Pig Song

[ Roud 7322 ; Ballad Index RcPGUSWA ; Mudcat 21933 , 106915 ; Benjamin Hapgood Burt]

Frank Crumit sang The Pig Got Up and Slowly Walked Away on Decca 313 (Matrix# 38857-B), recorded on 18 October 1934. This cut was included in 2002 on his Naxos anthology Frank Crumit Returns where Benjamin Hapgood Burt is listed as the song’s author.

Also, The Famous Pig Song was printed with more verses in Clarke’s Comedy Song Folio by Clarke Van Ness (words) and Frank Henri Klickmann (music), New York: Rialto Music Pub. Corp., 1935.

Mike Harding sang The Pig Got Up and Slowly Walked Away in 1977 on his Rubber album Mike Harding’s Back!.

Magpie Lane sang The Drunkard and the Pig in 2000 on their Beautiful Jo album A Taste of Ale, and Andy Turner sang it as the 3 December 2011 entry of his project A Folk Song a Week.

Fay Hield sang the Pig Song in 2020 on her Topic album Wrackline. She noted:

Neatly capturing different states of judgement through the eyes of strangers. This snippet was snatched from a music hall song reported by The Era in 1935 as being banned by the BBC.

Lyrics

Frank Crumit sings The Pig Got Up and Slowly Walked Away

One evening in October,
When I was about one-third sober,
And was taking home a load with manly pride,
My poor feet began to stutter,
So I lay down in the gutter,
And a pig came up and lay down by my side.

Then we sang a song, “Fair Weather”
And “Good Fellows Get Together”
Till a lady passing by was heard to say:
She says, “You can tell a man who boozes
By the company he chooses,”
And the pig got up and slowly walked away.

As the pig got up and slowly walked away,
Slowly walked away, slowly walked away,
As the pig got up and he turned and winked at me
As he slowly walked away.

I also well remember
One evening in November
When I was creeping home at break of day,
For in my exhilaration,
I engaged in conversation
With a cab-horse, right on the corner of Broadway.

I was filled up to the eyeballs
With a flock of gin and highballs,
So I whispered to the cab-horse old and gray.
I says, “It’s these all-night homeward marches
That gave us both fallen arches.”
And the old horse laughed and slowly walked away.

As the old horse laughed and slowly walked away,
Slowly walked away, slowly walked away,
And the old horse laughed and he turned and winked at me
As he slowly walked away,
As he slowly walked away.

Fay Hield sings Pig Song

One evening in October far from sober
Bringing home a load with manly pride
I stuttered in the gutter
And a pig came down and landed at my side

I said unto the pig, “Now it’s fair weather
When two fine chaps like us can get together”
And a lady passing by was heard to reply,
“You can tell the drunks you meet
By the company they keep”

The pig got up and slowly walked away