Brown (Tune - Glorious Mud: Flanders and Swann)
A young southern negro was thinking one night As he cleaned out his brushes and pan Oh why couldn't he grow to be like the white When he thought of this marvellous plan To stop segregation just one common colour Was needed the whole world around He'd dye white caucasians And all of the asians A shade of nuggety brown Chorus Brown, brown, beautiful brown Nothing quite like it for peace in a town So cull all the colour Decidedly duller Eliminate pallor By beautiful brown He sent invitations to brown folk world wide With the plans that he meant to report Without reservations the whole lot replied Pledging their loyal support In three months they gathered, some 800 strong In a derelict brown-nugget plant A room full of natives And all their re-latives Hearing their new hero chant Chorus Oh you sun-singed people with me at your prow The world will become of our hue And no whinging creep'll stop us I vow Twill be ever so easy to do Our President says that the Chinese are bad Yellow fruit that is bad will go brown And all bleeding Pommies Red Injuns and Commies Are red which is one step from tan Chorus As one, eyes a'blazing, they stood to applaud The man who would recast their fate Caught up by his phrasing all they could afford Went into the collection plate With pockets a'jingling our hero checked in To the best hotel in that town And feeling the power He took his first shower And off washed his beautiful brown Chorus (Quasi Recitativo) Oh friends how can I explain his torment Caused by something not understood Living a lie since his foster parent Dyed him brown early in childhood He'd based his life's work on his colour of skin And now that colour was gone So there is a moral If you want to quarrel First make sure what side you are on Chorus (Cantabile)Well you may expect that the plan was excised But we're here to report is was not Our hero's respect for the plan he'd devised His breast sat athwart bright and hot As now a test-case for his own proposition He purchased a permanent stain A careful transference Recast his appearance And gave him his life back again Chorus (Giojoso con brio) Brown, brown, beautiful brown Nothing quite like it for peace in a town So cull all the colour Decidedly duller Eliminate pallor By beau-eau-eau-eau-eau-eau-eau-tiful Brown
This is a Song of Segregation. It's called Brown. This is perhaps my favourite of all the songs we wrote together. In it we managed to capture Michael Flanders' finesse with words, his off the wall rhymes and intricate rhyming schemes. Sometimes I think I can hear him singing along in the background. You can't get much better praise than that. We are mightily proud of it, if you don't mind us blowing our own trumpets. Which we can't anyway because neither of us owns one. The song came from a chorus supplied by Julian and John McLaren. I changed it