> A.L. Lloyd > Songs > The Little Piece of Wang

The Little Piece of Wang

[ Roud 8384 ; Ballad Index RL496 ; trad.]

A.L. Lloyd sang The Little Piece of Wang live at the Top Lock Folk Club, Runcorn, on 5 November 1972. This concert was published in 2010 on the Fellside CD An Evening With A.L. Lloyd. Paul Adams commented in the sleeve notes:

Bert described this type of song as ‘folk religious’. The ‘folk’ were not averse to lifting biblical characters and making up songs to feature them. Some have a more serious content than others (The Cherry Tree Carol and The Bitter Withy), but this one is lighthearted. Most songs turn the characters into ‘normal’ people with whom the audience can identify. Treating the songs as a way of explaining natural phenomena to largely uneducated audience might explain the purpose of some songs in this genre, but is probably stretching a point with this one. A ‘wang’ is a small piece of leather used to sew the top of a shoe to the sole.

Debbie McClatchy sang A Little Piece of Wang live at the Philadelphia Folk Festival 1977.

Lyrics

A.L. Lloyd sings The Little Piece of Wang

Come all you sons of piety and listen to my dirge,
Some say it’s just a pack of lies, but it’s gospel, every word.
When God made father Adam, well, He laughed and danced and sang
And He sewed up Adam’s belly with a little piece of wang.

And when that God had finished it He found He’d measured wrong
For when that wang was knotted it was just a bit too long
God said, “I’ve made a blunder here but I think I’ll let it hang.”
So He left on Adam’s belly, boys, that little piece of wang.

And when that God made Mother Eve, it fairly made Him snort
For He found the wang He sowed it with was just a bit too short.
God said, “It leaves a bit of a gap, but I don’t give a hang.
She can fight it out with Adam for that little piece of wang.”

So ever since that distant day when the human race began
There’s been a constant battle between the woman and the man.
But if you ask the women and the men they would agree
They don’t care if that battle lasts through all eternity.