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Subject: Buy Broom Buzzems From: GUEST,T in Oklahoma (Okiemockbird) Date: 21 Jan 00 - 08:55 PM X: 1 T: Buy Broom Buzzems C: 19th c. Northumbrian, from John Stokoe, ed., Northumbrian Minstrelsy (Bagpipe), Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1882, page 6. M: 3/4 K: G L: 1/4 G/B/d/e/c/A/ | G/B/d/e/ c | G/B/d/e/c/A/ | B/G/G/E/ c :| A A F/D/ | G/G/G/B/ c | A A F/D/ | G/B/c/A/ G :|| T.
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Subject: Buy Broom Besoms? From: Barbara Date: 22 Jan 00 - 01:41 AM I think the word is "besoms" not "buzzems". That's what brooms were called before they were brooms, but instead were besoms made of broom (the plant). Blessings, Barbara |
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Subject: RE: Tune Add: Buy Broom Buzzems From: Brendy Date: 22 Jan 00 - 02:01 AM Interesting tune, unusual title. Do you know the origins of it, or is there any kind of indication as to it's parentage? B. |
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Subject: RE: Tune Add: Buy Broom Buzzems From: Alan of Australia Date: 22 Jan 00 - 07:07 AM G'day, Thanks Tim, the tune is now here at the Mudcat MIDI site.
Cheers, |
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Subject: RE: Tune Add: Buy Broom Buzzems From: GUEST,Okiemockbird Date: 22 Jan 00 - 10:21 AM Alan, thanks for setting that up. I suspect the word is a dialectical variant pronunciation of "besoms", but the source (Stokoe's smallpipe tune book of 1882) clearly has "buzzems", both in the table of contents and on the page where the melody is printed. T. |
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Subject: RE: Tune Add: Buy Broom Buzzems From: GUEST Date: 22 Jan 00 - 06:34 PM In DT as "buy broom besoms" or "I maun hae a wife" |
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Subject: RE: Tune Add: Buy Broom Buzzems From: Abby Sale Date: 22 Jan 00 - 11:32 PM It's "buzzems" in Geordie, "besoms" in Scots. DT has the Scots version. MacColl well sings it. (I do too.) When we lived in Scotland - to 1975, besom brooms (or broom brooms) were still used by street sweepers & I think I heard a couple of years ago they still were. But they're far better suited to rough surfaces - not much good on linoleum, so housewives don't use them now. We did hear some street vendors' calls but never for broom. |
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Subject: RE: Tune Add: Buy Broom Buzzems From: Abby Sale Date: 23 Jan 00 - 09:53 AM DT gives that the song is "Collected by Robert Burns." Almost certainly this comes from Ewan MacColl's fine Songs of Robert Burns (Folkways, 1959). But I had a look in Dick's The Songs of Robert Burns, and it does not appear. While Dick (1902, with updates) is not exactly gospel, it is superb and has extensive notes. Burns was certainly familiar with "I maun hae a wife" and used the tune for a last political satire, "Wha will by my troggin?" Dick feels that the Northumbrian song was popular in the south of Scotland but that it does not appear in any Scottish collection, including printed Burns or Burns' manuscripts. FYI, Dick goes on (following B & S) that the song is attributed, without evidence, to William Purvis ("Blind Willie") "an eccentric blind fiddler born in Newcastle in 1752." It "was Willie's chef d'oeuvre in the streets and public houses that he frequented." |
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Subject: RE: Tune Add: Buy Broom Buzzems From: GUEST,Okiemockbird Date: 23 Jan 00 - 10:01 AM The tune I added is the same as in the DT, with the difference that both the A and B sections are repeated, as in a dance-tune. T. |
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Subject: RE: Tune Add: Buy Broom Buzzems From: Penny S. Date: 24 Jan 00 - 07:43 AM Besoms are the best thing for loose fallen leaves, and pretty good for thinnish dry snow. Unfortunately, also good for getting the neighbours children to look at one very oddly. (Sometimes, on second thoughts, this might be useful.) Thank you for reminding me I need to buy a new one. Penny |
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Subject: RE: Tune Add: Buy Broom Buzzems From: GeorgeH Date: 24 Jan 00 - 08:48 AM If the descriptions of Besoms so far given aren't adequate for anyone reading this thread . . the traditional Halloween witch is actually riding on a bessom, not a broomstick. G. |
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Subject: RE: Tune Add: Buy Broom Buzzems From: Amos Date: 24 Jan 00 - 06:56 PM Wow! The things you learn on MudCat! Riding on a Besom...er, witches ridin' on a boats'n...no...riding on a buxom...er, bosom...aw shucks, this is sure interesting stuff!! |
