Lyr Req: Pease Brose

Subject: Northern folksong ?
From: GUEST,Helen Stradling
Date: 15 Oct 11 - 03:17 PM

Can anyone please help me identify a Northern U.K. folksong my grandmother used to sing, about hard times. She was of Scottish parentage, but spent her early childhood in the Newcastle area, so I'm not exactly sure of the provenance.
I only remember a small snatch of the song, which was sung rather like a dirge.
I'm not sure of the spelling of the second word, as it means nothing to me.
The few lines I remember are :

             Peas roes again, Mother,
             Peas roes again.
             You feed me like a blackbird
             And me your only bairn.

             Peas roes again, Mother,
             Peas roes again.

I do hope somebody recognises it.

Thank you,

Helen Stradling,
Penarth,
South Wales



            
,

Subject: RE: Northern folksong
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 15 Oct 11 - 03:56 PM

Seems that it should be Pease Brose. The Roud Folksong Index shows one entry for the song, collected in Canada: Pease Brose - from Andrew Stewart(& friends). There is no Roud Number on the entry, so I can't see if there are any more in the index.

There is also this Pease Brose, which is at the School of Scottish Studies, which give:

  Pease brose again, mither, pease brose again.
  You feed me like a blackbird, Ah'll suin be like a hen.

The index says one verse fragment only. Clicking the similar link there gave another entry (Pease Brose) with words:

  Pease brose again, mither, pease brose again,
  Feed me like a blackbird for Ah'm yer only wean,
  Pease brose again, mither, pease brose again.


There is a version here in the Digital Tradition: Pease Brose Again Mither.


A google search on Pease Brose Again will get you several refeences in books and recordings.

It appears to be a children's rhyme, but the DT reference suggests a fuller version exits.

Mick

Subject: RE: Northern folksong
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 15 Oct 11 - 04:06 PM

There is a three verse version here (CD lyrics sheet): Pease Brose - Jennifer Culley Curtin - just over half way down. She says she got it from the singing of Jean Redpath on a Praire Home Companion and that the words may not be reliable!



Mick

Subject: RE: Northern folksong
From: GUEST,Helen Stradling
Date: 16 Oct 11 - 12:39 PM

Thank you so much for your help, Mick. It's interesting to see the different versions. I was delighted to hear the tune, too, which is as my Grandmother used to sing it.
Good to have the proper title words as well: I'd never come across the word 'brose', which apparently just means 'porridge'
Interesting also that the 'snatch' I remembered is, in fact, the whole piece.
There was a distant hope that I might get a response to my quest one day, but I never wxpected such a prompt and helpful one.
Thanks again

Subject: RE: Northern folksong
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 16 Oct 11 - 03:32 PM

I'm glad it was some help Helen.

The longer version referred to in the DT here is from RCSB II, which I believe is the Rebels Ceilidh Song Book. I don't have access to a copy, but maybe Jim Maclean who does post here sometimes and was a contributor to some of the RCSB may have a copy. I'll send him a message and see.

Check back on this thread over the next few days and see if a longer version appears.

Mick

Subject: RE: Northern folksong
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 16 Oct 11 - 03:34 PM

Sorry that should have read Jim McLean! Apologies Jim.

Mick

Subject: RE: Northern folksong
From: BobKnight
Date: 16 Oct 11 - 08:18 PM

Brose and porridge are similiar, but not the same.

Subject: RE: Northern folksong
From: Jim McLean
Date: 17 Oct 11 - 06:14 AM

Hi Mick, I don't think it's in the RCSB as I have a couple of copies , original and later version and it's not there. I knew the song from childhood and our version was:
Pease brose again, Mither, pease brose again,
Ye feed me like a craw, Maw, an' me your only wean.
Enoch Kent used to sing it, I remember.

P.S. Being pedantic, Scotland is Northen UK, Newcastle is in northern England.

Subject: RE: Northern folksong
From: Jim McLean
Date: 17 Oct 11 - 06:52 AM

pease brose

Sroll down this page and click to play Pease Brose. It's not complete but gives some other verses.

Subject: RE: Northern folksong
From: Jim McLean
Date: 17 Oct 11 - 06:54 AM

Sorry, click on the top name "Enoch Kent take a trip with me" and THEN scroll down to the song title.

Subject: RE: Northern folksong
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 17 Oct 11 - 07:11 AM

Thanks for looking Jim and for your version.

The reason I thought the ref in the DT was to the Rebels book is that I took the song provider, given as MS, to be Murray Shoolbraid and in another post Coronation Coronach from Murray on Saltspring (who I think is Murray Shoolbraid) he uses the same abbreviation. From my reading there was a suggestion that there were some other occasional pamphlets in the series (apart from the 53 and 65 ones), maybe it was from one of those. (Or maybe he got the reference wrong!).

