The day before I wrote these lyrics, a large chunk of a Scarborough Hotel, Holbeck Hall, fell from the top of the cliffs into the sea, as a result of coastal erosion.
This seemed like good material for topical satire; which it was.
The first part of the lyric, the Scarborough Fair bit, was not much used, but the second part of the lyric ran in NewsRevue for some time and was recorded by Ben Murphy on his album that summer; click below:
SCARBOROUGH CLIFFS
(To the Tune of “Scarborough Fair”)
VERSE 1
Are you going to Scarborough cliffs?
Strawberry jam, whipped cream, scones and tea;
The eastern coast has started to shift,
Scarborough’s falling into the sea.
VERSE 2
Tell her to find me a Chippendale chair,
Walnut, oak, ebony or teak;
Now Holbeck Hall has laid itself bare,
She may catch a falling antique.
VERSE 3
Beautiful paintings are now on the skids,
Renoir fakes, Picasso and Freud;
One genuine worth thousands of quid,
In the struggle may be destroyed.
VERSE 4
Through the soil where once flowers bloomed,
Scavenge greedy bastards below;
You’ll see the folk who were not entombed,
Next week on the Antiques Road Show.
OH I DO LIKE TO BE BESIDE THE CLIFF FACE
(To The Tune Of “Oh I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside”)
Oh I do like to be beside the cliff face,
Oh I do like to be beside the sea;
Oh I do like to watch the bits of Holbeck Hall,
Crumble away and fall till it’s not there at all.
Just bury me beside the cliff face,
I’ll be impaled by cutlery;
Then a Chippendale bedstead will descend onto my head,
Beside the cliff face,
Beside the sea.
Below is Simon and Garfunkel’s recording of Scarborough Fair:
Below is the original recording of Oh I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside by Mark Sheridan, from 1909. The chorus starts around the 48 second mark: