A song from the Shary Bobbins episode of The Simpsons, Simpsonscalifragilisticexpiali(ANNOYED GRUNT)cious. Shary is a parody of Mary Poppins, if you haven't seen the episode, and her presence enabled the writers to grace us with one of the show's outstanding musical episodes.
The scene: It's bedtime. Bart, Lisa, and Maggie are being tucked in by Shary, and demand that she sings a song. After a bit, she relents. She shakes up a snow globe, and within it we see Barney Gumble in the gutter in front of Moe's Tavern. She sings: (and this is from memory, so please tell me if it's wrong!)
SHARY: In front of a tavern
Flat on his face
A boozehound named Barney
Is pleading his case…
BARNEY: Buy me a beer, two bucks a glass
Come on, help me, I'm freezing my ass
Buy me brandy, a snifter of wine —
Who am I kidding? I'll drink turpentine!
MOE: Move it, ya drunk! or I'll blast your rear end!
BARNEY: I found two bucks!
MOE: Then come in, my friend.
(Pan back out from the snowglobe.)
SHARY: And now, let us leave
On this heartwarming scene…
BART: (almost asleep) Can I be…a boozehound…
HOMER: (tenderly) Not 'til you're 15.
This song is typical of the best of what The Simpsons once could do: good jokes set to great music. A Boozehound Named Barney's music stands on its own; you could go around all day humming the song without even thinking about the humor behind its lyrics.
The song became available outside the show on the album Go Simpsonic with the Simpsons, the second album of music from the show (Songs in the Key of Springfield being the first). It was composed by Alf Clausen, and the lyrics were written by Al Jean and Michael Reiss.
Uberbanana says: You may wish to note that the song itself is a parody of "Feed The Birds," which Mary Poppins sings to the children to put them to sleep. It is about an old woman on the steps of St. Paul's Cathedral asking people to buy her bags of crumbs to feed the birds.
I must admit, I haven't actually seen Mary Poppins in oh, 15 years…