Lily The Pink

I Love

Just heard the song Lily The Pink on BCC Radio 4 and tought it was hilarious! So decided to find out more about it and the lady in question. A little research led me to discover Mrs Lydia E Pinkham and her famous Vegetable Compound for women.

Amazingly it’s still on the market, although in a less alcoholic form. It was first sold in around 1875 and was widely advertised as curing feminine ills. Almost 20% of her concoction was alcohol, which she said acted as a solvent and preservative. Many similar medicines of the past used alcohol as the active ingredient, which was often the only way respectable women were able to enjoy the occassional tipple. It’s no suprise then that in America, especially in the 1920s, Lydia Pinkham’s vegetable compound enjoyed its greatest success during Prohibition.

Lydia and her “vegetable compound” are memorialized in the folk songs “The Ballad of Lydia Pinkham,” and “Lily the Pink”. A sanitized version of Lily the Pink was a number one hit for The Scaffold in 1968/69 and this is what I just heard on the radio.

 

Here’s a YouTube video I found of The Scaffold singing the song - they look like a funny bunch!

And here are some lyrics…

We’ll drink the drink to drink
To Lilly the pink, the pink, the pink
The saviour of the human race
She invented medicinal compound
She was efficacious in every case

And continues…

Mr Fleers had sticky out ears
And it made him awful shy
So they gave him medicinal compound
Now he’s learning how to fly

Rubber Tony was known to be boney
He would never eat his meals
So they gave him medicinal compound
Now they move him round on wheels

We’ll drink the drink to drink
To Lilly the pink, the pink, the pink
The saviour of the human race
She invented medicinal compound
She was efficacious in every case

Ebenezer thought he was Julius Ceasar
So they put him in a home
Where they gave him medicinal compound
Now he’s Emperor of Rome

Johnny Hammer had a terrible s-stammer
He could hardly s-say a word
So they gave him medicinal compound
Now he’s seen, but never heard

Anty Millie ran willy-nilly
And her legs, they did recede
So they looked up medicinal compound
Now they call her Millipede

Jennifer Eccles had terrible freckles
And all the boys called her names
But she changed with medicinal compound
Now she joins in all the games

We’ll drink the drink to drink
To Lilly the pink, the pink, the pink
The saviour of the human race
She invented medicinal compound
She was efficacious in every case

Lilly, the pink, she turned to drink
She filled up the bar with everything in sight
And in spite her medicinal compound
Sadly, pickle-Lilly died

Up to Heaven, her soul assended
All the church bells, they did ring
She took with her medicinal compound
Hark the herald angel sing

We’ll drink the drink to drink
To Lilly the pink, the pink, the pink
The saviour of the human race
She invented medicinal compound
She was efficacious in every case