The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #98230   Message #1943011
Posted By: Joe Offer
21-Jan-07 - 12:43 AM
Thread Name: Origins: Oats Peas Beans and Barley
Subject: RE: Oats Peas Beans and Barley
Here's the entry from the Traditional Ballad Index:

Oats and Beans

DESCRIPTION: Playparty ."Oats, (peas/and), beans, and barley grow... Do you or I or anyone know... How oats and beans and barley grow." The farmer plants the seed and waits for harvest; young couples marry and must obey each other.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1898 (Gomme)
KEYWORDS: playparty marriage farming
FOUND IN: Britain(England(All))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Linscott, pp. 46-47, "On the Green Carpet" (1 text, 1 tune, which seems to mix "Green Carpet" and "Oats and Beans)
DT, OATSBEAN (OATSPEAS*)

Roud #1380
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Oats, Peas, Beans
Oats and Beans and Barley Grow
Notes: Gomme has a table (Volume II, p. 11) showing the distribution of the various crops: Oats, beans, barley, wheat, groats, hops. The second Digital Tradition version comes close to the status of parody. - RBW
File: DToatsbe

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Instructions

The Ballad Index Copyright 2006 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.


from Joe Offer: For the sake of completeness, here is the other Digital Tradition version, which is quite different:Peace says he sees two songs "conflated" here - apparently a combination of "Oats: and "Come, my love, and go with me" - I dunno. They seem like more-or-less the same song to me. Now, the Ballad Index says that Linscott 'conflates' "Oats" and "Green Carpet." I can never find Linscott because it's a skinny book. Anybody have it, and can you post the version from Linscott?
Oh, and is the John-and-Tony version available on CD, or could John come over and expain it to us?

As a kid in Detroit in the 1950's, I learned:That's it - no verses. Who needs verses? Verses are for GIRLS.

-Joe-