Tune Req: BlueBells Cockle Shells

Subject: Tune Req: Blue Bells Cockle Shells
From: DMcG
Date: 16 Aug 08 - 02:50 AM

I'm looking for the tune for the children's skipping rhyme Bluebells, Cockle Shells. Although the song is widespread and versions of lyrics are all over the 'Net I can't find the tune, and no-one I've asked so far remembers it from their own childhood.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: BlueBells Cockle Shells
From: DMcG
Date: 16 Aug 08 - 02:51 AM

I don't know what I did wrong, but I mislaid the link to the Roud index for the song, which is here.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: BlueBells Cockle Shells
From: Azizi
Date: 16 Aug 08 - 12:22 PM

DMcG, I've found "Blue Bells Cockle Shells" as a two line verse at the very beginning of a rhyme or as a "segue verse" between two independent children's rhymes that are combined into one handclap, ball bouncing, or jump rope {skipping} rhyme. The verse is usually given as "Blue Bells cockle shells/Easy ivy over".

A number of different rhymes might be used with these two lines, including an old version of I Love Coffee I Love Tea and this version of "All In Together"

Sea Shells cockle shells
Easy ivy over
I'm gonna (??) a four leaf clover
All in together girls
How do you like the weather girls?
(jump in on your birth month)
January, February,
March, April May,
June July, August,
September, October, Novemeber, December
All out together girls,
(jump out on your birth month)
http://www.streetplay.com/discus/

-snip-

I don't remember this rhyme from my childhood, but I've heard some children sing at various times in my adult years.

Unfortunately, I don't know how to read or write music. But those two lines sound the same as or very much like those two rhymes that I've mentioned {"I Love Coffee I Love Tea" and "All In Together" and a host of other children's songs including the end of "Ten Little Indians."

I'm also curious to find out the origin/name of this tune that has been used so often used for children's playground rhymes.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: BlueBells Cockle Shells
From: Azizi
Date: 16 Aug 08 - 01:02 PM

I also want to note that "Blue Bells/Cockle Shells" probably came from the nursery rhyme:

Mary, Mary, quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells, and cockle shells,
And pretty maids all in a row.

-snip-

It seems to me that the "easy ivy over" line is {or at least used to be} a movement instructional phrase that was associated with jumping. As such, I believe that the rhyme-if not the actual movements and the tune-is similar to elastic rhymes such as:

england
ireland
scotland
wales
inside outside inside on

{see thread.cfm?threadid=46932&messages=103#2345619; Girl's Games: Elastics}

**

Comparative Studies in Bursery Rhymes {Lina Eckenstein; Detroit, Michigan, Singing Tree Press, 1968; originally published London, Duckworth & Co, 1906}, is an excellent book on the origins of English language nursery rhymes. That author indicates that many nursery rhymes use tunes from non-religious popular songs as well as religious chants such as "Green Grow The Rushes, Oh".

Perhaps we'll never know the source of the tune for "Blue Bells, Cockle Shells" {which probably comes from "Mary Mary Quite Contrary". DMcG, I'm not sure if you were looking for the "original source" for this song or what you were looking for is the musical notes that are used for this rhyme/song. I'm interested in information about either or both.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: BlueBells Cockle Shells
From: DMcG
Date: 16 Aug 08 - 04:28 PM

I was particularly looking for the music.   Elsewhere on Mudcat, I've mentioned that I have a copy of all the songs that were collected in Hertfordshire, UK, except this one, so it would be nice to be able to complete the set.   I have copies of various sets of lyrics.

However, having said that, I am also interested in the history of these things and whether the tune in Welwyn is related to, for example, the version from Canada (Saskatchewan , Regina)

Subject: RE: Tune Req: BlueBells Cockle Shells
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 16 Aug 08 - 05:48 PM

None of the examples currently listed in Roud was printed with music. Without seeing the publications themselves it's impossible to be sure, but I would suspect that they were chanted rather than sung; so no tunes as such.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: BlueBells Cockle Shells
From: Azizi
Date: 16 Aug 08 - 05:56 PM

But, Malcom, don't chants also have tunes?