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Subject: RE: Tune Add: Buy Broom Buzzems From: John Nolan Date: 24 Jan 00 - 09:34 PM The Scottish Border town of Coldtream has a pub called The Besom, but whether this refers to a broom or a contemptuous word for a woman (both meanings are common in the local dialect) is hard to say. If in that neck of the woods, The Crown or The Newcastle Arms are more highly recommended, incidently. Additional useless information: I maun Hae a Wife (Broom Besoms) is in Ewan MacColl's Folk Songs and Ballads of Scotland, and the frontispiece of this book consists of a picture of Coldstream. The Besom is situated in the center of the etching, halway between Charlie's Monument and the Parish Church tower. Ah maun hae another gin and tonic. |
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Subject: RE: Tune Add: Buy Broom Buzzems From: Amos Date: 24 Jan 00 - 11:05 PM ..And he'd wander thru town Does anyone want to by broom? Sweet Brroooom! Does anyone want to buy broom? |
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Subject: RE: Tune Add: Buy Broom Buzzems From: GUEST,Rab Date: 25 Jan 00 - 11:34 AM Scottish singer, Davy Steele, sings 'Buy Broom Besoms' in The Complete Songs of Robert Burns, Vol 4. In Scotland, we call naughty children 'wee besoms'. |
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Subject: ADD: Buy Broom Buzzems From: Conrad Bladey (Peasant- Inactive) Date: 03 Mar 00 - 10:01 AM Buy Broom Buzzems If you want a bussem for to sweep your hoose, Chorus Buzzems for a penny, Rangers for a plack; If aw had a horse, aw wad hev a cairt; Had aw but a wife, aw care not what she be-- If she liked a drop--her an' aw'd agree, |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Buy Broom Buzzems From: zander (inactive) Date: 03 Mar 00 - 02:35 PM The song is actualy called 'Buy Broom Besoms', a besom is a broom or brush made from heather. Dave. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Buy Broom Buzzems From: GUEST,Philippa Date: 03 Mar 00 - 02:41 PM WE had a discussion of besoms and buzzems in the January thread about the same song. Great to see sheet music on the forum. But how did you DO that, Conrad? I certainly didn't see anything like that in the HTML threads! |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Buy Broom Buzzems From: MMario Date: 03 Mar 00 - 02:43 PM and there are at least three versions in the DT. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Buy Broom Buzzems From: GUEST Date: 03 Mar 00 - 02:46 PM http://www.mudcat.org/thread.CFM?threadID=17308#168096 I don't know why the link above isn't working. The thread Tune add: Buy Broom Buzzems, Jan 2000. So you can find it by resetting the filter, if nothing else works. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Buy Broom Buzzems From: MMario Date: 03 Mar 00 - 02:53 PM is that what those broken icons are? sheet music?
I believe it is the whole enclosed in angle brackets |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Buy Broom Buzzems From: Malcolm Douglas Date: 03 Mar 00 - 04:37 PM January thread (top of the page): Tune Add: Buy Broom Besoms And, on the Database: Filename BROOMBES: BUY BROOM BESOMS (Seeds of Love version); Filename BROMBES2: Scottish version (with notes); and Filename BROMBES3: Scottish version. Malcolm |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Buy Broom Buzzems From: Conrad Bladey (Peasant- Inactive) Date: 03 Mar 00 - 06:26 PM sorry folks I did a search and it came up blank... I used the title as written I searched the dt not the forums though.... I try to post the whole lyric only if a dt search comes up blank but I am not going to use alternative titles. I am working from sources with the actual titles... buzzems is the correct spelling in the sources. Conrad |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Buy Broom Buzzems From: MMario Date: 04 Mar 00 - 02:21 PM with odd words or words with multiple spellings, it's sometimes (usually) better to search using a much more common word. In this case, "broom" brought up the three varients real quick. The search takes a while before you learn the tricks.... |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Buy Broom Buzzems From: Gypsy Date: 04 Mar 00 - 05:47 PM and when i first heard it, the title was: Fine Broon Besoms. Go ahead. say it fast |
