't drop it in the soup!"

(Chorus)

One night she caught King Henry, he was in the canteen bar,
He said, "Are you Jane Seymour, Anne Boleyn, or Catherine Parr?
Well, how the sweet san fairy ann* do I know who you are
With your head tucked underneath your arm?

(Chorus)

The sentries think that it's a football that she carries in,
And when they see 'er, they all shout, "Is Army going to win?"
They think that it's Red Grange instead of poor old Anne Boleyn**
With her 'ead tucked underneath 'er arm


* Probably a corruption of the French "sans fait rien" (without doing anything). Genie changed the line to "how the blooddy devil, Anne, ..."

**This is a British Music Hall song.
The Red Grange verse was added later, apparently by a Yank.

more lyrics and history of this song in the Digital Tradition and Forum at www.mudcat.org

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Anne
• Boleyn
• Mudcatter
• Genie
• Wilde-Notes
• British
• Music
• Hall
• Halloween
• ghost
• Henry
• VIII