Bare mention’s enough to set us off, strumming an air banjolele, screwed-up face and a bad imitation of the great man’s Wigan accent: ‘I’m leaning on a lamp-post . . .’
Except, it actually begins:
I’m leaning on a lamp, I know I look just like a tramp,
Or you may think I’m hanging round to steal a car.
But no, I’m not a crook, and if you think that’s what I look,
I’ll tell you why I’m here and what my motives are.
It’s a pattern often found in the Music Hall and, coincidentally, in As Time Goes By (‘play it again, Sam’): a quiet introductory verse that’s often forgotten but that helps to explain what follows. And what follows is, basically, nothing but Chorus:
I’m leaning on a lamppost at the corner of the street
In case a certain little lady comes by,
Oh me, oh my, I hope the little lady comes by.
Then a second part, again to what we’ll call the A music:
I don’t know if she’ll get away, she doesn’t always get away,
But anyhow I know that she’ll try,
Oh me, oh my, I hope that little lady comes by.
Then a change, B music, each line rising in pitch and excitement — and just look at those cheeky rhymes: wait for / date for / late for.
There’s no other girl I would wait for,
But this one I’d break any date for,
I won’t have to ask what she’s late for.
She wouldn’t leave me flat, she’s not a girl like that.
Then A again, more or less. The polysyllables in the first line pick up the excitement, and it’s continued in the (changed) last lines of the tune as they rise to a joyous peak at certain.
Oh she’s absolutely wonderful and marvellous and beautiful
And anyone can understand why,
I’m leaning on a lamppost at the corner of the street,
In case a certain little lady passes by.
And then the entire Chorus repeats. First time through, the rhythm’s gently dotted, second time it’s brisker. Third time is instrumental, with the banjolele to the fore, showing off George’s glorious strumming technique.
I’m sure there are modern songs that work the same way, but I can’t think of any; as a technique, it’s gone extinct. One of my song-writing ambitions, though, is to come up with an idea that needs, and uses, this exact structure and is just as memorable.
