Donegan was born as Anthony James Donegan in Glasgow, Scotland, the son of a professional violinist. His ethnic mix was Scottish/Irish. He moved with his mother to London at an early age, after his parents divorced. Inspired by blues music and New Orleans jazz bands he heard on the radio, he resolved to learn the guitar, and bought his first at the age of fourteen.
The first band he ever played in was the trad jazz band led by Chris Barber, who approached him on a train asking him if he wanted to audition for his group. Barber had heard that Donegan was a good banjo player; in fact, Donegan had never played the banjo at this point, but he bought one and managed to bluff his way through the audition. His stint in this group was interrupted, however, when he was called up for National Service in 1949. He also played in Ken Colyer's group
In 1952, he formed his first own group, the Tony Donegan Jazzband, which found some work around London. On one occasion they opened for the blues musician Lonnie Johnson at the Royal Festival Hall. Donegan was a big fan of Johnson, and took his first name as a tribute to him. The story goes that the host at the concert got the musicians' names confused, calling them "Tony Johnson" and "Lonnie Donegan", and Donegan was happy to keep the name.
With a washboard, a tea-chest bass and a cheap Spanish guitar, Donegan entertained audiences with folk and blues songs by artists such as Leadbelly and Woody Guthrie. This proved so popular that in July 1954 he recorded a fast-tempoed version of Leadbelly's "Rock Island Line", featuring a washboard but not a tea-chest bass, with "John Henry" on the B-side. It was an enormous hit in 1956 (which also later inspired the creation of a full album, An Englishman Sings American Folk Songs, released in America on the Mercury label in the early 1960s) but ironically, because it was a band recording, Donegan made no money from this recording beyond his original session fee. (Nevertheless, Donegan received considerable music publishing royalties from "Rock Island" simply by claiming the British copyright on an unregistered song which was considered to be in the Public Domain. This led to the peculiar situation that any "cover" version of "Rock Island Line" which was released on record in Britain from 1956 showed the song composition credited to Lonnie Donegan.) It was the first debut record to go gold in the UK, and reached the Top Ten in the United States. His next single for Decca, "Diggin' My Potatoes", was recorded at a concert at the Royal Festival Hall on 30 October 1954.[4] Decca dropped Donegan thereafter, but within a month he was at the Abbey Road Studios in London recording for EMI's Columbia label. He had left the Barber band by then, and by the spring of 1955, Donegan signed a recording contract with Pye. His next single "Lost John" reached #2 in the UK Singles Chart.
His success at the time saw Donegan sent to the United States, where he appeared on television on both Perry Como Show and Paul Winchell Show. Returning to the UK, Donegan recorded his debut album, Lonnie Donegan Showcase, in the summer of 1956, which featured songs by Lead Belly and Leroy Carr, plus "I'm a Ramblin' Man" and "Wabash Cannonball". The LP was a hit, securing sales in the hundreds of thousands.[4] The popular skiffle style encouraged amateurs to get started, and one of the many skiffle groups that followed was The Quarrymen formed in March 1957 by John Lennon. Donegan's "Gamblin' Man" / "Puttin' On the Style" single was number one on the UK chart in July 1957, when Lennon first met Paul McCartney.
Donegan went on to make a series of popular records with successes including "Cumberland Gap" and, particularly "Does Your Chewing Gum Lose It's Flavour (On The Bedpost Over Night)", his only hit song in the U.S., released on Dot. He turned to a music hall style with "My Old Man's a Dustman" which was not well received by skiffle fans, or in an attempted but ultimately unsuccessful American release by Atlantic in 1960, but it reached number one in the UK Singles Chart. Donegan's group had a flexible line-up, but was generally formed by Denny Wright or Les Bennetts (of Les Hobeaux and Chas McDevitt's skiffle groups) playing lead guitar and singing harmony vocals, Micky Ashman or Pete Huggett - later Steve Jones - on upright bass, Nick Nichols - later Pete Appleby and Mark Goodwin - on drums or percussion and Donegan playing acoustic guitar or banjo and singing the lead.
He continued to appear regularly in the UK charts until 1962, before succumbing to the arrival of The Beatles and beat music.