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Subject: Lyr Add: BROOM BUSOMS (from John Bell) From: Conrad Bladey (Peasant- Inactive) Date: 07 Apr 00 - 09:58 AM From Rhymes of Northern Bards edited by John Bell, Newcastle upon Tyne: "Printed for J. Bell by M. Angus", 1812, page 298ff: BROOM BUSOMS.* 1. If ye want a busom, For to sweep your house; Come to me, my lasses, Ye ma ha' your choose. CHORUS: Buy broom busoms, Buy them when they're new, Buy broom busoms, Better never grew. 2. If I had a horse, I would have a cart; If I had a wife, She would take my part. 3. Had I but a wife, I care not who she be; If she be a woman, That's enough for me. 4. If she lik'd a drop, Her and I'd agree; If she did not like it, There's the more for me. *Besoms, so pronounced. To the foregoing Verses, Blind Willy (the native Minstrel of Newcastle) has added the following simple Rhymes: — 5. Up the Butcher Bank, And down Byker Chare; There you'll see the lasses, Selling brown ware. 6. Along the Quayside, Stop at Russell's Entry; There you'll see the beer drawer, She is standing sentry. 7. If you want an oyster, For to taste your mouth, Call at Handy Walker's, He's a bonny youth. 8. Call at Mr Loggie's, He does sell good wine; There you'll see the beer drawer, She is very fine. 9. If you want an orange, Ripe and full of juice; Gan to Hannah Black, There you'll get your choose. 10. Call at Mr Turner's, At the Queen's Head; He'll not set you away, Without a piece bread. 11. Down the river side, As far as Dent's Hole; There you'll see the cuckolds, Working at the coal. |
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Subject: RE: Add: Buy Broom Buzzems /Broom Busoms From: nutty Date: 01 Mar 06 - 02:28 PM New discoveries are made all the time and this one is in the FARNE Archive. Possibly the definitive Geordie version .......... Broom Busoms |
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Subject: RE: Add: Buy Broom Buzzems /Broom Busoms From: TheBigPinkLad Date: 01 Mar 06 - 02:48 PM Marvellous, nutty. The last word of line 3 is Lasses, right? |
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Subject: RE: Add: Buy Broom Buzzems /Broom Busoms From: bazza Date: 01 Mar 06 - 03:46 PM In A surrey garden centre besoms £88 each |
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Subject: RE: Add: Buy Broom Buzzems /Broom Busoms From: nutty Date: 01 Mar 06 - 05:15 PM There's a problem with the link but I think it lies with FARNE not Mudcat. I checked the link earlier and it worked fine. |
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Subject: RE: Add: Buy Broom Buzzems /Broom Busoms From: TheBigPinkLad Date: 01 Mar 06 - 05:45 PM Thant's weird, nutty. Exactly what happened with the link in the other thread (Waters of Tyne). The link didn't work, then I visited the site, then the link worked. Strange. This is the gobbledegook for the link: http://www.asaplive.com/archive/show_images.asp?id=R1003701&image=1 |
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Subject: RE: Add: Buy Broom Buzzems /Broom Busoms From: nutty Date: 01 Mar 06 - 05:47 PM It's working for me again now ..... |
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Subject: RE: Add: Buy Broom Buzzems /Broom Busoms From: Malcolm Douglas Date: 01 Mar 06 - 09:53 PM The search function at FARNE seems to have been designed so that results can't be linked to externally. If a link works for a while, and then not until you've run the search again, that may be because the result is in a temporary cache somewhere; but the technicalities are too complicated for me. The site was designed to impress visually rather than for ease of use. Arts Council grants do sometimes lead to that. My own experience is that the only reliable way to direct people to material there is to give a link to the search function and tell them exactly what to type into it. That's clumsy and a waste of time; perhaps there is a better way that some kind soul who understands the scripting issues involved might be able to explain for us. |
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Subject: RE: Add: Buy Broom Buzzems /Broom Busoms From: shepherdlass Date: 02 Mar 06 - 05:39 PM Further to Malcolm's comments, yes, FARNE can be awkward to access, but it's really worth the effort - there's some great stuff on there -lots of digitally reproduced pages from source books and broadsheets and some fantastic sound recordings. If at first you don't succeed ... honestly, try again. Likewise Conrad Bladey's website, Byeuk of Newcassel Sangs - well worth a visit. By the way, Conrad, good to see you back on the 'cat. It seems like a while since I've seen you post anything. |
