- I Belong to Glasgow
"I Belong to Glasgow" is a song written by the
music hall entertainerWill Fyffe , reportedly remarking on the words of a drunk helped up by Fyfe who said "The way I feel tonight is thatGlasgow belongs to me." It is one of a very small number of songs written before the First World War which are still well-known a hundred years later.It is one of a number of Edwardian music-hall songs which speak of drink, in a period where temeprance campaigns were very influential. Others include "Arf a pint of beer", "Down at the Old Bull and Bush" and "Another little drink wouldn't do us any harm". The lyrics also show a typical music-hall attitude to the supposedly tyrannical wife.
The monologue accompanying the song is the origin of the popular humorous catch phrase "under the affluence of incohol".
Harry Lauder was offered the song but turned it down since it praised strong drink.
The song was parodied as "I Belong To Colditz" in the film "
The Colditz Story ".External links
* [http://www.rampantscotland.com/songs/blsongs_glasgow.htm Lyrics]
* [http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,1788946,00.html Will Fyffe: Glasgow and the art of drinking - Ian Jack on a paean to drunkenness in the Glasgow of old]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.