My Old Man's a Dustman

Lonnie Donegan was known as the King of Skiffle, catapulting the 1950s music genre into mainstream pop culture. He enjoyed more than 90 hit singles during a career spanning more than 50 years, with some of his best-sellers having a quirky edge, such as the catchy ditty, My Old Man's a Dustman.

He said in an interview that he was trying to sing "acceptable folk music", with the aim of widening its audience beyond what he described as the "arty crowd", yet without distorting the music style. He succeeded in his goal, enjoying three number one hits in the UK singles chart, along with a host of others that made the top 10.

Early life

Born Anthony Donegan in Bridgeton, Glasgow, in April 1931, he was the son of a Scots father who was a professional violinist and an Irish mother. The family moved to London when Donegan was two, but he was evacuated during World War II and went to college in Altrincham.

As a teenager in the 1940s, he listened mostly to swing and jazz and became interested in playing the guitar. He also listened to country and western and blues music, buying his first guitar in 1945 at the age of 14. By the end of the 1940s, he was playing live gigs around London.

His fledgling musical career was interrupted in 1949 by National Service, but while stationed in Southampton, he became drummer for Ken Grinyer's Wolverines Jazz Band, who played the pub circuit. After completing his National Service, Donegan formed his own band, the Tony Donegan Jazzband, playing around London.

Recording career

After playing a support slot for blues musician Lonnie Johnson at the Royal Festival Hall on 28th June 1952, Donegan adopted the first name Lonnie in tribute to him. Cornet player Ken Colyer joined the band in 1953 and they changed their name to Ken Colyer's Jazzmen.

Donegan sang and played guitar, becoming increasingly interested in skiffle music. Playing a washboard, a guitar and a tea-chest bass, Donegan sang cover versions of blues and folk songs by the likes of Woody Guthrie and Lead Belly. His first record, released in July 1954, was a cover version of Lead Belly's Rock Island Line.

It charted at number eight in the UK and US singles charts and was the first in a long succession of hits that continued up to his death in 2002. His double A-sided single, Gamblin' Man and Puttin' On the Style, was number one in the UK in July 1957.

He also had hits such as Cumberland Gap in 1957 and another quirky song, Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavour on the Bedpost Overnight (his biggest US hit) released in 1959.

My Old Man's a Dustman

His major hit, My Old Man’s a Dustman, in 1960 wasn't well received by skiffle fans. The critics described it as "music hall style", but it was still a number one UK hit, although not successful in America.



Its origins are unclear, and fans have often wondered about the inspiration for such a quirky and offbeat song. Written by Donegan and his manager, Peter Buchanan, it starts with the words, "My old man's a dustman, he wears a dustman's hat," and this is quite a common theme in songs of the era.

An earlier song (origins unknown) called My Father was a Fireman also contains the same lyrics, "He wears cor-blimey trousers."

This was a colloquial term for the type of trousers commonly worn by dustmen, firemen and coal merchants. They were made of moleskin or corduroy, were baggy and shapeless and were sometimes tied just below the knee, to stop them from catching on machinery.

There was a Scottish version that began, "My old man's a scaffie, he wears a scaffie's hat," that was a 1950s playground song. A "scaffie" was an abbreviation for "scavenger" and described a street-sweeper or dustman.

There was no deep hidden meaning to the song - it was meant to be a fun song, describing a working man in the 1950s with a "heart of gold".

The ong was viewed by many fans as a blip in an otherwise successful career, as despite the fact it reached number one, it remained unpopular with diehard skiffle fans.

Later career

Donegan continued recording during the 1960s and during his career he released 19 albums, 92 singles and EPs and 69 compilation discs. He later became a producer at Pye Records, although continued to record and tour across the world.

In 1976, he suffered a heart attack while in the United States and had quadruple bypass surgery. He didn't let this slow him down and continued a gruelling touring schedule up until 1992, when he suffered a second heart attack and needed further bypass surgery.

Up until the end of his life, at the age of 71, he continued playing and touring, until he had a fatal heart attack in November 2002, while on tour in the UK.

Today, he is regarded as one of the all-time skiffle greats, whose style of music in the 1950s influenced a generation of performers.

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