Show Me the Way to Go Home

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"Show Me the Way to Go Home" is a folk song and drinking tune. It was made famous with its 1925 adaptation by the pseudonymous "Irving King" (the British songwriting team James Campbell and Reginald Connelly). It tells the story of an intoxicated bar patron trying to go home after a night of drinking. It is believed to be of English origin but has spread to Ireland and North America, where it is also commonly sung.

The song can be modified to be used in swing dancing.

The lyrics are:

Show me the way to go home
I'm tired and I want to go to bed
I had a little drink about an hour ago
And it went right to my head
Where ever I may roam
On land or sea or foam
You will always hear me singing this song
Show me the way to go home

The Different lyrics are:

Show me the way to go home
I'm tired and I want to go to bed
I had a little drink about an hour ago
And its gone right to my head
Where ever I may roam
On land or sea or foam
You will always hear me singing this song
Show me the way to go home

[edit] Popular culture

• George Orwell references the song in his 1934 novel, Burmese Days.

• The Sunderland Supremes were heard singing it in the Brazen Head, Dublin, on Sunday 2nd March 2008.

• It is included on Emerson, Lake & Palmer's album, Works Volume II.

• Duckman and Cornfed sing this song at the end of the episode: "The Amazing Colossal Duckman"

• Bono sings the first four lines in his MacPhisto alter-ego during the Zoo TV: Live from Sydney video.

• The three shark-hunting protagonists of the 1975 horror film Jaws, Brody, Hooper and Quint, sing this song while waiting out the night on their small boat.

• In an episode of Family Guy where Peter and his buddies are on his boat hunting a feared fish, they recreate the scene from Jaws and sing this song as they become weary.

• In an episode of Family Guy where Peter builds a bar in his basement while being under house arrest, Lois brings Stewie downstairs and tells Peter to watch him. Stewie is teething and begins to cry, so Peter rubs alcohol on his gums. Later, when Lois retrieves Stewie he is drunk, and as she carries him upstairs he begins to sing the song.

• In the popular World War II show Combat!, a captured German soldier shows his love for America by singing this song.

• The Red Dwarf episode "Thanks for the Memory" had the characters singing a slightly modified version of the song after partying on a small planetoid.

• Brick, a main character of the Tennessee Williams play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, sings this song toward the end while drinking leaving out the line "And it's gone right to my head." and the last two lines due to dialogue between other characters.

• In the video game Fable it is possible to give beers to other people. If the player decides to get the weapons smith drunk, he will stumble about muttering random phrases, one of which is the first verse of "Show Me the Way to Go Home".

• Dave Brubeck played an instrumental jazz adaptation of the tune as the encore of his 2002 concert at Starbucks, Park Avenue South.

• In an episode of the Sci-Fi show Babylon 5, "Meditations on the Abyss", Michael Garibaldi sings this while drunk.

• In an episode of the US dubbed version of the Pokemon anime, James from Team Rocket says the first two lines of this song, but it's disguised as normal dialogue.

• Show Me the Way to Go Home is the title of a novel by Simmons Jones, published by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill in 1992.

• In series 3, episode 9 of Lost, the character Sawyer sings the song while paddling a boat back to the main island.

• An old man in the drunk tank sings this song in the 1992 novella A River Runs Through It.

• This song appeared at the end of ITV's Police Camera Action! in October 1996 on the episode "Euro-Cops"

• It was recorded on an old '78 record by Andrew Curtis & Partners on the Homochord label.

• Another song was invented using jargon which equates to the words of this song. It sings thus;

Indicate the approach to my habitual abode
I'm fatigued and I wish to seek repose
I'd intoxicating liquor sixty minutes ago
And it's gone straight to my cranium
Wherever I may perambulate
Upon land or ocean or effervescent liquid
You will always hear me reciting this refrain
Indicate the approach to my habitual abode

• A variation in the similar vein is:

Point out the way to my bunk
I'm fatigued and I'm ready to retire
I had an alcoholic beverage sixty minutes ago
and it went right to my cerebellum
Now where ever I meander
On land or sea or oceanic flotsam
You can always hear me humming this ditty
Point out the way to my bunk

• Another Variation, often a second verse
  

Indicate the road to my abode
I'm fatigued with desire to retire
I had a liquid refreshment sixty minutes ago
and its gone right to my cerebellum
Wherever i may perambulate
Over land or sea or agitated water
You will always hear me singing this melody
Indicate the road to my abode
Another variation of the second verse is
"Indicate the way to my habitual abode"
"I'm fatigued and i want to retire"
"Had an alcoholic beverage sixty minutes ago"
"And it went straight to my cerebellum"
"Wherever I may ramulate"
"On land or sea or atmospheric vapor"
"You can always hear me chanting this song"
"Show me the way to my habitual abode"