Perhaps we'll never know about the examples listed in that particular index. However, couldn't a rhyme be chanted to the tune of "Clementine" or "Ring Around The Rosie" or "Jingle Bells" {to site some examples of songs whose tunes most people nowadays would be familiar with}?

Subject: RE: Tune Req: BlueBells Cockle Shells
From: GUEST,Ewan McVicar
Date: 16 Aug 08 - 06:28 PM

It is always dangerous to assume there is only one tune for a kids rhyme. However, a tune used in Scotland 60 years ago was

soh me    soh soh me   soh soh me lah soh me
1    2      1 +    2    1 +   2    +   1 2
Blue bells, cockle shells, ee zee eye zee o-ver

Hope that helps

Ewan

Subject: RE: Tune Req: BlueBells Cockle Shells
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 16 Aug 08 - 06:39 PM

I don't recall details of the skipping rhymes in use during my childhood (we boys weren't involved) but memory suggests that most such things, when not chanted on a monotone, alternated between two (perhaps occasionally three) notes. Only the most particular collectors in those days would have made notation of the ubiquitous 'sing-song' style of the playground.

Of course, such rhymes could be sung to familiar tunes; in my part of South London in the 1950s and '60s, though (so far as I can remember) they weren't.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: BlueBells Cockle Shells
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 16 Aug 08 - 06:44 PM

Ewan, thanks for posting. That is the same tune that we used for that jump-rope rhyme outside of Chicago in the 1950's.

I believe that we sang 'evee-ivy' rather than 'ezee-izee.' I thought it was about a pretty plant.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: BlueBells Cockle Shells
From: Barry Finn
Date: 16 Aug 08 - 11:13 PM

"Come up, come up now Jamie Douglas,
Come up the stairs and dine with me,
I'l sit you on a chair of gold
And court you kindly on my knee"

"When cockle shells turn silver bells,
And fishes fly from tree to tree,
When frost and snow turn fire to burn,
I'll court you kindly on my knee"

From Waly, Waly (or Jamie Douglas) Child #204
17'th century


Barry

Subject: RE: Tune Req: BlueBells Cockle Shells
From: DMcG
Date: 17 Aug 08 - 04:49 AM

Thanks, Ewan, that's a tune I remember hearing in the playground as a child in Yorkshire, but like Malcolm I was never involved in the girls' skipping rhymes, so I have no idea what words that tune was used for.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: BlueBells Cockle Shells
From: DMcG
Date: 17 Aug 08 - 05:26 AM

I've just placed an ad in the free newspaper for Welwyn to see if anyone remembers singing this, where and when (and if possible can they provided the tune.)

I can't say I expect any response, to be honest, but I'll let you know if anything of interest turns up.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: BlueBells Cockle Shells
From: GUEST,Ewan McVicar
Date: 18 Aug 08 - 05:00 PM

Haud yer tongue, ma bonny lass
Dinna let this pairtin grieve ye
When cockle shells turn silver bells
It's then ah'll come an see ye
From the Trooper and the Maid, sung by Jimmy MacBeath


When co-ckle   shells       turn sil-ver bells
soh soh soh soh-lah-soh-me, me me me me-fah-me-doh
A nice little melodic line, with shells and bells each sung to a four note phrase, from something the rest of which I have long forgotten.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: BlueBells Cockle Shells
From: GUEST,Blue Bell
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 06:39 PM

Blue Bells are a nickname for hallucinogenic mushrooms. Cockle Shells is slang for a medieval torture device that was fixed to the testicles.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: BlueBells Cockle Shells
From: GUEST,Blue Bell
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 06:55 PM

I used to sing this all the time as a child. It's a jumprope song.

Blue Bells, Cockle Shells
E    C#    E   E C#

Ea sy, I vy, O ver!
E E   C# F# E C#

Hope that helps.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: BlueBells Cockle Shells
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 08 Jan 09 - 01:21 PM

If all goes well, Joe will post the MIDI I made for the tune I remember. It starts the same as Blue Bell's above. The words were

Sea shells, cockle bells
easy ivy, over.
[increase tempo]
I like coffee, I like tea,
I like the boys and the boys like me!

fasties

This was outside of Chicago in the 1950's.

