The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #9770 Message #4213871
Posted By: GUEST
21-Dec-24 - 10:58 PM
Thread Name: Origins: Little Ball of Yarn
Subject: RE: Origins: Little Ball of Yarn
Heard this song a lot back in the 1960s in Devon and Cornwall, but always with the chorus:
"Sweet Belinda, Sweet Belinda Tell me truly, tell me truly you'll be mine Like the blackbird and the thrush, keep your hand upon your brush And your finger on your little ball of twine".
Guessing that the Sweet Belinda bit was borrowed from another song, and ditto for "twine" replacing "yarn". Who was Belinda, or was the phrase Sweet Belinda a profanity of local (West Country) origin? (I seem to recall Sweet Belinda being shouted rather than sung).