A few years ago, I was on tour in the USA and halfway through the tour for some unknown reason this song started constantly running through my head. This was odd as I had never sung it and wasn't even aware that I knew all the words. It went on for three days solid until I arrived in Seattle and by this point it was driving me totally nuts, so I sang it that night in an attempt to exorcise it. It seemed to work, so I sang it every night for the rest of the tour. Just to be on the safe side. I don't think I've had to sing it since.

What made it even more bizarre is that in the USA the tune is widely associated with a very well-known hymn and the audiences were completely bemused by this being sung to it!

Although I have a completely irrational weakness for it as described above, it really is an absurd song. Here is this character lamenting his fate and looking desperately for excuses for his plight and for the fact that the young woman's "cruel parents" (and presumably the young woman herself) disapprove of him. Perhaps he should have paid more attention to the last two lines of the last verse. In spite of all that, it does contain more than one exquisite line.

Live performance only

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