FIRST CIGAR, THE
(Arthur Law / Richard Corney Grain 1890)

as recorded by W Louis Bradfield
early 1900's


I purchased it over the way,
A cigar for a penny, no more;
'Midst ginger beer bottles it lay,
'Twas the last of an old woman's store.
She called it an "Intimidad",
It had spots of a yellowish hue,
But she said the best brands always had,
And of course I thought it was true!

For it was me first cigar,
Me very first cigar!
I was but fourteen,
When alone and unseen,
I smoked me first cigar!

I hadn't been smoking it long,
When ev'rything seemed to go round;
Me head was all dizzy and wrong,
And somehow I sat on the ground.
I crept upstairs to me room
And groaning, I lay on the bed.
I felt that cigar was me doom
And oh, how I wished I was dead!
Oh-oh, oh-oh, oh, ohhhhhh!

It was me first cigar,
Me very first cigar!
I vow and declare,
And I solemnly swear,
'Twas me first and me last cigar!



(Transcribed by Peter Akers - February 2017)