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Show Me the Way to Go Home (C)(WORD)
Show Me the Way to Go Home (C)(PDF)
Show Me the Way to Go Home (G)(WORD)
Show Me the Way to Go Home (G)(PDF)
WOW! This one took a bit of doing...but it's SO fun! I've simplified the chords for BUG and so even though there are more complex chords in this song, I feel that I've maintained the integrity of the tune. In order to learn the song, the (G) songsheet is close enough that you can almost play along with the first video in GCEA tuning. For BUG night, we'll be using the (C) songsheet as Mark and I tried it out together and it worked for both of our voices.
"Show Me the Way to Go Home" is a popular song written in 1925 by the English songwriting team Jimmy Campbell and Reg Connelly, using the pseudonym "Irving King". The song is said to have been written on a train journey from London by Campbell and Connelly. They were tired from the traveling and had a few alcoholic drinks during the journey, hence the lyrics. The song is in common use in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and North America.
They self-published the sheet music and it became their first big success, selling 2 million copies and providing the financial basis of their publishing firm, Campbell, Connelly & Co. Campbell and Connelly published the sheet music and recorded the song under the pseudonym "Irving King".
The song was recorded by several artists in the 1920s, including radio personalities The Happiness Boys, Vincent Lopez and his Orchestra, and the California Ramblers. Throughout the twentieth into the twenty-first century it has been recorded by numerous artists.
And now, an intellectual variation, popular in American campuses in the 1950's:
Indicate the way to my abode
I'm fatigued and I want to retire
I had a spot of beverage sixty minutes ago
And it percolated right through my cerebellum
Wherever I may perambulate
O’er land or sea or atmospheric vapour
You will always hear me rendering this melody
Indicate the way to my abode