North East songs



Had a lovely big book of them in my childhood, but can't find it online. Sorry.

Won't be back to be able to rifle the music drawer until Christmas, that's if my sister hasn't nicked it on the principle that she's the only one of us who played the piano.
 
The kids are getting to an age when they like nursery rhymes and songs sung to them.

I'd like to sing them some proper Northern songs so they know their heritage and the accent before they go to school and start talking like Spurs fans.

I've got the lyrics to When the Boat Comes in off wiki, but there seem to be two versions - what's the consensus, wise SMB?

And any other other good Northern songs should I sign to them?
Blaydon Races.
 
The kids are getting to an age when they like nursery rhymes and songs sung to them.

I'd like to sing them some proper Northern songs so they know their heritage and the accent before they go to school and start talking like Spurs fans.

I've got the lyrics to When the Boat Comes in off wiki, but there seem to be two versions - what's the consensus, wise SMB?

And any other other good Northern songs should I sign to them?

I sing footy chants to the kids - they love it. We were at a Brno game and they were singing to the tune of 'Sunderland til I die' and the boy shouts 'dad theyre singing our Sunderland song wrong' :lol:
 
"He's the best of ony, his face it is so bonny, we'll call him Tommy he's the picture of his dad."

Always liked that one. Good to dandle bairns to as well.
 
The kids are getting to an age when they like nursery rhymes and songs sung to them.

I'd like to sing them some proper Northern songs so they know their heritage and the accent before they go to school and start talking like Spurs fans.

I've got the lyrics to When the Boat Comes in off wiki, but there seem to be two versions - what's the consensus, wise SMB?

And any other other good Northern songs should I sign to them?

I imagine you as being the gawky guy with the face furniture at 1.41. Those poor kids. Let them enjoy their Little Mix and Taylor Swift FFS.

 
I vaguely remember that but don't know the words?
I'm a broken hearted keel man and I'm ower-heed in love
With young lass from Gateshead, and I call her my dove.
Her name's Cushie Butterfield and she sells yella clay,
And her cousin is a muckman and they call him Tom Gray.

SHE'S ....


A....

BIG LASS AND A BONNY LASS
And she likes her beer.
And they call her Cushie Butterfield
And I wish she was here.
 
I imagine you as being the gawky guy with the face furniture at 1.41. Those poor kids. Let them enjoy their Little Mix and Taylor Swift FFS.

They're 9 months, man.

I'm a broken hearted keel man and I'm ower-heed in love
With young lass from Gateshead, and I call her my dove.
Her name's Cushie Butterfield and she sells yella clay,
And her cousin is a muckman and they call him Tom Gray.

SHE'S ....


A....

BIG LASS AND A BONNY LASS
And she likes her beer.
And they call her Cushie Butterfield
And I wish she was here.
What's the tune though?
 
They're 9 months, man.


What's the tune though?
"Pretty Polly Perkins of Paddington Green'. It was written as a piss take of them down south and their fancy London ways.

By the way Cushie was real, and the writer (Geordie Ridley) had to leave town for a while after he wrote it as she wasn't happy and set her cousin Tom Gray the muckman on him. True story.
 
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The kids are getting to an age when they like nursery rhymes and songs sung to them.

I'd like to sing them some proper Northern songs so they know their heritage and the accent before they go to school and start talking like Spurs fans.

I've got the lyrics to When the Boat Comes in off wiki, but there seem to be two versions - what's the consensus, wise SMB?

And any other other good Northern songs should I sign to them?

I don't know which two versions you've got but the original is Dance To Thy Daddy by William Watson and was first published in 1840, and the words were rewritten for the television series When The Boat Comes In.

Watson's is what's known as a 'dandling song', something you'd sing while dandling a bairn on your knee, although its subject matter is a bit unusual for this. Every verse is about drink or getting drunk: "Here's thy mother humming" = "Yer ma's pissed", "Our Tommy's always fuddling" = "Yer brother's always pissed", "I like a drop mysel'" = "I'm always pissed", etc.

Maybe that's why the words were changed. It's a great song though and with a chorus that bairns seem to enjoy, so you can't go wrong until yours start learning early nineteenth north east dialect words.
 
I don't know which two versions you've got but the original is by William Watson and was first published in 1840, and the words were rewritten for the television series When The Boat Comes In.

Watson's is what's known as a 'dandling song', something you'd sing while dandling a bairn on your knee, although its subject matter is a bit unusual for this. Every verse is about drink or getting drunk: "Here's thy mother humming" = "Yer ma's pissed", "Our Tommy's always fuddling" = "Yer brother's always pissed", "I like a drop mysel'" = "I'm always pissed", etc.

Maybe that's why the words were changed. It's a great song though and with a chorus that bairns seem to enjoy, so you can't go wrong until yours start learning early nineteenth north east dialect words.
Drunk women occur again and again and again in north east songs, which I quite like.
 
"Pretty Polly Perkins of Paddington Green'. It was written as a piss take of them down south and their fancy London ways.

By the way Cushie was real, and the writer (Geordie Ridley) had to leave town for a while after he wrote it as she wasn't happy and set her cousin Tom Gray the muckman on him. True story.

Paddington Green! That's the Nick they always banged the terrorists up in. Reet next to the west way where it comes back down to street level. Think it's shutting down now?
As you were.
 
"Pretty Polly Perkins of Paddington Green'. It was written as a piss take of them down south and their fancy London ways.

By the way Cushie was real, and the writer (Geordie Ridley) had to leave town for a while after he wrote it as she wasn't happy and set her cousin Tom Gray the muckman on him. True story.

Cushy Butterfield is a masterpiece and was Geordie Ridley's best-known song until Blaydon Races was revived long after his death. Pretty Polly Perkins was a well known music hall standard and the audiences would have loved it when Ridley swapped the dainty little Cockney girl for a fat bewer from Gatesheed.

There are lots of similar parodies from that era, and the authors' descriptions of women are like observations by Les Dawson. I love this one by Ned Corvan:

Logon or register to see this image
 
Cushy Butterfield is a masterpiece and was Geordie Ridley's best-known song until Blaydon Races was revived long after his death. Pretty Polly Perkins was a well known music hall standard and the audiences would have loved it when Ridley swapped the dainty little Cockney girl for a fat bewer from Gatesheed.

There are lots of similar parodies from that era, and the authors' descriptions of women are like observations by Les Dawson. I love this one by Ned Corvan:

Logon or register to see this image
Didn't know that one - love it! What's the book?
 
The kids are getting to an age when they like nursery rhymes and songs sung to them.

I'd like to sing them some proper Northern songs so they know their heritage and the accent before they go to school and start talking like Spurs fans.

I've got the lyrics to When the Boat Comes in off wiki, but there seem to be two versions - what's the consensus, wise SMB?

And any other other good Northern songs should I sign to them?
You away like ?
Opposite with mine ,slowly getting mackem speak at school with every passing day
Leave you sleep Natalie merchant has some fab old kids songs on
 

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