When You're Wearing The Ball And Chain 1914 'The Only Girl'

James Pitt-Payne, London UK - 05 Feb 2004

Bachelors don't learn a bit of sense,
from their married friends' experience!
They just stick their heads into the noose
like a silly sentimental goose!
Each one thinks the other man a fool!
He's the one exception to the rule!
He says: "I'll be happy when I'm wed!"
Later on he makes it: "When I'm dead!"

For when you've got
the ball and chain around your ankle
and the stoneyhearted jailer is your wife.
there's no virtue in repentance.
you have got to serve the sentence,
which is: "LaborhardforLife!"
You're a number
and you bet your wife has got it!
Any hope of a reprieve is all in vain!
Matrimony is the crime
for which they've got you "doing time"
while your ankle wears the ball and chain!

When you wear
the ball and chain around your ankle
and the stoneyhearted jailer is your wife.
there's no virtue in repentance.
you have got to serve the sentence,
which is: "LaborhardforLife!"
You're a number
and you bet your wife has got it!
Any hope of a reprieve is all in vain!
Matrimony is the crime
for which they've got you "doing time"
while your ankle wears the ball and chain!

I am up and out at break of day.
Wifie barely makes the matinée!
My wife 'phones for ev'rything we buy.
Then she wonders why the bills are high!
My wife drags me out 'most ev'ry night.
Does this Tango stuff while I get right!
Mine can't keep a cook but half a day!
As a rule we eat at some café!

But when you wear
the ball and chain around your ankle
and the stoneyhearted jailer is your wife.
there's no virtue in repentance.
you have got to serve the sentence,
which is: "LaborhardforLife!"
You're a number
and you bet your wife has got it!
Any hope of a reprieve is all in vain!
Matrimony is the crime
for which they've got you "doing time"
while your ankle wears the ball and chain!

When you wear
the ball and chain around your ankle
and the stoneyhearted jailer is your wife.
there's no virtue in repentance.
you have got to serve the sentence,
which is: "LaborhardforLife!"
You're a number
and you bet your wife has got it!
Any hope of a reprieve is all in vain!
Matrimony is the crime
for which they've got you "doing time"
while your ankle wears the ball and chain!

Soft karaoke
Words
piano 1
piano 2
piano 3
piano 4
lyric
pizz str bass
*
When You're Wearing The Ball And Chain 1914
Lyrics by Henry Blossom
Music by Victor Herbert
copyright  MCMXIV by M. Witmark & Sons
*
sequence and karaoke by James Pitt-Payne, London UK
on Thursday 05 February 2004 at 22.21
in association with Doug Grierson
*
"The Only Girl"
offered by Joe Weber
A Musical Farcical Comedy
The Book and Lyrics by Henry Blossom
Music by Victor Herbert
staged by Fred G. Latham
*