Lily the Pink – the saviour of the human race

On the 8th December 2009, the Artwiculate Word of the Day was embrocation. It seemed as good a reason as any to edit and compress to Twitter length the lyrics of “Lily the Pink”.

Let’s drink a drink to Lily the Pink,
the saviour of the human race.
She invented Lily’s embrocation,
most efficacious in every case.

Ebenezer, thought he was Julius Caesar,
so they put him in a home
where they rubbed on Lily’s Embrocation,
now he’s Emperor of Rome.

Johnny Hammer had a ttterrible ssstammer,
could bbbarely say a word,
drenched with Lily’s Embrocation,
now he’s seen, but never heard.

Mr. Frears, had sticky out ears.
It made him awful shy.
But moistened with Lily’s Embrocation,
now he’s learning how to fly.

Uncle Paul, was very small –
the shortest man in town.
On his torso he rubbed Lily’s Embrocation,
now he’s six foot (underground).

Lily died and went to heaven.
Oh, the church bells they did ring!
She took with her, her Embrocation.
Hark! The herald angels sing.

So…

Let’s drink a drink to Lily the Pink,
the saviour of the human race.
She invented Lily’s embrocation,
most efficacious in every case.

---

I think I may have done myself an injury with all that – going off line now to rub on some of Lilly’s Embrocation. Cheerio!

And later the same day I tweeted:
Good evening! How nice to see that Lily the Pink sparked memories with so many people!

[Later I discovered that The Scaffold’s version of “Lily the Pink” – the one I was thinking of writing this – was itself an adaptation of an earlier music hall/American popular song from the 19th century “The Ballad of Lydia Pinkham” See here on Wikipedia.]

---

Artwiculate is a game played on Twitter. Visit http://artwiculate.com for more information. (And, for addicts, don’t forget Salon ArtWois at http://www.salonartwois.com/ )

---

Edited for SEO, punctuation and polish 8-9 February 2017