Am trying to find in our old trunks of the seventies, the cassette tape we had of Basil Brush that contained this song... Great memories growing up in London at the time and Basil Brush was a favorite of ours growing up... :)
Bless your cotton socks for posting this. Probably my favourite song ever. I always wanted to hear Basil sing 'The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo,' it might have been written for him! 'Burlington Bertie from Bow' as well; lots of the old Music Hall songs were a strangely un-tapped gold mine for that Prince among Foxes. 'Be Back Soon' from 'Oliver' would've been another grand one for him. Yes ... my head is filled with the songs Basil never sang ... isn't that a boom-boom shame! But thank heaven for the ones we've got. Dear old Basil. Proof that God really is a good sort who loves us. If anyone's interested there's a B.B. LP available on ebay and other internet sources; this song is on it.
@raftinkiwi My mum gave me the same Basil Brush album too, an absolute classic. Listening to this I still remember the words to this song more than 37 years later!
We still have the old Basil Brush LP.. I thought the George Martin on it was THE George Martin of Beatles fame - until today when I discovered there was another one...
Might have been late 60s then when he smuggled a set out for xmas viewing, hated it when it had to back after xmas, took a while to adjust to monochrome again. £300 then was a huge amount of dosh indeed. Was quite a breakthrough in it's day seeing in colour, hard to believe now. My father had a small tube B+W in 53 (before my time) and neighbours came round to watch the coronation i'm informed, i've still got the tube in my attic.
@soundzok And even now, no-one knows what he looked like. His family and friends told him he had a very loud booming and infectious laugh and he made it Basil's trademark.
Just one thing about the picture for this video. When this was told as a story on The Basil Brush Show, the Basil Brush man was "Mr Dirrick" aka Derek Fowlds of later Heartbeat fame, not his successor Roy North. Both of them good Basil Brush men.
I know - but couldn't find a photo of Basil and Mr Derek in sufficiently high resolution to use. When I made/uploaded this 6 years ago, there was only one colour image available of Basil and Mr D and it was little more than a thumbnail, so it looked horribly pixelated when I tried adding it to the audio.
With age comes wisdom, think it will bypass him. Will check out Nixon, my father worked at a TV manufacturer, was quite high up and used to borrow a colour TV for every xmas in early 70s, watching things like Star Trek even the Trade Test films, dont know if you recall them, shown on Beeb 2, were amazing, colour TV is taking for granted now.
hi - does anyone know where I can find the complete lyrics to this song especially that last bit where he yells something..............thanks for your help if anyone can help me. My hearing is not the best so it would be a great help )o(
Bridget Louise In days old when men of honour battled for their rights The land was filled with castles and the days were filled with knights Basil was a farmer's boy who won a thousand fights Villains used to tremble when they heard his name He found a suit of armour and he cleaned it till it shone He had to use a spanner when he put his trousers on He vowed to fight oppression until tyranny was gone And everywhere he went they heard his battle cry He was a brave, brave man! (Who's that?) Basil de Farmer, the man in shining armour Fought against injustice with his sword held high And all his enemies used to tremble at the knees And everywhere he went they heard his battle cry Seated on his destrier and ready for the fray His honour was unquestioned and the minstrels used to say He fought a dozen battles in a normal working day Villains used to tremble when they heard his name Many were the criminals that Basil put to flight He'd clobber every baddie, every dark and dirty knight He won the reputation as defender of the right And everywhere he went they heard his battle cry He was a brave, brave man! (Who's that?) Basil de Farmer, the man in shining armour Fought against injustice with his sword held high And all his enemies used to tremble at the knees And everywhere he went they heard his battle cry - "Have at you, varlets! Hooray!"
