NEVER LET YOUR BRACES DANGLE
(Barnes / Weston)

as recorded by Harry Champion
1910


Now I was one of eighteen boys
And we all wore corduroys.
I was the roughest of the gang
'Cause my braces used to hang.
Dangling all around my feet,
My mother used to bawl,
Pointing to a text so neat
She'd hung upon the wall.

Never let your braces dangle,
Dingle dingle dangle.
Never thieve,
Don't deceive,
Never row or wrangle!
Stick to the right, keep away from the bad,
Don't get tight like your poor old dad!
But the greatest motto of the lot, my lad,
"Never let your braces dangle!".

Mrs Murphy's got a mat,
'Tain't the skin of some tomcat!
On the floor it looks, no doubt,
Like a man been flattened out!
I said to her, "Mary Ann,
Your carpet does look queer!".
She said, "That's my first old man!",
Then whispered in my ear.

Never let your braces dangle,
Dingle dingle dangle.
Poor old sport,
He got caught,
Dragged right through the mangle!
Over the roller he rolled till he come
Out like a yard o' linoleum!
You've wiped your feet on his rum tum tum,
But never let your braces dangle!

Now on one foggy afternoon,
Once we had to shoot the moon.
On the barrow I had got
Bedstead, chairs and all the lot!
But I stuck it with a will,
Though people in the road
Shouted as up Highgate Hill
I dragged my little load.

Never let your braces dangle,
Dingle dingle dangle.
Up that hill
I stuck it till
My legs got in a tangle.
Got to the top, said a chap, "Here we are!",
Undid my braces, I murmured, "Ta!".
I'd been pulling up a tramcar,
Never let your braces dangle!

Now one day, fishing in the brook,
With a worm upon me 'ook,
I turned round as, in a dream,
Braces dangled in the stream!
Some old shark came sailing by,
So quietly underneath,
Nipped my braces, winked his eye,
Then whispered through his teeth.

Never let your braces dangle,
Dingle dingle dangle.
That old shark
Had more a laugh
Than I'd been tuned to handle!
He gave a tug,
I was into his jaw,
Into his tum and I said, "Oh law'!"
As he pushed me out of his little back door,
Never let your braces dangle!

Never let your braces dangle,
Dingle dingle dangle.
That old shark
Had more a laugh
Than I'd been tuned to handle!
He gave a tug,
I was into his jaw,
Into his tum and I said, "Oh law'!"
As he pushed me out of his little back door,
Never let your braces dangle!



(Transcribed by Peter Akers - July 2015)