I Love My Mother In Law

I learnt this song in 1968, surprisingly from an Irishman in Wakefield. Bill Price had just returned from living in Canada and we were running a folk club together at The Green Dragon on Westgate in Wakefield.

One Friday Night, a big Irishman wearing a donkey jacket and wellingtons, wandered into the folk club room. After a while we asked him if he would like to sing us a song, expecting to hear something Irish. He agreed and to the surprise of everyone he sang "I love my mother in law". He came regularly for a few weeks afterwards, that’s how I learnt it, and I’ve sung it quite regularly over the years since.

In about 2002 I received an email from someone who signed himself Mr Keith Glen with the following
request:

"I’ve been given your name in connection to a song I’ve been trying to find. My dad always sang this song when he’d had a few too many, it was his theme song. He has sung it on holidays in bars all over the world since I can remember. Sadly he passed away on Sunday and we the family would love to get this song and play it next Wednesday at his funeral, I know its a long shot to ask at such short notice, but it would make a sad day more bearable to hear it again".

I sent him a copy of a recording of me singing the song, made in the Old Wine and Spirit Vaults, Birstall, Batley in March 1999. I still don’t know to this day if he received it in time, or if it was indeed played at the funeral.

French postcard from the Belle Epoque showing a tatooed lady

Tattooed Lady, French Postcard 1890

I Love My Mother In Law

I love my mother in law. She's got an awful jaw.
She's at me day and night but I can't do anything right.
She's a-coming round today. How I wish she'd stay away.
Ain't it a pity, a blooming great pity, she ain't in the family way.

Tonight I'll grease the stairs, put tacks on all the chairs,
And I hope she breaks her blooming back 'cos I do like wearing black.
She's rough and she's randy. She's as sweet as sugar candy.
How I love her, love to smother, how I love my mother in law.

Took a trip to gay Paree. I paid ten francs to see
This great big fat Cherie, tattooed from head to knee.
Right underneath her jaw was a British man of war,
And down her back was the Union Jack so I paid ten francs more...

To see her lily-white bum, with its tattoo of the rising sun,
And up and down her spine were the Grenadier guards in line,
And right across her tummy was Al Jolson singing Mammy.
How I love her, love to smother, how I love my mother in law.

About Mick

Mick Haywood is a traditional folk singer & folk song collector who has run and organised folk clubs and festivals for many years. He now lives in Whitby, North Yorkshire.

Mick Haywood's Song Wordbook

Batley Years

I Love My Mother In Law

I Love My Mother In Law

About Mick

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