The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #80545   Message #1469787
Posted By: Azizi
24-Apr-05 - 10:32 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Add: Lazy Mary Will You Get Up
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: LAZY MARY - Will You Get Up
The words to this song as provided by Iona and Peter Opie's The Singing Game {Oxford University Press, 1985, pps. 269-270} are:

Lazy Mary, will you get up, will you get up, will you get up,
Lazy Mary, will you get up, will you get up today?

No, Mother, I won't get up, I won't get up, I won't get up,
No, Mother, I won't get up, I won't get up today.

What will you give me if I get up? etc.

A slice of bread and a cup of tea. etc.

No, Mother I won't get up, etc.

What will you give me if I get up? etc.

A hunk of bread and a slice of cheese, etc.

No, Mother I won't get up, etc.

What will you give me if I get up? etc.

A hunk of fat and a roasted rat, etc.

No, Mother I won't get up, etc.

What will you give me if I get up? etc.

A nice young man with rosy cheeks, etc.

Yes, Mother, I will get up, I will get up, I will get up,
Yes, Mother, I will get up, I will get up today.

Lazy Mary, you had to get up, you had to get up, you had to get up,
Lazy Mary, you had to get up, you had to get up today.
-snip-

This game song's performance is described as:
"A ring with mother and daughter in the centre, the daughter with closed eyes. The mother advances and retreats. Not surprisingly the game does not appear in any collections aimed at children...Crofton found it jumbled up with other games in Dukinfield, Chesire, c1875. The daughter sits with 'wi' pinny up to her face' in the ring and asked
       What shall I have to my breakfast,
       If I get up today?
       Tea and toast to your breakfast
       If you get up today.
       No, Mother, no! I winna get up,
       I winna get up today.

It had become entangled with 'The Keys of Heaven' in Devon and Somerset by the 1920s, but by that time was fully alive as an independent game in the United States and Dublin, wher is was 'still very popular' in 1975."

end of quote.

I presume that the Opies were referring to the game being 'still very popular' in Dublin in 1975 and not in the United States.

I have no recollection of "Lazy Mary" from my childhood. Nor do I remember the song performed by any pre-schools or otherwise during my childrens' childhood. And there has been no mention whatsoever of this song in my informal gams song collection from 1997 to date [primarily among African Americans in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania region.]

****

Sinsull, I've never heard the Calypso song that you mentioned.
But I'll be on the look-out for it in the Calypso books & records that I have and I'll post the information if I find any.