The Lumberjack Song (Monty Python)
sketches by the Monty Python's Flying Circus comedy troupe.
Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow.
The sketch appeard in several forms (on the original television series, film, stage, and LP); each time the sketch started differently.
The common theme was a man (originally Michael Palin, in later live versions Eric Idle) who expresses dissatisfaction with his current job, and then announces, "I didn't want to do this job. I wanted to be... a lumberjack!" He proceeds to wax rhapsodic about the life of a lumberjack, "Leaping from tree to tree," etc. He then rips off his shirt to reveal a red flannel shirt, walks over to a stage backed with a pine forest, and begins to sing about the wonders of being a lumberjack. He is unexpectedly backed up by a large set of male singers, all dressed as Canadian Mounties (several were regular Monty Python performers, while the rest were members of an actual singing troupe, the Fred Tomlinson Singers).
As the song continues, the excited lumberjack increasingly reveals cross-dressing tendencies, which confuses the Mounties to the point where they walk off disgustedly.
In 2003, a version of the song was performed at the Concert for George tribute to George Harrison.
The Song
Composers: Terry Jones, Michael Palin, & Fred Tomlinson
Authors: Terry Jones & Michael Palin
Arranger: Fred Tomlinson
Lead Singer: Michael Palin
Continued from Petshop, Barber, or a variety of other Python sketches.
I never wanted to work in a pet shop!
I... I wanted to be...
A LUMBERJACK!
(further spoken intro here, depending on version)
Oh, I'm a lumberjack, and I'm okay,
I sleep all night and I work all day.
CHORUS: He's a lumberjack, and he's okay,
He sleeps all night and he works all day.
I cut down trees, I eat my lunch,
I go to the lava-tree.
On Wednesdays I go shoppin'
And have buttered scones for tea.
(a couple of verses later...)
I chop down trees, I wear high heels,
Suspendies and a bra.
I wish I'd been a girlie
Just like my dear papa.
The song was translated in German for Monty Pythons Fliegender Zirkus and the German lyrics have also been published. One significant change is that the phrase "Just like my dear Papa" has been changed to "So wie mein Onkel Walter"("Just like my Uncle Walter"), to rhyme with "Büstenhalter", German for "bra".
