Little Billy's Wild Woodbines 1908 Billy Williams

by James Pitt-Payne, London UK - 16Jan2025
2025

Little Billy Williams found
a penny in a garden,
one fine summer's day,
and as little Billy never
had more than a "farden"
He said "Hip Hooray!"
Then passing a tobacconist's
where cigarettes were sold,
there he beheld some little packets,
colored green and gold'
Then Billy said, "Altho' i'm only six,
I'll be a sport."
He toddled in that bacco' shop
and this is what he bought:

Five little fags in a dainty little packet,
Five cigarettes that cost one D.
Five little pains underneath his jacket,
Five wobbles in his little Mary.
Five little whiffs.
and in five little jiffs,
he was rolling on the tramway lines,
wishing he could touch the cable,
looking greener than the label
of little Billy's wild Woodbines.

When he puffed the first one
he said, "This don't seem a good 'un,
the next might be all right."
When he lit the second he said,
"Wish I'd bought plum pudden
else a paper kite."
"I never thought the world went round"
he murmured at the third,
"But now I've seen it dancing
I can take my teacher's word."
Then at the fourth he felt so bad,
he hiccup'd with a frown,
"Grub ain't so nice a coming up
as when It's going down."

Five little fags in a dainty little packet,
Five cigarettes that cost one D.
Five little pains underneath his jacket,
Five wobbles in his little Mary.
Five little whiffs.
and in five little jiffs,
he was rolling on the tramway lines,
Sadly saying, "close the shutter
Billy's bead, but do not utter
a word of Billy's Wild Woodbines.

Little Billy Williams
he lay flatter than a flounder,
full of miseree.
Suddenly along the road came
P.C. Binns, the bounder,
"What's up here?" said he.
Then lighting up his bull's eye,
it disclosed the shocking fact
that Billy had been smoking
right against the latest act.
He picked up all the evidence,
those half smoked Woodbines four,
and scowled as little Billy said,
"Please sir, I've got one more."

One little fag in a dainty little packet,
one cigarette that cost one D.
one little pain,
underneath his jacket,
one wobble in his little Mary.
One little whiff,
and to one little jiff,
while he lay upon the tramway line.
Poor Billy felt like dying,
and that p'liceman he was crying
but that copper pinched
his last Woodbine.

Soft karaoke
Words
piano 1
piano 2
piano 3
piano 4
lyric
pizz str bass
*
Little Billy's Wild Woodbines 1908 Billy Williams
Lyrics & Music by Barnes & Weston
© MCMVIII by Francis, Day & Hunter
*
sequence & karaoke by James Pitt-Payne, London UK
on Thursday 16 January 2025 at 15.52
in assocation with Torquil Syme
*
James Pitt-Payne