Thanks again.
Mick

Subject: RE: Northern folksong
From: Susan of DT
Date: 17 Oct 11 - 08:11 AM

Yes, Mick. Murray contributed quite a bit a while ago.

Subject: RE: Northern folksong
From: Willa
Date: 17 Oct 11 - 08:22 AM

Janet Russell sings Gie Ma Love Brose (R Burns ) on her CD Love Songs and Fighting Talk

Subject: RE: Northern folksong
From: Snuffy
Date: 19 Oct 11 - 09:44 AM

It reminds me somewhat of a German rhyme with a similar complaint about mother's cooking:

Sauerkraut und Rüben
Die haben mich vertrieben.
Hätt' die Mutter Fleisch gekocht
Wär ich zu Haus' geblieben

Which translates roughly as: Sauerkraut and turnips drove me away. If Mum had ever cooked meat I'd have stayed at home.

Subject: RE: Northern folksong
From: Jim McLean
Date: 26 Oct 11 - 09:49 AM

I have just received a copy of the Rebel Ceilidh Song Book '67 from Ewan McVicar as my copy has been 'mislaid'. I'm glad I stopped giving those drunken parties and since then my library has remained intact!
Here are the lyrics of Pease Brose as sung by Enoch Kent:

Pease Brose again, Mither, Pease Brose again,
Ye feed me like a blackbird. An ah'm yer only wean.
Ither laddies in the street, they talk o' tatties mashed wi' meat,
Some o' them ha'e chappit neeps, but wi' you it's no' the same.

Pease Brose again, Mither, Pease Brose again,
Yer faither isnae workin, cannae bring the money hame.
On the Mersey an' the Clyde, whaur workin' men o' skill ha'e pride,
Poverty's gey hard tae bide, unemployment is a shame.

Peyed aff again, mither, peyed aff again,
My faither's aye been keen on graft, sae tell me whit's tae blame.
When ither nations ha'e the need, o' tugs an tankers, ships o' speed,
Ma faither's no' a man o' greed but worthy o' his claim.

Pase Brose again, son, Pease Brose again,
The cause o' aa the trouble is very hard tae name.
But aa that European talk, whit wis the use tae Scouse or Jock,
When they walk the streets in search o' work,
An' fruitless they come hame.

It'll be Pease Brose again.

Subject: RE: Northern folksong
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 26 Oct 11 - 01:26 PM

Jim

Thanks for posting that.

Do I take it that the other verses were written by Enoch Kent?

(And, btw, the 3-verse version I referred to at 15Oct11,04:06 appears to be 3 one verse snatches from different songs).

Mick

Subject: RE: Northern folksong
From: open mike
Date: 26 Oct 11 - 06:18 PM

is this like split pea soup?

Subject: Lyr Add: PEASE BROSE (Robert Leighton)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 27 Oct 11 - 12:21 AM

From Rhymes and Poems by Robert Leighton (London: Simpkin, Marshall & Co., 1861), page 13:


PEASE BROSE.

The mighty earl of Eglinton,
With lords and ladies fair,
Over his wide domain has gone
To hunt the timid hare.

Over the lawns, and across the brooks.
And adown the rushy dells,
Through woods that ring with noisy rooks,
And along the clanging fells.

But a sudden storm o'erran the day
As they scour'd an open field;
And fain were they to bend their way
To a tenant's lowly bield.

As in beneath the sheltering sheds
The courtly riders wheel,
They come on a group of curly heads
Around their mid-day meal.

And some remark'd their sun-bleach'd hair,
And some their bright blue eyes;
But what the nature of their fare
No lordling could surmise.

Then turn'd they to the earl each one—
Not even his earlship knows.
"What's that you eat?" asked Eglinton.
They answer him "Pease Brose."

"Pease Brose to dinner! brose alone!
With neither boil nor stew!
But say, what did you breakfast on?"
They answer, "Pease Brose too.''

"Such food for pigs were better fit!—
Yet say, my little men,
What kind of supper do you get?"—
"O juist Pease Brose again."

"Pease Brose! and still again Pease Brose!
What does your father do
With all the oats and wheat he grows?
Eggs, cheese, and butter too?"

The eldest cried with half a frown,
As down his spoon he throws,
"That greedy sinner Eglinton
Leaves naething but Pease Brose!"

The red broke through the earl's pale face,
The blue broke through the day,
He spurr'd his charger to the chase,
And swiftly they rode away.

But the curly heads coursed in his mind—
For so the story goes—
And ever after that they dined
On better than Pease Brose.