Add 1: In the early fifties after Donegan was demobbed from National Service he joined Chris Barber and Ken Colyer and others called Ken Colyer's Jazzmen which consisted of Ken Colyer (trumpet), Chris Barber (trombone), Monty Sunshine (clarinet), Lonnie Donegan (banjo), Jim Bray (bass) Dickie Bishop (Guitar) and Ron Bowden (drums). This group recorded two excellent blues numbers with Lonnie Donegan as vocal called "In the evening when de sun go down" and "The Midnight Special" After a year, Ken colyer stormed out of the group and Chris Barber took over.
http://www.p.griggsy.btinternet.co.uk/Untitled/Lonnie.html (Memories of Lonnie Donegan by Paul Griggs)
Lumbered
Lonnie Donegan Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
You've been landed in the..cart
But I've found a new one better than the rest
It's a little word called lumbered
And I speaks it from the 'eart
When it comes to getting' lumbered, I'm the best
I get l-u-m-b-e-r-e-d lumbered
Once I found a four leafed clover
And a lorry ran me over
So you see I still got lumbered in me end
Like the time I crossed a gypsy's palm with silver
And she said "There's a stranger in your life"
I got l-u-m-b-e-r-e-d lumbered
'Cos the stranger caught me with his wife
I get l-u-m-b-e-r-e-d lumbered
Once I won two hundred thousand on the pools
So I handed in me ticket
Told the foreman where to stick it
And I told him that includes me bag of tools
Then I bought meself an 'aase in Monte Carlo
(Ahem, house)
I was puttin' on me suit to catch the boat
When I found that I'd been well and truly lumbered
'Cos the coupon was still in me coat
If I ever get me hands upon the idiot who wrote
"Into every life a little rain must fall"
I shall take his book of poems and I'll stuff 'em up his throat
'Cos it seems to me as though I get it all
I get l-u-m-b-e-r-e-d lumbered, yeah!
And my luck with women's just too rough for words
On a foursome or a twosome
Guess who gets the one that's gruesome
Me address book's full of really ugly birds
But one day I met a lovely little darlin'
'Bout the only bit of luck I've ever had
I took 'er 'ome to meet the family and got lumbered
'Cos me darlin' ran off with me dad
I get l-u-m-b-e-r-e-d lumbered
And the latest lumber makes me want to spit
I wrote Newley a long letter
Saying why aren't pop songs better
He put music to it and it was a hit
Ev'rywhere I go I hear his flamin' number
On the Chinese his parade it's number ten
(Yen, Ten)
It's called "l-u-m-b-e-r-e-d, lumbered"
But I'm never gonna get, never gonna get
Never, never never gonna get, never gonna get
Never, never, never gonna get lumbered again
The lyrics to Lonnie Donegan's "Lumbered" present a humorous reflection on what it means to "get lumbered" - that is, to be stuck with a bad situation, a seemingly never-ending streak of bad luck, or to be taken advantage of in some way. The singer of the song is resigned to his fate, accepting that no matter what he does or where he goes, he's inevitably going to find himself in a position where he's been lumbered once again.
The first verse establishes the tone of the song, with the singer declaring that he's found a new word that encapsulates the feeling of being lumbered better than any other. It's clear that this is something he's experienced many times before, and he's become something of an expert at it. The subsequent verses provide examples of the different ways in which he's been lumbered - from being hit by a lorry after finding a four-leafed clover, to losing his winnings on the pools, to having his girlfriend run off with his father.
Through all of this, the singer maintains a sense of humor about his predicament, even going so far as to write a letter to Anthony Newley about why pop songs aren't better - only to find that Newley turns his complaint into a hit song of his own, further perpetuating the cycle of being "lumbered."
Overall, "Lumbered" is a catchy, lighthearted song that celebrates the resilience and humor of the human spirit in the face of adversity - even if that adversity seems to follow you wherever you go.
