Cats Soundtrack Growltiger`s Last Stand Lyrics

Growltiger`s Last Stand Lyrics

including "The Ballad of Billy McCaw"

 

 CHORUS:

 Growltiger was a bravo cat who travelled on a barge

 In fact he was the roughest cat that ever roamed at large

 From Gravesend up to Oxford he pursued his evil aims

 Rejoicing in his title of 

 

 GROWLTIGER:

 The "Terror of the Thames"! Ha ha ha ha!

 

 GRUMBUSKIN:

 His manners and appearance did not calculate to please

 His coat was torn and seedy, it was baggy at the knees

 One ear was somewhat missing, no need to tell you why

 And he scowled upon a hostile world from one forbidding eye

 

 CHORUS:

 The cottagers of Rotherhithe knew something of his fame

 At Hammersmith and Putney, people shuddered at his name

 They would fortify the hen house, lock up the silly goose

 When the rumor ran along the shore: 

 

 GROWLTIGER:

 Growltiger's on the loose! Ha ha ha ha!

 

 SOLOS:

 Woe to the weak canary that fluttered from its cage

 Woe to the pampered Pekinese, that faced Growltiger's rage

 Woe the bristly bandicoot that lurks on foreign ships

 And woe to any cat with whom Growltiger came to grips

 

 But most to cats of foreign race his hatred had been vowed

 To cats of foreign name and race, no quarter was allowed

 The Persian and the Siamese regarded him with fear

 Because it was a Siamese had mauled his missing ear

 

 TUMBLEBRUTUS:

 Now on a peaceful summer night all nature seemed at play

 The tender moon was shining bright, the barge at Molesey lay

 

 CHORUS:

 All in the balmy moonlight it lay rocking on the tide

 And Growltiger was disposed to show his sentimental side

 

 GRUMBUSKIN:

 Growltiger's bucko mate, Grumbuskin, long since had disappeared

 For to the bell at Hampton he had gone to wet his beard

 

 TUMBLEBRUTUS:

 And his bosun, Tumblebrutus, he too had stol'n away

 In the yard behind the lion he was prowling for his prey

 

 GROWLTIGER:

 In the forepeak of the vessel, Growltiger sat alone

 

 GRIDDLEBONE:

 Concentrating his attention on the lady Griddlebone

 

 CREW:

 And his raffish crew were sleeping in their barrels and their bunks

 

 SIAMESE:

 As the Siamese came creeping in their sampans and their junks

 

 GROWLTIGER:

 Growltiger had no eye or ear for aught but Griddlebone

 

 GRIDDLEBONE:

 And the lady seemed enraptured by his manly baritone

 

 BOTH:

 Disposed to relaxation and awaiting no surprise

 

 SIAMESE:

 But the moonlight shone reflected from a thousand bright blue eyes

 

 And closer still and closer the sampans circled 'round

 And yet from all the enemy there was not heard a sound

 The foe was armed with toasting forks and cruel carving knives

 

 GROWLTIGER AND GRIDDLEBONE:

 And the lovers sang their last duet in danger of their lives

 

 GROWLTIGER:

 Oh, how well I remember the Old Bull and Bush

 Where we used to go down of a Saturday night

 Where, when anything happened, it come with a rush

 For the boss, Mr. Clark, he was very polite

 

 A very nice house, from basement to garret

 A very nice house. Ah, but it was the parrot--

 The parrot, the parrot named Billy McCaw

 That brought all those folks to the bar

 Ah! He was the life of the bar.

 

 Of a Saturday night, we was all feeling bright

 And Lily La Rose -- the barmaid that was --

 She'd say, "Billy, Billy McCaw!

 Come give us, come give us a dance on the bar!"

 And Billy would dance on the bar

 And Billy would dance on the bar

 And then we'd feel balmy, in each eye a tear

 And emotion would make us all order more beer

 

 Lily, she was a girl what had brains in her head

 She wouldn't have nothing, no not that much said

 If it come to an argument or a dispute

 She'd settle it offhand with the toe of her boot

 Or as likely as not put a fist through your eye

 Or when we was happy and just a bit dry

 Or when we was thirsty and just a bit sad,

 She would rap on the bar with that corkscrew she had

 And say, 

 

 GROWLTIGER AND GRIDDLEBONE:

 "Billy, Billy McCaw!

 

 GROWLTIGER:

 "Come give us a tune on your pastoral flute!"

 And Billy'd strike up on his pastoral flute

 

 GROWLTIGER AND GRIDDLEBONE:

 And Billy'd strike up on his pastoral flute

 

 GROWLTIGER:

 And then we'd feel balmy, in each eye a tear

 And emotion would make us all order more beer

 

 GROWLTIGER AND GRIDDLEBONE:

 "Billy, Billy McCaw!

 Come give us a tune on your moley guitar!"

 And Billy'd strike up on his moley guitar

 And Billy'd strike up on his moley guitar

 And then we'd feel balmy, in each eye a tear

 And emotion would make us all order more beer

 

 CHORUS:

 Billy, Billy McCaw!

 Come give us a tune on your moley guitar

 

 GROWLTIGER:

 Ah! He was the life of the bar.

 

 GENGHIS:

 Then Genghis gave the signal to his fierce Mongolian hordes

 With a frightful burst of fireworks, the chinks they swarmed aboard

 Abandoning their sampans, their pullaways, and junks

 They battened down the hatches on the crew within their bunks

 

 Then Griddlebone she gave a screech for she was badly skeered

 I'm sorry to admit it, but she quickly disappeared

 

 GROWLTIGER:

 She probably escaped with ease I'm sure she was not drowned

 

 CHORUS:

 But a serried ring of flashing steel Growltiger did surround

 

 The ruthless foe pressed forward in stubborn rank on rank

 Growltiger to his vast surprise was forced to walk the plank

 He who a hundred victims had driven to that drop

 At the end of all his crimes was forced to go ker-flip, ker-flop!

 

 GROWLTIGER:

 Ahhhhh!!!

 

 CHORUS:

 Oh there was joy in Wapping when the news flew through the land

 At Maidenhead and Henley there was dancing on the Strand

 Rats were roasted whole in Brentford and Victoria Dock

 And a day of celebration was commanded in Bangkok!

 

 (DANCE -- SIAMESE)

 

 GUS:

 These modern productions are all very well

 But there's nothing to equal from what I hear tell

 That moment of mystery when I made history