Norman The Chancellor, Topical Lyric, 30 May 1993

I cannot recall whether or not my January 1992 sardonic song about Norman Lamont was ever performed in NewsRevue.

But this one, when he resigned in May 1993, was a feature of the show for some time and I think went to Edinburgh that summer too. It has a nice political knockabout quality to it.

Strangely, I don’t think there were, in May 1993, confirmed rumours that Norman was going to score City directorships in a hurry; I was supposing. But by September he had joined the Board of NM Rothchild and I wrote a rather pointed update to my lyrics that autumn, click here to see those, which extended its shelf life.

The tune is the well-known children’s song, Nellie the Elephant:

• here’s a link to some good ukulele chords for that song – enabling me to perform this song myself in my dotage…for a suitable fee of course…
• …click here or below for a link to a YouTube of Mandy Miller’s classic version of the song.

Here’s the original May 1993 version of my lyrics:

♬ NORMAN THE CHANCELLOR ♬

(To the Tune of “Nellie The Elephant”)

VERSE

One grey day,

A cabinet shuffle came;

The people said they were badly lead,

And Norman got the blame.

John may say,

He offered environment;

But Norman’s sights were on greater heights,

So he left in discontent.

 

CHORUS

Oh,

Norman the Chancellor packed his punch,

And said goodbye to John’s circus;

Off he went in a grumpety grump, grump, grump, grump.

Norman the Chancellor did some lunch,

And said hello to the city;

He’ll get rich in the slumpety slump, slump, slump, slump.

 

MIDDLE BIT

Directorships were calling far far away,

He stopped and bought,

His cigars and port,

In a Threshers on the way.

 

OUTRO

So,

Norman the Chancellor left the bunch,

To slag them off in his memoirs;

Griping that he was dumpety dump,

Dump,

Dump,

Dumped.