Flash Company

This traditional song is attested in broadsides as early as the 1820s, sometimes under the title "Wandering Girl". According to the New Penguin Book of English Folk Songs (2012), it appears that "Wandering Girl" and "Flash Company" may originally have been two separate songs that shared some floating verses before becoming merged entirely.
There are several variations on the lyrics, though they can be categorized into three main groups: the first group is sung from the perspective of a young woman who is left with a baby by a fickle lover; the second has a woman mourning a partner who faces transportation; and the third (to which TLJ's version belongs) features a narrator (sometimes male, sometimes female) lamenting how a lifestyle of excess has brought them to ruin.https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_New_Penguin_Book_of_English_Folk_Son/9WlEQIa8TYMC?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=flash%20company
===Factoids===
"Flash" in the 18th and 19th century had a meaning of "gaudy, ostentatious, or swaggering"www.oed.com/view/Entry/71136 (cf. the modern "flashy"). In this context, the singer is warning the listener against keeping company with those prone to extravagance and profligacy.
The song does not seem to refer to the Flash Company, a semi-organized group of street criminals and thieves operating in London in the 19th century.
==Lyrics==
These are the lyrics performed by The Longest Johns in their livestreams.
Once I had a colour as red as the rose
Now my colour has fade like the lily that grows
Now my colour has fade like the lily that grows
If it wasn't for flash company I should never been so poor
{Chorus}
So you take this yellow handkerchief in a remembrance of me
And tie it round your neck, my love, in your flash company
Flash company has been the ruin of me and a great many more
If it wasn't for flash company I should never been so poor
Well it's singing and dancing, well it was my delight
Flash company's been the ruin of me, and the ruin of me quite
Flash company's been the ruin of me and a great many more
If it wasn't for flash company I should never been so poor
{Chorus}
So come all you little flash girls take a warning by me
And never build your nest, my love, on the top of a tree
For the green leaves they will wither and the roots they will decay
And the beauty of a fair maid it will soon fade away
{Chorus 2x}
==Recordings==
====Full Band Streams====
*The Longest Johns Early Octobermas (2 Oct 2019)
*Spooktober Spectacular and Farewell to Anna Livestream (30 Oct 2019)
*Stream of Mushroom Soup (A day early to fit around touring) (23 Nov 2021)
*Exstream Close-up (31 May 2022)
*Hark the Herald Angels Stream (21 Dec 2022)
Category:Songs
Category:Traditional
Category:Anna Songs
Category:Andy Songs