Folk and Traditional Song Lyrics:
Body in the Bag

Body in the Bag

Body in the Bag
(Charles O'Hegarty)

Our old cat died last night
Me wife says to bury it out of sight
But we didn't have a garden;
We was livin' in a flat
So what was I to do with the body of a cat,
Then a big brown paper bag I spied
I put our old dead kittycat inside.
And now I'm off down the street with the body in the bag,
The body in the bag, ta ra ra.

I went off down the street to have a whisky neat
And carefully laid my dead cat underneath my seat.
Then I got down on my hands and knees;
Went halfway through the town,
When the barman stops me,
``Here's your parcel Mr. Brown,''
So I had to thank the silly fool
And give him half a crown
For bringing me the body in the bag.

I threw it in the river but the hero of a play,
Well he jumped right in after,
Shouting, ``Hip hip hip, hooray!''
Then he crawled out on the bank
And he stood there in a pool.
He said, ``I'm really rather wet
And also rather cool.''
So I had to take me trousers off
And give 'em to the fool
For bringing me the body in the bag.

Well, I crept off down the street as quiet as a mouse
An' carefully laid me burden on
The doorstep of a house,
When the door it was flung open
And a lady dressed in blue
said, ``Pardonnez-moi monsieur,
But do you want a room?''
I said, ``Good heavens no, an' I've got
Something else to do!''
And skeddaddled with the body in the bag.

I crept into a garden, feeling very brave,
And with a pick and shovel I commenced to dig a grave,
But I got an awful shock when a voice behind me said,
``You're digging my potatoes!''
Oh, you could've shot me dead.
But there I was a-diggin' in his cauliflower bed
So I hit him with the body in the bag.

All at once from in the bag
There came a plaintive meow
Say Puss, ``I'm dead no longer,
You needn't bother now.
You've often heard it said
That a cat has got nine lives,
Well, I'm a married Tabby,
One of Tommy's wives
And our families they usually come
In threes, and fours, and fives...''
But there were seven little bodies in the bag!

note: see CATBACK
sung by Jean Redpath
BR