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Subject: RE: Add: Buy Broom Buzzems /Broom Busoms From: Megan L Date: 02 Mar 06 - 06:31 PM this brought back memories I mind oan as a bairn all the forestry land hid racks o besoms in case of forest fire, my big brother aye used tae kid me that the carlins wir haein a meetin in the wids. I weel mind pittin up a cry if onybuddy called ye a wee besom o " A besoms a broom fur sweepin the room but ahm the meenisters daughter>" |
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Subject: RE: Add: Buy Broom Buzzems /Broom Busoms From: Betsy Date: 03 Mar 06 - 05:56 AM The message from Conrad Bladey 03 Mar 00 - 10:01 AM is the version I know - and the Besoms / buzzems debate is neither here nor there - simply people's ways of trying to write down the way in which Geordies speak.( For people outside of UK, Geordies are native to the city of Newcastle in Northern England and have and are proud of their very strong accent - somewhere between English and Scottish). Anyway the version Conrad mentioned, lends itself to a good "sales pitch" for the Besoms - simple lines with a bit of human interest to get potential customers listening or hooked. A bit further south from Newcastle near the Lake District comes a song about a young lady selling the same articles,called the " Lish Young-Buy- a-Broom ". Don't know for certain , but I always believed "lish" was a corruption of " delicious ". Besom / besson / buzzem / bezom / broom take your choice, they are all modern day - brush - presumably from the same use as in brush fire. |
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Subject: RE: Add: Buy Broom Buzzems /Broom Busoms From: TheBigPinkLad Date: 03 Mar 06 - 12:58 PM Geordies are native to the city of Newcastle You could start an argument there, Betsy! ;o) lish (I've seen it spelled and pronounced leish, just like the thing you haul the dog around on) means thin in the not-fat sense. So perhaps--not skinny--but fit: Oh wha's leik my Johnny Sae leish, sae blithe sae bonny? He's foermost mong tha mony Keel lads o' Coaly Tyne - The Keel Row |
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Subject: RE: Add: Buy Broom Buzzems /Broom Busoms From: Malcolm Douglas Date: 03 Mar 06 - 08:22 PM For more on The Lish Young Buy-a Broom (both the song and the meaning of the word), see thread Lish Young Buy a Broom. Note that the discussion contains some rather eccentric speculation as well as hard facts. |
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Subject: RE: Add: Buy Broom Buzzems /Broom Busoms From: Betsy Date: 04 Mar 06 - 06:21 AM Hiya Big Pink Lad and Malcolm. 'Tis true - the Geordie definition was rather over-simplified, but I was trying give people outside the UK a very brief description . I had a look at Malcolm's link and have no problem in concurring with Kenny Cunningham's view. I sing the same version as that attributed to Tim Hart and Maddy Prior. I got the words form Geoff Woods (he was known affectionately as "Professor") in the late 60's having been introduced to him by Bob Spray – I think in the Adelphi pub. He said the he collection of the song in went back to 1947. Seeing all the investigative info on Malcolm's link – maybe it was the version was attributable to 1947 and Geoff had simply REVIVED the song – who knows ?. Either way – Geoff was a most interesting, knowledgeable and entertaining person. |
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Subject: RE: Add: Buy Broom Buzzems /Broom Busoms From: GUEST,eoin o'buadhaigh Date: 04 Mar 06 - 02:23 PM Also used in parts of Ulster, Tommy Sands lent me an album of his parents singing (recorded in Germany)and they sang a beautiful version of this song. eoin |
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Subject: RE: Add: Buy Broom Buzzems /Broom Busoms From: Jack Blandiver Date: 14 Jul 08 - 08:20 AM I've been gathering up stray verses for Buy Broom Buzzems over the years, noting that Bruce & Stokoe deliberately omitted Blind Willie Purvis's additions from the Minstrelsy as been somehow extraneous to the sense of the song. If that be fruitful, what a joy is there; If that she be barren less will be my care. If that she be bonny I wad think hor reet; If that she be ugly, wheor's the odds at neet? If that she be young how happy I wad be; If that she be owld, the sooner she will die. Be she green or grey, be she black or fair, Let her be a woman, I shall seek nay mair. Young and supple I was when at Leatherslack; noo I'm owld and frail I lier at Nancy's back. Young and supple I was, I could lowp the dyke; Noo I'm owld an frail I darenae step a syke. Had she gi'en me butter, when she gae me breed, I wad luckit balder, wi me baldie heed. |