Line by Line Meaning
There are lots of words that mean
There are many ways to describe it
You've been landed in the..cart
You've been put in an uncomfortable situation
But I've found a new one better than the rest
But I've found a better way to describe it
It's a little word called lumbered
It's a term called 'lumbered'
And I speaks it from the 'eart
And I speak it from the heart
When it comes to getting' lumbered, I'm the best
When it comes to getting 'lumbered', I'm an expert
I get l-u-m-b-e-r-e-d lumbered
I always end up in an uncomfortable situation
It's enough to drive a fella round the bend
It's frustrating and maddening
Once I found a four leafed clover
I once had a stroke of luck
And a lorry ran me over
But it was quickly followed by bad luck
So you see I still got lumbered in me end
So in the end, I was still in an uncomfortable situation
Like the time I crossed a gypsy's palm with silver
Like the time I gave money to a fortune teller
And she said "There's a stranger in your life"
And she predicted that there was trouble ahead
'Cos the stranger caught me with his wife
'Cause I ended up in an uncomfortable situation
Once I won two hundred thousand on the pools
Once I won a large sum of money
So I handed in me ticket
So I turned in my ticket
Told the foreman where to stick it
Quit my job and told my boss off
And I told him that includes me bag of tools
And I included my tools in my resignation
Then I bought meself an 'aase in Monte Carlo
Then I bought myself a house in Monte Carlo
When I found that I'd been well and truly lumbered
When I discovered I was still in an uncomfortable situation
'Cos the coupon was still in me coat
'Cause I forgot to turn in my betting slip
If I ever get me hands upon the idiot who wrote
If I ever meet the author of the quote
"Into every life a little rain must fall"
"Bad times happen to everyone"
I shall take his book of poems and I'll stuff 'em up his throat
I'll show him how bad my luck has been
'Cos it seems to me as though I get it all
It feels like I get all the bad luck
And my luck with women's just too rough for words
My relationships with women are always terrible
Guess who gets the one that's gruesome
I always get the unattractive one
Me address book's full of really ugly birds
My phonebook is full of unattractive women
But one day I met a lovely little darlin'
But one day I met a great woman
'Bout the only bit of luck I've ever had
One of the only times I had good luck
I took 'er 'ome to meet the family and got lumbered
I brought her home and ended up in an uncomfortable situation
'Cos me darlin' ran off with me dad
Because my girlfriend left me for my dad
And the latest lumber makes me want to spit
And the most recent bad luck frustrates me
I wrote Newley a long letter
I wrote a long letter to Newley
Saying why aren't pop songs better
Complaining about the quality of pop music
He put music to it and it was a hit
He added music to my letter and made it a hit song
Ev'rywhere I go I hear his flamin' number
Everywhere I go I hear his song playing
On the Chinese his parade it's number ten
In China it's a top ten hit
'Cos I'm never gonna get, never gonna get
'Cause I'll never again end up in an uncomfortable situation
Never, never never gonna get, never gonna get
Never, never, and NEVER again
Never, never, never gonna get lumbered again
I'll never end up in an uncomfortable situation again
Contributed by Amelia R. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Mike Hannon
on Wabash Cannonball
If you want the donegan lyrics from the recording this link has provided instead of the johnny cash ones they are as fallows;
Wabash Cannonball
by Lonnie Donegan
She came down from Birmingham, one cold December day
As she rolled into the station, you could hear the people say
That train from Indiana, she's long and she's tall...
That’s a combination called the Wabash Cannonball
Listen to the jingle, the rumble and the roar
As she comes down the mountains through the hills and by the shore
Hear the mighty rush of the engine, hear the lonesome hobos call
He’s racing through the jungle on the Wabash Cannon Ball
From the great Atlantic Ocean to the wide Pacific shore
From the green and flowing mountains to the old mill by the moor
She's long and handsome, and quite well known by all...
That’s a combination called the Wabash Cannonball
Listen to the jingle, the rumble and the roar
As she comes down the mountains through the hills and by the shore
Hear the mighty rush of the engine, hear the lonesome hobos call
He’s racing through the jungle on the Wabash Cannon Ball
Well here's to that old engineer his name will ever stand
And always be remembered in the courts throughout the land
When his mighty race is over and the curtains 'round him fall...
It'll carry him back to dixie on the Wabash Cannon Ball
Listen to the jingle, the rumble and the roar
As she comes down the mountains through the hills and by the shore
Hear the mighty rush of the engine, hear the lonesome hobos call
Yeah he’s racing through the jungle on the Wabash Cannon Ball