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Arthur Lloyd's 'Not For Joseph'

In 1867 Arthur Lloyd wrote and composed another big hit with the public, “Not for Joe.” The title of this suggested itself to him in the following manner. “On a very wet night I jumped into a bus at Holborn. The conductor was standing on his perch, talking over the top of the bus to the driver. Every now and then, in answer to some remark of the latter, I heard the conductor reply. ‘Not me, not for Joe.’ This caught my fancy and before I left the bus I had the chorus and melody complete.”

Listen to Not For Joe here...

Play the Not For Joe Game...

An Arthur Lloyd Recording?

This song was a Special Feature in December 2002

The song which was in the main responsible for occurrences was called "Not for Joseph", it was written and -composed by Lloyd himself and, on publication, achieved an unprecedented sale. It was based on a study of an individual character, that of a 'bus driver named Baxter (the full name is given in the first line of the song), a man who was in the habit of referring genially to himself in the third person. The idea was one in complete harmony with the music hall of the time, based as it was on a piece of familiar observation. The raciness of the subject and the richness of Lloyd's power of character impersonation render its success understandable.

Right - On a very wet night I jumped into a bus at Holborn..

NEZ PERCE SUMMER, 1877
The U.S. Army and the Nee-Me-Poo Crisis

Tilton, "After the Nez Perces," 404. Miles recalled that "as we were ferried over the band played, 'Hail to the Chief,' when suddenly they stopped and played a bar of that then familiar air, 'Not for Joe, oh no, no, not for Joseph!' etc., and then resumed the former air." Miles, Serving the Republic, 180-81. See also Miles, Personal Recollections, 278-79. This popular song, written by Arthur Lloyd, had been published in 1868 by C. H. Ditson and Company, New York City. The Cheyenne and Lakota scouts had arrived at the cantonment several days before the soldiers and prisoners and had created considerable anxiety among the families present there. Miles, Personal Recollections, 278. For the "welcome home" activities of the cantonment garrison, see Miles, Personal Recollections, 278-79; and Alice Baldwin, Memoirs of . . . Baldwin, 193-94 (reprinted in Carriker and Carriker, An Army Wife, 108-9). From the Nez Perce National Historical Park Web site

Although Arthur Lloyd will ever be remembered as a comedian of the highest order, yet it should not be forgotten that he was more—he was a clever and versatile author of pantomime, sketches, trios, duets, and other songs. Upwards of 1,000 of the latter did he write, and it would therefor be impossible to enumerate a tithe of them, but a few of the most popular, some of which have become veritable bywords, must be recorded. “Not for Joe,” perhaps heads the list; but “Take it Bob,” “The Postman,” “I fancy I can see her now,” “I vowed I never would leave her,” “One more polka,” “It’s the sort of thing we read about,” “Immensikoff,” “At it again,” were all the talk of the town in the days gone by. Referring to these songs, several of those Lloyd used to sing were written by the late G. W. Hunt, who was introduced to him at the Philharmonic soon after his arrival in London. “Who’s for the bank?” “The German Band,” “The Organ Grinder,” “Somebody’s Luggage,” and “The Ballet Girl” were all from the pen of Mr Hunt.

"Not for Joe, not for Joe, If he knows it, not for Joseph,
No, no, no, not for Joe, Not for Joseph, oh dear no."

Perhaps not the wittiest lyric in the history of song-writing, but a hit nonetheless for a music hall star who was also a most prolific song-writer, theatre manager, possibly the first of the Lion Comiques and, some say, the man who inspired George Leybourne to become a music hall performer.

Peter Charlton.

Meantime Mr Arthur Lloyd had found it convenient to write his own songs. Almost his earliest efforts was a medley called “The Song Of Songs,” that started from the base of “I dreamt that I dwelt in marble halls with the dark girl dressed in blue.” It had a most extraordinary career of popularity, but did not bring it’s author and composer the large fortune that one sometimes hears of as the guerdon of a comic song, for he sold the rights of publication for a mere trifle. Among the more popular successors of “The Song of Songs” were “Not for Joseph,” “Constantinople,” “Cruel Mary Holder,” “The Roman Fall,” “Take it Bob,” “Going to the Derby”—now inseparable from “Over Rowley”—“One more polka,” and “I couldn’t.” Probably of this selection the most successful of all was “Not for Joseph.”

Above - The song was so popular that all sorts of people all over the world copied it and used it as their own, causing Arthur to advertise in papers that it was his song and permission should be saught before anyone sung it.

See also - December's 2002 Special Feature