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Subject: Lyr Add: BROOM BESOMS (from Robert Burns) From: Jim Dixon Date: 22 Jan 13 - 03:23 PM From Stevens's Historical Collections, Part 1 by Henry Stevens (Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, 1881), page 13: 90 BURNS (ROBERT, Poet) TWO MANUSCRIPT SONGS, written on a single quarto sheet and neatly bound in limp red morocco, entirely in the well-known autograph of the Poet. For the sake of collation and identification these Songs are here given entire. [A] BROOM BESOMS. 1. I maun hae a wife, whatsoe'er she be; An she be a woman, that's eneugh for me. Chorus: Buy broom besoms! wha will buy them now; Fine heather ringers, better never grew. 2. If that she [be] bony, I shall think her right If that she be ugly, where's the odds at night? 3. O, an she be young, how happy shall I be! If that she be auld, the sooner she will die. 4. If that she be fruitfu', O! what joy is there! If she should be barren, less will be my care. 5. If she like a drappie, she & I'll agree; If she dinna like it, there's the mair for me. 6. Be she green, or gray; be she black or fair; Let her be a woman, I shall seek nae mair. [B] 1. Young and souple was I, when I lap the dyke; Now I'm auld and frail, I downa step a syke. Chorus: Buy broom besoms! wha will buy them now; Fine heather ringers, better never grew. 2. Young & souple was I, when at Lauthers lack; Now I'm auld & frail, & lie at Nansie's back. 3. Had she gien me butter, when she gae me bread, I wad looked baulder, wi' my beld head. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Buy Broom Buzzems / Buy Broom Besoms From: GUEST,Gerry Date: 23 Jan 13 - 12:06 AM There's a recording of Buy Broom Besoms on the 1999 album by Scalene (Sandra Kerr, Nancy Kerr, and James Fagan). |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Buy Broom Buzzems / Buy Broom Besoms From: Rumncoke Date: 25 Jan 13 - 04:22 PM If you want a bezzum for to beat your wife better get a good one to last you all her life I think that is the only verse I have that has not been mentioned yet - sing it if you dare..... I'll look out the book and check for any more. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Buy Broom Buzzems / Buy Broom Besoms From: GUEST,Penny Date: 05 Feb 19 - 10:44 AM No one has explained to me what “ Rangers for a plack” means. Can anyone enlighten me please? |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Buy Broom Buzzems / Buy Broom Besoms From: Reinhard Date: 05 Feb 19 - 12:05 PM According to the Dictionary of the Scottish Language, a plack was "a small Scottish coin, originally of billon but later of copper, issued by James III. c.1470, and later monarchs till the Union of the Crowns in 1603. It was valued at four pennies Scots or one third of an English penny." See also the line "But ye must pay them plack and farthin' before on board ye go" in the song Caledonia (Roud 5543). |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Buy Broom Buzzems / Buy Broom Besoms From: GUEST,Andrew Calhoun Date: 06 Feb 20 - 07:10 PM Buy Broom Besoms and Young and Souple Was I are different songs. Burns had an apparently incomplete version of "Sair Fyel'd, Hinny," https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.c034406758&view=1up&seq=110 which encompasses all but the "beld head" entendre from "Young and Souple," and has an appropriate chorus and much finer last verse that brings the song together. It is in Northumbrian Minstrelsy. The lyric is "Young and Lusty Was I" in Northumberland, and a tune of that title is in the Atkinson MS of 1695. Burns indicated "same tune, same chorus" for "Young and "Souple," but the chorus of "Buy Broom Besoms" does not work with the lyric. No one stands on the street and sings sadly of their E.D. in order to sell broom. "I Maun Hae a Wife" was indeed on MacColl's Songs of Robert Burns, but (as with "Cauld Kail in Aberdeen" on the same LP), Burns never claimed to have written it, and it bears no mark of his style. The Caledonian Museum (1825) has a craggier version of the tune, and Matt Seattle published a third variant, "The Busoms," from an undated Scottish MS in his book O'er the Hills and Far Away in 2006. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Buy Broom Buzzems / Buy Broom Besoms From: Jim McLean Date: 07 Feb 20 - 02:42 PM In Scotland, Paisley anyway, besom pronounced 'bizum' was used as a word describing a rascal or similar as in 'cheeky wee bizum' but always a female. |
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