by
Poet's Day

It All Makes Work

It All Makes Work
by
Poet's Day

This week’s choice is the work of Michael Flanders and Donald Swann and in Flanders’ own words, it’s a “song of unending domestic upheaval” as is so often the case when “The Gas-Man Cometh”.

Oh, it all makes work for the working man to do!

Michael Flanders (1922—1975) and Donald Swann (1923—1994)

Poem 287. The Gas-Man Cometh

‘Twas on a Monday morning
The gas man came to call
The gas tap wouldn’t turn, I wasn’t getting gas at all
He tore out all the skirting boards to try and find the main
And I had to call a carpenter to put them back again.

Oh, it all makes work for the working man to do!

‘Twas on a Tuesday morning
The carpenter came round
He hammered and he chiselled and he said: “Look what I’ve found!
Your joists are full of dry-rot, but I’ll put them all to rights.”
Then he nailed right through a cable and out went all the lights.

Oh, it all makes work for the working man to do!

‘Twas on a Wednesday morning
The electrician came
He called me “Mr Sanderson”, which isn’t quite the name
He couldn’t reach the fuse box without standing on the bin
And his foot went through a window so I called a glazier in

Oh, it all makes work for the working man to do!

‘Twas on the Thursday morning
The glazier came along
With his blowtorch and his putty and his merry glazier’s song
He put another pane in, it took no time at all
But I had to get a painter in to come and paint the wall

Oh, it all makes work for the working man to do!

‘Twas on a Friday morning
The painter made a start
With undercoats and overcoats he painted every part
Every nook and every cranny, but I found when he was gone
He’d painted over the gas tap and I couldn’t turn it on!

Oh, it all makes work for the working man to do!

On Saturday and Sunday they do no work at all
So ‘twas on a Monday morning that the gas man came to call!

This song was often used to open performances of “At the Drop of Another Hat”, the revue written by Flanders and Swann that grew out of performances of their first revue, “At the Drop of a Hat” which introduced us to “The Hippopotamus Song” which celebrated the joys of “Mud! Mud! Glorious mud!” and “A Gnu”, both of which had been written by the pair before the Hat performances began—in fact they had written and performed together since their schooldays.

Between 1956 and 1967, the two performers took their evolving revue around the world, performing in the United States and Europe, as well as in London and at the Edinburgh Fringe. The shows were well received by critics and audiences alike and many of their songs are still popular. Flanders’ monologues and introductions to the songs are always entertaining too.

This is a funny little song that chronicles the trials of having workmen in the house and the way in which one job often spawns another: the gas-man’s labours necessitate a visit from the carpenter and so on, with the sequence culminating in the unfortunate home-owner being back where they started on the Monday morning. The line about the painter rendering the gas-tap inoperable again gets a huge laugh on the recordings I’ve heard, perhaps because of the note of frustrated ire Flanders introduces into his voice at that moment.

This song reminds me of listening to an LP of “At the Drop of a Hat” and then discovering there was a follow-up show with more clever lyrics and catchy songs. I also remember my mum telling me that she and my dad went to see the show in London.

Some years ago, I found a blissful Lego animation of this song which I think these two clever men would have enjoyed tremendously, had they lived to see it. There is also a video of an American performance of At the Drop of Another Hat which includes the marvellous line which seems as true now as ever it did in the 1950s:

I think we are going to have to turn more and more to the theatre these days for serious political thought now that politics is becoming more and more a part of the entertainment industry.

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