---

---

Click to play

Subject: RE: Tune Req: BlueBells Cockle Shells
From: GUEST,mojobeenster
Date: 03 Jul 09 - 04:48 PM

I am from Calgary, Alberta, Canada. As girls we used to sing and jump rope to this in the mid-to late '60s/early '70s. (I was born in 1962).
We sang/chanted it to the same tune that has already been outlined here.

Anyway, I just remembered that for the words "Bluebells, cockle shells, eevy ivy" we just swung the rope in an low arc -- back and forth, (under only, in other words) while jumping over it; then with the word "over!" we started turning/jumping in a complete circle.

I think we even referred to that "half swinging" as "bluebells"-- as in "Just do bluebells for her" or "Start with bluebells, then turn."

I believe we all had an understanding that it was definitely somehow related to "Mary, Mary, quite contrary..."

Subject: RE: Tune Req: BlueBells Cockle Shells
From: GUEST,Hamid
Date: 21 Oct 09 - 04:03 PM

I learned this version at my daughters school:

blue bells, cockle shells
eevi ivy over
went down town
met charlie brown
bought me a pickle
the pickle was sour
bought me a flower the flower was dead
and this is what he said


charlie on one foot one foot one foot (hop on one foot)
charlie on two foot two foot two foot (two feet)
charlie on three foot three foot three foot (crouch down one hand touches the floor)
charlie on four foot four foot four foot (crouch down two hands touching the floor)

(then begin again)

Subject: RE: Tune Req: BlueBells Cockle Shells
From: GUEST,GUEST:linzey
Date: 30 Oct 09 - 03:44 PM

In the book The House On Mango Street there is
I like coffee, I like tea.
I like the boys and the boys like me.
Yes, no, maybe so. Yes, no, maybe so.

I think they end almost all of the rhymes with that line in the book. Just thought I'd add that.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: BlueBells Cockle Shells
From: GUEST,La_Culebra
Date: 29 May 10 - 03:07 PM

I'm from San Diego, Ca. and I was born 1953. I remember Blue Bells exactly like mojobeenster. We also started out with half turn on Blue Blells and full turn on the word 'over'. The reason I'm on this forum is I'm a Grandma and I find myself humming my Grandkids to sleep with 'Blue Bells' and yes while rocking on an old fashion wooden Rocking Chair.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: BlueBells Cockle Shells
From: GUEST,Fran
Date: 07 Jul 10 - 04:17 AM

I loved this skipping game, we use to sing:

Blue Bells Cockle Shells
Easy Ivy Over
I saw (name of child skipping)
Down in the cellar
Kissing (then the name of a boy/girl that they fancy)
How many times did you kiss them?
Then they keep skipping until they are out and thats how many times they kissed!

I played this yesterday with some 5 year olds and they couldn't stop laughing

Subject: RE: Tune Req: BlueBells Cockle Shells
From: GUEST,Lorelei
Date: 13 Jul 10 - 10:21 AM

This iteration is from rural northern Wisconsin, ca. 1970:

Bluebells, cockle shells [two people swing the rope like a hammock]
Eevie, ivy, over [rope is swung over the jumper's head on 'over']
I had a dog named Rover [rope spins slowly now; jumper has time to skip]
He died last October [spinning rope speeds up after this line]
January, February, March, April... [twelve jumps, one for each month]

Subject: RE: Tune Req: BlueBells Cockle Shells
From: GUEST,cw
Date: 13 Feb 12 - 12:00 AM

barry your version sounds like a mix of Midas and God,as one has Gold and the other Father and the final fire in the Bible(kjv)

Subject: RE: Tune Req: BlueBells Cockle Shells
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Oct 12 - 03:06 PM

Im looking for an old book of nursery rhymes containing stories like who killed cock robin and one about bluebells and cockleshells. I can't remember much else about the book but I would love to find a copy or something close to. Anyone have any ideas?