> June Tabor > Songs > Seamus the Showman

Seamus the Showman

[ Roud - ; Mudcat 28733 , 39112 ; Tim Hart]

June Tabor, accompanied by Tim Hart on guitar, sang Seamus the Showman at a John Peel Radio 1 session recorded on 4 March 1975 and broadcast 10 March 1975. At least the BBC page for this Peel Session says that it was June Tabor. But several posters on the Mudcat Café thread ‘New’ Tim Hart and Maddy Prior song? stated that it was Maddy Prior singing on their tape copy of this Peel Session.

Rick Thomas and Mandy Morton sang Seamus the Showman in 1975 on their band Spriguns of Tolgus’s album Jack With a Feather. I don’t know of any other published recording of this song, be it with Tim Hart or without.

Lyrics

Spriguns of Tolgus sing Seamus the Showman

Well I was a young man
And he was an old man
He said he was a showman
And he knew what to do
He said his name was Seamus
And he could make me famous
He said it so convincing
That I thought it must be true
He said all you need is a pile of glossy photos
And a song about the alphabet
Well I said I’ve got the pictures
But I’ll have to improvise the song
You see I haven’t written it yet

Chorus (repeated after each verse):
And the showman he cried
They’re all on your side
And you don’t need to worry at all

Well, A is for horses,
B(eer) for supper
C for yourself
You can’t D-eny it’s true
If you E-ve a brick
When you feel F-ervescent
The G-ief of police will be after you
And he’ll H-ate you for it
And I-ll say I told you so
So let’s J-walk on a summer’s day
We’ll go off to the K-afe
Now we’ll have a cup of tea
To L with worry is what I say

When the M-phasis
Is on N-tertainment
O, what a decent P-A will do
If the people have Q-ed
For R-f an hour
It’s S-enntial they hear you play
T for two
Well it’s U for me,
And V-ive la France
Then the W-phonium player pretended he was dead
As the X started flying
And the Y-fe of our saxophonist
Threw one which landed
On his Z

Well it was so regrettable
My song alphabetical
Went down like a lead balloon
And so we made our exitus
With people throwing eggs at us
I smiled and said
We’ll be back soon
And the showman he cried…