Help: does anyone know song:Mother McGee

Subject: does anyone know this song
From: GUEST,gillian wilkins
Date: 05 Oct 02 - 03:29 PM

my grandma used to sing me a song,i can only remember a little of it, does anyone have any info?

old mother magee peed in the sea
and poisoned all the fishes in the water.
and what she didnt kill came rolling down the hill
in the middle of the bying water???????#

my gran is no longer with us, i would love to find this tune. thanks gillian

Subject: RE: Help: does anyone know this song
From: GUEST,Sorcha on the IPsite
Date: 05 Oct 02 - 03:33 PM

The main server and search function is down right now, I think it may be here but can't look for it until search is back. Google showed nothing.

Subject: RE: Help: does anyone know this song
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 05 Oct 02 - 03:43 PM

"bying water" - could that have been "Boyne Water"?

Subject: RE: Help: does anyone know this song
From: Sorcha
Date: 07 Oct 02 - 04:10 PM

refresh

Subject: RE: Help: does anyone know this song
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 07 Oct 02 - 04:20 PM

I see a "refresh" by Sorcha 07 Oct 02 - 04:10 PM but the thread list still shows as if last post was the 05 Oct 02 - 03:42 post. (?)

Trying a re-refresh.

John

Subject: RE: Help: does anyone know this song
From: Nerd
Date: 07 Oct 02 - 04:59 PM

Don't know the song, but it could be related to the old Wellerism:

Every little helps, as the old woman said as she peed in the sea

Subject: RE: Help: does anyone know this song
From: Sorcha
Date: 07 Oct 02 - 05:31 PM

The other post that is here is:
Subject: RE: Nasty Nursery Rhymes
From: GUEST,Ivan - PM
Date: 07 Dec 01 - 02:22 PM

Jessie McGuire she pee'd in the fire
The fire was too wee so she peed in the sea
The sea was too wide so she peed in the Clyde
And a' the wee fishes swam up her backside

Subject: RE: Help: does anyone know song:Mother McGee
From: Coyote Breath
Date: 08 Oct 02 - 12:24 PM

One must be very careful about songs sung by grandmothers. If McGofH is right she could have been singing about the Battle of the Boyne but of course with a very "republican", comedic slant on it.

My own Grandmother (the Irish one, her mom and dad came from Old Ross) was an ardent Republican althought she was born in Detroit (at an early age). She used to sing to my dad about the Peelers and the Goat. According to my dad the words were "A buncha Peelers went out one night for duty on patrollero". She also used the toast; "Hop a long ladder (and etc.)." I suspect she might have been hard of hearing, though certainly ardent in her sympathies.

CB

Subject: RE: Help: does anyone know song:Mother McGee
From: Jim McLean
Date: 08 Oct 02 - 01:03 PM

Another Granny chant:
Stand at ease,
Bend your knees,
That's the way ma Granny pees!
Jim Mclean

Subject: Lyr Add: MOTHER MACHREE (Olcott, Ball, Young)
From: Kaleea
Date: 09 Oct 02 - 02:22 AM

Music by Chauncey Olcott & Ernest R. Ball and lyric by Rida Johnson Young.

You might want to look for a recording of this by Kate Smith or Bing Crosby. I can't recall exactly which film Bing sings it in.

Note: If you are planning to sing this for a funeral or to honor one's mother, as I am often asked to do, it goes rather slow, and the tempo is rushed & stretched a bit for emphasis--the expression markings read "Allegretto, ma expressive."

MOTHER MACHREE

Vs. 1 in 6/8
There's a spot in my heart which no colleen may own.
There's a depth in my soul never sounded or known;
There's a place in my mem'ry, my life that you fill,
No other can take it, no one ever will. Sure I...

Refrain written in 3/4; same tempo ("tenderly with much expression" is written on the music):

...Love the dear silver that shines in you hair,
And the brow that's all furrowed, and wrinkled with care.
I kiss the dear fingers so toil worn for me,
OH----, (fermatta) God bless you and keep you,
Mother Machree!

Vs. 2 in 6/8
Ev'ry sorrow or care in the dear days gone by,
Was made bright by the light of the smile in your eye,
Like a candle that's set in a window at night,
Your fond love has cheered me, and guided me right. Sure I...

Repeat refrain

Subject: RE: Help: does anyone know song:Mother McGee
From: Big Tim
Date: 09 Oct 02 - 10:07 AM

CB: "The Peeler [policeman] and the Goat" was once very popular, a satire about the role of the Royal Irish Constabulary during the "Land War", 1880s+. Colm O'Lochlainn gives all 8 verses in his first Ballad book. Here's the first:

Oh the Bansha peelers went out one night,
On duty and patrolling-O,
They met a goat upon the road,
And took [arrested] him for being a-strolling-O,
With bayonets fixed they sallied forth,
And caught him by the wizzen[?]-O,
And then swore out a mighty oath,
They'd send him off to prison-0

Subject: RE: Help: does anyone know song:Mother McGee
From: MMario
Date: 09 Oct 02 - 10:17 AM

Kaleea - wrong "Mother McCree" - see first post...

Subject: RE: Help: does anyone know song:Mother McGee
From:
Date: 09 Oct 02 - 12:33 PM

I love the dear silver that shines in her hair ,
and the brow thats all wrinkled and ferrowed with care,
I love the dear fingers so toil worn for me..
Oh, God bless her and keep her ,
Mother Mcree.

Subject: RE: Help: does anyone know song:Mother McGee
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 09 Oct 02 - 01:09 PM

There's a set of The Peeler and the Goat in the DT:

THE PEELER AND THE GOAT

Though it doesn't have much to do with the question!

Subject: RE: Help: does anyone know song:Mother McGee
From: Coyote Breath
Date: 10 Oct 02 - 02:06 AM

Yeah, I have since found and learned the "correct" version of the Peeler and the Goat, I told dad but he insisted it was buncha not Bansha! Dads are like that!

I am never sure about the spelling of Irish words (small wonder there!) but I don't think that it is "Mother Mcree" but "Mother, mo chroi" (Mother mo cree) or "Mother, my heart"!

Irish speakers, please?

But the original song mentioned in the thread title is not about the love for a mother, certainly, and isn't a reference to "Mother mo chroi", at all.

CB

Subject: RE: Help: does anyone know song:Mother McGee
From: GUEST
Date: 31 Dec 21 - 11:32 AM

You Tube has several versions to the same words.